Thursday, May 20, 2004
NEAR THE QUARTER-POLE
...but only winning a third.
I need to bust out a giant thesaurus or something because I'm running out of ways to say that the 2004 Seattle Mariners suck. Badly.
A Sports and B's investigative report (read: paid-off janitor) placed a microphone inside the Mariner clubhouse to hear this conversation...
Yes, it's a joke (Sports and B's has no budget). But it'd almost be easier to take sometimes than to realize that the really good team from a year ago has all but evaporated and turned to crap overnight.
Ryan Franklin cruised through the first five innings, allowing only one runner into scoring position. As luck would have it, though, Eric Bedard held the Mariners scoreless for six innings and allowed three runners into scoring position (it's only two in a sense because Bret Boone is listed as stealing second on Edgar's looking strikeout in the first). And you guessed it: all three of the runners in scoring position got aboard with two out.
Franklin was unscathed until Melvin Mora's one-out RBI double, which gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead in the 6th. Then things got a little interesting.
I'm not going to lie to y'all; I wasn't paying overly much attention to the game because Game 6 of the NHL Western Finals was on, and I was sort of recovering from that, but I did listen to the KJR postgame show, and this part got a little interesting...
In the 6th, Ichiro got aboard on a leadoff 4-pitch walk. Steve Sandmeyer badly wanted Jolbert Cabrera to bunt (blogosphere cringes), his reason being that the Mariner offense only had one hit in the game to that point, and if they weren't going to get a lot of baserunners, they should haved move over the ones they had. His other reasoning: Boone, Edgar, and Raul (Sandmeyer lumped Ibanez into the category of "they hit lefties well," which I laughed at) would be coming up with Ichiro (tying run) in scoring position. Anyway, Cabrera popped out to the catcher. Bret Boone came up and Bedard apparently was throwing to first a ton of times. Ichiro (tying run at that point) apparently was never even trying to steal when the ball was going to the plate (Boone fouled off four pitches in the at-bat), but what a caller and Steve Sandmeyer both agreed on was that Ichiro wouldn't get a full lead and when Bedard would throw over, Ichiro would come back standing up, hands on hips. Is it wrong to ask a guy that just signed a 4-year $44M contract to get the biggest lead he can get and dive back when a throw gets over to first? David Locke said he saw a quote that he equated to Paul Molitor calling out Ichiro over being so obsessed with getting 200 hits that it's overshadowed anything else in Ichiro's mind. Has Ichiro been getting on base at a decent pace the last couple weeks? Sure. I don't know if I'll say he's dogging it (though one could certainly say that if they saw what was going on in this instance), but he's definitely not using all the tools in the bag. If Ichiro has the perpetual green light and he's not taking it, then Melvin should have some balls and give him the steal sign. If Ichiro doesn't like it and says giving him the steal sign is somehow a slap in the face to Japanese culture (as is that whole fun thing where you don't let people know if you're injured), then too bad -- on the field, you're a ballplayer first, and you're Japanese second or somewhere below that. For the record, Boone erased Ichiro on a fielders' choice. Boone moved to third on an Edgar single with two out, and everyone was stranded when Raul Ibanez (3 years, $13.25M) lost a 3-1 count and flew out on a long drive to the shortstop.
Then Franklin got a little roughed up in the 7th. Jay Gibbons punched a homer about three to five rows back ("threeve" rows back) in rightcenter to make it 2-0. A double and error (Ibanez misplaying the ball after it hit the angled part of the fence down the line), followed by a double and single put the Orioles up 4-0 and the game was basically over.
Of course, the Mariners in their half of the 7th staged what Jeremy and I have agreed to call the False Hope Comeback (TM). We should have a fake sponsor for it. Tonight's Olympic Boat Center Mariners False Hope Comeback started with one out when Dan Wilson singled and Rich Aurilia rattled a ball in the gap or reached the wall at the very least (is that possible?); somehow Wilson scored from first on the play. Winn bounced out to move Aurilia to third, and Ichiro walked. Cabrera got an infield single and Aurilia came across. Boone walked to load the bases, then Edgar had a 3-1 count before he was caught looking on a somewhat questionable pitch. Knowing that it's Edgar, we usually trust Edgar's eye. From pure conventional wisdom, with two strikes, you have to swing at anything close. Edgar was a little ticked, but of course he wouldn't call otu the umpire after the game; that's just not what he does. Bob Melvin said it was a bad call after the game, and I'm waiting for him to get fined, though that might be the NBA-watcher in me talking. It was 4-2 at that point, but come on. We knew it was over.
Every-four-days Eddie Guardado came on to work the 9th, and retired Javy Lopez and Jay Gibbons in quick succession. Then Luis Matos hit a ball into over the bullpen benches. Orioles 5-2, game over.
