3-5, Really Quick Bullet Points
by Jeff Sullivan on Apr 9, 2008 10:53 AM PDT
in Seattle Mariners Game Recaps
- Something was wrong with Matt Garza from the start of the game. After nearly every pitch, he'd shake his right arm a few times as if he was trying to get it loose. He's kind of a fidgety guy, but this is an unusual thing to do, and unless his undershirt was constantly giving him trouble I'm inclined to believe that he was feeling discomfort from the beginning, and that in the third he finally realized that he couldn't pitch through it anymore. This one could take a long time to heal.
- I won't comment on the strike zone since I wasn't paying much attention to the umpires, but I will say that Erik Bedard's fastball command was pretty bad. Here's the breakdown:
Fastball:
Strike: 23 (37%) (excluding in play)
In Play: 9 (15%)
Ball: 30 (48%)
Curveball:
Strike: 25 (58%)
In Play: 8 (19%)
Ball: 10 (23%)
His curve was terrific and he was really spotting it well, but without a consistent fastball he struggled to get ahead in the count as often as he would've liked. I was also a little concerned when I saw the FSN gun reading 86-89mph on his heater until I went into the PITCHf/x data and pulled out an average velocity of 91.2. So he's not hurt. He just had trouble locating his fastball. This will get better.
- As for the home runs (I love the goal horn) - Riggans' barely cleared the fence, and Carlos Pena is one of the best hitters in baseball. Still not concerned.
- Early indications are that you can count Roy Corcoran as another useful reliever the Mariners pulled off the scrap heap. He doesn't have pinpoint control, but he throws a sinking fastball with good velocity and sharp late break, along with some offspeed stuff to keep people honest. With a decent ability to miss bats and a projected groundball rate around 55-60%, he's like the Sean Green you can use when the original Sean Green is having one of his spells. Man, the M's are so good at this.
- Anyone who watched the game yesterday knows exactly why I was such a big fan of the Jason Bartlett addition. That guy might have literally twice as much range as the clowns they fielded at short in 2007.
- Loafie got a lot of shit down the stretch last year for gaffes where it looked like his head wasn't in the game. Well, yesterday he made a pinpoint relay throw to get BJ Upton at third base (although I think Upton was safe), and he took second on an Adrian Beltre foul out behind the plate when he realized that Shawn Riggans wasn't paying attention. Everybody who blasted him for allegedly spacing out ought to be singing his praises right now.
- How you know you set the bar pretty low last season:
One of the things they're touting in Tampa Bay this year - we can catch the ball. (Dave Sims)
- Not only was this the first time (I think) a Rays game was sold out before the day of, but the large crowd in attendance also set a record for the longest sustained booing in the history of the world. And on a related note, I have to think there's no more uncomfortable situation than being the third base coach when the manager comes out to argue with the ump.
- A real left fielder catches Willy Aybar's RBI single in the third.
- Brad Wilkerson currently has the highest walk rate on the team. I know he's struggling to hit the ball, but he's not nearly as bad as too many people are making him out to be. Repeat after me: Mike Morse sucks. Mike Morse sucks. Wilkerson might collapse, but you have to at least give him a chance before calling him pathetic.
-
It's awesome
and totally unfamiliar to have a starter with great stuff who doesn't totally fall apart when some aspect of his game isn't on. Twice now Bedard has come out of the gate a bit hobbled by his fastball command (although on Gameday it looked like he was missing by inches most of the time) and twice he's made the best of the situation. Hope it rubs off on Felix.
If anyone's getting down on 'Wilkersuck' they should absolutely be singing the praises of Richie Sexson with his 8.24RC/27. His OBP is still .320, and his PrOPS is .721. Neither of those is great, but the PrOPS at least should tell you that the hits will come.
Bearskin Rugburn - April 9, 2008
The 'his' in the last sentence is Wilkerson
obviously
Bearskin Rugburn - April 9, 2008
So a lineup of nine Richie Sexsons would score 8.2 runs/game
I can live with that.
