I picked a good week to go away

Yeesh. A sweep from the A's? I know they are playing better of late, but again, everyone gets well against the Mariners. Its also doubly frustrating to lose to the A's because this was supposed to be a down year for them too. Way back in 2001 they were right there with us as 100 game winners. Since then we have tanked while they have simply rebuilt.

On a budget well under half of ours. Amazing. The rebuilt rotation looks just fine, thank you very much. Dan Haren looked brilliant last week and was good again today. Harden is a horse and even Joe Blanton is coming around. Chavez (like Beltre) is starting to play like he's capable, while Dan Johnson and Crosby have given the offense a nice boost. The A's are just a better run organization than the Mariners plain and simple. It clearly shows in the head-to-head. We're 3-9 against the A's, 30-35 against everyone else. The A's are 9-3 against the M's, 29-37 against everyone else.

I know there are deals out there. The Cubs fleeced Jerome Williams out of the Giants for LaTroy Hawkins. The Padres want Boone. The Yankees are interested in Randy Winn. Both the Pads and the Yankees have relatively thin farm systems, but you know Billy Beane would swing a three-way that would get him some decent talent in return. If only...

White Flag and Grab Bag

What IS Mike Hargrove's obsession with using Matt Thornton in close games? Why on earth do you summon White Flag to the mound in the 7th inning of a winnable game, down but 4-2????

His proper role, if he has to be on the major league club, is as mop-up reliever. Or does Grover think that being down 4-2 to the A's in the 7th is already a loss? Ggguh!

Moreover, having coughed up the predictable 2 runs to make it 6-2 (still not a blowout, but much more difficult), why THEN bring in Grab Bag to hold the game (among other things) close in the eighth???? If you really wanted to get him some work, then why not, I don't know, use a major league-quality reliever in the 7th?

Put simply, I do not understand Mike Hargrove's bullpen usage. Rant over. Return to your lives.

Crystal Balls

June is rapidly riding off into the sunset. With it go any last, lingering, hopes we Mariners fans had of enjoying a winning season in 2005.

Not to worry. We have all known that last place and a miserable season were likely outcomes. More important, we said, was to use this season to develop the next contending Seattle Mariners team.

How have we done on that score? While we've recently ruminated about the 2006 lineup, is next season really going to be the payoff? I would have to suggest that "no" is the correct answer to that question.

Why not? I'm afraid that I have little faith in the ability of Bavasi, etc., to spend their free cash effectively in the offseason. I also see precious few above-average prospects on the farm, so if we can't rebuild via free agency, we also cannot hope to do so internally, despite the presence of such top-notch quality youngsters as Felix Hernandez.

It is likely that our likely 2006-08 lineup (while we still have Sexy, Beltre, and Ichiro under contract) involves several gambles on youngsters lacking in experience and/or talent:

C Miguel Olivo
1b Rich Sexson
2b Jose Lopez
ss Michael Morse
3b Adrian Beltre
lf Chris Snelling
cf Jeremy Reed
rf Ichiro Suzuki
dh Raul Ibanez (2006 only)

By my count, that's 3 above-average players, surrounded by 1 slightly-below average player and 5 easy outs who at least have the merit of being young. Hey, wait! That's a lot like what we're fielding now! How's that going for us...right. Must. Improve. Offense.

One of our better minor league prospects, Asdrubal Cabrera, is years away from the Show, but he could eventually step into the void at shortstop as an above-average major leaguer. Actually, we have several potentially-useful middle-infield types in the low minors: Matt Tuiasasopo is playing for the Low-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers; Cabrera is at the high-A Inland Empire 66ers; while SS Adam Jones has been promoted recently to the AA San Antonio Missions. But these gentlemen are years away from contributing, and probably cannot be counted on even to make their MLB debut by the time the 2007 AL West is decided. It is possible that we could see Yuniesky Betancourt (at Tacoma now) filling in at SS in 2006 or 2007, but I honestly am not sold on him as a long-term solution; Morse might as well be the guy.

