I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but we must win these early series against the West. The Angels are clearly not playing at full strength (pitching or offense-wise), but that’s why we must win these games early. A win tomorrow with whoever is our backup #5 starter is important.
Tonight showed us that maybe Ichiro and Griffey can carry this through the first part the season. With both of them there, there isn’t pressure on either of them individually. They can both be heros, but there is no longer any pressure on Ichiro to carry the team. He can do it when he needs to, but he doesn’t have to do it alone. Griffrey’s got his back. In fact, Rob Johnson has his back. We don’t need one hero. They all can cover.
This is exactly what we said last year and we couldn't do it.
I’m pleasantly surprised by how well (and maybe lucky) Washburn and Silva have pitched to this point. Timely hitting (and bunting) have attributed as well.
Branyan’s no burner, of course, but he’s no slouch either. Our OF can run circles around last year’s. Overall, even with Griffey, this team has much better baserunning abilities than last year’s…
Reasons Mike Salk>>>>>>>>every other talk radio personality in the world, #345:
Caller: “I grew up in Southern California. I watched the Angels win a World Series playing small ball. That’s why this team has played so well so far.”
Salk: “Let me just jump in here; yes, the Angels played some small ball. But they also had Troy Glaus blasting homeruns, a great defense, an exceptional bullpen and a good rotation. It’s not about small ball, it’s about players doing what they do best as individuals.”
Griffey's Homer.. Just watch the replay over and over.. He stayed back on that ball
perfectly and put a perfect swing on it. I can watch that all night. It’s one thing if he’s cheating a little bit and pull happy and runs into a few homers..but that homerun showed me he can still sit back and really drive the ball to right center with a textbook swing.
The Silva-Washburn landmine is only 3 games away, so if we must root for a loss just to stop tempting fate, we can take comfort knowing that’s there. I like rooting for Bedard, especially when he’s healthy… Because it’s like beating the Angels while their entire rotation is on the DL – you know it won’t last forever, but you want to make the most of it while it’s here.
*I realize Silva-Washburn is probably better than (pick a #5 guy) in terms of what odds they give us to win any game they pitch, but given their contracts and my general loathing of their peaked mediocrity, I consider them the landmine… Not a cheap #5 guy with upside.
Over time, on average, Felix will win more games than Jaku, so what you should really hope for is that we get lucky on the games we’re short-stacked and then trust the fates for the games we’ve got the advantage.
I saw something in Wak’s pitcher usage that made me happy (even though it may have been unintentional). Wash came out after only 86 pitches and 6 innings. I really hope he’s caught on to Jarrod’s tendency to implode after 90-95 pitches, because that could help a lot on his starts. Last outing he threw 96 pitches, so its hard to say if this was a conscious decision or not.
He had a head cold and was feeling weak, which is why he was pulled “early.” I wish I could say Wak would see how well it went and do it again, but I’m pretty sure that if he’s feeling 100% he would have been out there in the 7th.
That was up and down the most enjoyable game I can remember watching since 1995. It’s probably just my faulty memory at work here, and I can think of games with memorable individual performances, but I can’t think of another game since the Yankees ALDS that had this number of brilliant moments. If someone can remind me of a better game that happened in the interim, I’d honestly appreciate it. Endy’s HR to tie, Griffey’s 400th to retake the lead, Ichiro’s first hit and steal of the season, Frankie’s squeeze, the Ichislam, Kelley’s monster 2 Ks, Frankie’s catch in the 8th, taking the first series from the Angels, our bats finally showing up, all combining to wash away once and for all the stench of the last five years? I feel fan-fucking-tastic.
And I thought about Cammy’s 4hr game and Felix’ national coming out party in Boston. But those were individual achievements without too much else going on that was really exceptional. Win 116 was nice but, honestly, kind of expected, as were all the other 2001 wins once we got accustomed to winning series after series and racking up 20W months. The way we got this win and the way it cleared the palate kinda puts it over the top for me.
I don't know how they've done it but somehow pretty much every game has been excellent this year
It’s not just the fact that we’re winning, almost every game has been genuinely exciting to watch. For the first half of this game I was thinking this would be the first really boring one so far this season and then things just exploded into goodness.
Fastball that time BELTED DEEP TO RIGHT FIELD NUMBER 400 IS ON ITS WAY! THERE IT GOES! KEN GRIFFEY JUNIOR HAS HIT HIS 400TH HOME RUN AS A MARINER! NUMBER 613! AND EVERYBODY, EVERY VOICE IS BEING USED HERE AT THE….UH SAFECO FIELD I ALMOST SAID THE KINGDOME BECAUSE IT SOUNDS LIKE THE KINGDOME! WOW! WHAT A SHOT BY JUNIOR! THE MARINERS HAVE TAKEN THE LEAD, 3-2!
The Japanese media is out in full force to cover Ichiro’s pursuit of Isao Harimoto’s hit total, which he tied with the grand slam. Here’s what Ichiro said about that hit, his 3,085th between Japan and Seattle:
“A lot of time when I have a record on the line, I have a tendency to hit a home run in those situations, so it crossed my mind maybe it would happen.
“But a grand slam? That barely happens in any situation, so it definitely didn’t cross my mind.’’
And here’s a funny quote from Ichiro (via interpreter Ken Barron):
“For me to get a home run on the same day Junior had a historical homer for him, that’s very special for me. But also today, probably the two lightest guys in the major leagues hit homers together – me and Endy Chavez. That’s very special.’’
And when someone asked him if he felt he had to do something special his first day back, he said: "I didn’t think I had to do anything special today, especially because the team made it easy for me to come back and play. I’m very thankful for that. Also today, I felt if the team didn’t win once I got back, I thought all you guys would write about that. So I’m glad that’s not going to happen.’’
So glad to be there (thanks Fin). And, still only 18,516 fans!! I hope some people start coming to the games. Despite the probably bad (stupid fan)/(smart fan) ratio, I think it would be a good thing for Z and Wak to get some support from the city.
Of course, ticket sales trail performance…let’s keep this shit up!
and Yuni has shown considerably better range than last year already. I’m cautiously optimistic that they’re both going to play at the level we thought they would when they were prospects
I see guys in no hitters throw themselves around for even the slightest chance to catch a ball, and that’s good, but if there;s no chance then you’re just wasting energy.
Other shortstops play differently than Yuni does and I have over 16 years of watching games in person to base this assertion off of. He is one of the most disinterested infielders I have ever seen before.
The shot was 10 feet away from Yuni. You’re using flawed Willie Bloomquist logic in the sense that he should leap for the ball even though he’d have to be twice the size to reach it so it shows ‘GRIT’ and it gets some stains on his jersey.
Same deal with Lopez. They both look like lazy slugs in the infield and when you’ve taken as much shit (and rightfully so) as they have for being lazy slugs, you’d probably better at least attempt to look like you give a shit.
Run to the ball and see if you get there or not. I am tired of watching him never move. Why are you people apologizing for a man who is pissing away loads of talent?
I've seen him make plays he would have never made last year
Granted, SSS and all, but he’s moving to the ball (if it isn’t already by him) better than he has in years.
Personally, I like Cedeno a bunch, but there’s no disputing Betancourt has looked markedly better with the bat in his hands than Ronny. And right now, we need run-scoring potential in the lineup more than we need defense.
“apologizing for a man who is pissing away loads of talent” and just recognizing the physics of one play. He had no chance.
I look at it like when a pitcher gives up a 500-foot homer and the outfielder just turns and half-jogs to the fence — or just stands and watches. Some fans might get upset (and maybe the pitcher, too), but going balls out to the fence doesn’t make an ounce of difference when the ball is going to land in the parking lot.
And with Yuni, chasing after a ball that was already past him and moving faster than he can run wouldn’t make an ounce of difference either.
I wish Yuni would move faster and get in front of balls instead of trying to pick them all on a short hop. He’s infuriating sometimes, and I’m not saying he shouldn’t have tried. But the fact that he didn’t doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
if someone has been (rightfully) critical of me in the past, it becomes my responsibility to do whatever I can to try and change their mind about me. It’s not that hard to look like you’re trying, and when you’ve been told “You don’t try hard enough and it’s obvious” it seems like you would be interested in changing that perception.
When you screw up as badly as Yuni has screwed up in the past, you can’t expect to get away with looking nonchalant.
I think it would have been in his best interest to make an effort, because his job’s on the line and people are watching. But since it wouldn’t affect the outcome of the game at all, I just can’t bring myself to care.
I think that if a manager or fan lowers his opinion of Yuni because of his lack of hustle on that play, that’s unfortunate, because hustling would have been useless. But humans are humans, and effort — even if pointless — can win you some points.
I was mostly trying to differentiate between getting mad at Yuni for that play and getting mad at Yuni because he’s consistently underachieving and expanding. They’re completely unrelated. No one was apologizing for Yuni’s pissing away of his talent, just acknowledging that running after a ball that rolls faster than you isn’t going to change your skills or the outcome of the game.
It’s not like lollygagging on a pop-up only to have the outfielder drop it and you’re stuck at first when you could have been at second. That’s worthy of criticism. But that grounder wasn’t going to hit a rock and reverse course. Maybe he should have positioned himself better, I don’t know., but that’s not really relevant to this discussion.
They’re not really ‘data’ in the sense that they contain predictive information…. you have to regress it so much, it’s basically worthless. I think we’d all agree that Yuni’s looked a bit better this year, and that means more than the UZR numbers.
Why? Because Brad Hawpe is dominating Rajai Davis and Matt Holliday in UZR right now, but even Hawpe is miles behind Jack Cust.
Hi guys, proud to be the Mariner these days!!But, I’m little worried about attendance.
What could be better for spectators than this team to watch???
Yesterday there was only cca 18,500..If I wouldn’t have been living in Czech Republic, I’d come to every match!!..2nd match at Safeco and no interest..This year, we will hopefully start a “new way” to success.
ticket sales trail performance. A lot of people in Seattle still don’t believe the team is for real, and we’ve all seen hot starts fizzle out quickly. I don’t think anyone here would be astonished if this team fell hard and fast and ended up at or below their projection. Disappointed, yes, but not astonished. Keep putting on displays like tonight’s, though, and the city will come around in a hurry.
Fans only show up when a team wins. It’s too early still for people to bandwagon and come out in droves, especially with last season’s records and no truly blockbuster moves (you know, getting a big name guy near his prime) in the off-season. Also, the economy can’t be helping.
If they continue to play well people will show up.
Videos from the 80s of Yankee and Fenway will confirm…only the Cubs fan base will truly show up for ANY team. The media/team’s fans are the only ones that try and convince you that the Yankees and Red Sox have fans no matter what. Fenway was a joke the last time the Red Sox sucked.
Thinking about the huge fan base the Red Sox have now
Its really hard to imagine Fenway park with an attendance of 20,000 or less. But then again, if the Red Sox do start sucking, the bandwagoners will probably just jump elsewhere.
I just wonder how many fans won't travel from a distance to Safeco this year
Spring Training attendance was down 15-20% for most teams, largely due to the failing economy; I wonder how many families will be cancelling their annual trip to Safeco this year and how much of an impact that’ll have on attendance?
I was there, and was disappointed at the dropoff from opening day
However, it did get a little chilly toward the later innings. Maybe in a month or so when it starts warming up, and if the team keeps playing like this, things will turn around attendance-wise.