I could not live with the heart attacks that watching Richie Sexson bat over and over again would cause
seattlebruin - April 9, 2008
you know,
when you put it that way I feel like it HAS to be wrong, but hey, its a number, and numbers don't lie. 74% of all people know that.
Bearskin Rugburn - April 9, 2008
74% of all people are not retarded
that number also feels wrong. I was expecting more like 30%
seattlebruin - April 9, 2008
According to South Park,
It is 1/4th the population.
"Let's take a test sample. There's 4 of us, you're retarded, that makes 1/4th"
CapSea - April 9, 2008
But it would give up 421 runs/game on defense.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Naw, I think that if Richie pitched too, we'd be just fine
seattlebruin - April 9, 2008
For the record, Bedard on Opening Day:
Fastball:
Strike: 30 (52%) (excluding in play)
In Play: 5 (9%)
Ball: 23 (40%)
Curveball:
Strike: 12 (35%)
In Play: 7 (21%)
Ball: 15 (44%)
He wasn't locating either pitch very well.
Jeff Sullivan - April 9, 2008
I'm going to go ahead
and blame that on the umpiring. And will continue to do so in spite of mounting evidence to the contrary.
Bearskin Rugburn - April 9, 2008
Jim Joyce was definitely a pile of suck on Opening Day
but I think Bedard had considerably better curveball command last night. Might've had something to do with being out of the cold.
Jeff Sullivan - April 9, 2008
Bedard can pretty much survive just with that curveball
Which is a statement to just how filthy that pitch is.
OlSalty - April 9, 2008
" A real left fielder catches Willy Aybar's RBI single in the third"
But a real left fielder wouldn't have pulled off that snazzy little ballet hop.
tootthekazoo - April 9, 2008
Off topic:
Anybody know who will be starting Friday? My GF is going to the game, and wants to know who's pitching.
Yes, I'm a lucky guy who has a GF who actually cares about pitching matchups, and hates pink M's gear.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Felix vs. either Weaver or Garland
Jeff Sullivan - April 9, 2008
Sweet. She'll be excited!
Unfortunately she's not taking me with her, it's a "girls night out for baseball". Still pretty cool though. Thanks for the info Jeff!
Thingray - April 9, 2008
I'll be there that game too; with Brett
Matthew - April 9, 2008
So will I
LL Date Rape Night!
Robert - April 9, 2008
you consistently say things
that make me cringe
Bearskin Rugburn - April 9, 2008
My friends always tell me that :(
Robert - April 9, 2008
I'll warn my GF.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Felix v. Weaver would be epic.
JI - April 9, 2008
Weaver.
According to my Yahoo fantasy team, anyway. And Weaver vs. Felix has been a good came to watch the past 2 years. May the best team win. ^_^
TheOptimist - April 9, 2008
*good game
I can spell, really. >_>
TheOptimist - April 9, 2008
So the Mariners should win then =)
seattlebruin - April 9, 2008
Tampa's fans were awesome.
The atmosphere they created made the game so much fun to watch. They stayed loud on two strike counts as well, which is my biggest annoyance with M's fans. It'll get loud for a few seconds and then I realize I'm the only person in my section still clapping. Drives me nuts.
Aaron Campeau - April 9, 2008
You know what I thought I'd hate?
The cowbells. I usually can't stand cowbells. But they just work in TB.
Jeff Sullivan - April 9, 2008
The world needs more cowbell.
But what's up with cowbells and TB? Kansas City might make sense, but cowbells in TB? WHat's the story behind that?
Thingray - April 9, 2008
In KC
All the cowbells are actually on cows. In TB, they don't have any cows so any cowbells that are around need a different purpose. Solution: baseball games.
ralphie81 - April 9, 2008
What, are they drowning in unused cowbells in TB?
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Well, sure...