The good news here is that there is PLENTY of room for improvement via free agency. Boone, and his $8 million salary, are departing the team no later than October. If Jose Lopez is going to come up and stick in place of Bert, we can look to sign either a 2b or a SS, which could potentially get us from 3 above-average players to 4. No one really jumps out, although perhaps we can sign Rafael Furcal relatively cheaply, given his thus-far miserable 2005. I think he probably qualifies as the best FA middle infielder who is likely to be available.

More good news: Randy Winn, who is more or less signed (weird mutual option) through '06, can likely be counted in the "above-average" column in place of Snelling, above, and if Jeremy Reed develops a bit this season, perhaps he can take Winn's place (as useful) next year. We can then trade Winn for a needed starting pitcher. This makes room for Snelling and/or Choo, who will need further development time, but who are probably nearly ready to take their last steps in the majors.

None of this, of course, improves the offense immediately for 2006, which is the basis for my skepticism. But longer-term, as Lopez, Snelling, and perhaps Choo develop into viable major league batters, I believe that we do have a window from 2007/8 onward to be at a point where we can simply reload for several years running, dipping into the free agent pool judiciously to fill in holes that cannot be filled from the farm system.

All of this, however, turns on making the pitching staff an asset, on something more than an "I'm shocked that we won that game" kind of way. I've already done some speculating here, but what about the longer term?

Of course, we pin our hopes on the development of Felix Hernandez into an ace. No pitchers currently on the major league roster are the kind of scary starting pitcher that can be counted on to stop losing streaks and strike fear into the hearts of opposing batters. If King Felix stays healthy and delivers on at least most of his promise, then we'll have that for the first time since before the whiny-wanna-be-traded tantrum that was Randy Johnson's 1998.

If the rotation begins with Felix-Pineiro-Meche-???-??? within the next couple of years, then perhaps we can hope to use one of the advantages of an inexperienced lineup (namely, a budget payroll bill for the hitters) to lure one or two free agents to come pitch in Safeco. Not retreads like Aaron Sele, but the kinds of starting pitchers who can reliably contribute 200 innings of above-average work each season.

It is hard to be less vague, given the difficulties in guessing which pitchers will find themselves to be free agents in, say 2006 or 2007. Sure, we can guess based on service time, but there will be plenty of quality hurlers who are not really going to reach free agency at the earliest-possible time due to signing long-term deals with their original team.

Perhaps you can see where I'm going with this.

Since starting pitching is looking a lot like the thing that will stand between Seattle and relevance in the AL West in the next five years, I submit that the last, greatest, test of Bill Bavasi's value as GM of this club will be his ability to find and acquire cheaply today the pitchers who will turn in surprisingly valuable seasons as starters in 2007, 2008, and beyond. I can't tell you who they are (if I could, well, I'd probably have a different job), but if Bavasi can figure it out, then he's got the biggest crystal balls of them all.

In an exciting turn of events, it seems that the team is looking to flip Boone and Winn right now for pitching. Hey, I have to be able to attach SOME hope to this team....

Schmidt anyone?

The Mariners have split so far in SD, a 14-5 smackdown that saw Boone come up a homer short of the cycle and Morse raise his average over .400 with a 3-3 night, and a 8-5 loss where Sele gave up 8 runs in 4 innings.

How long before Morse's hot streak gets big enough to start revising forecasts for him? He hit .281 and slugged .525 at AA last year, but his 90% projection by BP's PECOTA system was 280/330/460. Its going to take a pretty major slump to get down to that...

We have commented that there is hope for the M's offense next year, but little in the way of pitching help. With no big names available on the free-agent market, the M's may have to pursue a pitcher through trade. Rumors (rumours for our Canadian friends) abound regarding Giants ace Jason Schmidt. SF GM Brian Sabean denies that he is looking to trade Schmidt. But he wouldn't be the first GM to do a little, ahem, dissembling on such matters. The Giants are 12 games under .500, Bonds isn't coming back anytime soon and Schmidt has a 10.5 million dollar option for next season.

Schmidt has been a serious stud the last two years, posting VORPs of 75 and 60. He's been hurt for much of this year, but seems to be rounding into form. He is 32 and can be expected to decline over the next few years, plus he is only under contract for one more year. On the other hand his closest PECOTA comparables are Roger Clemens, Jack Morris, Tom Seaver and Curt Schilling, 3 Hall of Famers and all of whom aged just a bit better than say, Mike Reno. He's a Washington native and it wouldn't be out of the question for him to sign here when for 2007 especially if the M's look like they might be competitive.

