I didn't get to watch much of this game, since the bulk of it took place while I was at work or commuting home, so all I'll say is that this looks an awful lot like a game plan gone right. Felix vs. left-handed hitters today, from BrooksBaseball.net:
Against Tampa's dangerous Pena/Crawford/Iwamura/Zobrist/Navarro lefty quintet, Felix lived on the outside of the zone, never daring to throw so much as a single pitch over the inner half. The results? 67% strikes, 73% grounders, zero line drives, and six swinging strikes. While Felix is a guy you'd expect to have a normal platoon split, today he was far more in command against lefties, and when you combine that with a few timely strikeouts of righties, you've got all the ingredients for a dominant game. A terrific effort when the Mariners could afford nothing less.
By the way, Felix has gotten to an 0-1 count in 52% of his plate appearances this year, up from 47.6% for his career and the 47.3% league average. I'm going to go ahead and hope against hope that this means he's locating better. Felix getting ahead in the count more often means all kinds of things. Unhittable things.
Oh hey I have another note! You may never see a better version of David Aardsma than you saw this afternoon. His showdown against BJ Upton was shades of Rafael Soriano vs. Nomar Garciaparra, only without all the context that made Rafael Soriano vs. Nomar Garciaparra so awesome. A lot of times when hitters miss on a fastball, they miss ferociously. Upton and Crawford swung like sissies. Neither of them looked even the least bit comfortable, although in their defense I don't know why anyone would be comfortable hitting against a crazy person with a rocket launcher.
0 recs | 109 comments
"although in their defense I don't know why anyone would be comfortable hitting against a crazy person with a rocket launcher."
I dunno Jeff, the Marines seemed to polish off those Somali pirates without breaking too much of a sweat. It’s about professionalism.
esoteric - April 23, 2009
He is David Aaaaaaaaaarghdsma.
msb - April 23, 2009
The Seattle Mariners are 10-6
After having played the Twins, A’s, Angels, Tigers, and Rays. That’s pretty incredible.
phil333 - April 23, 2009
We are on pace for 100 wins!
Robert - April 23, 2009
101.25 to be technical about it
Yay 1/4 wins!
seattlecougar - April 23, 2009
21.25 games over .500!
Fin - April 23, 2009
20.25*
Fin - April 23, 2009
Highest since 2003!
Robert - April 24, 2009
The Seattle Mariners are 10-6 with Rex as our quarterback
Dewey N - April 23, 2009
We made the playoffs!
Gihyou - April 24, 2009
Thank you for letting me post this
Robert - April 24, 2009
And apparently its not enough
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AootXSlEQ0ZWhJaPh.6XZtw5nYcB?slug=ti-powerrankings042309&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
TRUguillotine - April 23, 2009
Looks about right to me.
I mean, we did start our backup catcher at first base today.
Teej - April 23, 2009
No way we're 18th in MLB
I could see 10-15, but below average? Our run prevention is absurdly good.
Graham MacAree - April 23, 2009
I'm trying not to get too excited.
If we really do have one of the two or three best run-prevention units in baseball, then yeah, I can call us above average. But I still see us in that 15-25 range overall. But if Washburn stays decent and Bedard remains healthy . . . yesyesyes.
Teej - April 23, 2009
I also think we're favourites to win the West now too
Graham MacAree - April 23, 2009
You are a confident man.
Teej - April 23, 2009
I'm still scared of the A's.
Teej - April 23, 2009
Me too
But out of the 3 candidates I think we currently have the strongest case. This is hilarious in many, many ways
Graham MacAree - April 23, 2009
This is going to be a hilarious season.
Teej - April 23, 2009
It's 2002 all over again
Robert - April 24, 2009
This scares me with happiness
Robert - April 24, 2009
I don't think we're the favorites
It’s only April. And we can’t score runs to save our life. But we’re in much better position than opening day.
phil333 - April 24, 2009
Everybody's batting poorly except Endy and Ichiro!
And Endy’s cooled down as of late.
I don’t see this trend continuing.
cwel87 - April 24, 2009
In My Opinion
we should swap places with the Angels, but hey, that’s Yahoo! for ya.
ralphie81 - April 24, 2009
Ahahahahahahaha he made a "Steinbrenner is a hothead" joke!
What an incredible and original joke! Ahahahahaha!
