Tag Archives: Michael Saunders

by | May 12, 2010 · 1:30 pm

Game Recap — 5/11/2010

Nothing like seeing Baltimore on the schedule to cheer up a blue Mariners fan. They are really bad. And yesterday, we looked really good. It appears the team is rallying around the Griffey story and if that’s what it takes to come together, then I’m all for it.

The quick analysis is Cliff did his thing, the Tacoma bats continued their hot hitting, and the M’s took care of business in efficient fashion. Speaking of those Tacoma bats, Langerhans, Wilson, and Saunders combined to go 5-11 with a homer, 2 RBI, and 9 total bases. I especially love seeing Michael Saunders play well, because left field is a position of need for the M’s. If his early success continues, we may look back and point to his call up from Tacoma as the turning point in this season.

Cliff Lee is fun to watch. I love his first pitch strikes. I love how fast he works. I love that he doesn’t walk batters. I love his cool demeanor. I love you Cliff. Now, please engage in the following conversation, because I’ve had this dream a couple times already.

Jack Z: Hey Cliff, thanks for coming in, take a seat.
Cliff: Whats up?
Jack Z: Well, I noticed your contract is up at year’s end and, well, let’s see if we can’t figure something out to keep you a Mariner a little while longer.
Cliff: Hmm, I usually don’t do this type of thing mid-season, but I sure love being part of baseball’s best 1-2 punch. Awe heck, let’s bang something out.
Jack Z: Perfect. How about 3 years, 52 million.
Cliff: That is generous, but 55 million has a better ring to it. Deal?
Jack Z: Deal! Now, excuse me while I go get you some bats. I hear Mauer is available, let’s see what Minnesota thinks of Rob Johnson.

Then I wake up from my dream.

Some more quick notes and hero/goat after the jump! Continue reading →

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by | May 9, 2010 · 7:04 pm

Game Recap – 5/9 (Mariners Win!)

We may have been slacking on recaps lately but can you really blame us?  This week has been terrible and extremely frustrating.  Today was fun though!

Jason Vargas pitched a really solid game and the offense finally came alive to score 8 runs.  I know that it was just one game but maybe this will jumpstart our team a little bit.  While this losing streak has been extremely annoying this team, with the rotation it has, could start a winning streak with any offensive consistency.  A post on whether we can expect any offensive consistency will come sooner or later.  

 Through 4 innings it looked as if it would be another close, frustrating loss.  Vargas was on top of his game and the Mariners would come extremely close to scoring but then wouldn’t.  Then Josh Wilson hit a home run.  Josh Wilson!  Josh Wilson has more home runs this year than our DH duo.  That shows how awful our DH’s have been.  Wilson went on to have a great day; he would have had another RBI if Jose Lopez knew how to run.  That Wilson home run was followed by a Saunders home run.  What are the chances?  Before this game the Mariners had 10 home runs in 988 at-bats.  That’s almost 1 home run per 100 at bats.  But baseball is a game where the unexpected happens and that was the case with these back-to-back home runs.  Saunders also went on to have a nice day.  He looks like a different player than he did last year.  He already has 2 extra base hits which is the same number of Griffey.  Wow. 

After that 4 run inning the Mariners kept adding on.  This is something they haven’t done all season.  Even when they’ve blown teams out it was because of one big inning.  The offense added 1 run in the 5th and then 3 in the 8th.  It was great.

The pitching was solid too.  I really think that Vargas and Fister will be the ones in the rotation once Bedard comes back.  I know Hyphen eats innings and has a better history than the other guys but Vargas and Fister look good.  Really good.  Fister has been nothing short of amazing and Vargas has that plus-plus changeup to carry him through.  The number of swinging strikes Vargas is getting is really impressive and his control has been much better this season. 

As Lookout Landing pointed out, if we were going to go 1-8 on this homestand the last game would be the one to win.  Yeah, this sucked but at least we won the last game and Cliff Lee is pitching on Tuesday.  Hopefully, things will carry over.  Just in case they don’t, remember this day because it felt so good to win.

Hero/goat and a few more notes after the jump.    Continue reading →

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by | May 6, 2010 · 4:52 pm

Michael Saunders Up

Edit–See below as well.  Joe and I published the exact same thing, but he beat me.  Sorry Joe!

Milton Bradley has been placed on the restricted list while he undergoes some counseling and what not.  He has to stay on it for at least 5 days, but he’ll likely be longer than that.  Baker speculates that a week from tomorrow is the earliest we’d see him again.  He’s remaining in Seattle, but not traveling or doing anything with the team for now.

Michael Saunders has been called up to take his place.  He started the year at Tacoma in a terrible slump, but has been on a tear for the last week or so.  He’s been retooling his swing, so hopefully something has clicked now.  Most likely, he’ll not play much.  I could see him getting a start or two, but he’ll mostly be a back-up/pinch-runner type. 

The team hopes Jack Wilson will only be out for a day or two, so they haven’t made a roster move with him.  Hope for no injuries to infielders, because there’s no one on the bench to replace them, except at first.  If someone got injured, they could send down a pitcher (Sean White!) and bring up Tui again, but hopefully it won’t come to that.

Go Mariners!  Tonight is the night to assert your long-awaited dominance!

-Matthew

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