Sorry for my english guys, I have to improve that and so my german, french and spanish:)..but it’s disapointing for me. I’ve been once in Seattle, and I’d love to live there for a while with watching every Mariners home game:)
I think that circumstances are very “positive” for us this season. Texas is crazy, Angels will have lot of emotions due to Nick’s deaths and Oakland miss some pitching..
Just ask any I-E philologist. It’s delightfully conservative in its morphology, vocabulary, and grammar, despite not even being written down until the 15th/16th century.
As it should. Latvian is fucked up though; it couldn't be Latvian
Really though, you don’t need to be a linguistic geek – just a hoops fan: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Kazlauskas, etc.
What I want to know is: where do the non-Lithuanian sounding names come from: Linas Kleiza, Darius Songaila? They don’t sound recognizeably Latvian…. can’t be Estonian (so Finno-Ugric).
No, no, they're Lithuanian. The point is that the names don't LOOK so recognizeably
Lithuanian. So I wondered if a linguistic geek like you might know some interesting story (hopefully involving the Teutonic Knights) about how weird pockets of non-Baltic surnames survive in Lithuania or something. Maybe something to do with the Vasa? They ain’t Polish surnames, so I’ve got nothing.
I’m an analytically oriented guy, and in fact do business analytics as a career, but I am not educated on the depths of baseball stats or the specifics of WP. I get the concept, but it is counter intuitive to me that Ichiro could have a negative stat despite multiple hits including a grand slam EVEN if he hit into a DP while the contest was still close. I can understand how he might have a low % relative to others – but what is the mechanism resulting in the figure being negative. thanks
The timing on his hits doesn’t help him out very much: his one out single and subsequent stolen base in the 3rd inning were more than negated by the first and fourth inning outs (he flew out with runners on first and third), and then hit into a double play, which could have hurt him worse but a 4-2 6th inning lead gave the M’s an 84.5% chance to win the game even after the DP. The slam, while awesome, came in a 7-3 game…with the bases loaded, 1 out in the seventh and that lead, the M’s were already at 98.3% to win the game, so there wasn’t much Ichi could do to lock it up…even the slam only provided the final 1.6% jump to 99.9%.
I’d recommend looking at the play-by-play log on Fangraphs, you can see how each plate appearance in the game changed the odds to win.
The win probability of the M’s when Ichiro came to the plate with runners on base in a close game was high, but by hitting into a double play this drastically lowered the odds that the M’s would win. So for this play he would get in WPA the % that the M’s had of winning after his DP minus the % the team had when he stepped up to the plate.
The reason his other hits + grand slam didn’t bring him back to positive territory are because the % chance of the M’s winning didn’t go up very much because they were already very likely to win. So the double play did more to lower the teams win chances as the other stuff did to increase the likelihood of a win…Blah I’m rambling!
It’s this kind of stuff that shows Win Expectancy and WPA are just fun to look at and not to be taken too seriously.
so the negative impact of the flyout and double play were not fully made up for by the salami, single and SB based on how likely an M’s win was at the time of the positive contributions. thanks.
On April 1st (second home game) against Texas after it snowed on opening day. So, yeah, none of those reasons really work. The real reason: we lost 101 games last year.
in this technological day and age, when everything has sound effects and light shows and whatnot, to have a big fiberglass apple that raises hydraulically out of the wall is retro and awesome.
I was looking forward to Citi more than any stadium since new Busch but I haven’t been the least bit expressed by it. And like Matthew said the atmosphere is starting to really blow in these new stadiums and that upsets me.
Pac-Bell, Petco, PNC, Fenway, Wrigley, and The Big A. I’ve been to Coors and it’s fantastic (except for the lack of a roof ) much more pleasing to the eye than Safeco.
But the scoreboard is too small, the out of town scoreboard should be dedicated, the HO scoreboard is pointless and robs us of homeruns, and the outfield walls are ugly.
I will never understand why they didn't orient Safeco more N than NE
to bring more of the skyline into view. And yeah, the scoreboards are inadequate. But we shouldn’t cry too loud about these things or they’ll get fixed. At taxpayer expense.
The roof kinda screws up the possible sight lines as well.
It would be great to have something like SF’s or PNC’s right field with views of downtown, or the Cascades, or the Olympics (its crazy how it’s pretty much a 360-degree view of awesome in Seattle), but the roof gets in the way.
That and it’s not perma stick and doesn’t smell like piss. The Kingdome was basically a scuzzy movie theater and the only thing I miss is the close parking and cheap ticket prices.
especially from the RF upper deck, where you’re right next to the bell, can see the scoreboard, see the whole field, get the afternoon sun and can see the whole Philly metro skyline.
I probably need to re-visit it, but I went there about 5 times between 1996 and 2003, and got mugged twice, haven’t really ever had a good meal there (cheesesteaks are awesome but are not a good meal), and I was just generally unimpressed.
I wish I could give good restaurant rec's but I was there as a broke college student.
I will say that the nachos at Jones (~6th and Pine) are fantastic and there’s a ton of great (really) little Italian BYO places that are really off the buzz unless you know of them.
Also, you have to go to the Monk (~22 and Spruce).
Gotta stay in Center City, and not look like a tourist
Also, the best place I’ve ever been to (in any city) is Moriarty’s Irish Pub, 1136 Walnut for those of you who are within shouting distance of the city.
I spent a ton of time at Shea, and I liked it, despite its complete non-baseball-suitability. They just stopped taking care of it in about 1992 and it gradually decayed away.
It’s like they built the stadium and then forgot to do anything on the other side of the wall outside the grounds. The neighborhood it was in didn’t help – it’s all chop shops and other shady businesses, so nobody hung out there when there was no game going on, thus the team had no incentive to develop the area around the park.
It takes everything that was wrong with the old Stadium
and amplifies it by making it look modern, thus reminding everyone they could have had a beautiful new stadium, but instead decided to mimic an ugly piece of crap from the 70s. It looks boxy cramped and has an ugly color scheme. It also has a monitor in dead center the size of a city block.
Gray would look much nicer and would be more suitable for the region.
The blue is too electric; needs to be less saturated, darker (the background color of the on LL would work well). The tree is really obvious and unnecessary. I’d go with something more like this:
One on either side of the Mohegan Sun restaurant, which is what the wall contains. How you can spend a billion dollars on a ballpark and have even one obstructed view seat is beyond me.
It’s 2009, you would think the architects of today being paid millions by the wealthiest organization in baseball would have figured out how to give every seat an unobstructed view of the field.
From looking at both parks, and living in the area of NYC/Philly
I can honestly say if I’ve got a desire to go to a ballgame, I’m going to CB. I’ll probably go to Citi a few times, because that at least looks somewhat decent, but if I ever have a desire to head to Yankee Stadium for a non-Mariner game, I’ll just go down to the Borgata and spend my day there.
I interviewed Ichiro on the field after and it was the most relaxed, and joyful I have seen him in a long time. He gave the line of, it is nice to homer in a game Jr. homers in and it is nice to tie a Japanese record, but the most fulfilling aspect of the night was setting the record of the two lightest guys in MLB (Endy) hitting homeruns in the the same game.
(paraphrasing)
Drayer: So was hitting that grand slam your way of saying “I’m back?”
Ichiro (through Baron): For me, “I’m back” is more like an infield single.
Maybe this has been brought up higher, but a few things...
-Why exactly was Kenji lifted from the game so early? I know he doesn’t run well but Rob Johnson is no speed demon. One wonders if it had to do with Washburn or Wak not liking the pitch calling.
-Mark Lowe was throwing really fucking hard and seemed to be hitting his spots. I don’t want to extrapolate too much from an inning of work, but between him, Kelley and Morrow it’s starting to look like we’ve got a solid top of the bullpen.
-Endy Chavez now has 18 homers in some 2300 PA. Jered Weaver’s mother must be proud.
-We’re not last in walks anymore! The Giants Astros and Pirates are all less patient than the M’s. The bad news is, those teams are hopelessly bad.
-The team is currently last in LD% (15.5) and very near the top in GB%. The fact that they’ve been scoring runs in spite of a lack of patience and a dismal BIP profile suggests that the winning is not likely to continue for very long. However, I don’t think any true MLB team really ever hits fewer than 18% liners, and most tend to be in the 19-21 range. I guess my point is that as lucky as we’ve been in eking out the wins over these nine games, we’re due for an offensive boost as players like Beltre, Lopez, and Branyan (and Clement? please?) come around.
Kenji had a strained hamstring or something suffered running out a hit
As long as we don’t strike out a lot, GBs have a decent chance to become hits. We’re getting a lot of hits right now, so I’m not really surprised at how many runs we’ve scored.
it seems like it would have made sense to pinch run with Tui or something and then just bring in Johnson to catch after the inning. For one, he’s presumably faster than Johnson, but we’d also be totally screwed in the unlikely event Johnson gets hurt running the base paths or on a play at the plate.
Worked out ok though, and Safeco might have spontaneously combusted if we even briefly added a Tuiasosopo to the awesomeness of that game.
You don’t necessarily need fast legs standing at third base. I will submit, though, that Johnson almost screwed up by hesitating 10 feet from the plate and should have been thrown out. But if he had kept running, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal.
They didn’t know how bad the injury was until he ran from first to third. So when the choice was made, it doesn’t make sense to send in Tui over Rob Johnson.
By the way, since I know there were a few others here who have Directv and were having problems with random commercials like I was
I emailed their customer service last night and here’s what I got for a response this morning:
Dear Mr. Gossler,
Thanks for writing. I see you’ve been one of our long time customer and I would like to let you know that we appreciate your business. I’m sorry to learn about the inconvenience you have had with the DIRECTV commercials.
We insert our announcements based on the schedules we receive from the program providers. On rare occasions, channel programming schedules change and we may not always receive notification in time to adjust our announcement.
In this particular case, channel 687 Fox Sports NorthWest likely did not give us timely or accurate information. I am forwarding your email on to them so that we may get this resolved in a timely fashion.
Here is the total rundown of players connected with the Langston trade:
Randy Johnson
Brian Holman
Gene Harris
Will Taylor
Freddy Garcia
Carlos Guillen
John Halama
Ramon Santiago
Juan Gonzalez (minor leaguer)
Jeremy Reed
Miguel Olivo
Mike Morse
Nathanael Mateo
Miguel Ojeda
Franklin Gutierrez
Endy Chavez
Aaron Heilman
Jason Vargas
Mike Carp
Maikel Cleto
Ezequiel Carrera
Ronny Cedeno
Garrett Olson
That is insane. Would be interesting to know if there was another player who turned into so much. I also found this fun fact regarding Mark Langston:
Langston did several voices for the 1990s TV show “Captain Planet”.
This man is the most underrated human being in history!
I was only including players that the Mariners received in return.
I think the most amazing thing about the list is how many generations (6) the trade goes back. And with the recent haul of players, this could continue for a few generations more.
Since this is somewhat of an OFFTOP at this point I will say
that oh my GOD Paul’s Boutique is a fucking stellar album. I haven’t listened to it in about 10 years, and I pulled it out this morning and had forgotten and am freshly blown away by how awesome it is.
Ichiro!
redwolf75 - April 15, 2009
Bring it on.
