Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Salt in the wound

As if things weren't bad enough already....


Scott Spiezio: .303/.406/.506, 3 HR, 16 RBI in 38 games.
Best year as a Mariner: .215/.288/.346, 10 HR, 41 RBI in 112 games.
Last year as a Mariner: .064/.137/.149, 1 HR, 1 RBI in 29 games.


Jeff Cirillo: .382/.424/.509, 1 HR, 5 RBI in 30 games.
Best year as a Mariner: .249/.301./.328, 6 HR, 54 RBI in 146 games.
Last year as a Mariner: .205/.284/.271, 2 HR, 23 RBI in 87 games.


Miguel Olivo: .258/.297/.475, 5 HR, 13 RBI in 36 games.
Career numbers as a Mariner: .166/.359/.333, 11 HR, 32 RBI in 104 games.


Yep. Enjoy the holiday. You can do that by not watching the Mariners play baseball.


(In case you didn't know, that's AVG/OBP/SLG)

Friday, May 26, 2006

Obligations

M's lose. Two G** D*** hits? Really, what am I supposed to say about that? I'm not saying anything about my boy Gilbert. There's no chance I'm going to jinx him.

But, I'm at the point where anything I would be writing about the Mariners would be forced. Sure, they're 3 games back. But, they're freaking 22 and 27. You can't ignore that. Look at the starting pitching. All of these guys (except for Felix) are veteran, mediocre guys who you're going to have to score at least 5 runs for in order to win. The bats have potential, but seem to be very streaky. Harldy a team that scares anyone. But, maybe a team that can win 80 games. Coming into the season, that's what I was hoping for, and that with a couple of offseason moves, they could be playoff contenders in 2007. The problem is, I'm not sure what to get excited about in the here and now. Sure it's fun to win a few series here and there, but every good team the Mariners have played has beat them down. So why get overly excited? If in September this team is showing signs of being good in 2007, then it might be fun again.

We've been slacking here, and the posters have too. But, can you really blame us? This brings me to the subject of obligation. I'm finding myself only posting this right now because I feel obligated. To what thought? I don't know the answer to that question. I guess I feel like if you're going to make the committment to start a blog, then you should be adding to it regularly.

We started this blog because we love the Mariners. That hasn't changed, but I'm having the hardest time finding the motivation to say interesting things about the team. So, the question is-do we keep making new posts out of pure obligation/committment, or do we only make posts when we truly have something interesting to say? I guess it's just a hard time to be a Mariners fan, and we'll have to be patient. I don't feel like less of a fan because I don't run to my computer as soon as the M's lose 2-0 to a craptastic pitcher and a craptastic team. So, you should expect to see less posts here (from me at least), but when I do post I will be sure to make it meaningful.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Foh!

That's four in a row. You can't get too excited about a 21-25 team, but the Mariners are showing some signs of life. Lots of home runs lately. That = good. The bullpen is nasty. The starting pitching is decent enough. Ichiro is nearly back to form, Lopez is the best second baseman in the American League, and Raul, Everett, and Johjima are going to complement Big Richie well once he gets going. By the way, grand slams are the best kind of hits.

How much does Comcast suck? The only M's-O's game being televised is this Thursday's. Sure, the games start at 10:05 here in Bmore, but what else are people going to be watching on Comcast? I checked the channel that broadcasts the Orioles games last night when the game was going on, and they were showing stand up comedy. And bad stand up comedy at that. Weak.

The Orioles are throwing John Halama tonight. Wow. There are teams that are less fun to be a fan of than the Mariners. Make it 5 M's!

There are two things about Hargrove that are really irritating me right now:

1) Jose Lopez is the M's best hitter right now. Yet, he leads the team in sacrifice bunts.

2) This Reed/Bloomquist platoon thing in center is ridiculous. He doesn't play Reed against lefties. There are few things about this I don't like, and none of them have to do with Willie. I'm not a Willie hater. I think he serves a purpose and I like having him on the team. But starting in CF is not one of them. Reed has been heating up lately, and as far as I'm concerned, he is part of the M's future. How is he going to develop into a good hitter if he never hits against lefties? How is he going to learn how to hit lefties is he never plays against them?