I'm guessing it'll take 2-3 good prospects to get him. But the Mariners have a little depth to deal from. A package that included Choo or Snelling, one of the many shortstops (Morse, Jones, Tui, Cabrera), and a random lower minors hard thrower wouldn't be a bad deal at all in my opinion. A 2006 rotation of Schmidt, Hernandez, Piniero, and Meche is starting to look pretty decent. Most of the teams that will be trading for Schmidt are looking at this year. But the M's should look at him for 2006 and beyond.

Real grass, real sunshine....

Just how bad was the M's offense yesterday? They were complete game shut out by Kirk Saarloos. His previous long outing for the season was 6 innings.

The M's struck out 7 times. Saarloos struck out no batters in his last 3 starts (17 innings!). None! He was averaging under 2 strikeouts per 9 innings prior to yesterday. Yeeesh!

Hey Franklin! Shut your yap!. The lack of run support is so consistent it is starting to border on statistically significant, but dude, you are a 5 ERA starter in an extreme pitchers park. You gave up 11 hits yesterday and Reed saved you from two more. You should probably stay away from, "I could've gone nine innings and given up one run -- doesn't matter," Franklin said. "We'd still lose." And you should definitely not say, "you can't win like that no matter how good pitching you get. We have to score." If you pitched well you might be ok saying those things but you were pretty bad yesterday yourself.

On the other hand, it was a beautiful day, the beer was cold, and we got a surprise visit at our seats from an ex-coworker, who shall we say, gives truly outstanding hugs!

Sheff and Jeter sitting in a tree....

Just kiss already...

M's Win in 12!

Thank you Bobby Crosby! Bing's drop of a potential double-play ball in the 12th opened the doors for Winn and Sexson to each deliver RBI singles, the first to tie the game, the second to win it.

Boone was back in the lineup and went 1 for 4. To his credit he was more patient at the plate, working the count and getting good pitches to hit. Of course he missed most of them, but still. He also laid down a fine bunt in the 9th. Not a big fan of the sacrifice there, but I can live with it, especially with Boonie struggling.

I understand why they are playing Boone again and I certainly hope he comes out of it. I fully expect Lopez to go down for Spiezio, Pokey or Leone in the next few days. But Lopez is not only the future, he's probably the present as well. If Boone can play well enough in the next few weeks to facilitate a trade, great, but if he continues to struggle, the Mariners will need to play Lopez, both to get him ready for next season and to improve their chances of winning in this one. Its a no-brainer really.

Morse had a big hit in the 9th to tie it. If they hand Pokey the SS job when he comes back...there's going to be trouble.

Game Report: A's 6, M's 2

Things were tight early, brutal late.

The M's flashed a lot of leather in the first few innings. Jeremy Reed made two nice catches at the wall and Lopez had a nice diving catch at second in the third. The Mariners took the lead at 2-1 on an Ibanez single, a JR double and and Ichiro single.

The A's tied it up in the 5th when NIck Swisher homered. Sele later gave up another hit and a walk, but got Bobby Crosby to tap weakly to third to end the threat.

A's starer Danny Haren had looked shaky up to this point, having baserunners in every inning. This continued in the fifth when he gave up a one out walk to Beltre. At this point Haren had thrown 81 pitchers and it looked like with Sexson and Raul coming up that we had a chance to chase him from the game and get into the surprisingly tasty A's bullpen.

Cue the Price is Right sorry music! From there, Haren retired 11 in a row. He only struck out one of those 11, but otherwise looked electric. Tons of movement on his fastball.

Too bad Sele wasn't able to go 8! Villone gave up a solo homer to Kielty, then got two outs. Nellie came in: single, walk, 3 run bomb to Kotsay, ballgame. At least half the crowd left after the homer. The rest stayed almost exclusively to boo Nellie.