Sinking Away - April 15, 2009
Aren't we 7-2?
katal - April 15, 2009
We are!
Sinking Away - April 15, 2009
7-2?
JustinF - April 15, 2009
7 AND 2!!!
Robert - April 15, 2009
7!!!!!! and 2 :(((((((((
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Haha Ichiro gets a negative WPA
Eyebrows - April 15, 2009
Biggest suckfest!
Aaron Campeau - April 15, 2009
Oh wait no that's still Batista.
Aaron Campeau - April 15, 2009
Couldn't have been scripted any better (-Batista).
Ptiching (-Batista), Defense and Offense. It doesn’t get any better than this.
Sinking Away - April 15, 2009
The length of the 7th inning on this chart brings me great joy.
themoose - April 15, 2009
Amen.
Fearless Frog - April 15, 2009
It's amazing how quickly the 7th inning went from panic to white sandy beaches.
Wilder. - April 15, 2009
More good stuff today.
Cammy hit two runs.
Great stuff, and a great game thread tonight.
Slica - April 15, 2009
The glass is half full tonight.
I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but we must win these early series against the West. The Angels are clearly not playing at full strength (pitching or offense-wise), but that’s why we must win these games early. A win tomorrow with whoever is our backup #5 starter is important.
Tonight showed us that maybe Ichiro and Griffey can carry this through the first part the season. With both of them there, there isn’t pressure on either of them individually. They can both be heros, but there is no longer any pressure on Ichiro to carry the team. He can do it when he needs to, but he doesn’t have to do it alone. Griffrey’s got his back. In fact, Rob Johnson has his back. We don’t need one hero. They all can cover.
Sinking Away - April 15, 2009
This is exactly what we said last year and we couldn't do it.
I’m pleasantly surprised by how well (and maybe lucky) Washburn and Silva have pitched to this point. Timely hitting (and bunting) have attributed as well.
HHZ - April 16, 2009
What this clearly means is that we need to bunt more
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
Manufactured runs! Productive outs! Small ball! Station-to-station!
pdb - April 16, 2009
Ibanez + Sexson
vs. Chavez + Branyan
Branyan’s no burner, of course, but he’s no slouch either. Our OF can run circles around last year’s. Overall, even with Griffey, this team has much better baserunning abilities than last year’s…
PositivePaul - April 16, 2009
Rob Johnson begs to differ
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
Ichiro's limbo slide wasn't pretty either.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Reasons Mike Salk>>>>>>>>every other talk radio personality in the world, #345:
Caller: “I grew up in Southern California. I watched the Angels win a World Series playing small ball. That’s why this team has played so well so far.”
Salk: “Let me just jump in here; yes, the Angels played some small ball. But they also had Troy Glaus blasting homeruns, a great defense, an exceptional bullpen and a good rotation. It’s not about small ball, it’s about players doing what they do best as individuals.”
<3
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
That's truly outstanding.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Salk has quickly become my favorite sports radio personality.
He alone puts the entire staff at KJR to shame.
BrianL - April 16, 2009
HE WILL LOOK AWFULLY FAT RUNNING AROUND THE BASES AS A MARINER
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Buh?
BrianL - April 16, 2009
A quick dig at Softy's "We got him" rant.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
I've got that saved on my computer at home.
Hearing Softy crying on the radio brings a smile to my face.
BrianL - April 16, 2009
Needs more unfunny sexual innuendoes.
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
It's nice to see that the more things change, the more they stay the same
keep sucking, Miguel. Keep right on sucking.
seattlebruin - April 15, 2009
It was awesome to see him get pulled right away.
JBell523 - April 15, 2009
To be fair, one of the baserunners was a strikeout.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
But the other two were a sharply hit double and a sharply hit single
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
Hardly a justifiable sample size given that he's been solid the previous outings.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Yeah, I think that the piling onto Batista is pretty much a carryover from last year, so far.
He hasn’t shown me anything that indicates he’s godawful in a middle-relief (or mop-up) role so far. Just some bad luck.
esoteric - April 16, 2009
Fair enough
I’ll admit that last year and his pace of play has soured me on Batista pretty quick
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
He seems quicker in relief.
But maybe that’s just it being early in the season and him not being terrible yet.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Griffey's Homer.. Just watch the replay over and over.. He stayed back on that ball
perfectly and put a perfect swing on it. I can watch that all night. It’s one thing if he’s cheating a little bit and pull happy and runs into a few homers..but that homerun showed me he can still sit back and really drive the ball to right center with a textbook swing.
Rudy4three - April 15, 2009
If Jakubauskas wins tomorrow....
Holy shit.
Mariner John - April 15, 2009
Is it wrong to faintly hope that, should this streak end, his is the loss, so that Felix has a win on friday?
msb - April 15, 2009
The streak will end, but who says it has to end over the next two games?
Wilder. - April 15, 2009
Kinda
I don’t see how winning tomorrow affects the probability of winning on Felix day.
SFMariner - April 15, 2009
Well, now you are trying to bring logic into this.
msb - April 16, 2009
Don't worry
The Silva-Washburn landmine is only 3 games away, so if we must root for a loss just to stop tempting fate, we can take comfort knowing that’s there. I like rooting for Bedard, especially when he’s healthy… Because it’s like beating the Angels while their entire rotation is on the DL – you know it won’t last forever, but you want to make the most of it while it’s here.
*I realize Silva-Washburn is probably better than (pick a #5 guy) in terms of what odds they give us to win any game they pitch, but given their contracts and my general loathing of their peaked mediocrity, I consider them the landmine… Not a cheap #5 guy with upside.
seattlecougar - April 16, 2009
No.
It’s acceptable that our 5th starter loses. I do hope that Good Felix shows up and not ZOMG MUST THROW FASTBALLS Felix.
Mariner John - April 15, 2009
Maybe his fastball will magically gain 8 MPH between now and Friday
seattlebruin - April 15, 2009
And movement.
Mariner John - April 15, 2009
One step at a time
seattlebruin - April 15, 2009
Who is Good Felix? It's been so long..
.Taylor - April 16, 2009
Yes.
Over time, on average, Felix will win more games than Jaku, so what you should really hope for is that we get lucky on the games we’re short-stacked and then trust the fates for the games we’ve got the advantage.
Andersean - April 15, 2009
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200904164161017&c_id=sea
JI - April 15, 2009
Has to be one of the best games I have ever been to.
Definitely one of the better ones.
Fin - April 15, 2009
Now I regret
not taking you up on your offer of free tickets…
JMKaustin - April 16, 2009
The Mariners home page isn't very well informed as to the health of our favorite Australian.
Mariner John - April 15, 2009
The Angels announcers
seemed to think he was starting tomorrow.
bluemax - April 16, 2009
Er today
they said this last night.
bluemax - April 16, 2009
I wish I wasn't conditioned to think that the baseball gods will shit on us sooner than later
Damn you last 18 years.
Mariner John - April 15, 2009
Batista should never, ever be used in a game we are winning or losing by less than 3 runs
I hope you’ve learned your lesson, Wak.
OlSalty - April 15, 2009
He should only be a mop-up reliever.
I can’t stand Batista.
Wilder. - April 15, 2009
To be fair to him
He should have gotten that out, Johnson F’ed it up. But yeah, he sucks.
appleshampoo - April 15, 2009
I feel at least some sympathy toward him.
Johnson muffed that strikeout pitch. Should have had it.
Teej - April 15, 2009
Whoops a doodle.
appleshampoo - April 15, 2009
He did, and Batista hadn't pitched terribly out of the pen so far
But Batista was always slated for a long-relief mop up role and I don’t think bringing him in in that situation was a very good idea.
OlSalty - April 16, 2009
I can agree with that.
Batista should be the mop-up guy. But I just don’t think he was that bad today. He faced three hitters, getting two groundballs and a strikeout.
I say this as someone who wouldn’t mind if Batista just vanished tomorrow. But he wasn’t terrible tonight. I don’t get all the furor.
Teej - April 16, 2009
Well,
Not to mention Batista had the best tRA (SSS) in the bullpen going into the game.
Using Batista today was not a bad idea. Particularly when we’re not exactly stacked with superior alternatives.
ThundaPC - April 16, 2009
It may be the many celebratory beers
But I love this fucking team…2001? Ok, maybe that’s unfair to any team, but man this has been a fun 9 games
Sportszilla - April 15, 2009
Despite Batista's usage
I saw something in Wak’s pitcher usage that made me happy (even though it may have been unintentional). Wash came out after only 86 pitches and 6 innings. I really hope he’s caught on to Jarrod’s tendency to implode after 90-95 pitches, because that could help a lot on his starts. Last outing he threw 96 pitches, so its hard to say if this was a conscious decision or not.
Fuckmikereilly - April 15, 2009
Also, as soon as Batista struggled, he was gone
I liked that
seattlebruin - April 15, 2009
Washburn was sick today.
He had a head cold and was feeling weak, which is why he was pulled “early.” I wish I could say Wak would see how well it went and do it again, but I’m pretty sure that if he’s feeling 100% he would have been out there in the 7th.
appleshampoo - April 15, 2009
This is not hyperbole.
That was up and down the most enjoyable game I can remember watching since 1995. It’s probably just my faulty memory at work here, and I can think of games with memorable individual performances, but I can’t think of another game since the Yankees ALDS that had this number of brilliant moments. If someone can remind me of a better game that happened in the interim, I’d honestly appreciate it. Endy’s HR to tie, Griffey’s 400th to retake the lead, Ichiro’s first hit and steal of the season, Frankie’s squeeze, the Ichislam, Kelley’s monster 2 Ks, Frankie’s catch in the 8th, taking the first series from the Angels, our bats finally showing up, all combining to wash away once and for all the stench of the last five years? I feel fan-fucking-tastic.
sammy - April 15, 2009
Cameron's four homer game.
Aaron Campeau - April 15, 2009
Which included back-to-back homers, back-to-back times in the same inning between Cameron and Boone.
And Cameron’s second home run was the best call Rick Rizzs has ever made. I wish I could get the sound clip for it.
Wilder. - April 16, 2009
Win #116
There were so many great games in ’01
Vidro Scores game
The Raul FUNK SLAM game against Griffey and the Reds
JI - April 16, 2009
2001 as a season was incomparable as a whole.
And I thought about Cammy’s 4hr game and Felix’ national coming out party in Boston. But those were individual achievements without too much else going on that was really exceptional. Win 116 was nice but, honestly, kind of expected, as were all the other 2001 wins once we got accustomed to winning series after series and racking up 20W months. The way we got this win and the way it cleared the palate kinda puts it over the top for me.
sammy - April 16, 2009
The Mariners got off to a pretty fast start in '02
JI - April 16, 2009
Oh, thought of one.
The 18-inning game vs. Boston.
sammy - April 16, 2009
This was in Chicago
Sportszilla - April 16, 2009
Games on TV can still be watched.
JI - April 16, 2009
And here I've spent all these years drawing sketches to recreate game action from still newspaper pictures
pdb - April 16, 2009
Indeed
For some reason I read the original comment as “attended” not “watched”
Sportszilla - April 16, 2009
I don't know how they've done it but somehow pretty much every game has been excellent this year
It’s not just the fact that we’re winning, almost every game has been genuinely exciting to watch. For the first half of this game I was thinking this would be the first really boring one so far this season and then things just exploded into goodness.