The only good thing about the M's going in the tank would be to see Hargrove gone.

Monday, May 22, 2006

A Sweep never felt so....................bluh

Here is the thing I should be fired up. I should be pumped that perhaps the mariners are turning things around. Meche apparently looked good. The bullpen appeared to be solid for the most part and the offense put some much-needed runs on the board. I should be waving the mariner banner and starting the wagon train.

But I'm not. I have been fooled to many times in the past few years. Yes the swept the Padres and its a good thing. It just still doesn’t feel like they are getting better despite this series win. I really have a hard time coming up with optimistic posts about this team. Apparently Grover had another 45-min team only meeting which was "positive" by all accounts. I don’t know what to think though.

I have heard rumors of Carl Everett being traded and I am all for that I don’t like him, I thought the signing was a horrible idea and anything we can get for him would be a good thing.
Anyway there hasn’t been a post here for the past few days so I thought some new stuff would be nice.

A nice ting is it looks like Snelling is getting close again, I keep hoping that he can just take it easy and get his body to last, the kid has talent and I would hate to see it never blossom in the big leagues.

I really don’t have much to add other than yesterday I saw the 4th inning I think it was where the M’s put up 7 with yet another series of Flurry of singles……………

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Alan Thicke, Kirk Cameron, and the Oakland A's

I hate Joe Blanton. Actually, it seems like Mariner bats hate baseballs thrown by Joe Blanton. When have the Mariners ever been able to win in Oakland? As long as I can remember, back to the days of Lansford, Weiss, and Steinbach, the M's have had trouble in the land of immense foul territory that is the Oakland A's home stadium. I did some quick research, and could only find on baseball-almanac.com that the A's are 203-136 all-time against the M's, but if anyone wants to take the time to find out the M's all-time record in Oakland, I'd love to know. I have to think it's terrible.

But, to last night's game. I've already said how important I thought this series was. USSMariner was doing it's best to stay optimistic. But, Felix got pounded. Jeff at Lookout Landing called it a letdown. Deanna was just plain depressed. Personally, I was half asleep when I heard the Melhuse grand slam. The XM went off right then.

Of course, the bigger issue from last night was Felix. Again with the suckage. They'll be plenty of good talk about his issues in the M's blogoverse-a-sphere. I won't try to match the statistical, mechanical, psychological analysis. But, maybe, just maybe, we can chalk it up to....



GROWING PAINS! Ha! I'm such an idiot.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Am I crazy....

To think that this series with the A's is really important? After beating down the Angels with all sorts of round trippers, the M's trail the Athleticos by two games for second place in the division. Two out of three and they're one back. Sweep and they're in second place. Maybe even first depending on what the Rangers do. Clearly, it's early. But, I'm looking at the schedule and I see a lot of winnable series coming up. The Padres, Orioles, Twins, are sandwiched by the A's and Rangers. Now that I say that, I think the rest of May could prove to be crucial to the M's season. If the M's took every series (without sweeping), they would be 28-27. That's going into a June schedule that includes the Royals, Twins, the NL West, and the A's and Angels (who they own by the way.)

I don't know, I'm probably reaching, and I'm definitely getting waaay ahead of myself. I said it before, and I still believe that the A's are the team to beat in the AL West. They made the M's look silly the first time around, and it's payback time. A baseball season is a marathon, but every game, every series counts. And I think this is the biggest one of the year. Go Felix go Felix go!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

8-1 the King has his best outting of the year



Going into the game I was worried. Worried that we would see Felix struggle as he has in the early part of the year to escape the first few innings unscathed. Worried that if he did struggle and give up a few the offense wouldn’t support him. This is pressure that many mariner starters have had over the past few years. Ask Ryan Franklin, ask Jarrod Washburn. My worry almost came to realities as Felix took the mound only to walk the first batter. Luckily he settled down and was able to get out of that first inning.

Moving into the game the mariners put up a nice 3 spot to give Felix some breathing room. Highlighted by a flurry and I mean flurry of singles. Felix seemed relaxed at this point. He was starting to put it on cruise control. Grounders, strike outs and fly outs. And from the looks of it nothing was hit hard. He was dazzling hitters with 97 MPH heat and filthy 84 mph of speed pitches. Towards the 7th and 8th he just made hitters look ridiculous.

