Alright, Alright

I'll post already. The M's keep winning, telling me I need to write about them. The blog has been pretty slow as I was moving from here to here I realize the only people still reading this blog are the administrators, my parents, and hopefully snave, but there's too much to talk about.

When a team has three crapbag seasons in a row, and comes into the season with Jeff Weaver and Horacio Ramirez as anchors of the rotation, it's hard to be optimistic. And then when a team is winning games but Jeff Weaver has a quadruple digit ERA, Felix Hernandez is hurt/struggling it's more of a "okay, when are they going to lose 6 games in a row?"

But, when they bounce back from that, win a couple series, sweep the new evil empire (sorry Dad), and keep going strong even when the opposing pitcher is eleventy billion times better than ours, it starts feeling like we have a good baseball team on our hands.

I made it pretty clear that I wasn't overly optimistic about this team coming into the year. And, even though the M's kept winning, I was still skeptical. Weaver was awful, Felix couldn't pitch anymore, the bullpen was being worn thin, Sexson and Ibanez were doing nothing, etc. But, the recent winning ways have shown me some things that have me pretty excited about the rest of this season:

1. JJ Putz is the best closer in baseball. By far.

2. There are no holes on offense. Ichiro is the only superstar, but every one else in the lineup can contribute. And that includes the bench players. That's the kind of team that stays in the hunt through September.

3. Jeff Weaver and Miguel Batista can pitch. Sort of. They are the kind of pitchers you hope to get 6 solid innings out of, keep you in the game, and let the offense and bullpen win it for you. They've shown that lately, and I hope it keeps up.

4. Mike Hargrove can make a good decision or two. He's managed the bullpen very well this year. He uses Putz in high-leverage situations instead of saving him only for save situations. I'm still not a big fan of his, but this is an optimistic post.


Sure, there are concerns. Felix is pitching like a 21-year old, Putz's arm may fall off, and the rotation still needs help. But I'll stick with being excited for now. I'm hoping they can win today against Toronto, then take or split the series with KC and Oakland, then get rested up for the big series against Detroit after the break.

Let's go M's!!!!!