Monday, April 10, 2006

Start hoping for the Wild Card

Prisoners at Guantanimo Bay can consider themselves lucky. At least they weren't Mariners fans this weekend. 27 innings without a run. 27. As a team. And the first one came how? On a bases loaded hit by pitch. That was brutal.

It's pretty clear that the A's are the class of the AL West. They made the Mariners look silly in every possible way. And let's be honest, the A's were just toying with us when they allowed the M's to get back in the game yesterday. The M's played the Angels tough, but the A's were just on another level. Remember in 1995 when the M's started to get hot but were still 12 back of the Angels? Remember how Jay Buhner said "forget the Wild Card, we want the division" (and then punched someone in the arm)? Mmmmm, not so much in 2006. I say our best hope is the Wild Card. It's fitting that the Indians and Red Sox, two playoff/Wild Card contenders are next on the schedule. Could be an interesting week. Next Monday it may be time to start hoping for .500, or start hoping for a good trade, or start hoping that it's August and there are good football teams to follow.

By the way, I'll be at the game in Cleveland on Thursday. Everybody sing along (to the tune that Wayne and Garth sang "We got five thousand dollars!" in Wayne's World)....I get to go see Felix! I get to go see Felix!

The other day, Travis and I talked about whether or not it was premature to call Beltre a bust. We sort of came to the conclusion that it probably was. But, the grumblings have started. Ted Miller at the P-I says he's "on the brink" of being called a complete bust. There was some discussion at Lookout Landing as well. I've only been listening to the games, but he's striking out, grounding out, popping out, not hitting good pitches, all of the same crap he did last year. But, it's early. Let's give it some time and we'll leave it at that.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:51 PM

    what happened to last week's optimism?...it was just one series for crying out loud.it did stink though!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey I'm still optimistic. Wild Card is good.

    ReplyDelete
  3. maaaah this is seattle we change out tune faster than the weather

    ReplyDelete
  4. the weather in seattle changes? i remember a forecast for light rain with a 3-month break for beautiful.

    it is a bit early to say that the a's are the class of the division. i do think that they are certainly a step above the m's talent-wise, but i think that the same is true of the angels; and, if the m's can compete with the angels in a series, there is no reason to believe that they can't do the same with the a's, whether they showed it in this series or not.

    is beltre a bust? or is it better to say that the m's, and all of us, were morons for thinking that he could repeat what he did in 2004? at the time, it wasn't crazy to think that 2004 was his breakout year and he was going to be a star (highly touted prospect, rushed to the majors young, finally adjusted, now ready to mash year-in and year-out), but there were also lots of signs that 2004 was a brady-anderson-level fluke. like i said after travis made the most lopsided trade ever in our fantasy league: if you take out 2004, beltre actually had a career high in rbi last year. there is much more evidence that he is the hitter he was from 1999-2003 than the guy he was in 2004. so, while, say, greg jeffries was a bust because everyone expected him to be a star in the majors based on his "potential," and he wasn't, i don't think it's fair to say that beltre is a bust. he had a clear major league track record, and we just expected him to be more than what he is. he is probably a .260/20-25 hr/80-90 rbi guy. (his career 162 game average, which is skewed up by 2004, is .271/24/86.) that's a good 6-hole hitter, but not the mvp candidate we all wanted him to be. (those guys were free agents the year before, and when the m's failed to sign either vlad or tejada, they were forced to overspend for beltre, and so we all told ourselves that we had gotten what the m's missed out on the year before.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Don't remind me about Tejada and Vlad. I really wish 2003 had been the year the M's when in the toilet. Tejada would definitely be a Mariner, and maybe Vlad too.

    Maybe you're right, bust isn't the right word. Disappointment? Even if you didn't think he would repeat 2004, the fact the M's invested so much in him has to be disappointing to you. We have him through 2009 by the way. Maybe the young guys will be stars by then, and he can have another monster contract year.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.