In the 9th, the Mariners mounted their Heartland Toyota Semi-False Hope Comeback, where Randy Winn reached on an infield single to lead off. Ichiro was clutch and flew out to left. Winn stole second with Cabrera at the plate. Cabrera flew out and moved Winn to third. Bret Boone walked on four pitches and stole second, but Edgar whiffed to end the game.
The Mariners are 13-26. They've reverted back to the .333 mark, which probably means they'll win tonight (that's what they've done the last couple times they hit the .333 mark). But man...
One caller called into the KJR postgame show and correctly stated that not only do the Mariners have a bad baseball team to worry about, they have a BORING baseball team on their hands. Who wants to pay for overpriced tickets, overpriced parking, overpriced food, and hang with corporate folks if you're watching a team that's bad and boring?
Gameball: JJ Putz. Five outs, one walk, 11 pitches. He just keeps not sucking.
Goat: Raul Ibanez. When in doubt, I guess, but he's got a worthy line. 0-for-4 with a strikeout, stranding two in the five-slot. Don't forget that fielding error.
The hockey game tonight won't run most of the length of the baseball game tonight (East finals tonight instead of West), so those who likey the hockey and likey the baseball can watch both. I've said this before, but the last three times the Canucks and Flames got together in the playoffs, the winner of the series has represented the west in the Finals. The Flames won the Cup in 1989, the Canucks lost to the Rangers in the finals in 1994, and now the Flames are in the Finals in 2004. For the record, the Canucks went to the Finals in 1982 (swept by the Isles) after sweeping Calgary in the first round.
R Lopez. Moyer. Tonight.
[Edit ~10:35a -- David Locke's recurring theme from last night: what is the point at which someone begins taking responsibility for what's happened to this team? Locke said if he was Howard Lincoln, he'd wake up in the morning and wonder what the hell Bill Bavasi did to this baseball team. Steve Sandmeyer summed up the mood of some unnamed workers for the Mariners. I don't know if these are vendors, press box attendants, suits, or what. But he said the one thing they hate about Howard Lincoln is that when things are going good he's "on the parade chair," "kissing babies" and flying the Mariner flag high, etc. But when the s#*$ hits the fan, the guy's nowhere to be found.
Part of the conversation between Locke and Sandmeyer last night...
I need to bust out a giant thesaurus or something because I'm running out of ways to say that the 2004 Seattle Mariners suck. Badly.
A Sports and B's investigative report (read: paid-off janitor) placed a microphone inside the Mariner clubhouse to hear this conversation...
- Bob Melvin: Well, boys, it looks like we're facing one of their young kids tonight. It's a Canadian kid named Eric Bedard.
Unnamed Mariner hitter: Have we faced this guy before?
BM: No.
UMh: Then F#*& it.
Yes, it's a joke (Sports and B's has no budget). But it'd almost be easier to take sometimes than to realize that the really good team from a year ago has all but evaporated and turned to crap overnight.
Ryan Franklin cruised through the first five innings, allowing only one runner into scoring position. As luck would have it, though, Eric Bedard held the Mariners scoreless for six innings and allowed three runners into scoring position (it's only two in a sense because Bret Boone is listed as stealing second on Edgar's looking strikeout in the first). And you guessed it: all three of the runners in scoring position got aboard with two out.
Franklin was unscathed until Melvin Mora's one-out RBI double, which gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead in the 6th. Then things got a little interesting.
I'm not going to lie to y'all; I wasn't paying overly much attention to the game because Game 6 of the NHL Western Finals was on, and I was sort of recovering from that, but I did listen to the KJR postgame show, and this part got a little interesting...
In the 6th, Ichiro got aboard on a leadoff 4-pitch walk. Steve Sandmeyer badly wanted Jolbert Cabrera to bunt (blogosphere cringes), his reason being that the Mariner offense only had one hit in the game to that point, and if they weren't going to get a lot of baserunners, they should haved move over the ones they had. His other reasoning: Boone, Edgar, and Raul (Sandmeyer lumped Ibanez into the category of "they hit lefties well," which I laughed at) would be coming up with Ichiro (tying run) in scoring position. Anyway, Cabrera popped out to the catcher. Bret Boone came up and Bedard apparently was throwing to first a ton of times. Ichiro (tying run at that point) apparently was never even trying to steal when the ball was going to the plate (Boone fouled off four pitches in the at-bat), but what a caller and Steve Sandmeyer both agreed on was that Ichiro wouldn't get a full lead and when Bedard would throw over, Ichiro would come back standing up, hands on hips. Is it wrong to ask a guy that just signed a 4-year $44M contract to get the biggest lead he can get and dive back when a throw gets over to first? David Locke said he saw a quote that he equated to Paul Molitor calling out Ichiro over being so obsessed with getting 200 hits that it's overshadowed anything else in Ichiro's mind. Has Ichiro been getting on base at a decent pace the last couple weeks? Sure. I don't know if I'll say he's dogging it (though one could certainly say that if they saw what was going on in this instance), but he's definitely not using all the tools in the bag. If Ichiro has the perpetual green light and he's not taking it, then Melvin should have some balls and give him the steal sign. If Ichiro doesn't like it and says giving him the steal sign is somehow a slap in the face to Japanese culture (as is that whole fun thing where you don't let people know if you're injured), then too bad -- on the field, you're a ballplayer first, and you're Japanese second or somewhere below that. For the record, Boone erased Ichiro on a fielders' choice. Boone moved to third on an Edgar single with two out, and everyone was stranded when Raul Ibanez (3 years, $13.25M) lost a 3-1 count and flew out on a long drive to the shortstop.