At the risk of repeating myself, despite their decent ERA's Nellie and Villone are the wrong guys to pitch in a tie game. Lots of people criticized Grover for letting Nelson pitch to Kotsay (a left hander) but what was he going to do? Go get Thornton? I'd rather see Nellie! Mateo, Shiggy and Putz are the guys he should be using in the 8th, but instead he's rolling out Villone, Nellie, and Thornton. Ugh.

The A's scored 6 runs. That's their highest output in over a week. Yeesh.

Best moment from the 5th row. Boonie comes out to stand at the top of the dugout. Girl behind us shrieks, "I still love you Boonie!" Boonie turns, smiles and girlishly waves at her. Priceless.

Where have all the throwers gone?

As Walter recently pointed out, the 2006 Mariners lineup is beginning to take a shape that doesn't smell too bad.

However, it occurs to me that despite years of talking up the Mariners' farm system as chock-full-o'-pitchers, I submit that beyond King Felix, there is little in the way of viable starting candidates in the pipeline. And as Tad mentioned, there will be few frontline starters available via free agency this winter.

Let's say that we count on Pineiro-Meche-Madritsch-Hernandez as the front four in our 2006 rotation. To be sure, we can expect Felix to have some growing pains, especially given his trouble this year with walks in Tacoma. I'm actually not sold on Meche or Madritsch long-term, but if we're just talking next season, can this rotation contend in the West? Both Anaheim and Texas have pretty formidable teams right now, so we're talking considerable improvement in keeping runs off the scoreboard if we're hoping to contend.

Pineiro has to be the ace next year, and his age and history suggest that it's a good gamble that he'll fill that role nicely: he'll be 27 in September, and assuming that he's healthy, I think that there's every reason to pencil him in for 35 worthwhile turns at the top of the rotation.

Gil Meche, also 27 this September, terrifies me every time he takes the mound, but at one point (before his unprecedented return from a torn labrum), he was a solid prospect. His 4.38 ERA currently is acceptable, but look at the K-BB ratio: only 40 strikeouts to 34 walks. Moreover, in 78 innings pitched, that is a dangerously low 4.6 K/9 rate. These are peripheral numbers, but they are bad signs for future success. It's not a matter of skill, though, so much as health, and with Meche, I'm afraid we have to say that we just can't predict whether he will be very reliable.

Likewise, counting on Bobby Madritsch for solid performance in 2006 is wishful thinking. It would be a great story, but Mads is currently on the DL with a catastrophic shoulder ailment, is out until (probably) at least September, and the P-I recently reported that he isn't currently allowed even to raise his pitching arm above shoulder level. Shoulder injuries are mysterious and uncertain kinds of injuries for athletes, and the lefty will turn 30 before Spring Training games begin next year, so while I'd love to cheer him on, we can't assume he'll be an important part of the 2006 pitching rotation.

Who is out there? None of the Mariners minor league hurlers suggest themselves as solutions: none of Clint Nageotte, Bobby Livingston, Jeff Heaverlo, Sean Green, Rich Dorman, George Sherrill, Jorge Campillo, or other organizational pitchers jump out as being ready and able to handle a starting role in the majors in the next year.

The minor exceptions are Cha Seung Baek and Rafael Soriano. However, I believe that these two, for endurance and other reasons, will end up at the back end of the bullpen, setting up and closing games for the Mariners. This is useful, to be sure, but it does not address the holes in the rotation. Given their ages/experience and the emergence of the Everyday Eddie Grab Game, we will probably see Guardado back as closer in his final contract year in 2006. The bullpen will be acceptable next season.

That still fails to fix the rotation. There are a number of potential free agent starting pitchers this winter, but very few marquee names. If we have to fill two spots to contend in the West, it may well be too expensive to fill this need through free agency. Either that, or we'll have to settle for marginal starters who will drag down the staff, and in the end be no better than what we have available within the organization.

Hence, this offseason the Mariners will face that age-old baseball dilemma: everyone is looking for pitching. If we're hoping to contend as soon as 2006, we will have to have faith that Bill Bavasi can find some, by hook or by crook.