OlSalty - April 15, 2009
Our defense is incredible.
We’ve played 9 games and Yuni hasn’t even made an error.
Wilder. - April 16, 2009
And not only that, Yuni hasn't been that awful in the field
FanGraphs has him at (ultra SSS) -.5/150
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
Jeff really needs to come back
This is too exciting of a time to be AWOL
OlSalty - April 16, 2009
Just woke up early to watch the highlights before work.
Incredible. For some strange reason I have always wanted to see Ichiro hit a grand salami. It looked good.
Very good. Is this team for real?
EnglishMariner - April 16, 2009
Audio is archived! Dave:
Goose - April 16, 2009
He didn't even say "Fly Away."
First time I’ve not heard that on a Dave HR call.
appleshampoo - April 16, 2009
Fantastic.
Teej - April 16, 2009
There are some days when I miss the Kingdome...
Ah, nostalgia.
njpozner - April 16, 2009
Ichiro! From Larry Stone:
Link
Goose - April 16, 2009
I love Ichiro
Mariner John - April 16, 2009
Amazing game.
So glad to be there (thanks Fin). And, still only 18,516 fans!! I hope some people start coming to the games. Despite the probably bad (stupid fan)/(smart fan) ratio, I think it would be a good thing for Z and Wak to get some support from the city.
Of course, ticket sales trail performance…let’s keep this shit up!
appleshampoo - April 16, 2009
The Mariners currently have the best run prevention in the game.
Goose - April 16, 2009
This is something I could see continuing
The outfield is historically good, Beltre’s still King Awesome, and the middle infield hasn’t completely devastated us.
If Endy gives us his 2006 line or something even remotely close to it…
cwel87 - April 16, 2009
Not only have they not devastated us, they haven't been bad at all
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
I'm just hoping it's not a cruel joke
and that there’s no other shoe to drop.
pdb - April 16, 2009
By (super SSS) UZR they look to be average so far
and Yuni has shown considerably better range than last year already. I’m cautiously optimistic that they’re both going to play at the level we thought they would when they were prospects
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
Yuni looks like he's playing to keep his job
which makes me happy.
pdb - April 16, 2009
And the way Ronny Cedeno has fielded, Yuni had better watch his back
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
Yuni didn't even try on the ball that broke up the no hitter.
I am not convinced that he is trying any harder yet.
Sec 108 - April 16, 2009
That's distressing
I haven’t seen him play as much as you but what I have seen was pretty impressive, for him. Hopefully he keeps working harder.
pdb - April 16, 2009
I don't recall that he had much of a fair chance to get to it.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Had no chance
he was shaded WAY towards third when Vlad was up and the ball was hit to the left of normal SS positioning
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
Chance or no you make an effort.
He took half a step and stopped.
Sec 108 - April 16, 2009
That's silly. He had no chance.
Any effort there would be wasted.
I see guys in no hitters throw themselves around for even the slightest chance to catch a ball, and that’s good, but if there;s no chance then you’re just wasting energy.
Llewdor - April 16, 2009
Call it silly all you want.
Other shortstops play differently than Yuni does and I have over 16 years of watching games in person to base this assertion off of. He is one of the most disinterested infielders I have ever seen before.
Sec 108 - April 16, 2009
That's just nitpicking, though
The shot was 10 feet away from Yuni. You’re using flawed Willie Bloomquist logic in the sense that he should leap for the ball even though he’d have to be twice the size to reach it so it shows ‘GRIT’ and it gets some stains on his jersey.
cwel87 - April 16, 2009
I am tired of Yuni not trying.
Same deal with Lopez. They both look like lazy slugs in the infield and when you’ve taken as much shit (and rightfully so) as they have for being lazy slugs, you’d probably better at least attempt to look like you give a shit.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
Bloody lazy foreginers
JI - April 16, 2009
Nitpicking? Isn't that what analysis is?
I’m not asking him to dive.
Run to the ball and see if you get there or not. I am tired of watching him never move. Why are you people apologizing for a man who is pissing away loads of talent?
Sec 108 - April 16, 2009
Agreed.
kevin_ess - April 16, 2009
He's conserving energy.
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
For what?
Sec 108 - April 16, 2009
July.
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
If you really believe that more power to you.
Sec 108 - April 16, 2009
Rafting
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
I've seen him make plays he would have never made last year
Granted, SSS and all, but he’s moving to the ball (if it isn’t already by him) better than he has in years.
Personally, I like Cedeno a bunch, but there’s no disputing Betancourt has looked markedly better with the bat in his hands than Ronny. And right now, we need run-scoring potential in the lineup more than we need defense.
cwel87 - April 16, 2009
I also think he is playing a bit better this year.
I do not think he is playing to his potential.
My hatred of Yuni is based off the fact that he has all the ability in the world but he does not seem motivated to use it.
Sec 108 - April 16, 2009
There's a difference between
“apologizing for a man who is pissing away loads of talent” and just recognizing the physics of one play. He had no chance.
I look at it like when a pitcher gives up a 500-foot homer and the outfielder just turns and half-jogs to the fence — or just stands and watches. Some fans might get upset (and maybe the pitcher, too), but going balls out to the fence doesn’t make an ounce of difference when the ball is going to land in the parking lot.
And with Yuni, chasing after a ball that was already past him and moving faster than he can run wouldn’t make an ounce of difference either.
I wish Yuni would move faster and get in front of balls instead of trying to pick them all on a short hop. He’s infuriating sometimes, and I’m not saying he shouldn’t have tried. But the fact that he didn’t doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
Teej - April 16, 2009
I look at it like this;
if someone has been (rightfully) critical of me in the past, it becomes my responsibility to do whatever I can to try and change their mind about me. It’s not that hard to look like you’re trying, and when you’ve been told “You don’t try hard enough and it’s obvious” it seems like you would be interested in changing that perception.
When you screw up as badly as Yuni has screwed up in the past, you can’t expect to get away with looking nonchalant.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
Absolutely.
I think it would have been in his best interest to make an effort, because his job’s on the line and people are watching. But since it wouldn’t affect the outcome of the game at all, I just can’t bring myself to care.
I think that if a manager or fan lowers his opinion of Yuni because of his lack of hustle on that play, that’s unfortunate, because hustling would have been useless. But humans are humans, and effort — even if pointless — can win you some points.
I was mostly trying to differentiate between getting mad at Yuni for that play and getting mad at Yuni because he’s consistently underachieving and expanding. They’re completely unrelated. No one was apologizing for Yuni’s pissing away of his talent, just acknowledging that running after a ball that rolls faster than you isn’t going to change your skills or the outcome of the game.
It’s not like lollygagging on a pop-up only to have the outfielder drop it and you’re stuck at first when you could have been at second. That’s worthy of criticism. But that grounder wasn’t going to hit a rock and reverse course. Maybe he should have positioned himself better, I don’t know., but that’s not really relevant to this discussion.
Teej - April 16, 2009
I guess my issue is that I was at the game
And to my 20/10 eyes it sure as hell looked worth making a try.
Sec 108 - April 16, 2009
I get what you're saying and I don't blame you
but it still annoys me.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
Agreed.
And on OD when both he and Lopez lollygagged towards a ball up the middle, I screamed: “C’mon you lazy middle infielders! Get that ball!”
PositivePaul - April 16, 2009
YOU LOLLYGAG AROUND THE INFIELD. YOU LOLLYGAG AROUND THE OUTFIELD. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MAKES YOU?
LOLLYGAGGERS.
pdb - April 16, 2009
I could here 108 yelling "GOD DAMN IT!" from across the section
BrettJMiller - April 16, 2009
Did I swear? Fuck, I need to stop that.
Sec 108 - April 16, 2009
Be careful with SSS UZRs.
They’re not really ‘data’ in the sense that they contain predictive information…. you have to regress it so much, it’s basically worthless. I think we’d all agree that Yuni’s looked a bit better this year, and that means more than the UZR numbers.
Why? Because Brad Hawpe is dominating Rajai Davis and Matt Holliday in UZR right now, but even Hawpe is miles behind Jack Cust.
marc w - April 16, 2009
Best record in the American League
sammy - April 16, 2009
Attendance
Hi guys, proud to be the Mariner these days!!But, I’m little worried about attendance.
What could be better for spectators than this team to watch???
Yesterday there was only cca 18,500..If I wouldn’t have been living in Czech Republic, I’d come to every match!!..2nd match at Safeco and no interest..This year, we will hopefully start a “new way” to success.
dollyboy - April 16, 2009
What's a "match"?
insidetheparker - April 16, 2009
He's from Prague.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
Oh stfu. He mentioned about living in Czech Republic.
HHZ - April 16, 2009
Like appleshampoo said above,
ticket sales trail performance. A lot of people in Seattle still don’t believe the team is for real, and we’ve all seen hot starts fizzle out quickly. I don’t think anyone here would be astonished if this team fell hard and fast and ended up at or below their projection. Disappointed, yes, but not astonished. Keep putting on displays like tonight’s, though, and the city will come around in a hurry.
sammy - April 16, 2009
Plus, from what I understand, it was absolutely freezing last night
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
Outside of Yankees, Red Sox, and Cubs...
Fans only show up when a team wins. It’s too early still for people to bandwagon and come out in droves, especially with last season’s records and no truly blockbuster moves (you know, getting a big name guy near his prime) in the off-season. Also, the economy can’t be helping.
If they continue to play well people will show up.
SethGrandpa - April 16, 2009
Attendance is a lagging indicator of how the team has been doing.
This team lost more than 100 games last year. It’s kindof amazing it looked as full as it did.
I figure if they continue to play well, people will figure it out sometime around June.
Two Rs and Two Ls - April 16, 2009
Ammend that to Cubs.
Videos from the 80s of Yankee and Fenway will confirm…only the Cubs fan base will truly show up for ANY team. The media/team’s fans are the only ones that try and convince you that the Yankees and Red Sox have fans no matter what. Fenway was a joke the last time the Red Sox sucked.
BrettJMiller - April 16, 2009
Thinking about the huge fan base the Red Sox have now
Its really hard to imagine Fenway park with an attendance of 20,000 or less. But then again, if the Red Sox do start sucking, the bandwagoners will probably just jump elsewhere.
Fin - April 16, 2009
Pirates!
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
Cheering for Somali water vandals is beneath you.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
it's really hard to vandalize water
the spray paint never stays where you put it.
pdb - April 16, 2009
Umm food coloring?
Hellllloooooo what kind of crappy water vandal are you?
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
ONe that tried to spray paint my graffiti tag in the Pacific just to end up with a red blotch in the water
pdb - April 16, 2009
You need to find real water vandals to be Mike Sweeney to your (pick young Mariners player Sweeney is allegedly mentoring)
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
Play to win.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
I knew I should have bought a supertanker instead of a couple cans of Krylon
pdb - April 16, 2009
This picomment is amazing
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
As is the term picomment.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Subatomic commenting!
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
Yes! The opposite of a petamment.
marc w - April 16, 2009
And vastly superior to a punment.
Jed MC - April 16, 2009
What?! I love them. They're so much pun.