With all the old people that retire down there, I'm sure some must be former farmers who brought their cowbells along.
ralphie81 - April 9, 2008
I know I'm taking my cowbell with me when I retire. And I'm not even a farmer.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
They fit the environment perfectly.
It was loud ALL THE TIME, so they didn't cut through everything like they do in other situations. If they're back down to 15,000 tonight, I predict they'll be much more annoying.
Aaron Campeau - April 9, 2008
wilkerson/snelling
I'm not really sure if this has been discussed, but Wilkerson reminds me a lot of Snelling. Okay defense for a corner outfielder, lefties with some pop, patience and strike outs.
I think we'll definitely get what we paid for by the end of the year.
batura - April 9, 2008
Did Doyle strike out that much?
Where is he now anyway?
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Snelling is in Philadelphia
He's not on the 25-man roster, though.
JoeyJoJoJuniorShabadoo - April 9, 2008
25 Minutes from my home town...
playing for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. You know I'll be at some of their games this summer!
dkulich - April 9, 2008
Wilkerson swings from the heels more
Snellings hits for average.
Jeff Sullivan - April 9, 2008
Hopefully
His knees don't remind you of Snelling. Of course that could be a good thing for WLAD.
AZSEAfan - April 9, 2008
Poor Wlad is off to a slow start down in Tacoma though.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Clement isn't though.
Thus, Kenji Johjima cries himself to sleep at night on his huge pillow.
Phil Hatzenbuehler - April 9, 2008
HEAD, PANTS NOW!
Bearskin Rugburn - April 9, 2008
Look at it.. It's like an orange on a toothpick!
Thingray - April 9, 2008
wait what?
HARRYP09 - April 9, 2008
It's weird how that film has the longest staying power for MM's stuff.
Wayne's World & Austin Powers are not funny anymore, but I still laugh at So I Married an Axe Murderer. Shrek makes Jed MC go something something.
Jed MC - April 9, 2008
Wayne's World not funny anymore?
Are you mental?
Aaron Campeau - April 9, 2008
I didn't think WW was funny when it came out.
Except for Alice Cooper's appearance.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
I did like it 10 or 15 years ago - now, not so much.
It was on TV a week or so ago and it was so painfully unfunny that I had to switch channels.
Jed MC - April 9, 2008
I think it's his best work. Not too over the top, but still hilarious.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Shhhh
Quit using your facts and stuff.
AZSEAfan - April 9, 2008
Morse doesn't suck.
Alaska - April 9, 2008
Mike Morse is not a bad bench player
He would be, however, a terrible regular.
Gomez - April 9, 2008
You're stupid.
Just kidding. Morse doesn't "suck", he's just a slap hitter with no position to play.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
I think that's the very definition of "suck"
He doesn't hit terribly well, he's a bad to terrible defender everywhere but third and doesn't run particularly fast.
So the one thing he might be decent at in MLB, we have a the best guy in the league doing it already (3rd base defense)
seattlebruin - April 9, 2008
*we have the
superfluous "a"
seattlebruin - April 9, 2008
okay okay
Morse doesn't suck. But he's not good enough to be a regular outfielder in the AL. A guy with his lack of defensive ability needs a great deal more power to stick around. Right now, Bloomquist is a better player.
Bearskin Rugburn - April 9, 2008
"Right now, Bloomquist is a better player."
You have a crazy definition of "suck" if being worse than Bloomquist isn't it.
Graham MacAree - April 9, 2008
I think it all depends on how you define "suck".
Morse is probably a better baseball player than anyone here, but he's not better than anyone on the M's. Although I might take him over Vidro, I hate that fat bastard.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Cairo?
ralphie81 - April 9, 2008
Cairo's a significantly better defender
Graham MacAree - April 9, 2008
That's not saying much though, and Morse is a better hitter than Cairo by far.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
You have a point.
Graham MacAree - April 9, 2008
Occasionally.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Okay. he's better than Cairo too.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Bloomquist is a useful player
he can play good D at most positions, has decent speed, and can make contact. He's no regular but he's a decent player.