Everyday Eddie Grab Game

Best part of the game

We are constantly trying to find a good game to wager small sums on at the game. The ball dropped on or off the mound being the oldest and before tonight the best game. Tad discovered one at tonight's smacking of Pedro that beats all others hands down. The Everyday Eddie Grab Game.
This is how it goes. You start with one player then move onto the next every time Eddie grabs at his crotch. It seems like a boring game, but I have never experienced four hetero men staring so intently at another mans crotch since Jim Presley played for the M's. Eddie grabbed his 19th save and his crotch 13 times in the 4-1 win over the Mets tonight. He only faced four batters. Amazing.

Jose Lopez, Part Deux

So the Jose Lopez era begins. Again. He gets two hits in a 5-0 win by the Mariners over the Mets.

I suppose that this does signal the beginning of the end for Boonie, but I wouldn't count on it. Hargrove talked about getting Boone some rest. 5 or 6 days to work on some stuff. I would expect that Bert will get another shot at second at that point. It may only last a week or two, but they will at least give him that.

I imagine that they are trying to trade Boonie, if anyone will take him. It only takes one GM to think that he might turn it around to make a deal. I wouldn't expect much for him though. I also hold out little hope that he CAN turn things around, but its not out of the realm of possibility. If he could even get back to last years model (.250 with some power) he would have more trade value then he has right now.

And while Bavasi said he wants Lopez to play, he also said, both in the P-I and on KJR, that there was no "mandate" to play him every day. Lopez actually makes sense as a backup infielder because he can play second, third and short which no one else on the roster really can right now. With Beltre out and Hargrove unwilling to use Dobbs, the M's had a serious short term need for a 3b.

I think there are two ways this could work out. One is Lopez plays well at second and the team releases or DFAs Boone. Hopefully Boone's roster spot would then go to Leone, Snelling or Choo, rather than Dobbs, redux. But the other thing that could happen is that Boonie gets his 5 days off, Beltre comes back strong and Lopez goes back to AAA after a week on the roster.

Really its an awkward way to handle things. Hargrove is supposed to be good in the clubhouse. If Lopez is up to take Boone's job, Grover is going to have his hands full.

Bullet Point Friday

• If you throw out the brutal 1-10 stretch from early May the M's are 27-26, one game over 500. The M's are pretty much a .500 team, but without the consistent hitting to sustain any long winning streaks, and bad enough pitching to throw up some bad losing streaks. They could not close out the Phillies last night and in fact have only swept one series all year (Kansas City).

• This little tidbit appeared at the bottom of Will Carroll's Baseball Prospectus (registration required) column yesterday: Scott Spiezio is listed as out "indefinitely" after a back injury during his rehab. Some think he'll never play for the M's again.

• Are the M's that down on Speez? Are you telling me he couldn't take Dobbs' roster spot? He couldn't do everything Dobbs is doing for 10 times the price? That was 9 million well spent. Gillick might have been better served buying J.Lo 9 engagement rings.

• Chris Snelling: 369/453/564. I'm just saying.

• I actually learned something from one of Jim Street's Mariner Mailbags! In responding to a why doesn't Ichiro play center qeustion, Street said: According to the Mariners' media guide, when Ichiro played for the Orix Blue Wave, he "won seven consecutive Gold Gloves for his solid defense and strong arm in right field." I have always heard that Ichiro played center in Japan. I checked a few different Japanese baseball sites and while I could not find hard games played by position data, all the anecdotal references pegged Ichiro as a rightfielder. Of course Street then closed with this ridiculous line: The subject of Ichiro playing center field for the Mariners never has seriously been considered, primarily because he is the best defensive right fielder in the American League. That's the Jim Street we know and love!

The left side...

So Hansen and Morse have given us more production from the left side of the diamond in the last two games than we have seen all year. Thinks are looking pretty good over there! Not quite Jennifer Aniston good, but good nonetheless.

Morse isn't going to hit like this for a whole season, but if he could hit 275 with a little pop, that would vastly improve that position wouldn't it? And if Hansen can solidify his bench role, that might banish Dobbs to Tacoma and keep Spiezio on the DL until he can peddled for a couple of squirrels (or naked mole rats if you prefer).

Do I dare to dream of a productive bench? Better keep my shirt on...

Game Recap: M's 3, Phillies 1

First off, another stellar post from yours truly, in which I correctly predicted that that Dave Hansen would get the start with Beltre out, that he would contribute with a homer and a couple of RBI, and that the Beltre-less M's would have no problem with the Phillies. Wait that was my post on the Bizarro Tatonka Blog.