Eyebrows - April 16, 2009
The Dodgers
have been among the top 5 in attendance since the mid ’90s, despite being mostly mediocre since ’88
Malcontent1 - April 16, 2009
I just wonder how many fans won't travel from a distance to Safeco this year
Spring Training attendance was down 15-20% for most teams, largely due to the failing economy; I wonder how many families will be cancelling their annual trip to Safeco this year and how much of an impact that’ll have on attendance?
pdb - April 16, 2009
I was there, and was disappointed at the dropoff from opening day
However, it did get a little chilly toward the later innings. Maybe in a month or so when it starts warming up, and if the team keeps playing like this, things will turn around attendance-wise.
Eyebrows - April 16, 2009
This always happens this time of year
Once school gets out and it warms up, weeknight numbers will increase.
pdb - April 16, 2009
Sorry for my English
Sorry for my english guys, I have to improve that and so my german, french and spanish:)..but it’s disapointing for me. I’ve been once in Seattle, and I’d love to live there for a while with watching every Mariners home game:)
I think that circumstances are very “positive” for us this season. Texas is crazy, Angels will have lot of emotions due to Nick’s deaths and Oakland miss some pitching..
dollyboy - April 16, 2009
Your English is sufficient. :)
Reminds me to brush up a couple of the languages I’ve learned over the years.
Omerta - April 16, 2009
i bet your Chinese and Swahili need more improevemn than your German French and Spanish
Bearskin Rugburn - April 16, 2009
Shit, Nick died again?
We can’t catch a break.
Eyebrows - April 16, 2009
I can't be alone tonight, I barely made it through the first time
OlSalty - April 16, 2009
It may sounds funny but I was studying Swedish, Turkish and Korean during my stay in Stockholm…so with Chinese you’re not that far from the truth:))
Hey guys, what about today’s game…Can we sweep Halos tonight?(Jak’s pitching..?)
dollyboy - April 16, 2009
:)
It may sounds funny but I was studying Swedish, Turkish and Korean during my stay in Stockholm…so with Chinese you’re not that far from the truth:))
Hey guys, what about today’s game…Can we sweep Halos tonight?(with Jak’s pitching..?)
dollyboy - April 16, 2009
Normally I would think with Jakubauskas pitching against Saunders
That we wouldn’t have much of a chance, but this team doesn’t seem to want to do what it’s supposed to do so who knows?
OlSalty - April 16, 2009
Also, Joe Saunders isn't particularly good
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
Yeah but he's at least average
Jakubauskas is…well….
OlSalty - April 16, 2009
...awesome?
marc w - April 16, 2009
Sure why not
OlSalty - April 16, 2009
laden with vowels?
pdb - April 16, 2009
I heard one time Jakubauskas and his family were lost in the desert for weeks
And they managed to sustain themselves through nothing but vowels.
OlSalty - April 16, 2009
Reminds me of an old Onion article
which they don’t have on their site for some reason. Here’s an alternate source:
http://www.netjeff.com/humor/item.cgi?file=ClintonsBosniaPlan
Eyebrows - April 16, 2009
Clearly of Baltic (Lithuanian or Latvian) ethnic origin?
Because when I see that “baus” morpheme it fairly screams “Baltic language family” to me.
I would be embarrassed to find that the surname was actually, I dunno, Magyar in origin.
esoteric - April 16, 2009
Lithuanian; Latvian is crazy.
marc w - April 16, 2009
Lithuanian is a language made of pure awesome.
Just ask any I-E philologist. It’s delightfully conservative in its morphology, vocabulary, and grammar, despite not even being written down until the 15th/16th century.
esoteric - April 16, 2009
Upon doing some research I find that, indeed, Jakubauskas is SO TOTALLY a Lithuanian name.
I am the motherfucking Indo-European linguistics BOMB.
esoteric - April 16, 2009
Or you remember the discussion we had about it a few weeks ago.
Possibly both, I don’t know.
marc w - April 16, 2009
Wasn't there for that discussion.
But when I’m not being a high-powered scumbag lawyer, I’m a linguistic geek in my spare time. So the name fairly jumped out at me as being Lithuanian.
esoteric - April 16, 2009
As it should. Latvian is fucked up though; it couldn't be Latvian
Really though, you don’t need to be a linguistic geek – just a hoops fan: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Kazlauskas, etc.
What I want to know is: where do the non-Lithuanian sounding names come from: Linas Kleiza, Darius Songaila? They don’t sound recognizeably Latvian…. can’t be Estonian (so Finno-Ugric).
marc w - April 16, 2009
Both guys are Lithuanian.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Yyyyes, I know, that's the point.
marc w - April 16, 2009
Well I know jack about basketball, really.
But I would have to think that Kleiza and Songaila are Lithuanian surnames, even if the players themselves identify as something else ethnically.
esoteric - April 16, 2009
No, no, they're Lithuanian. The point is that the names don't LOOK so recognizeably
Lithuanian. So I wondered if a linguistic geek like you might know some interesting story (hopefully involving the Teutonic Knights) about how weird pockets of non-Baltic surnames survive in Lithuania or something. Maybe something to do with the Vasa? They ain’t Polish surnames, so I’ve got nothing.
marc w - April 16, 2009
Yet you could not figure out that "Washington Nationals fan "
is Serbian for “misery-laden S.O.B.”
abender20 - April 16, 2009
The original spelling is "Wzshyngtyn Nâtyznalii fzyn"
esoteric - April 16, 2009
But keep in mind, that's the Polish, not the Serbian.
Because fuck Cyrillic.
esoteric - April 16, 2009
Looks more Croatian, to me.
Polish would have more Cs.
Llewdor - April 16, 2009
Very good.
sammy - April 16, 2009
You're a stud!
royalcurve - April 16, 2009
Explain this to me like I'm a four year old
I’m an analytically oriented guy, and in fact do business analytics as a career, but I am not educated on the depths of baseball stats or the specifics of WP. I get the concept, but it is counter intuitive to me that Ichiro could have a negative stat despite multiple hits including a grand slam EVEN if he hit into a DP while the contest was still close. I can understand how he might have a low % relative to others – but what is the mechanism resulting in the figure being negative. thanks
Gekko Mojo - April 16, 2009
In this case
The timing on his hits doesn’t help him out very much: his one out single and subsequent stolen base in the 3rd inning were more than negated by the first and fourth inning outs (he flew out with runners on first and third), and then hit into a double play, which could have hurt him worse but a 4-2 6th inning lead gave the M’s an 84.5% chance to win the game even after the DP. The slam, while awesome, came in a 7-3 game…with the bases loaded, 1 out in the seventh and that lead, the M’s were already at 98.3% to win the game, so there wasn’t much Ichi could do to lock it up…even the slam only provided the final 1.6% jump to 99.9%.
I’d recommend looking at the play-by-play log on Fangraphs, you can see how each plate appearance in the game changed the odds to win.
Sportszilla - April 16, 2009
From what I understand:
The win probability of the M’s when Ichiro came to the plate with runners on base in a close game was high, but by hitting into a double play this drastically lowered the odds that the M’s would win. So for this play he would get in WPA the % that the M’s had of winning after his DP minus the % the team had when he stepped up to the plate.
The reason his other hits + grand slam didn’t bring him back to positive territory are because the % chance of the M’s winning didn’t go up very much because they were already very likely to win. So the double play did more to lower the teams win chances as the other stuff did to increase the likelihood of a win…Blah I’m rambling!
It’s this kind of stuff that shows Win Expectancy and WPA are just fun to look at and not to be taken too seriously.
marinerdan - April 16, 2009
Here's a good starting point for WPA
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/get-to-know-wpa/
Eyebrows - April 16, 2009
i get it -
so the negative impact of the flyout and double play were not fully made up for by the salami, single and SB based on how likely an M’s win was at the time of the positive contributions. thanks.
Gekko Mojo - April 16, 2009
Yes.
In the future, please make use of the reply function and please capitalize your sentences. It helps the readability of the site.
And if you have any further questions, I am sure we will be happy to help as best we can on those as well.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Why on earth were the stands so empty during this game
coolconman - April 16, 2009
Early season, weeknight game, school still in session, cold as fuck
that’s not too unusual this time of year, in any season.
pdb - April 16, 2009
It was the lowest attendence for the 2nd home game in recent years
I think the ‘average fan’ has been worn down— the winning should help, though.
Not surprisingly, the highest 2nd game attendance came the year after 116 wins
msb - April 16, 2009
We had +25k (7k more)
On April 1st (second home game) against Texas after it snowed on opening day. So, yeah, none of those reasons really work. The real reason: we lost 101 games last year.
(Source: Baker)
ralphie81 - April 16, 2009
Economy.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
That plus economy.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
True, that doesn't help either.
ralphie81 - April 16, 2009
Still, over 20k came to see the Pirates last night.
ralphie81 - April 16, 2009
Have you seen what the Pirates are pricing tickets at?
You can get season tickets there for less than $800.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
So... Shawn Kelley needs to pitch more
like a lot more.
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
I'm not afraid to admit I teared up a bit at #400.
thewyrm - April 16, 2009
You roughnecks are all soft and gooey on the inside.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
We should rename them softandgooeynecks
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
geonecks
pdb - April 16, 2009
Awesome
abender20 - April 16, 2009
This has made my day.
royalcurve - April 16, 2009
We are so much man that when we show our soft side it's twice as powerful.
That’s my theory anyway. Most of my buddies would just tell me I have girl parts.
thewyrm - April 16, 2009
And your tears probably cure some sort of heretofore incurable disease so there's that
pdb - April 16, 2009
Do you also have a cyst on the labrum of your throwing shoulder?
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
And a 15/1 K/BB ratio this season?
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
No, if I were a pitcher I would be a right handed Moyer.
thewyrm - April 16, 2009
I missed it.
I went to walk my dog and when I came back I just saw the very end of the replay. I had to call my brother to find out what happened.
sammy - April 16, 2009
New Yankee Stadium is ugly.
JI - April 16, 2009
I guess it because they tried to make it a replica of the remodeled one
and that looked like shit too.
JI - April 16, 2009
Plus it's crazy huge inside
they tried to make it grandiose but they kinda overdid it from what I’ve seen.
pdb - April 16, 2009
It's ugliness also reminds me of Comiskey
JI - April 16, 2009
I love the giant lollipops in CF.
That stadium has all the soul and magic of a tin of crackers.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
I actually had the same reaction when I saw it the first time
pdb - April 16, 2009
I heard it was supposed to be the Bellagio with a baseball diamond inside
That’s probably not the smartest decision for a park.
cwel87 - April 16, 2009
Yet with fewer seats!
Teej - April 16, 2009
I think new Shea wins the battle of the New New York stadia
Yankee Stadium wants to shove itself down your throat as The Shrine To Baseball, where Shea seems to be more human-scaled.
pdb - April 16, 2009
They would have been better off building something new
rather than trying to remake a modern version of the new-old one.
JI - April 16, 2009
I think it was pretty savvy to recreate the field dimensions actually
but the wrapper of that field is just so out of scale it’s ridiculous. It looks like a warehouse.
pdb - April 16, 2009
They should have recreated the old dimensions.
I never liked new-old Yankee Stadium. Old-old Yankee Stadium was where it was at.
Llewdor - April 16, 2009
Polo Grounds? With better sight lines?
I can’t keep New Yorks stadiums straight.