Middle of the Game Jurrasic carl had another towering Jurrasic Blast to give felix a 3 run lead. The offense then erupted in the 8th with another Flurry of singles. Tampa didn’t know what hit them with so many single bagers dropping in and guys moving up 90 feet. All in all a 4 spot was put up in the 8th to essentially seal the deal as soriano shut the door. The 9th went smooth which was highlighted by an absolute tori hunter esc play from Jeremy reed diving to take a sure fire hit away.

The Game was Fun, Neddy Ball game and I sat and discussed many of the finer points of the game, along with our dislike of Dave "You know I played in the MLB" Henderson. One thing came clear from our conversations. Beltre was starting to hit the ball hard in every At bat over the past few games. We both felt he was getting a bit unlucky but it was a good sign to see him hit the ball so well. Everything off his bat was a rocket. Secondly we both agreed that if there was going to be a manager swap it was going to be more dependent on what the AL West did rather than how the mariners are doing. If we keep this pace and are still 4 games out......I doubt there will be a change but if/when someone gets hot Grover could see the door and Mr. Rohn will roll in from his fake position.

And Lastly, and I feel really strongly about this one. They handed out all-star ballots at the game. Early yes but this is a good thing. I started to review my options. Standard guys were coming to mind for each position. However My eyes were drawn to the options at second base. I looked and noticed something...........Was Jose Lopez the most productive second basemen in the AL??? No way that cant be true can it? So I dug deeper. Who are the top Second basemen in the league? Well offensively Soriano is probably the most potent but he is in Washington and technically is not a 2nd basemen. Chase utley then? Probably. You have to go down the list of productive players at second to find an AL guy. The top two in the AL are Ty Wigginton, is not as good as he ahs been in my opinion, and your own Jose Lopez. Lopez is not only right there offensively he is superior Defensively. And as far as important to his team.....Come on Lopez leads the team in Homers and Rbi's.

Its official I Travis "Big Daddy" Goodfellow am starting the Jose Lopez for starting second basemen at the 2006 ALL-STAR GAME. Whose with Me!!!

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Not such a good 20

During the Mariners historical run in 2001, there were a few times during the season when I looked at their record and said "Wow." I don't remember most of those records, but one that sticks out for me is 20-4. I don't know what it was about that record, but that was just incredible to me. Maybe it was the first time I started to think about the pace they were on. But, I think it was that number 20. Something about the number 20 has always intrigued me. Barry Sanders was my favorite football player for a long time, and I think a big part of it was because he wore the number 20. It's like, you know, double the first double digit number. And with that record, 4 just looked so small next to it.

Something tells me I'm not going to be remembering the most recent 20 in Mariners history. That 20 would be today's loss. Number 20 on the season. To go with 13 wins. Oy. Another good start from Washburn is negated by the ineptitude of the nine men who swing bats. I guess I'll take solace in the fact that, somehow, despite all the crappy baseball they've played, the Mariners are still only 4.5 games out of first place. That's with Tampa Bay coming up next, and then two intra-divisional series in a row. So, anything's still possible. (Although, this isn't your father's Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Or, I guess, more like your older sibling's. More than likely your father's Tampa Bay Devil Rays are yours too. Unless of course you're under the age of 8. Which you probably aren't because if you're 8 you don't bother yourself with stupid things like this blog that is dedicated to a hapless baseball team. If you are 8 or younger, let me give you some advice-do not decidate yourself to any one team. Be the biggest frontrunner of all time. Root for whatever team is winning, always. It will save you all sorts of pain and suffering.)

In other news, Guardado is trying to make himself useful by mentoring Putz. Maybe since the M's are going with a closer by committee approach, they should do a mentor by committee thing too. You know, have a different mentor for each young arm in the bullpen. Play the matchups too. Maybe have the fiery (how the hell do you spell firey by the way?!?!!) Guardado work with a low-key guy. Or the grumpy Moyer work with a real eager, young puppy like guy. Wow, am I reaching for material or what? Go Mariners!