Bearskin Rugburn - April 9, 2008
Yeah, I like Bloomquist on the bench
But he's what, the 23rd best player on the team out of 25? That puts people worse than him in roughly the 8th percentile of MLB baseball goodness.
Graham MacAree - April 9, 2008
JI - April 9, 2008
I'd rather not.
It makes perfect sense from a baseball perspective, but I just fuckin' HATE that guy.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Amen!
MfaninAlaska - April 9, 2008
Do you hate Brett Myers?
BrettJMiller - April 9, 2008
Morse took steroids.
But he did not win 3 MVPs beforehand.
FretFriendly - April 9, 2008
and I appear to be logged in with my roommate's account.
FretFriendly - April 9, 2008
dur.
he used mine on royalsreview as well it seems.
hcoguy - April 9, 2008
It's not about the steroids for me, I just think he's an ass.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Fair enough
I just don't see how the F.O is not at all interested since even people who dislike him may be inclined to go to a game just to boo him.
He puts the butts in the seats and hits the balls there too, things a money-making organization would want.
hcoguy - April 9, 2008
Fortunately the LL community has addressed your first concern
JI - April 9, 2008
Get rid of the green
Robert - April 9, 2008
yessir I'm on it
JI - April 9, 2008
JI - April 9, 2008
Boooooo!!!!!!!
chaney - April 9, 2008
Why do you hate America?
pdb - April 9, 2008
Because it touches itself.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Nah.
If it did, it would be a hell of a lot less repressed.
JuliaHope - April 9, 2008
And less depressed as well.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
I feel America should feel itsself/ get felt up up in public.
JI - April 9, 2008
That's a lot of feeling.
JuliaHope - April 9, 2008
We're a big country
pdb - April 9, 2008
"I'm in flavor country."
"Yeah, but two of them?"
"It's a big country."
Jeff Sullivan - April 9, 2008
Such a big ass that it overrules your desire to see the M's win?
Jeff Sullivan - April 9, 2008
I would tacitly accept Barry.
When we lost.
brayden04 - April 9, 2008
Almost, yes.
Then again I'd probably be a hypocrite and still cheer my ass of if / when he hit a game winning homer.
I'd just rather not have to fight that moral battle in my brain.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
I think he's been poorly portrayed by the media
And I think most people who pay attention to Pedro Gomez have bit.
Not saying he's a jolly man, he's had his issues, but signing him looking at what he's done (or accused of been doing) off the field as compared to what he's done on it - well, it's better than Al Martin, Brett Myers, Carl Everett (...) or even Jason Kidd.
And yet, we still 'just hate the guy' for suspected for taking 'roids after McGwire and Sosa proved that in the late '90's, there were no detrimental side effects.
You can blame Bonds for being an island in the dugout and being shitty with the media (with whom I have no problem at all), but blame baseball for the steroid use. Some people didn't do it, I know, but it's baseball's fault to have no consequences for those who did.
My old football coach used to tell us, "Cheat to win, because if you aren't cheating, then the guys across from you are." While I don't share the same sentiment, his point is honest. We'll do whatever we have to in order to be better than whoever our opposition is.
So, for me? Free Barry Bonds. Free him soon.
cwel87 - April 9, 2008
agreed
How much do we even know about the locker room effect? Isn't half of the negative stuff we know about from that douchnozzle Jeff Kent?
hcoguy - April 9, 2008
Eh....
It's a slippery slope to blame baseball for the choices of individual players.....
brayden04 - April 9, 2008
I don't think he's better than Everett, Myers, etc.
The things he's accused of doing to his girlfriend/mistress in Game of Shadows are pretty shitty. Granted, that's all secondhand, but I'm inclined to believe it.
I'm not necessarily against the M's signing him, but it's not all about the steroids/media/locker room stuff for me. He is, by most accounts, a genuinely rotten individual. There are plenty of guys who I suspect took steroids that I like a lot as players; I just think Bonds is a dick.
