Mariners Morsels - aka "Free Adam Moore and Rich Poythress! (George Sherrill is FREE!)"

After catching an inning of the Rainiers on TV, I decided to flip over to Felix and the M's. I watched most of the game, flipping back-and-forth to the R's game (Yikes, Hyphen! YAAAAY ADAM!!!). The end of the M's game, however, really shocked me. Rob Johnson amazed me yet again with a reasonably decent defensive performance. My issue with Rob has been with his ability to block low pitches and just his overall catching the ball behind the plate. I've always thought his arm was pretty good, but I never understood why, beyond his arm, he was considered a good catcher. But that's a discussion for another day.

I was surprised that Wlad was still in the game in the bottom of the 9th and in the 10th. The M's strength this year has been pitching and defense. If you don't want to pinch hit for Wlad in the 9th, fine, but you gotta get your glove guy out there. People should know that I've been an advocate of Wlad's defense for awhile, but even I recognize that Endy Chavez is waaaay better out there.

In the top of the 10th, Wlad did his best Raul Ibanez impression and baaadly misplayed a ball, leading to a lead-off double. A walk to Morneau, and then Kubel comes up and jacks one darn near over the fence. Except that Mark Lowe owes Franklin Gutierrez a nice dinner - Gutz comes back with the ball and throws it to 2nd, keeping Morneau from advancing, while Mauer advanced to 3rd. Then we come to a very rare play that you don't see all the time -- a pitch-out on a suicide squeeze call, leading to the runner at 3rd being tagged out. It was a brilliant move, whoever called it. The Twins' batter at the plate tried his darndest to get some wood on the ball, but it was too far out and they were able to nail Mauer before he scored. Between the robbed HR, and the brilliant pitch-out, the M's had some major momentum.

Except, good GRAVY I need to re-consider my stance on Wlad's defense. And Wak's managing. Fastball/flyball pitcher on the mound (Lowe), late in the game and tied at 1 - you want your best OF defense out there. Wlad's un-catch (he nearly caught it, but took another horrible route to the ball) swung the mo' back in the Twin's favor and gave them the lead. There'd better be a good explanation as to why Endy was not out there...

I love Wlad, I really do. But that was some poor play and some poor decision-making out of Wak, too.

Labels: bad decisions, defense, Losses, rough games, wlad balentien

Churchill reported recently on Prospect Insider that Austin Bibens-Dirkx was released from the M's organization. It was such a noteworthy move that I can't find it anywhere, other than on Churchill's site (and of course, that he's not on any of the major affiliates' rosters). Of course doing a little more digging and asking around, I find it buried here in the Baseball America transactions.

I must apologize to Austin. Evidently I failed in my duties as the "Free Austin!" campaign manager. I need someone to keep an eye on the Phillies' MiLB rosters just in case he shows up :-)

Site re-design coming, I think. I need to ramp up the noise for Adam Moore, who's back in AA to start the season because the M's can't decide what to do with Clement. Ugh.

Labels: Austin Bibens-Dirkx, bad decisions, minors, prospects, relief pitchers

Upon hearing the latest news, I hate to say this.

But I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!

Labels: bad decisions, bad news, Brandon Morrow, bullpen, UGH

Modeling a new uniform, sportin' the goatee again. And still the brim isn't bent...




(Courtesy of the Baltimore Sun)

Labels: bad decisions, George is awesome, George Sherrill

There have been some interesting discussions around the blogs lately about how utterly bad this team has been to watch. I think it's sort of comical, really. It's brought up something, though, that has to be mentioned. I present three lessons.

Lesson #1
In 2004, a lot of us were clamoring for the departure of Bob Melvin. While the team was terrible, and really, 2004 was the start of this mess, we'd hoped the Mariners would can his butt and hire a better manager. Well, he did get fired, and certainly few of us thought Mike Hargrove could be worse. Whoops. Fast-forward to 2006, where all of us had grown tired of Hargrove, and were clamoring for him to be fired (and we practically threw a party when Churchill and others were hearing reports that he was about to be canned). Surely anyone -- anyone -- would be better than him. So, when Hargrove left on his own terms in 2007, it was sort of bittersweet.

And then we got McLaren. Now, I'm not saying that the current M's woes are his responsibility -- he's not the one up at the plate, serving meatballs and not making the fielding plays. But he's not entirely innocent either.

Lesson #2
In 2006, a lot of us were glad to see Gil Meche and Joel Pinero leave. Then, in 2007, their replacements -- Jeff Weaver & Horacio Ramirez were comically worse. Surely as bad as they were, things had to improve.