Kermit. - April 16, 2009
Stadia? What's the plural for... that.
Kermit. - April 16, 2009
Yes, it's stadia
tootthekazoo - April 16, 2009
It's either, actually.
Phil Hatzenbuehler - April 16, 2009
Your face is either, actually
tootthekazoo - April 16, 2009
The Battle of My Two Favorite Sigs!
I’ve been waiting for this, you don’t even know.
Kermit. - April 16, 2009
That is pretty outstanding.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Time to celebrate then, my man
tootthekazoo - April 16, 2009
No eye gouging, choke holds, or hair pulling. Knees to the groin are fine, now touch gloves and go!
Kermit. - April 16, 2009
Tonight I celebrate my love for you.
Phil Hatzenbuehler - April 16, 2009
You're in trouble, Toots.
kevin_ess - April 16, 2009
Cause a pressure drop on you.
sammy - April 16, 2009
Good man.
Teej - April 16, 2009
Right field is retarded at Citi
Robert - April 16, 2009
I actually think this is a nice looking park
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Citi_Field_Home_Opener.JPG
but LF should be more open.
I think the problem is that all these new ballparks look the same, and stopped being neat after Petco opened.
JI - April 16, 2009
I think it's dumb to push field level seats so far away from the field of play.
But I care far more about atmosphere than most people.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Sets up nicely for the renovation in 5 years though
they can add a lot more expensive seats.
pdb - April 16, 2009
This is why I am surprised so many new stadia are built that way.
I feel the teams are leaving money on the design table.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
I will be so excited when the first ultra-modern stadium is buiilt.
The retro thing is played. I want creativity.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
They have been going ultramodern in the NFL recently
I don’t like it.
Robert - April 16, 2009
I think it might work better for baseball.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
Not a fan of the giant metallic lump in the desert?
abender20 - April 16, 2009
The Plane Diverter?
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
The concept of that stadium is amazing.
The execution is laughably bad.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
SOM put together a fantastic set of concepts.
It’s almost as if no one saw the whole plan at once before giving it the OK.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Despise it.
Robert - April 16, 2009
You could have pitched in suggestions.
http://www.lookoutlanding.com/2007/11/29/18538/618
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Before looking, I assumed that would link to the Lazy Susan / double decker hockey arena ST.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
That subthread did not take place in November of 2007
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Hence the "Before looking".
I just saw link.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
That thread happened before I had a computer at home.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
That's a pretty good list.
And honestly, I like the Fremont troll as mascot idea. I never really understood the moose.
appleshampoo - April 16, 2009
Marlins?
sammy - April 16, 2009
I love that they brought the apple over
pdb - April 16, 2009
Too much space is taken up by the scoreboard.
JI - April 16, 2009
Yeah, it does kinda tower over the whole outfield in a pretty oppressive way
pdb - April 16, 2009
I think Citi Field would be a beautiful park if there was no scoreboard in RF
JI - April 16, 2009
If I'm not mistaken, that's a new apple that's much bigger than the old one.
But they brought over the old one and put it somewhere in the stadium for people to come see.
Teej - April 16, 2009
either way it's awesome
in this technological day and age, when everything has sound effects and light shows and whatnot, to have a big fiberglass apple that raises hydraulically out of the wall is retro and awesome.
pdb - April 16, 2009
Indeed.
It’s ridiculous in a good way. And it really was the only thing I thought of when I thought of Shea.
Teej - April 16, 2009
Man, I wish the M's would do something like that at Safeco.
Like some sort of ship or something, rising out of CF. With bells and cannons!
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
You mean like the USS Mariner?
not the blog, the ship. They did this in the Kingdome for a few years.
pdb - April 16, 2009
Although Dave and DMZ in a cage would be more interesting.
thewyrm - April 16, 2009
They would be the captain and first mate.
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
Cabin boy.
Phil Hatzenbuehler - April 16, 2009
The best horrible movie of all time?
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
Snakes on a Plane?
UHF?
thewyrm - April 16, 2009
Transporter?
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Good call.
2 was so bad I couldn’t even make it through 20 minutes though.
thewyrm - April 16, 2009
That's a shame.
You missed the worst stunt in the history of film.
Llewdor - April 16, 2009
I don't know
Jumping a motorcycle over a lunging shark (Jaws…4 I think) or Barrel rolling a car at a crane to remove a bomb?
Malcontent1 - April 16, 2009
WHO WANTS TO DRINK FROM THE FIRE HOOOOOSE!!!!!!
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
I love UHF
Ezzra - April 16, 2009
The Room.
I have watched it 4 times in the last month.
The trailer.
sammy - April 16, 2009
I was talking about the dimensions
I was looking forward to Citi more than any stadium since new Busch but I haven’t been the least bit expressed by it. And like Matthew said the atmosphere is starting to really blow in these new stadiums and that upsets me.
Robert - April 16, 2009
If Nationals Park were filled with fans who cared about a team that was worth caring about, you'd be impressed.
It’s a pretty sweet new field.
esoteric - April 16, 2009
The only thing that bothers me about Nationals Park (from a TV perspective) is the green color lining the stadium.
It’s terrible. Reminds me of RFK stadium.
Wilder. - April 16, 2009
Over the tv I've not been impressed with New Busch
It’s incredibly bland
JI - April 16, 2009
I don't watch the Cards anywhere as much as you
but I think only PNC and SBC parks are more beautiful. Is the Ballpark Village dead now?
Robert - April 16, 2009
I think so.
I don’t really care, but many people do because it’s their money and they feel as if they were lied to.
JI - April 16, 2009
My favorite Stadiums from tv are
Pac-Bell, Petco, PNC, Fenway, Wrigley, and The Big A. I’ve been to Coors and it’s fantastic (except for the lack of a roof ) much more pleasing to the eye than Safeco.
JI - April 16, 2009
Something about Safeco is very comforting though.
thewyrm - April 16, 2009
Shishkaberries?
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
Dancing groundskeepers.
pdb - April 16, 2009
We are hokey, just embrace it.
thewyrm - April 16, 2009
it's not just the M's that do it
it’s a plague that has infected many MLB teams.
pdb - April 16, 2009
A plague of undead groundskeepers?
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Been spotted in Chicago.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
It's hard to beat the view from the top of Safeco.
The location is so beautiful.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Safeco is a great park
But the scoreboard is too small, the out of town scoreboard should be dedicated, the HO scoreboard is pointless and robs us of homeruns, and the outfield walls are ugly.
Coors Field is pretty much flawless.
JI - April 16, 2009
Yeah, that is a gorgeous park.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
PNC is still the best ballpark I've ever been to
I love Coors, but PNC just has “it”.
pdb - April 16, 2009
The city skyline.
Safeco really blows that part. Plus the stuff JI mentioned.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
I will never understand why they didn't orient Safeco more N than NE
to bring more of the skyline into view. And yeah, the scoreboards are inadequate. But we shouldn’t cry too loud about these things or they’ll get fixed. At taxpayer expense.
pdb - April 16, 2009
I guess we should be glad homeplate doesn't face the sun
JI - April 16, 2009
I think there is something in the MLB rule book in regards to stadium orientation
And the Marlins had to get a special exemption.
Robert - April 16, 2009
I cant find the exact rule but this backs it up
http://cappingthegame.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1403203
Robert - April 16, 2009
Yeah, you're right
I don’t think it’s a hard and fast rule, but MLB does recommend that stadia orient NE so the effect of the sun on the batter is minimized.
pdb - April 16, 2009
It shouldn't be hard and fast given the vastly differing latitudes.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
The roof kinda screws up the possible sight lines as well.
It would be great to have something like SF’s or PNC’s right field with views of downtown, or the Cascades, or the Olympics (its crazy how it’s pretty much a 360-degree view of awesome in Seattle), but the roof gets in the way.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
I love the place a million times more than any other place on this planet.
But Qwest messed up any chance of a marquee view.
Robert - April 16, 2009
Eh. A little, yeah, but because of the elevation that the CBD is at compared to Pioneer Square
you can still get a good sized sky line. Plus there’s the mountains to either side as well that aren’t well emphasized at Safeco.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
I wonder if they ever considered positioning the roof like this
Robert - April 16, 2009
On a giant swing arm so it just rotates into place.
pdb - April 16, 2009
Safeco should have just been build on stilts and wheels
so they could rotate it for the best view every inning.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Why aren't you a Civil Engineer?
Safeco on a lazy Susan.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
And underneath it, a hockey arena.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
May as well build it like those convertible gaming tables.
Just stack Safeco on top of the rink, then take it off for hockey games.
You’d have to remove the Foosball bars first, though.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
No see, hockey rinks are all domed anyways
so the Safeco floor doubles as the Metro roof!
Matthew - April 16, 2009
I was hoping for open-air home games.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Terrible idea for hockey long term.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Then you aren't going to approve of the flaming pucks I was going to introduce.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Well hello there Mr. Fox executive.
Go fuck yourself.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Shadowed pucks FTW
Robert - April 16, 2009
but hockey-playing robots!
pdb - April 16, 2009
Does that mean no on
abender20 - April 16, 2009
the addition of mandatory BAC of over .08 for all goalies?
abender20 - April 16, 2009
We could call it the Metro tunnel!
Robert - April 16, 2009
If they can make the Space Needle do it...
They could’ve done it with Safeco!
PositivePaul - April 16, 2009
When the earthquake hits, maybe it will dissolve
into the 100-year old fill it was built on, then we can build a new stadium with new sightlines.
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
I take safeco for granted
It’s easily forgettable unless you are watching a game there.
Robert - April 16, 2009
The roof makes all those flaws worth it
That and it’s not perma stick and doesn’t smell like piss. The Kingdome was basically a scuzzy movie theater and the only thing I miss is the close parking and cheap ticket prices.
JI - April 16, 2009
I like Safeco a whole hell of a lot.
There are things I think I would have preferred they’d done differently, but hindsight is 20/20 and all.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
I love watching games at Safeco
It’s just that unless that I’m there I forget it.
Robert - April 16, 2009
I guess I can see that, but I'm not the same way.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
There is not a single marquee thing about Safeco that excites me before hand.
So I remain unexcited until I get there and then I say “Holy Shit this is a beautiful park”
Robert - April 16, 2009
Probably doesn't help that you worked there
and have seen hundreds of games there.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
I love that you can watch the game just walking around the lower concourse.
There are a lot of parks where you just can’t do that.
Two Rs and Two Ls - April 16, 2009
I go to 5-10 games alone every year
and I usually just buy a CF bleacher ticket and wander the whole time. It’s nice to be able to do that.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
Samsies.
Robert - April 16, 2009
Now you are adding in random words.
Overcompensating for the constant leaving out?
appleshampoo - April 16, 2009
I'm a big fan of The Bank as well
especially from the RF upper deck, where you’re right next to the bell, can see the scoreboard, see the whole field, get the afternoon sun and can see the whole Philly metro skyline.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Plus the whole experience there is tremendous.
Wide concourses, $1 hot dogs, decent beer selection, easy parking + easy SEPTA access.
Philly is a massive win.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
If I liked the city of Philadelphia I
pdb - April 16, 2009
'd be more inclined to agree
I have never had a positive experience in that city. Maybe I need to go check out CBP.
pdb - April 16, 2009
That's too bad.