That was the kind of game that makes you love baseball. A little over two hours, some good defense a nice pitching performance and a Mariner win. Its all good.

The highlights were the 8 inning, 3 hitter from Meche, 3 hits from Jeremy Reed and the homer from Hansen. Ichiro got his 1,000th hit for those who care about such things. Jim Caple has a good column up about whether his Japanese hits should be "counted" when it comes time for him to be considered for the Hall of Fame. Of course they won't be counted, there is no official counting that gets into the HoF, but I expect most voters will consider them, at least. A few will not and that's their prerogative I guess.

Meche did look good, but not as dominant as they would have had you believe on the post-game show. Even Hendu, when asked if that was as good as Meche has pitched this year, said (surprisedly), "No." He did seem to be moving the ball around well, but he only got 4 k's, all on called third strike breaking balls. Really doubt he's going to be able to keep doing that.

Hansen has only had 16 at-bats this year of crappiness compared with Bloomquist's 58 and the Dobber's 34. If Hansen could get make a run at usefulness, then maybe we could dump Dobbs for someone who might actually help the team a little bit (Leone, Lopez, Snelling, hell even Jamal Strong would at least provide some OF insurance).

No Beltre, big problem

So the M's got swept over the weekend by the hottest team in baseball, the Nationals. Its funny what back to back series with the Mariners and Oakland can do for a hot streak. Remember when the Yankees were the hottest team? I can see managers all over saying, "We've got 6 coming up with the A's and M's! If we can just win these next two games, we're staring at an 8 game win streak!"

The much bigger news was Adrian Beltre "tweaking" his hamstring. Hargrove reportedly said it would be "3 or 4 days" but also maybe longer. As bad as Beltre has been, the possible replacements are much, much worse:

Player AVG OBP SLG
Beltre 244 279 361
Dobbs 176 194 265
Hansen 154 133 154

I would expect to see a heavy helping of the Dobber over the next week or so, with a sprinkling of Hansen. Hansen at least has been a productive major league hitter before, so I would get him the majority of the at-bats, but I cannot explain the M's infatuation with Dobbs and Bloomquist. Bloomquist at least is fast and versatile. Dobbs is, well, he's, um, left-handed?

Spiezio has been playing well at Tacoma but had a setback as he rehabs his strained oblique. He didn't play over the weekend at all. Justin Leone is also hurt and Hunter Brown, is,well, right-handed.

So as bad as a 650 OPS from the hot corner has been, its about to get a lot worse. Lets hope it really is onl 3 or 4 days.

Well, that was ugly

Shiggy is taking most of the rap in the local dailies for the the M's 9 to 3 loss and he was the guy who gave up 6 runs in 1/3 of inning. And the one out he got was a sacrifice bunt! He was terrible, but at least it was out of character.

Thornton on the other hand surrendered two bases loaded walks. Is there a worse guy that the Mariners can bring in than Thornton with the bases loaded? Is there any reason why a hitter in that situation would ever swing with Wild Thing Thornton on the hill? Brad Wilkerson certainly had read the scouting report as he simply took 4 pitches for an easy RBI.

I like Bill Krueger, but he spent his whole post-game commentary talking about how young Morse and Rivera were and how young players make a lot of mistakes. He wrapped up his commentary by admitting that since they were giving us way more offense than the previous occupants of their positions, overall they were plus. Then why did you spend 5 minutes talking about their defense, dude? How about talking about how much Thornton sucks! Or how bad Shiggy pitched? Or Villone walking the leadoff batter in the 7th that Morse's bobble let score?

Here's another news flash, Beltre and Boone, still struggling. Beltre is hitting the ball hard, but he has all season it seems, with no results.

One more news flash: RFK. Big park. Real big.

Bring on the Nats

M's win 8-0 behind a strong performance from Aaron Sele (I know!) and 2 RBI nights from Winn, Big Sexxy and Raul Ibanez.

The Randinator flipped the ole finger to Walter by hitting his first dinger of the year. I should talk, I said the M's starters would get lit up in this series. Um. Three starts, 6 earned runs. Really two very solid starts and Meche's not-that-terrible one.