Aaron Campeau - April 9, 2008
Amen.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Sure, he's a dick
but why does that matter on the field?
pdb - April 9, 2008
Logically it doesn't.
I just hate having to root for someone I despise just because he's (theoretically) on my favorite team.
Thingray - April 9, 2008
It doesn't.
Hence my saying I wouldn't necessarily be against the M's signing him. I just think that when someone says they don't like him it's assumed it's because of the steroids/his relationship with the media. Those things have very little to do with my dislike for him.
Also, while I don't much care whether or not the players on the teams I cheer for are good people or not, everyone has their threshold of guys they think are such dicks they have a hard time rooting for them. Bonds doesn't cross the line for me, but for other people he does. I personally can't fault them for that, as long as I think their logic is sound.
Aaron Campeau - April 9, 2008
Maybe I'm just too old (school)
but to me, I want my team to win a World Series, and if it means a team full of Carl Everetts, Barry Bondses, and Albert Belles, then by God that's who I want the M's to sign. When they're playing for my favorite team I like them just fine.
And no, I don't think Carl Everett is a good player. IHe was just the first assclown I could think of.
pdb - April 9, 2008
I will never get tired of the word "assclown".
Thingray - April 9, 2008
Me neither
I forget to use it a lot of the time, but it's really one of my favorite PG13 swearwords.
pdb - April 9, 2008
rickpo - April 9, 2008
Amusing and Disturbing....
PLU Tim - April 9, 2008
nice job on the skintone of the arms
Eyebrows - April 9, 2008
After gluing body parts together
I came to the realization that Bonds has a very big head.
As for the arm skin tone ... it's ok for a quick job. When you darken someone's skin this much, you really need to go back and strengthen the highlights by hand.
rickpo - April 9, 2008
haha yeah I was gonna comment on the head
Although it's fine given that:
1. Everyone knows he has a big head.
2. Given the difference in size/thickness of their bodies, Bonds' head is going to look weird on Ichiro, no matter what.
Eyebrows - April 9, 2008
I think I have a new favorite image.
There is something so disturbing about this picture, yet I cannot turn away.
Phil Hatzenbuehler - April 9, 2008
It's intended to be representative
of the dual nature of awesomeness. The tension created by combining two things that are not ordinarily together creates a sense of unease and fascination, not unlike the feeling one gets when one shakes a bottle of Italian dressing.
rickpo - April 9, 2008
My god. This made me crack up on a historical level. +1000.
redwolf75 - April 9, 2008
Relative to the rest of the MLB population he does
Jeff Sullivan - April 9, 2008
Paul Byrd is not fucking the man
6-0 Angels, 3 HR given up...end of third.
Jesus.
cwel87 - April 9, 2008
Because Paul Byrd sucks
Graham MacAree - April 9, 2008
While I don't disagree
I wanted to see him not be full of suck today.
Clearly, he decided to let me down.
cwel87 - April 9, 2008
so he's sucking the man?
pdb - April 9, 2008
Well played.
Aaron Campeau - April 9, 2008
the man is fucking him
Eyebrows - April 9, 2008
But he threw a no hitter last year
Robert - April 9, 2008
more like snow-hitter, amirite?
Eyebrows - April 9, 2008
yes, I know that joke has probably done to death
and that the game didn't count thanks to Hargrove being awesome.
Eyebrows - April 9, 2008
FREE MIKE HARGROVE
BrettJMiller - April 9, 2008
The fact that I agree with you in the slightest way
is the very reason why I hate John McLaren on a personal level.
Robert - April 9, 2008
I really want to know where all these power hitters came from.
ESPN keeps telling me we don't have any besides Vlad.
TheOptimist - April 9, 2008
Willits.
Reggie Willits.
seattlebruin - April 9, 2008
ESPN is somehow right here.
BrettJMiller - April 9, 2008
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