I love that city.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Many of my friends do as well
I probably need to re-visit it, but I went there about 5 times between 1996 and 2003, and got mugged twice, haven’t really ever had a good meal there (cheesesteaks are awesome but are not a good meal), and I was just generally unimpressed.
pdb - April 16, 2009
I wish I could give good restaurant rec's but I was there as a broke college student.
I will say that the nachos at Jones (~6th and Pine) are fantastic and there’s a ton of great (really) little Italian BYO places that are really off the buzz unless you know of them.
Also, you have to go to the Monk (~22 and Spruce).
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Those restaurants should be flagged for rec begging.
Phil Hatzenbuehler - April 16, 2009
It's pathetic.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
It's the BYO places I was looking for and couldn't find
that’s how I judge most Eastern/Northeastern cities, by those places. I need to go back now that I know people that might know where those places are.
pdb - April 16, 2009
Shoot me an e-mail next time you go.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Gotta stay in Center City, and not look like a tourist
Also, the best place I’ve ever been to (in any city) is Moriarty’s Irish Pub, 1136 Walnut for those of you who are within shouting distance of the city.
Incredible food and microbrews available there.
cwel87 - April 16, 2009
Same here.
Half my friends moved there after we graduated and I get a bit jealous every time I visit.
sammy - April 16, 2009
It sounds like I'd have to be there
because I thought it was pretty meh on tv
JI - April 16, 2009
Yeah, you're not going to get the experience on TV
and you’re not likely to see the RF view which is my favorite place to be re: baseball game that I’ve ever been.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Camden Yards
Is one of the best I’ve been to.
Limerickx - April 16, 2009
I've been there
It’s not particularly interesting, aside from the awesome view of the city and the Arch over the outfield.
patsfan - April 16, 2009
The only thing I miss about the Kingdome
is that the atmosphere didn’t seem so sterile.
JI - April 16, 2009
Quite the opposite!
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
Does it have a hill with a flagpole in CF?
This is the standard by which I judge all new stadiums now.
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
One can only hope.
pdb - April 16, 2009
As ridiculously goofy as Minute Maid is, I like it.
It does feel, however, like one of those novelty fields you win in baseball video games.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
VOLCANOES YAY!!!
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
I'm stating to feel that it is uglier than Enron
Which is the standard that all ugly baseball stadiums are judged by.
JI - April 16, 2009
That's a pretty bad condemnation of Shea, then.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
All ugly modern stadiums, maybe
pdb - April 16, 2009
Shea was less ugly
JI - April 16, 2009
Enron looks like it was designed by an 8 year old.
JI - April 16, 2009
It was less ugly than decrepit, really
I spent a ton of time at Shea, and I liked it, despite its complete non-baseball-suitability. They just stopped taking care of it in about 1992 and it gradually decayed away.
pdb - April 16, 2009
I was looking at pictures my dad took during the Mets pennet run in 69
And even back then it looked like a brand new dump.
Robert - April 16, 2009
It's named after a lawyer!
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
It mostly looked unfinished to me
It’s like they built the stadium and then forgot to do anything on the other side of the wall outside the grounds. The neighborhood it was in didn’t help – it’s all chop shops and other shady businesses, so nobody hung out there when there was no game going on, thus the team had no incentive to develop the area around the park.
pdb - April 16, 2009
At least it was open
most parks in the 60s and 70s were roofless Kingdomes
JI - April 16, 2009
That was basically Shea too, though
it didn’t look like the Vet or like Three Rivers, but Shea was a big round multipurpose stadium just like the rest.
pdb - April 16, 2009
But it was open!
JI - April 16, 2009
It's interesting to look at what almost happened in Brooklyn
http://www.covehurst.net/ddyte/brooklyn/never_were.html
Robert - April 16, 2009
It takes everything that was wrong with the old Stadium
and amplifies it by making it look modern, thus reminding everyone they could have had a beautiful new stadium, but instead decided to mimic an ugly piece of crap from the 70s. It looks boxy cramped and has an ugly color scheme. It also has a monitor in dead center the size of a city block.
JI - April 16, 2009
I fear the gaudiness will be dwarfed by that thing they are building for the Cowboys.
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
It's going to be a total laughingstock
And I’m going to love every single second of it.
cwel87 - April 16, 2009
It looks like a beetle.
Fearless Frog - April 16, 2009
For only $1,500,000,000!
Matthew - April 16, 2009
I would demand my money back if I were a taxpayer
JI - April 16, 2009
Only suckers pay taxes.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
JI - April 16, 2009
Why does that flag have to be so ugly?
Robert - April 16, 2009
Only problem is the tree.
I love the colors.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
I would darken both the green and blue a bit.
Robert - April 16, 2009
I can see that.
Nit picks though.
I would even consider replacing the white with gray. Who has gray in their flag? It would be ballsy.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
The white needs to go.
Gray would look much nicer and would be more suitable for the region.
The blue is too electric; needs to be less saturated, darker (the background color of the on LL would work well). The tree is really obvious and unnecessary. I’d go with something more like this:
sammy - April 16, 2009
That makes no sense to me.
The vertical layers either need to be:
Blue (water), Green (land), White/Gray (sky/mountains)
or
Green (land), white (mountains), blue (sky) [preferred]
Matthew - April 16, 2009
I was trying to make it intentionally ambiguous
allowing for green (land), blue (water or mountain), gray/sky.
The Cascades and the Olympics, except for their caps, look more blueish gray from a distance than white.
sammy - April 16, 2009
I'm sorry, but that's retarded.
Water doesn’t go above land and mountains are not blue.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Um... looking out at the sea, the land comes first.
sammy - April 16, 2009
False perspective.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Look at this picture.
What color is the mountain? Kinda bluish-gray?
sammy - April 16, 2009
Looks mostly white to me.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
Racist.
Eyebrows - April 16, 2009
Look.
With your eyes. The snowy parts are pinkish, the shadowy parts are bluish gray.
sammy - April 16, 2009
This is rapidly shaping up to be
the
leastmost interesting argument ever.pdb - April 16, 2009
ok.
I’ll stop… I argue this shit for a living.
sammy - April 16, 2009
Those mountains could be yellow if they wanted to be.
Show me where it says that they can’t.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Public urination is illegal.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
ugh
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
I wonder if you are expressing displeasure over your own comment
or over the public urination ordinance.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
A little from column A, a little from column B.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
I think at the "Question" thread
reference.
sammy - April 16, 2009
Good heavens.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
Still a problem though.
None of theses pictures have a gray sky. And living in Seattle, I’ve never seen a gray sky before, so I’m going to need a picture to prove it.
ralphie81 - April 16, 2009
Gray is fucking ugly.
I like the original picture.
redwolf75 - April 16, 2009
lol Seattle is overcast
JI - April 16, 2009
I prefer to think of it as undersunned
pdb - April 16, 2009
We're not depressed, we're Vitamin D-challenged.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
If you have that much vitamin D it's not fair to all the other vitamins
pdb - April 16, 2009
Vitamin B1 is envious
Matthew - April 16, 2009
needy little bitch, that one
pdb - April 16, 2009
This is a really nice idea
Robert - April 16, 2009
I should design one that doesn't suck.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
At least it's not designed by those lazy Libyans.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
I don't get it...
sammy - April 16, 2009
background info
on Cascadia.
pdb - April 16, 2009
If we got to keep Bangor, I'd like our chances.
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
This is an underrated comment.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
Why do you want Bangor, ME?
sammy - April 16, 2009
WANTS.
This made me smile.
sammy - April 16, 2009
I feel sorry for the people who have to sit here
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/06be2f3fFP8IM/610×.jpg
JBell523 - April 16, 2009
There's two of those sections
One on either side of the Mohegan Sun restaurant, which is what the wall contains. How you can spend a billion dollars on a ballpark and have even one obstructed view seat is beyond me.
pdb - April 16, 2009
Fuck the Mohegan Sun.
They shuffle the shoe after only two of the six decks, so you can’t count cards there.
Fuck them.
Llewdor - April 16, 2009
How dare they try to prevent people from cheating
those bastards.
pdb - April 16, 2009
Counting cards is not cheating.
Llewdor - April 16, 2009
How dare they try to prevent people from gaming the system
and cutting into their profit margins.
pdb - April 16, 2009
Yes.
How dare they.
The whole point of having systems is so one can game them.
Llewdor - April 16, 2009
That's your perspective certainly.
They have systems so that they can use Floridian tourists and tipsy fratboys like ATM machines.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
You'd have to get their PIN numbers first.
Eyebrows - April 16, 2009
Also, I just noticed that I said "ATM machines". God damnit.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
6969
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
That's Racist
Trenchtown - April 16, 2009
Frat boys aren't a race. They're a plague.
pdb - April 16, 2009
To my knowledge
Neither I or any of my fraternity brothers have devastated any community to the point where the CDC had to be called in
Trenchtown - April 16, 2009
past performance is no indicator of future results
pdb - April 16, 2009
Thats not even remotely true
past performance is very often an indicator of future results. You sir on clearly not an actuary
Trenchtown - April 16, 2009
I wish there was a way I could accurately convey my pleasure of this comment over the internet
But there really isn’t. Other than ‘well f*cking done’.
cwel87 - April 16, 2009
Don't most casinos use continuous shuffle now anyway?
abender20 - April 16, 2009
You mean automatic shufflers? Yeah. But they can do other things to throw off a count.
Like cutting deep into the shoe or burning a card at random.
Goose - April 16, 2009
Burning a card at random shouldn't throw off your count.
shams - April 16, 2009
I heard about this the other day
It’s 2009, you would think the architects of today being paid millions by the wealthiest organization in baseball would have figured out how to give every seat an unobstructed view of the field.
OlSalty - April 16, 2009
If they actually cared about fans that can only afford bleacher seats you'd be correct
pdb - April 16, 2009
I cannot wait for both NY teams to get hosed this year on revenue
because they’ve lost the IBanks buying luxury suites and have priced out everyone else.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
I thought they were saying that Yankee Stadium was going to sell out easily, though
because of novelty of the new park. Maybe they get killed next year though
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
Maybe. We'll see.
I more expect it to end up like Paul’s comment below about Citi.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
From looking at both parks, and living in the area of NYC/Philly
I can honestly say if I’ve got a desire to go to a ballgame, I’m going to CB. I’ll probably go to Citi a few times, because that at least looks somewhat decent, but if I ever have a desire to head to Yankee Stadium for a non-Mariner game, I’ll just go down to the Borgata and spend my day there.
cwel87 - April 16, 2009
According to my friend at Shea last night
the upper deck was almost completely full, and the lower bowl was maybe half full.
pdb - April 16, 2009
Kind of like, you know, virtually every other park that has opened in the past 20 years
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Yankee_Stadium_2009.jpg
JI - April 16, 2009
I'm surprised the Yankees didn't force Bronx County to build a new courthouse at taxpayer expense
to make the view exactly as it was in the old place.
pdb - April 16, 2009
I can't wait for the $200m re model in 7 years
JI - April 16, 2009
My favorite part is how the sight lines in Yankee stadium suck
and they went to great pains to recreate those shitty lines. Plus the pushed back field level seats.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
ahahahaha
If they were going to go retro they could have at least made it look like Old Yankee Stadium
JI - April 16, 2009
Polo Grounds
Total pitcher’s park.