Morse is hitting .318 since his call up. Winn is 22 for his last 57 (.386), Raul is 21 for his last 53 (.396) and slugging .566 over that period. The hometown nine has won 8 of 11 and are averaging more than 5 runs a game for those 11 games. Previously they were a shade under 4 runs a game. More encouraging is that the offense is picking up despite Ichiro's slump and the continued struggles of Beltre and Boone.

Could we look back at this homer by Methuselah as the turning point of the season?

Not the Exxon ship

In a move that amuses me but will likely pay no meaningful dividend, the M's have managed to get two AAA relievers from the Padres in exchange for Wilson Valdez. Now THAT's free talent.

I wonder if Tacoma was in great need of bullpen strength?

Welcome to the Mariners organization, Michael Bumstead. Welcome, R.D. Spiehs. The latter is supposed to be a minor prospect, but his performance in Portland (and Mobile before that) this season--12 BB/20 K in 30 IP against AA and AAA competition--isn't all that impressive. Bumstead has started a few games (also in Mobile), and has equally pedestrian K/BB and K/IP rates.

Still, that we got something, anything, for Valdez is, as I said, amusing.

Rivalry Week Continues!

The M's drop one to those hated rivals the Florida Marlins. Three run tater by Carlos Delgado is too much for the Mariners to overcome, despite a little late comeback.

Meche said the mound was too steep, according to ESPN.com: "The mound was steeper than I'm used to, but it's my job to make the adjustments," he said. "I let it get too my head. I'd make a good pitch, then the next one was in the dirt." Normally I'd call bullshit here, but Mateo walked two guys and the D-Train didn't look exactly right either. He scattered 10 hits over his 6 2/3 innings. Some maybe it was too high, I don't know.

On the plus side Beltre had three hits and Boone two. Maybe, just maybe, we might get those two going for us. Which is nice.

Two pretty brutal errors by Juan Encarnacion meant the Marlins gifted the M's a couple of runs for the second night in a row. Remember when we were the team that couldn't field at all? Like, say, just last year?

Thursday, the rubber game in this historic matchup of cross-continental foes! This time it counts!

M's Happenings

The Mariners down the hated Marlins 4 to 3. Nother homer from Raul, and the M's scored the go ahead runs on a walk, a HBP, an error and a sac fly. That is some offense in action.

The other news from the day was the M's drafting USC catcher Jeff Clement with the third pick in the draft. He has "Light tower power" according to Baseball America. He doesn't have the best rep defensively, but most good hitting catchers don't. If he sticks at catcher he could be a left-handed middle of the order hitter as soon as 2007. Or not. Catchers are notoriously risky first round selections, but college ones less so than high school. There was no consensus pick at number 3 and Clement is a high risk/high reward guy. I think with the 3rd pick I'd rather take that kind of guy, than something safer like a college pitcher. Someone remember I said that if he flames out 3 years.

Interleague Play

Haven't you all been dreaming of the day we meet the Marlins?? This is big. Really big. Or not.

Playing in the NL parks creates quite the little dilemma for Grover. His DH, Raul Ibanez is second on the team in OPS. Raul's defensive positions are manned by the guy ahead of him (Big Sexxxy) and the fella two spots behind him (Randy Winn). I would expect to see a lot of Raul's Big Adventure in left, with Winn in center and Reed pinch hitting for shortstops and catchers.

I think we all remember from 2004 just how bad a defensive outfield alignment that is. Big outfield in Miami, flyballers Meche and Franklin on the mound, Ibanez in left. Warning, flammable materials present.

If you are near Vegas, take the overs.

In a pinch

Big pinch hit single from Hansen to give the M's a come-from-behinnd, 6-5 win over the D-Rays. Joel pitched very well. He had some command last night with 7 strikeouts against only two unintentional walks. Ibanez is on fire, Big Sexxxy had 3 more walks. Doesnt it seem like it would be pretty easy to throw him strikes, with that zone?

Villone on the other hand, ugh. Two pitches, 4 runs. BEFORE last night, Villone ranked 249th in the league in preventing inherited runners from scoring. Out of 308. Before last night.