Benne - April 24, 2009
Team Chemistry Wins Ballgames
It’s science.
CapSea - April 24, 2009
I don't know about ballgames ...
but it seems to be making them happy.
“Don Wakamatsu has tightened up the dress code on the airplane and Ken Griffey Jr. has been less than happy with the tie policy. Well, he got his revenge today. When we arrived at the airport, the coaches and staff got on the plane first. About 10 minutes later, the team boarded. Wak, as is the custom for the manager, sits in the first seat. Jr was the first player to step into the airplane. He was wearing a nice dark suit and a tie. A white tie with a smiling Don Wakamatsu in his uniform silk screened on the bottom of it. The rest of the team followed in the same ties.
msb - April 24, 2009
Crap.
Fail on Reading Comprehension.
msb - April 24, 2009
How about Larry Stone on the Moneyball movie?
anyone mention that?
msb - April 24, 2009
I'm not sure where to start...
Commence bullet points.
-Seriously? This is about 3 years too late. Even the MLB 2k series has incorporated things like sabermetrics and farm system emphasis. All this is going to do is get a bunch of housewives and college girls who don’t understand baseball to come watch Brad Pitt speak the equivalent of a foreign language for 2 hours.
-Demetri Martin as Paul DePodesta… I don’t quite see it (not sure Demetri can play that kind of nerd), but at least there will be something entertaining to watch.
-Larry Stone has never heard of Demetri Martin. Are you fucking serious??
-This would have made much more sense back when the A’s were still pretty exclusively winning at Moneyball and had that competitive advantage. I’m assuming they’re going to play this like a historical piece.
-Odds on steroids taking a much larger overtone in the Hollywood version: Good
-Like jinxing a pitcher during a no-hitter, I have that sick, disgusted gut feeling that Larry Stone already naming and casting a movie about our inevitable World Series season might be the other shoe falling.
-Seriously, how does this fucknut still have a job?
seattlecougar - April 24, 2009
Larry Stone still has a job because he's amazing
Graham MacAree - April 24, 2009
He writes some good columns
But then he writes something like this, which (as best I can tell) is solely trying to inform us that there’s a Moneyball movie in the works — when this was announced a while ago, and only showed up on Stone’s radar because Demetri Martin was cast on the 21st. The rest of it is like watching a wounded animal beg for death, while everyone just sits there watching it bleed out.
In hindsight, I probably take my movies a little too seriously, and shouldn’t fault Larry Stone for his lack of knowledge there (especially given that his baseball prowess far exceeds mine).
seattlecougar - April 24, 2009
Um, howsabout filling the blog, after an offday?
msb - April 24, 2009
We don't seem to have that problem here
/shrug
seattlecougar - April 24, 2009
if Stone fills his column/blog with the stuff we fill this place with
he wouldn’t be long for the Times. It was a bit of fun on his part. Not a big deal.
pdb - April 24, 2009
I'd read about boobs, beer, and.. uh...
What exactly do we talk about the rest of the time, anyway?
seattlecougar - April 24, 2009
We talk about boobs?
Aaron Campeau - April 24, 2009
Not really, just blood and what not.
Sec 108 - April 24, 2009
Scarring shops of Yuniboobs
Kirsten Schlewitz - April 24, 2009
I would have never heard about it if not for the fanshot the other day
JI - April 24, 2009
I enjoyed his Mariner's casting suggestions.
appleshampoo - April 24, 2009
Well, somebody has their angry pants on this morning
pdb - April 24, 2009
Just a bit
Still waiting for the coffee to kick in.
seattlecougar - April 24, 2009
The only problem I had with the post is that he didn't consider Jeff Bridges to play Bavasi.
ralphie81 - April 24, 2009
That's actually a pretty good match.
abender20 - April 24, 2009
Darn right it is.
ralphie81 - April 24, 2009
Yeah those jokes already went around when Iron Man came out.
Eyebrows - April 24, 2009
Or how about the guy who played Chakotay on Star Trek Voyager to play Wakamatsu.
Phil Hatzenbuehler - April 24, 2009
If you do a GIS for Chakotay, funny things happen.
abender20 - April 24, 2009
Yup.
Funny, inappropriate things.
