Good Things in 2008

by Matthew on Sep 19, 2008 8:15 AM PDT in Seattle Mariners Good News

Jeff's brought it up already in some other forms, but it got me to thinking. If I wanted to make a comprehensive list of all the positive or semi-positive things about this year, what would it look like?

Raul Ibanez continues to hit *
Jose Lopez rejuvenation at the plate **
Ichiro shows no sign of slowing down ***
Adrian Beltre hit lots of line drives and played very fine defense ****
Willie Bloomquist's insane walk rates *****
Erik Bedard's first PA to Ian Kinsler ******
R.A. Dickey the reliever was pretty effective and fun to watch. ******
Arthur Rhodes was decent enough to net us Gaby Hernandez at the deadline. ********
Sean Green continues to be a valuable piece out of the bullpen *********
Brandon Morrow is awesome in relief and awesome in his debut start **********
Roy Corcoran comes out of nowhere to become our most valuable reliever. ***********
Felix Hernandez hit a grand slam off Johan Santana. ***********

* But his continued poor glove robbed almost, if not all, of that positive value away. Amazingly, Raul still played LF after we dumped the monstrosity of Jose Vidro.

** But most metrics agree his defense has fallen off considerably.

*** But his defense is slipping a little bit and he's now moved back to right field.

**** But he's probably going to get traded this winter in 2008's version of the annual retard trade that we know from day -4,077 is dumb.

***** But he also went nearly all season without an extra base hit and finished with but a lone double.

****** But he apparently injured his hip and tore his labrum in that game.

******* But R.A. Dickey the starter got battered around like the self-worth of this guy.

******** But Gaby Hernandez runs shitty ratios even after moving down a level to Double-A upon arriving in Seattle.

********* But he gets overused and becomes ineffective by August.

********** But Morrow's next two starts reveal just how much more work he has to do and dreams of him, Felix and Bedard at the top of the 2009 rotation are dashed by the realization that Morrow will need 2009 as a learning year and Bedard will need 2009 as a rehab year.

*********** But his K and BB rates are bad and he's probably not going to keep limiting line drives to under 9% in the future.

************ Did you hear what I said? He hit a fucking grand slam off Johan Santana! That was mind-numbingly insane!

0 recs | 55 comments

Comments

There was that time we almost got rid of Washburn...

Funny thing, I saw every one of the single-game events. And not much else. At least I got caught up on my reading, and was able to make time to join a baseball league of my own.

Faux - September 19, 2008 reply

Dave Niehaus inducted into the HOF

josh_h - September 19, 2008 reply

That may have been the highlight for me

And of course it has no relation to the team on the field.

Sec 108 - September 19, 2008 reply

Good Things in 2008:Arizona edition

1.Brandon Webb is awesome once again.*
2.Danny Haren is having an excellent year in his first year in Arizona.*
3.Justin Upton has put up a 111 OPS+ as a 20 year old.*
4.Randy Johnson has provided the club with 170+ good to great innings and has only miss 1 start.*
5.Conor Jackson has shown he can be an above average LF after being a below average 1B.*
6.Mark Reynolds may hit 30 homers.****
7.Chris Young took a huge step forward with his defense.*******
8.Stephen Drew showed the power potential he flashed in the minors(203 isoP)********
9.Adam Dunn was very good after he was traded to Arizona.*********
10.Orlando Hudson had another excellent season in his walk year.**********
11.Chris Snyder continues to improve both at the plate and behind it.***********
12. Yusmeiro Petit has been excellent when starting.************
13.The DBacks were in first place for a franchise record 134 games.*************

*But not good enough to win his 2nd Cy Young(or at least he shouldn’t be) and he sucked during some key games the last few weeks.

**But he had his usual 2nd half fade and sucked during some key games the last few weeks.

***But he spent almost 2 months on the DL.

****But he didn’t get his 300th win this year.

*****But he hasn’t had the breakout year at the plate that it looked like he was gonna have in June.

******But he also has a 99 OPS+ and is 9 K’s away from becoming the first player in history to strike out 200 times in a season.

*******But he took a big step backward with his offense and base stealing.

********But his walk rate has been cut in half.

*********But the DBacks didn’t make the playoffs despite that.

**********But he had a season ending injury for the 2nd straight season and will sign elsewhere in the offseason.

But at one point he went on the DL with a “testicular fissure”.

************But it isn’t sustainable.

*************But they won’t be in first place when it matters, and ultimately they greatly disappointed by being just a .500 team in 2008.

I’m ready for this season to be over.

Goose - September 19, 2008 reply

SBN 2.0 raped my post.

Goose - September 19, 2008 reply

Yahoo did something similar the other day.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Ten-reasons-the-Diamondbacks-became-rattlesnake-?urn=mlb,108224

.Taylor - September 19, 2008 reply

3.5 out with 9 (?) to play

You might as well wait until you are officially eliminated to lose all hope.

JI - September 19, 2008 reply

Less than 3% odds

They’re pretty much done. That series where Webb and Haren got torched was their death knell.

bluemax - September 19, 2008 reply

Well yeah it's bleak

But the Dodgers aren’t the greatest team in the world and I can see them dropping 6 of 9

JI - September 19, 2008 reply

We got rid of McLaren and Bavasi*

*but no doubt their replacements will be just as impotent

appleshampoo - September 19, 2008 reply

There's no reason to think that.

Aaron Campeau - September 19, 2008 reply

There is every reason to think that

and a shred of a rumor that things may change at the top.

Bearskin Rugburn - September 19, 2008 reply

There's really not any good reason to think that.

We’ve had this discussion many times, and as far as I can tell the only reason people assume that the new GM will be just as bad as Bavasi is because they’re being defeatists.

Aaron Campeau - September 19, 2008 reply

They're not claiming he'll be just as bad

they’re claiming he may not have the freedom to do what he needs to do to fundamentally alter the team’s strategy.

marc w - September 19, 2008 reply

And I just don't really buy this.

Aaron Campeau - September 19, 2008 reply

Eh

They’ll probably give him a budget and orders not to trade Ihciro and a few others.

JI - September 19, 2008 reply

Which is the case with the vast majority of teams in baseball.

I can live with that.

Aaron Campeau - September 19, 2008 reply

The comment wasn't that they'll be incompetent

but that they will be impotent which is different. As long as Lincoln and Armstrong are negotiating extensions for players like Joh behind the GMs back you can forget about fielding a consistently competitive team.

Bearskin Rugburn - September 19, 2008 reply

fuck HTML

Bearskin Rugburn - September 19, 2008 reply

Johjima was almost certainly a mandate from the ownership.

Yes, the last few years have sucked horribly, but the Mariners were a consistently good team for 8 years before that. They’re not incapable of winning with Armstrong and Lincoln in charge.

Aaron Campeau - September 19, 2008 reply

Yes

I am being a defeatist and overly negative. It’s part of the whole “set your expectations low and then it’s hard to be depressed when things don’t get any better” strategy.

appleshampoo - September 19, 2008 reply