Game 128, White Sox at Mariners
Jeff · August 27, 2005 at 6:46 pm · Filed Under Game Threads
Anyone else notice that Dave Niehaus pronounces Orlando Hernandez’ nickname like “El Dookie,” which I believe is Spanish for “The Album that Made Green Day Big”?
It’s a good thing Jose Contreras doesn’t have a nickname that Dave can turn into a homonym for poop. And speaking of fecal matter, Joel Pineiro … nah, that’s too easy.
Oh, and one other note: evidently, getting knocked around by the Mariners earns you a ticket to the minors these days. Hard to argue with that, either.
Confidential to Peter C.: Don’t think I didn’t notice that you left the game last night just before Eddie served up the game-winner. You’re lucky the Jeff-man has a loving heart, and is not superstitious.
Comments
187 Responses to “Game 128, White Sox at Mariners”
WHY, WHHHYYY is Dobbs on the 25-man?
Was bloomquist taking notes?
#145: What are they? All I see for career stats for Jenks on mlb.com are at http://tinyurl.com/d2ap8. Just this year.
I would rather have Torrealba than Reed up in this situation. But he tricked Guillen to taking out the 102 mile an hour pitcher.
At least Dobbs’ pop-up bunt was fouled out of play, as opposed to easy-pickin’s for the infield. And then he actually got one down. Although, is a bunt the best use of your “DH”?
Oh good, Hansen’s in the on-deck circle. How many weeks has it been since he did anything useful?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this goes down as a quality start for Pineiro, does it not? So, was he quality, or is there something wrong with the “quality starts” standard?
I don’t want to see another extra inning game, so either win it or lose it here.
Darn. He had the bag swiped.
Bobby Jenks minor-league stats:
http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/players/playerpage/288962
Fairly
“Yeh know if Morse had the prescence not to swing at that, I think Beltre had that stolen”
Almost makes me wish he would of been thrown out.
#157: Call it a “dancing through the raindrops” quality start.
A mixed blessing. Now a double play ends the game.
For Pineiro, this was a quality start.
I never understood why managers bring in a left handed pitcher to face a left handed batter, when the other manager just brings in a right handed batter.
We all seen that DP coming a mile away.
sayonara
#163: I wish I had called it wrong.
Hendu thinks the Sox wouldn’t want to see Hansen pinch-hitting?? Why?
Bleh
I have to say that despite a lot of shoveling since last April, I’m losing hope there’s a pony in here anywhere.
#163 Wow…you are psychic
My relationship with the Mariners is much like my parents’ relationship with me when I was in high school.
I love them, even though all they ever do is make me cry.
Thanks to MacTarnahan’s Black Watch Cream Porter, I made it through this game. For the season? There’s not enough beer in the world.
#165: In this situation, Guillen just had to decide which matchup he liked more — Jenks vs. the LH pinch hitter, or Marte to face a RH pinch hitter.
If the LH pinch hitter is unlikely to hit for power against LH pitching (think Trot Nixon) and you can get the other manager to burn a quality bench player by making the move, it’s an easy case to make. Especially since everyone wants to carry a deep bullpen and a shallow bench these days.
and the fact that Marte always seems to pitch well against the Ms….
# 176 Who doesn’t?
another strike against Matt Morrison? That inane grin he wears when the red light goes on, no matter what the game situation….
#158: Do extra innings seem worse than this now?
157
i think it was a pretty sucky start for joel. he missed pitches all over the place. and got lucky that some of his outs weren’t hits.
i’m reviewing the game in my mind and trying to remember if he was doing the glover over the head thing. is he still doing that dealie?
179
No, because at least we didn’t have to wait longer for them to lose.
Just got back from the game, and I believed I scored a victory. The family sitting next to me was from Port Orchard, and they were Bloomie fans. We fell into a discussion of what the hell was wrong with the Ms, and they allowed that they lacked Bloomie’s “spunk.”
I allowed that while, yes, he was spunky, one thing he wasn’t good at was getting on base. I took the time to explain what the on-base percentage is. After spending a few innings comparing the important % of the players, paying attention to the fact that Bloomie has yet to go yard, I took them as far as they were going to go: Bloomie was a spunky utility player. Then Bloomie bunted that ball up in the air, which took the air out of the inning.
At that point the light went on for my new friends from Port Orchard: the point of fielding a baseball team is to win games. And winning games means fielding a team of players who do the very little things like get on base consistently, and frequently do the big things like hit HR. Having a local boy is fine. Having a guy from a distant land who gets on base, e.g., Ichiro, is even better.
I closed our conversation by saying that a lot of people mistake “spunk” for success. But by that measure the greatest players (DiMaggio, Williams, etc.) would not be considered good because they made the game look effortless.
I just got back from the game too. That CS 2-4-3-6-5 rundown play on Blum/Dye made the entire game worth it, as I had just been spending about half an hour trying to make up examples of complex scoring situations for one of my friends attending the game with me. Then that happened, and I was just like “That’s better than anything I could make up!”
I wish Betancourt had gotten a hit so I could feel better talking glowingly about his fielding. The guy’s a shortstop, second baseman, and outfielder, all at the same time. It’s great.
James in CA/173:
HA! Best comment ever.
re shoveling and lack of a pony…
Dobbs and Bloomquist and Strong and Reed are all indicators of the state of the M’s farm system.
I think most posters here are hopeful that the explanation is that the M’s are clueless and if they just give the right minor leaguers a chance the M’s can turn things around.
It’s also possible that the real explanation is that the farm system is empty, or at least contains only .250 hitters with no power. Like Dobbs and Bloomquist and Reed and Strong.
Signing a couple of more free agents in the off season and having one of the minor leaguers come through will make the team better, but this team is several good hitters and several good pitchers away from being a .500 club.
It’s also possible that the real explanation is that the farm system is empty, or at least contains only .250 hitters with no power. Like Dobbs and Bloomquist and Reed and Strong.
Reed is having a rookie year that’s forgettable, but that is not that uncommon for rookies.
Everyone else you mentioned has never been considered a top-tier prospect by people on this blog. (Bloomquist, for instance, is 27- older than Albert Pujols, fer Chrissake. Can people PLEASE stop considering him a “prospect”?)
Lopez, Jones, Tui are not likely to all be Willie B. clones, for starters.
Your point is well taken, however, when looked at the context of the previous regime- the Mariner minors have produced nothing resembling a star player who’s spent significant time as a M since A-Rod. The players who’ve come out since Lowe and Varitek have been, at best, better than average but not All-Star players to downright who-cares organizational fodder (Ibañez, Marte, Piñeiro, Podsednik, Mateo, Meche, Bloomquist). Only one All-Star berth, net, out of that (Podesdnik)- and his All-Star year looks like a complete fluke in the context of his career (OPS by season: .667, .670, .822, .677, .682).
Felix is probably the first Mariner farm system product since A-Rod who will go to an All-Star game as a Mariner (not counting guys like Boone who we resigned as FAs). That’s a big reason why we’ve spent the last 2 years sucking- we have Baltimor Orioles disease, where we end up with sucktastic collapsing 30+ year olds littering the roster instead of people who have an upside.
I think the minors are starting to look better now…hopefully our draft choices and scouting will improve it as well.
Another game another loss. Lets just hope no one gets hurt before the end of the year. Be careful so we’ll have some players that can help another team.
Ernie