WARNING: This next item will put you in an excellent mood for 4 minutes and 15 seconds. Then you'll take a 13-second emotional trip from the highest of high to the lowest of low as you realize how far removed the Mariners are from these types of moments. But, if you think it's worth it, check out this youtube clip that highlights the M's-Yankees series from '95.

That is all. Keep hope alive! Or, invite a time machine that will make it football season.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

@##$%$%^

If Eddie Guardado closes another game for the Seattle Mariners and Mike Hargrove isn't sent packing immediately after he blows another game for the team....I'm not sure what I'll do but it will definitely involve throwing something and cursing. Mike-get it through your head, the guy can't close anymore. He doesn't have the same stuff he used to and his arm is about to fall off. I got myself all fired up with the comeback in the 8th, only to have Eddie do it again. Add last night's performance to this one against Texas, this one against Boston, and this one last week against the White Sox, and you've got a trend. Turn those three losses into wins and the M's are a game above .500

Forget his grit, toughness, clubhouse presence, blah blah blah. Eddie Guardado isn't very good anymore. Putz has been lights out this year. Give him the closer's role. This isn't like those teams in the 90s in which the entire bullpen was a ticking bomb. There are other options. It's time for the Mariners to take the Boston route. They realized that Foulke couldn't get it done anymore and gave the closer role to the young stud.

4.5 games back. The Rangers have been hot but no one's running away with the AL West yet. The problem is fixable. Take action Mariners.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

I LOVE JOSE LOPEZ!!!

Just singled in the 8th to tie it!!!

Sometimes I just don't know what they are thinking

Ok so a while back we were all excited about the Matt Thorton trade. found here

Well today the marlins Claimed Joe Borchard off waivers from the mariners. Borchard was who we traded thorton for. SO essentially we gave thorton away now without even really giving Borchard a look. Well he is gonna get a look in Florida. I’m not so much pissed that thorton was given away I didn’t want him but the fact that they just give up on the guy they got for him so soon is absolutely insane. With the struggles in Center Field that they have had this year don’t you think trying out Borchard made just a tiny bit of sense? Even if it was just for a week?

The santana wall


I for one didnt expect a victory going against the likes of Santana who is I must admit a personal favorite of mine. The game started off looking solid in the Mariners Favor. They started off with 3 hits, a triple and 2 singles, all were hit hard. Then however Santana settled down and pitched like the ace that he is. It was pretty much over after the 1st inning. It's all good though lets focus on the next two game set in Chicago. I think this is shaping up to be a pretty nice road trip. I really love Yuni by the way he is simply a wizard out there.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Good weekend

Well I'd love to do an extended recap of the weekend in Baltimore, but the parents have been in town, and we've been busy saving Darfur, so it's been tough for me to find a chance to get to it.

But, I was at Friday and Saturday's games in Bmore with the fam and some friends. Friday was no good. It was just one of those games that had nothing special about it. The M's were never really in it, and never really out of it. The Meche jersey obviously didn't work. Plus we were surrounded by Red Sox fans, who are have gladly taken the baton from Yankee fans as the most obnoxious in baseball. They were actually doing a "Yankees suck!" cheer at the game. Are you kidding me? Maybe those two teams should just join their own league so they can play each other every day and be really childish and obnoxious with each other.

Saturday was much better, although it didn't seem like it at first. Felix was struggling pretty badly, but still showed flashes of the brilliance that is going to make him a dominant starter for years to come. His ability to induce the ground ball is uncanny I say! I even found myself hoping Ramon Hernandez would hit a grand slam at one point because it would help my fantasy team and I figured there was no way the M's were going to win anyway. But, the bats exploded. And Beltre homered!!!!

I didn't see any of the game yesterday as we were in DC rallying to stop genocide, but....nice! Two series in a row is swell.

I've decided I can't let myself get too high about wins or too low about losses at this point in the year. On the one hand, the M's have looked terrible at times. On the other, they're 2 games out of first place. It's too early to be super negative, and too early to be overly positive. I just can't get a read on this team. I can't figure out how good or bad they can be. Let's see what May brings.