Then Franklin got a little roughed up in the 7th. Jay Gibbons punched a homer about three to five rows back ("threeve" rows back) in rightcenter to make it 2-0. A double and error (Ibanez misplaying the ball after it hit the angled part of the fence down the line), followed by a double and single put the Orioles up 4-0 and the game was basically over.
Of course, the Mariners in their half of the 7th staged what Jeremy and I have agreed to call the False Hope Comeback (TM). We should have a fake sponsor for it. Tonight's Olympic Boat Center Mariners False Hope Comeback started with one out when Dan Wilson singled and Rich Aurilia rattled a ball in the gap or reached the wall at the very least (is that possible?); somehow Wilson scored from first on the play. Winn bounced out to move Aurilia to third, and Ichiro walked. Cabrera got an infield single and Aurilia came across. Boone walked to load the bases, then Edgar had a 3-1 count before he was caught looking on a somewhat questionable pitch. Knowing that it's Edgar, we usually trust Edgar's eye. From pure conventional wisdom, with two strikes, you have to swing at anything close. Edgar was a little ticked, but of course he wouldn't call otu the umpire after the game; that's just not what he does. Bob Melvin said it was a bad call after the game, and I'm waiting for him to get fined, though that might be the NBA-watcher in me talking. It was 4-2 at that point, but come on. We knew it was over.
Every-four-days Eddie Guardado came on to work the 9th, and retired Javy Lopez and Jay Gibbons in quick succession. Then Luis Matos hit a ball into over the bullpen benches. Orioles 5-2, game over.
In the 9th, the Mariners mounted their Heartland Toyota Semi-False Hope Comeback, where Randy Winn reached on an infield single to lead off. Ichiro was clutch and flew out to left. Winn stole second with Cabrera at the plate. Cabrera flew out and moved Winn to third. Bret Boone walked on four pitches and stole second, but Edgar whiffed to end the game.
The Mariners are 13-26. They've reverted back to the .333 mark, which probably means they'll win tonight (that's what they've done the last couple times they hit the .333 mark). But man...
One caller called into the KJR postgame show and correctly stated that not only do the Mariners have a bad baseball team to worry about, they have a BORING baseball team on their hands. Who wants to pay for overpriced tickets, overpriced parking, overpriced food, and hang with corporate folks if you're watching a team that's bad and boring?
Gameball: JJ Putz. Five outs, one walk, 11 pitches. He just keeps not sucking.
Goat: Raul Ibanez. When in doubt, I guess, but he's got a worthy line. 0-for-4 with a strikeout, stranding two in the five-slot. Don't forget that fielding error.
The hockey game tonight won't run most of the length of the baseball game tonight (East finals tonight instead of West), so those who likey the hockey and likey the baseball can watch both. I've said this before, but the last three times the Canucks and Flames got together in the playoffs, the winner of the series has represented the west in the Finals. The Flames won the Cup in 1989, the Canucks lost to the Rangers in the finals in 1994, and now the Flames are in the Finals in 2004. For the record, the Canucks went to the Finals in 1982 (swept by the Isles) after sweeping Calgary in the first round.
R Lopez. Moyer. Tonight.
[Edit ~10:35a -- David Locke's recurring theme from last night: what is the point at which someone begins taking responsibility for what's happened to this team? Locke said if he was Howard Lincoln, he'd wake up in the morning and wonder what the hell Bill Bavasi did to this baseball team. Steve Sandmeyer summed up the mood of some unnamed workers for the Mariners. I don't know if these are vendors, press box attendants, suits, or what. But he said the one thing they hate about Howard Lincoln is that when things are going good he's "on the parade chair," "kissing babies" and flying the Mariner flag high, etc. But when the s#*$ hits the fan, the guy's nowhere to be found.
Part of the conversation between Locke and Sandmeyer last night...
- Locke: Have you heard from Howard Lincoln lately?
Sandmeyer: No.
(new topic)
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