Can you believe that Jarrod Washburn and Miguel Batista have been worse, so far, than Weaver & Ramirez?

Lesson #3
A lot of people complained about Pat Gillick destroying the farm system by sacrificing draft picks to compensate for signing veteran non-superstar free agents. And at the same time, for "standing Pat" at the trade deadline (i.e. holding onto other prospects -- that in the end didn't pan out for the M's). So they were glad to see him go, and
Bavasi brought in to salvage the farm system. However, I'd argue that in spite of helping build the farm system by actually using the draft again, Bavasi has been a worse GM than Gillick.

So, if Bavasi is fired -- it can't get worse, right?

Hmmmm...

Labels: bad decisions, bad luck, lessons

With Brad Wilkerson actually having a decent day, John McLaren decides to pinch-hit Willie Bloomquist for him in the 9th. Yes, the M's had just taken the lead on an Adrian Beltre 3-run bomb. And Richie walked ahead of him. McLaren put Cairo in to pinch run for Sexson, and then unexplicably pulled a heating-up Wilkerson for a woeful Willie Bloomquist. Seriously -- I realize Wilkerson's having a tough start to the season, and I'm on the bandwagon for replacing him sooner rather than later, but Bloomquist as a pinch hitter? At that moment in the game -- yeah, the M's had a 3-run lead already built up, and they still had outs to spare in the 9th -- with the way the 'pen has been shaky lately, a 3-run lead didn't feel comfortable. There were better options.

Greg Norton was on the bench, having just had a couple of successful games. He could've hit for Wilkerson if you REALLY want to ignore Wilkerson's reverse platoon splits. Then, with the lead, stick Willie in RF for defense.

You know things are bad when your manager pinch hits WFB for you. Vidro had some important hits, too, including an RBI double. Maybe the news that Clement and Balentien were not in the Tacoma lineup and that McLaren said they'd both be up "sooner than later" actually helped wake them up. I still think Wlad and Clement are better options, but whatever.

GS52 Watch:

Walked B.J. Upton, but got the save to push Baltimore into first place in the AL East.

Labels: bad decisions, Beltre is Awesome, John McLaren, Lucky wins, Squinty, stupid managing, WFB

The last three coming against our beloved Mariners.

See -- We told you George was good!

But it's not because of the brim. Bend it, dude, bend it!

(Photo from MLB.com -- Rob Carr/AP)

Labels: bad decisions, George is awesome, George Sherrill, GS52

The trade, that is. Not my fandom of George, of course. Here's to hoping he can grab #52 away from John Leicester :-) And the closer's job. If not, then the Free George Sherrill campaign will continue.



You better believe I'll welcome him back when Baltimore comes to town.

Labels: bad decisions, George is awesome, Good-byes

A month ago, with the arrival of Carlos Silva and his subsequent thievery of George Sherrill's jersey number, I said good-bye to GS52. In the next day or so, he's evidently going to get a phone call informing him of his trade to Baltimore, and I'll be forced, once again, to say good-bye. I was hoping that phone call would be from Mr. Silva -- after all, he said he'd hook him up when I asked him at FanFest.

Honestly, the Free George Sherrill campaign will not come to an end. He may be leaving Seattle, but he's not shed of my fandom. It's quite possible that he's being banished to an even worse-run organization than the Mariners'. Also, with Boston and NY as well as a seriously up-and-coming Tampa Bay team in the same division, it's likely he won't pitch in the playoffs any time soon. I'm not sure, either, whether Baltimore would consider using him as their closer. So, with both of those things working against him, the campaign continues. Yes, my favorite player on my favorite team is about to be traded.

That doesn't mean my fandom comes to an end...

Labels: bad decisions, George Sherrill, Good-byes, trades

If I didn't have enough of a reason to hate the Carlos Silva signing, I do now. It's not good enough for him to steal nearly $50 million from the Mariners -- noooooo. Now he goes and steals #52 from George. Ugh.

I will never ever ever call him "CS52".

//Wonders how good George would look in Orioles Orange...
///No, GS52 hasn't been traded, yet. At least I haven't heard anything, yet. I just can't call him "GS52" anymore without confusing even more people (and certainly "GS" looks a lot like "CS" so I don't want to even think about being misinterpreted...)...
////BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Labels: bad decisions, Carlos Silva, George Sherrill, GS52

Glad to know the M's are still the stupid team I somehow know and love...

Labels: bad decisions, pitching., Ticket prices