Today its Moyer versus Nomo. This would have been an exciting pitching matchup 3 years ago.

I went, I saw, I was rained out

The previous picture is the visual evidence of my recent trip to Mexico, where I had the good fortune to attend the championship game of the Mexican first division soccer league last Sunday evening. The U.S. equivalent is probably the Super Bowl.

Very exciting stuff, which offsets my disappointment at having been "rained" out of my planned visit to Foro Sol, the home field of the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, when they canceled the game in advance on a sunny Tuesday evening in case it rained. Bleah.

In any case, I'm back after a long hiatus in Mexico, and I'll gradually plug myself back into the universe electronically and return to following the Mariners. (Yes, I *am* a masochist...thanks for asking.)

Aftermath of the game, from my upper-deck seats. 

Couple o thoughts

Just a few random observations, after enjoying a Tivo'd Mariner victory over the Jays.

Morse really is tall. I know all sorts of tall players have made it at short, its not neccessarily a disqualifier, but jeez. He's tall.

I know we can't expect Borders and Rivera to keep it up, but we have had 5 hits in two days from catchers. Ichiro must do a double take every time he comes up and there are men on.

Could a guy look more lost than Boonie this year? His triple notwithstanding. He took a bunch of bad swings last night and looks just brutal in the field. Brutal. I don't think he'll be winning any Gold Gloves this year.

Did you catch Fairly's new mantra? You have to "string some hits together." First of all, duh. Second, is he implying that the Mariners get enough hits, but that they just don't get them together? Because the Mariners are 12th in the league in hits. They just flat out need hits, strung together or not. And walks. And home runs would be helpful too.

Villone, Nelson and Thornton to protect a one run lead. Again, by nearly any measure, these are the worst three guys in the pen. The EXACT wrong guys to hold the lead. I'm glad they succeeded last night.

Funniest thing last night was listening to the M's announcing staff try to prounounce Chacin. I don't know the actual prounounciation, and neither do they. At least three of them don't, because all 4 M's announcers pronounced it differently.

After us, the deluge

So a lot happened in Mariner-ville over the long weekend. Two out of three from Lou's New Crew in Tampa and a Memorial Day night victory over the Jays. Very good pitching from Sele and Moyer.

The more interesting stuff were the transactions. Olivo goes down and Rene Rivera comes back up. I don't think that the M's see Rivera and Borders as a solution (I could be wrong) but more as temps. I think the M's hope that Olivo can fix himself in Tacoma, that Wiki comes back soon, and if not, they will acquire another veteran catcher.

I know that catcher ERA has been largely debunked, but its hard to argue with Borders results in the short-term with Sele and Moyer. Well, its actually pretty easy to argue small sample size, but Sele's two starts and Moyer's last one certainly are data points in Borders favor. But he just can't be your regular catcher, he can't.

The other big move was bringing up Morse (or as Rizzs calls him, "Morris") and DFAing Valdez. I've advocated giving Morse a shot for some time, not becuase I think he's going to be great or anything, but because the M's need offense badly and he should be a least an upgrade over Valdez/Bloomquist.

There are two concerns about Morse. First is his attitude. He is regarded as a free spirit, but also a troublemaker and he was suspended twice last year (once by the M's and once by the White Sox). But if anyone can handle him, it might be Mike Hargrove, who once turned a clubhouse with Kenny Lofton, Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez into a league champion.

The second concern is his defense. By all accounts he was atrocious before this year, but in Tacoma seems to have upgraded himself to somewhere between merely bad and adequate. As always when watching defense, try and judge him not just on errors, but on plays he should have made. The question is more can he get to enough balls to not hurt the pitching staff?? Of course we have no real groundballers in the rotation, so maybe its a moo point (you know, what a cow thinks).

Of course if his defense is a problem, it might have made sense to hang onto Valdez as a defensive replacement and have dumped either Bloomquist or Dobbs. But I suppose that's a rant for another day.

So where Morse goes, are Choo, Snelling, Campillo and Leone sure to follow? Is this a quick attempt to fix the two most glaring holes in the lineup or the start of the second straight year of letting the kids play? I'm guessing the first, but the second isn't far behind.