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
Not if a pull hitter was at the plate.
JI - April 16, 2009
279-483-258
Yowza.
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
The walls were all 20' high, too.
Someone should recreate that.
Llewdor - April 16, 2009
It warmed my heart to see Washburn consoling Johjima last night
after he came out with gimpiness.
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
Something about the team in the dugout does seem different.
If the M’s continue doing well all the talking heads will attribute it to chemistry.
thewyrm - April 16, 2009
I'm going to start calling Griffey "The Chemist"
because it’s obviously all down to him.
pdb - April 16, 2009
I did laugh when he walked over to Silva and Bedard and sat in their laps forcing them to make room on the bench.
thewyrm - April 16, 2009
That was fucking hilarious.
Phil Hatzenbuehler - April 16, 2009
one of the highlights of where I used to sit in the Dome was watching the highjinks on the bench.
msb - April 16, 2009
He uses his God-given rump to force his way into social situations with the more tentative folk
cwel87 - April 16, 2009
It's a wonder what winning does.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Like the proverbial mother given the burst of strength needed to lift the car off of her baby
Winning has given Washburn the strength to lift the bus off of Kenji
OlSalty - April 16, 2009
This was a worthy revival of a dead meme.
esoteric - April 16, 2009
Just.... great.
royalcurve - April 16, 2009
You are a NationaLL treasure.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
Wait, you mean the chemistry didn't cause the winning?
ESPN will beg to differ sir, who am I to believe?
thewyrm - April 16, 2009
I'd go with John Kruk, he seems like he knows what he's talking about and he's got a great haircut
pdb - April 16, 2009
Ryan Zimmerman will hit 50 home runs last year.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
He's on the ball.
msb - April 16, 2009
Cancer joke!
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
The great haircut is the only thing that matters.
“Best team in baseball.”
Love,
ESPN
HHZ - April 16, 2009
Most of my friends are already telling me about how much better the team is now
because they are trying so much harder because Griffey is on the team. So annoying.
Zwakamatsu - April 16, 2009
ALL HAIL THE CHEMIST
pdb - April 16, 2009
ICHIRO!
H/T: Drayer
PositivePaul - April 16, 2009
Also H/T to
this FanPost.
pdb - April 16, 2009
My favorite Ichiro quote from that interview
(paraphrasing)
Drayer: So was hitting that grand slam your way of saying “I’m back?”
Ichiro (through Baron): For me, “I’m back” is more like an infield single.
appleshampoo - April 16, 2009
I really wish Baseball-Reference would update more quickly than it currently does.
Phil Hatzenbuehler - April 16, 2009
Like after every game or something?
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Every morning would be nice.
They still have the standings as of Wednesday.
Phil Hatzenbuehler - April 16, 2009
On a related note
mlbtv can suck a fatty for not having widescreen on either of their “HD” feeds.
JI - April 16, 2009
So Spokane doesn't get FSN NW?
Fin - April 16, 2009
I think he's talking about online access
pdb - April 16, 2009
Correctamundo
Actually FSN HD is a million times better than it was 1 year ago.
JI - April 16, 2009
I know that.
I was just wondering why he gets MLB.tv since he lives in the NW, but then I remembered after I commented that he also cheers for the Cardinals.
Fin - April 16, 2009
I could have bought it thinking I could game the system like in years past.
JI - April 16, 2009
Maybe this has been brought up higher, but a few things...
-Why exactly was Kenji lifted from the game so early? I know he doesn’t run well but Rob Johnson is no speed demon. One wonders if it had to do with Washburn or Wak not liking the pitch calling.
-Mark Lowe was throwing really fucking hard and seemed to be hitting his spots. I don’t want to extrapolate too much from an inning of work, but between him, Kelley and Morrow it’s starting to look like we’ve got a solid top of the bullpen.
-Endy Chavez now has 18 homers in some 2300 PA. Jered Weaver’s mother must be proud.
-We’re not last in walks anymore! The Giants Astros and Pirates are all less patient than the M’s. The bad news is, those teams are hopelessly bad.
-The team is currently last in LD% (15.5) and very near the top in GB%. The fact that they’ve been scoring runs in spite of a lack of patience and a dismal BIP profile suggests that the winning is not likely to continue for very long. However, I don’t think any true MLB team really ever hits fewer than 18% liners, and most tend to be in the 19-21 range. I guess my point is that as lucky as we’ve been in eking out the wins over these nine games, we’re due for an offensive boost as players like Beltre, Lopez, and Branyan (and Clement? please?) come around.
Bearskin Rugburn - April 16, 2009
Kenji was hurt.
It looked as though he strained a hamstring or something minor.
kevin_ess - April 16, 2009
Kenji had a strained hamstring or something suffered running out a hit
As long as we don’t strike out a lot, GBs have a decent chance to become hits. We’re getting a lot of hits right now, so I’m not really surprised at how many runs we’ve scored.
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
This is crazy nitpicking, but
it seems like it would have made sense to pinch run with Tui or something and then just bring in Johnson to catch after the inning. For one, he’s presumably faster than Johnson, but we’d also be totally screwed in the unlikely event Johnson gets hurt running the base paths or on a play at the plate.
Worked out ok though, and Safeco might have spontaneously combusted if we even briefly added a Tuiasosopo to the awesomeness of that game.
Zack - April 16, 2009
Then you burn your only capable PH by putting him at 3B.
The risk is pretty well worth it.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
No, because then you are burning your already short bench on a pinch runner in the middle of the game.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Also, Rob Johnson is apparently not slow
seattlebruin - April 16, 2009
But he's a white catcher.
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
True. He's much, much faster than Tui.
marc w - April 16, 2009
Is our bench short? I thought with Ichiro back it'd be at full strength
You still have Cedeno, Wlad, and Sweeney, at least.
But you’re right. The 4th is too early in the game for that. For some reason I thought it happened a couple innings later
Zack - April 16, 2009
Johjima was lifted while standing at third base.
You don’t necessarily need fast legs standing at third base. I will submit, though, that Johnson almost screwed up by hesitating 10 feet from the plate and should have been thrown out. But if he had kept running, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal.
Wilder. - April 16, 2009
They were checking him out when he was at first and clearly gimpy.
If you were going to PR, that was the time.
waldo rojas - April 16, 2009
But he wasn't lifted until he got to third base.
They didn’t know how bad the injury was until he ran from first to third. So when the choice was made, it doesn’t make sense to send in Tui over Rob Johnson.
Wilder. - April 16, 2009
By the way, since I know there were a few others here who have Directv and were having problems with random commercials like I was
I emailed their customer service last night and here’s what I got for a response this morning:
Goose - April 16, 2009
That's pretty good customer service, at least nominally until something actually happens.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
The Yankees bullpen sucks.
Wilder. - April 16, 2009
Yankee Stadium is now chanting "We Want Swisher!"
This coming after the Yankees give up 9 runs and are now losing 10-1.
Wilder. - April 16, 2009
Yikes.
I was following that game passively and looked away at 1-1 with runners 2nd and 3rd. Check back and it’s 10-1? That’s some blowup.
Matthew - April 16, 2009
Sizemore hit a slam.
They need A-Rod back and a new middle relief bullpen.
Wilder. - April 16, 2009
Or they can go right on ahead and keep losing.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
I need them to win more games than the Red Sox because of the BtB challenge.
But hey, maybe we can offload Batista on them.
Wilder. - April 16, 2009
nobody cares about your fantasy teams
pdb - April 16, 2009
Oh, I didn't think it was considered a fantasy thing.
But I see it now.
Still, Batista!
Wilder. - April 16, 2009
Well then you should have picked the Red Sox
Because the Yankees don’t look very good.
They never look good in April, and they’re without their All-World 3rd baseman, granted – but there’s something that’s just missing right now.
And it can stay missing. For ever and ever and ever.
cwel87 - April 16, 2009
This is the option I would go with.
pdb - April 16, 2009
I find it hard to believe they can stop anyone with Rivera the back end
JI - April 16, 2009
Aaron Heilman still sucks!
JI - April 16, 2009
I can't believe they got him for only Cedeno and Olsen
Robert - April 16, 2009
Cedeno even overran a base once!
JI - April 16, 2009
He doesn't even have a real position
Robert - April 16, 2009
It's amazing Pujols succeeded despite not having a position for three years
he could have ended up like Bobby Bonilla
JI - April 16, 2009
(This is where Jeff would link to the Mets owing Bonillia salary through 2023 if he were here)
JI - April 16, 2009
Wrong
Jeff Sullivan - April 16, 2009
Don't be a little bitch
JI - April 16, 2009
That trade was amazing.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
That Mark Langston trade has been given new life.
Langston —> RJ —> Freddy —> Reed —> Heilman —> Olson/Cedeno
Wilder. - April 16, 2009
+Guiterrrez/Chavez etc
JI - April 16, 2009
Here is the total rundown of players connected with the Langston trade:
Randy Johnson
Brian Holman
Gene Harris
Will Taylor
Freddy Garcia
Carlos Guillen
John Halama
Ramon Santiago
Juan Gonzalez (minor leaguer)
Jeremy Reed
Miguel Olivo
Mike Morse
Nathanael Mateo
Miguel Ojeda
Franklin Gutierrez
Endy Chavez
Aaron Heilman
Jason Vargas
Mike Carp
Maikel Cleto
Ezequiel Carrera
Ronny Cedeno
Garrett Olson
That is insane. Would be interesting to know if there was another player who turned into so much. I also found this fun fact regarding Mark Langston:
This man is the most underrated human being in history!
Wilder. - April 16, 2009
Rec'd for research.
23 players? Damn.
Two Rs and Two Ls - April 16, 2009
This might be the first time I've rec'd something using the intended purpose of recs.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
Ah, but you missed one:
the M’s included a PTBNL in the deal with the Expos: Mike Campbell.
marc w - April 16, 2009
I missed a lot then.
I was only including players that the Mariners received in return.
I think the most amazing thing about the list is how many generations (6) the trade goes back. And with the recent haul of players, this could continue for a few generations more.
Wilder. - April 16, 2009
He and Batista should get a timeshare
abender20 - April 16, 2009
Since this is somewhat of an OFFTOP at this point I will say
that oh my GOD Paul’s Boutique is a fucking stellar album. I haven’t listened to it in about 10 years, and I pulled it out this morning and had forgotten and am freshly blown away by how awesome it is.
pdb - April 16, 2009
Still their best work in my opinion.
Sec 108 - April 16, 2009
It's so far ahead of anything they did before it it's not even funny
There were a few songs since that were close to it (Sabotage being the main one) but no album they’ve done has come close.
pdb - April 16, 2009
I really think that OT stuff should stay on the sidebar
JI - April 16, 2009
Narrow your browser window to three inches wide and you'll have to scroll over to see this
PRESTO
pdb - April 16, 2009
I like the way you think
tootthekazoo - April 16, 2009
Awesome
Yankees fan suing for being ejected last year during God Bless America:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/seventh-inning-stretch-turns-into-suit-against-police/?pagemode=print
I hope he wins.
bluemax - April 16, 2009
Those rebellious Campeaus.
abender20 - April 16, 2009
My people have been through so much.
Aaron Campeau - April 16, 2009
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