Phil Hatzenbuehler - April 24, 2009
Robert will still like it.
abender20 - April 24, 2009
Not knowing who Demetri Martin isn't really a cardinal sin.
Unless you routinely watch Comedy Central or FOTC, you won’t know who he is.
abender20 - April 24, 2009
He's the unfunny guy with the Emo Phillips haircut, right?
pdb - April 24, 2009
Yup.
He was in the FOTC episode with Todd Barry, who is my hero.
Teej - April 24, 2009
I thought so.
And yeah, Todd Barry is awesome. He was my second favorite comedian at the Sub Pop 20 show, behind Patton Oswalt, who I never thought was that funny until we saw him there – that was one of the funniest standup shows I have ever seen.
pdb - April 24, 2009
Oswalt's not my favorite, but he has the ability to make me spit out whatever I'm drinking.
So I give him credit there.
Teej - April 24, 2009
He always struck me as being pretty average
but he absolutely KILLED that night. Every single thing he said was not only hysterical, but built on what he’d said before, so he kept people on their toes all night. It was something to behold.
pdb - April 24, 2009
If you don't watch Comedy Central, chances are you don't know who Demetri Martin is.
I think he’s a funny guy, but it’s not like he’s some pervasive, inescapable force. Aside from a brief stint as a Microsoft pitchman, he hasn’t really done anything outside that network.
Teej - April 24, 2009
Also, he's not funny.
esoteric - April 24, 2009
It depends if you like his brand of extreme unenthusiasm.
abender20 - April 24, 2009
I think he's all right.
The Daily Show stuff was a riot, and I’ve been entertained by Important Things, but the shtick tends to wear thin.
Teej - April 24, 2009
Agreed.
And I’ve been a fan of stuff on the notepad, such as the pie chart of procrastination and the ability to draw mountains over time. But his style of humor can get old fast, particularly the skits.
ralphie81 - April 24, 2009
I sit through the skits
Waiting for the actual jokes. Concur he can be dry, but usually it works.
seattlecougar - April 24, 2009
I couldn't even make it through one ep of Important Things
without wanting to punch him in the throat.
pdb - April 24, 2009
It's like Napoleon Dynamite on Valium, but with no central theme.
abender20 - April 24, 2009
I unenthusiastically disagree
I find him hilarious. Especially when he has a bunch of jokes that don’t tie together so he just fires them off one after another. Perfect for my ADD.
seattlecougar - April 24, 2009
Bahahaha Donny Osmond
seattlebruin - April 24, 2009
Griffey fat jokes!
Frying things are already dead.
JI - April 24, 2009
Also it's sort of an Ichiro joke.
abender20 - April 24, 2009
An unfunny one, but still.
abender20 - April 24, 2009
If Griffey were death to frying things
he would eat in a healthful manner as he would have no tolerance for fried food.
JI - April 24, 2009
Gutierrez
He is called “death to flying things” by Dave Neihaus. I did not really consider the “he cannot pronounce L’s” aspect to that. But meh.
CapSea - April 24, 2009
Hush you >=(
CapSea - April 24, 2009
Sniper rifles do not = baseball bats
Fett42 - April 23, 2009
Reply fail?
Susheel Ramasahayam - April 23, 2009
Could do better with photoshop, but when motivation strikes...
seattlecougar - April 23, 2009
I'm the one who wants King Felix on his face
Jeff Sullivan - April 24, 2009
After tonight
I think we all do
seattlecougar - April 24, 2009
I am going to buy a jewelry store and rename all the pearl necklaces the "King Felix Unspeakable Dream"
Robert - April 24, 2009
Woooooooo Felix!
The Mariners are 6-1 in the last 7 games I’ve gone to.
Goose - April 23, 2009
If it's gonna be this kind of party, I'm sticking my dick in the mashed potatoes!
waldo rojas - April 23, 2009
So a couple of observations from Safeco.
1. We had no business winning that game with that lineup. Thank god for Ichiro!
2.Rob Johnson is useless. Make him go away.
3.Screw you Yuni.
4.Burke play at first base bordered on hilarity.
5.Speaking of game plans, if Aardsma had one coming into the 8th, he executed to perfection. That was fun to watch.
6.BJ Upton’s fluidity in the outfield almost rivals Ichiro, at least from the right field seats.
