Monday, February 23, 2004
BAVASI-BOLA
Art Thiel goes in-depth on the Alex trade, the BALCO scandal, and basically what amounts in his eyes to (everyone's favorite phrase in Seattle lately) a lack of institutional control, regarding both management of any semblance of salary restraint and regarding the lax attitude toward steroid use.
John Hickey's notebook article talks about the lowered expectations for Freddy Garcia, the difference in the approaches of Kazu Sasaki and Ed Guardado in the 9th, Art Rhodes arriving in Oakland's camp, discomfort in Jeff Heaverlo's shoulder, and rain in the valley.
Hickey's other article, though, is about one of the higher points in the Mariners' 2003 campaign: Rafael Soriano blowing down Nomar Garciaparra with three fastballs in a pressure situation on a sunny Saturday afternoon in August.
Hickey's article draws many comparisons between Soriano and Mariano Rivera and Rivera broke into the league in a somewhat similar fashion. Soriano also has the perfect closer-type persona. But I can feel most of Mariner blognation cringing as they read this article, worrying that Soriano's ultimate goal should be to start, develop that third pitch, and be able to stretch himself out. The problem is, he's mentally set himself toward the late innings now. And he likes it.
Bob Finnigan turns in a relatively painless article on Julio Mateo's pursuit to duplicate and/or improve on his success of last year. I almost forgot (but was reminded by Melvin) that Mateo sometimes went 12 days between game situations, and I was always worried about him staying sharp. Let's all breathe a sigh of relief, because if it wasn't for Giovanni Carrara being brutally pathetic last year, Mariner fans may not have been given the chance to see Julio Mateo twirl the magic he did last year, whether it was just bridging the gap between the starters and the back-end bullpen guys, or eating some innings up (5 1/3 innings) for Freddy after the Chief got bombed by the White Sox and booed the day after the deadline (ref. ESPN game log, though the Ws and Ls are flipped...it screwed me up). The article also says Mateo is trying to put himself a cut above a stash of Mariners that had that one moment in the sun or two, then faded away. I have to say, though, Russ Swan (in said stash) did come to my baseball camp in 1998 to speak to us ballplayers, statesiders and Canadians alike. A teammate of mine from Forks dared one of us to pitch Adam Sandler's "stop looking at me, swan" line from Billy Madison to Swan himself, but no one did. Baseball camp in Canada is also where you learn the finer things in life, like how Spitz sunflower seeds are infinitely better than David sunflower seeds. Yes, quality trumps the great name of David sunflower seeds.
What better way to close out the post than by mentioning that Wiki Gonzalez (one San Diego-area beatwriter called him the laziest player in baseball) is named after some obscure German singer?
[I came out with the post headline last...sorry to anyone offended by an ebola joke.]
John Hickey's notebook article talks about the lowered expectations for Freddy Garcia, the difference in the approaches of Kazu Sasaki and Ed Guardado in the 9th, Art Rhodes arriving in Oakland's camp, discomfort in Jeff Heaverlo's shoulder, and rain in the valley.
Hickey's other article, though, is about one of the higher points in the Mariners' 2003 campaign: Rafael Soriano blowing down Nomar Garciaparra with three fastballs in a pressure situation on a sunny Saturday afternoon in August.
Hickey's article draws many comparisons between Soriano and Mariano Rivera and Rivera broke into the league in a somewhat similar fashion. Soriano also has the perfect closer-type persona. But I can feel most of Mariner blognation cringing as they read this article, worrying that Soriano's ultimate goal should be to start, develop that third pitch, and be able to stretch himself out. The problem is, he's mentally set himself toward the late innings now. And he likes it.
Bob Finnigan turns in a relatively painless article on Julio Mateo's pursuit to duplicate and/or improve on his success of last year. I almost forgot (but was reminded by Melvin) that Mateo sometimes went 12 days between game situations, and I was always worried about him staying sharp. Let's all breathe a sigh of relief, because if it wasn't for Giovanni Carrara being brutally pathetic last year, Mariner fans may not have been given the chance to see Julio Mateo twirl the magic he did last year, whether it was just bridging the gap between the starters and the back-end bullpen guys, or eating some innings up (5 1/3 innings) for Freddy after the Chief got bombed by the White Sox and booed the day after the deadline (ref. ESPN game log, though the Ws and Ls are flipped...it screwed me up). The article also says Mateo is trying to put himself a cut above a stash of Mariners that had that one moment in the sun or two, then faded away. I have to say, though, Russ Swan (in said stash) did come to my baseball camp in 1998 to speak to us ballplayers, statesiders and Canadians alike. A teammate of mine from Forks dared one of us to pitch Adam Sandler's "stop looking at me, swan" line from Billy Madison to Swan himself, but no one did. Baseball camp in Canada is also where you learn the finer things in life, like how Spitz sunflower seeds are infinitely better than David sunflower seeds. Yes, quality trumps the great name of David sunflower seeds.
What better way to close out the post than by mentioning that Wiki Gonzalez (one San Diego-area beatwriter called him the laziest player in baseball) is named after some obscure German singer?
[I came out with the post headline last...sorry to anyone offended by an ebola joke.]
/ Click for main page