7.Brett and I only got told to shut up once today! Improvement! And that was during the 9th with Morrow pitching. We were part of the 15% or so in that section that were on our feet and yelling. Apparently we were disturbing the people knitting(Seriously, there were two ladies directly in front of us freaking knitting!).
Goose - April 23, 2009
At least the knitters stopped and clapped here in there.
That dude in the Jake Locker shirt just made Husky fans look even worse. You’d think it would be bad enough that they started the Wave.
BrettJMiller - April 23, 2009
Also, fuck the home plate ump with a rusty spork.
Pitches at the knees are strikes you assclown.
Goose - April 23, 2009
I agree.
If the bar wasn’t set so low as far as lineups go last year, then I would’ve been pretty pissed about it. Having Jamie Burke at first base is almost as useless as having Miguel Cairo there. Must’ve been more of a novelty thing, like having him relieve. I really hope it doesn’t become a regular thing.
Fin - April 23, 2009
Why would it become a regular thing?
The only reason it happened is because we have guys that know how to get hurt, but not hurt bad enough to get put on the DL. If Sweeney was more of a team player, he would’ve decided that he was hurt enough to go on the 15-day, but instead he tells Wak that he’s actually good enough to play if need be, at which point Wak silently curses Sweeney, tells Tacoma never mind, and goes and talks to Burke.
My bet – and hope – is that either Branyan or Sweeney are back (no pun intended) today.
ralphie81 - April 24, 2009
Burke gets a pass from me
It’s like, yeah, he sucks, but its not like its really his fault he’s on a major league roster, plus he’s so lovable.
admiralzing - April 24, 2009
"...a crazy person with a rocket launcher."
We need to give all of our pitchers baseball firing rocket launchers.
mark sobba - April 23, 2009
Those would be baseball launchers
Graham MacAree - April 23, 2009
Which would be a pitching machine
Decatur - April 23, 2009
Pitching machines
with guidance systems and rocket propellant.
Edgar for Pres - April 23, 2009
Miguel Batista has a grenade launcher.
ThundaPC - April 23, 2009
Sure he located well, but
how was the pitch mixing? Not to nit pick, but I’m definitely curious.
Also, can I get an explanation on the whole Soriano-Garciaparra thing?
DAMellen - April 23, 2009
Shit ton of fastballs
Soriano faced Garciaparra in the 8th inning of his breakthrough year and struck him out on three pitches.
Jeff Sullivan - April 23, 2009
Weren't they all swinging strikes, too?
Phil Hatzenbuehler - April 24, 2009
No. As I recall, Garciaparra sort of gave up and just took strike 3 right down the middle.
marc w - April 24, 2009
Affirmative
link
swinging strike, swinging strike, called strike
Jeff Sullivan - April 24, 2009
Pitch selection was sporatic
6th inning, for example, he served Carlos Pena nothing but breaking pitches (Changeup, Sinker, Curveball, then Changeup) and struck him out swinging (swung at 3 of 4 pitches). Next batter, he served Pat Burrell nothing but fastballs and walked him on 5 pitches, no swinging strikes (although the Ump’s strike zone was crap all day).
Outing was fastball-heavy as usual with some flashes of mixing pitches.
ThundaPC - April 23, 2009
We already have one sixth the amount of wins that we got from all last year
This blows my mind
Scrupio - April 23, 2009
Yay not sucking.
Mariner John - April 23, 2009
More hilarity from Shannon's blog
Team wears ties silk-screened with Wak’s face on flight to LA
appleshampoo - April 24, 2009
Gotta love Jr.
I miss the good ol’ days with him and Buhner setting the gold standard for clubhouse pranks
seattlecougar - April 24, 2009
That's pretty funny
phil333 - April 24, 2009
So, Rob Johnson is better than Clement? Really?
With his receiving skills there is no way he isn’t a top.
Sec 108 - April 24, 2009
But he's a good communicator, right?
Seriously, we all know Jeffie can hit. He’s slumping right now, but maybe that’s because he’s been dicked around so much in his career. Let’s give him his shot, for chrissakes.
JLProck - April 24, 2009
Amen
seattlecougar - April 24, 2009
Clement is definitely a power bottom
abender20 - April 24, 2009
I love how Aardma's tRA dropped by 1.3 in one outing.
Sec 108 - April 24, 2009
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