Week 8 in review
WLWLLLL. Split with Baltimore and then work on putting together a quality losing streak.
I don’t have that much to say. Watching Hargrove manage this team has become ridiculously painful (everyone should read Dave’s post on today’s game). Go look through the game threads if you’re in any doubt. When your hardcore fans are able to cheer for your manager to make the worst move possible in a given situation and the opposing team also anticipates that move and reacts to make it even less productive, isn’t that reason enough for a change?
I know Rohn’s a small-ball guy, a fairly predictable double-stealer, but I can’t imagine he wouldn’t be a huge improvement. How long do we have to wait this out, another two weeks? A week if the team goes 0-7 or is otherwise hugely embarassed? Getting severly beat up by Texas to drop in the AL West chase (it’s a chase, I can’t believe it’s still a chase) would help, but I don’t want the team to lose. I want Hargrove canned *and* a sweep in Texas. Oh well, I can hope.
The good:
Ichiro! is being Ichiro! Over .400 with a double and a triple this week. Woo!
Sexson hit a Sexson-like .269 with 3 doubles and a home run. Stick around, big guy.
Beltre hit a .296/.321/.407. It’s not the Beltre I want but I’ll take any improvement.
Bloomquist hit .313 for a total line of .313/.389/.313. He took a walk! No, really!
Betancourt hit .348.
Good starts from Felix and Meche (!)
Overall, the bullpen had a really good week, when they weren’t blowing games. I know that sounds weird, but if you saw the games, you know what I’m talking about.
The bad:
Really ugly weeks for Everett, Lopez, Johjima, and Ibanez in particular.
The rotation got beat up pretty severely, and Putz, Green, and Woods all took some poundings.
The ugly:
The bunting. The baserunning. The lineups. The management. The feeling of being a fan while watching these games.
How far is Hargrove from getting canned?
Totally uninformed rumor-mongering without any basis in fact or any conversations with anyone in the Mariner front office*
A sweep by Texas, particularly a severe stomping, might do it and get Rohn in ahead of the KC series. A decent showing would bring him back to face KC/Minnesota at home, and an embarassing performance there, in front of ownership and fans, would almost certainly finally get him his well-deserved termination.
So: team goes .500 against the next two weeks, it’s a coin toss
Sweep by Texas: 75% he’s gone.
Escapes Texas but team goes 2-5 in the June 2-8 homestand: gone
Ichiro finally snaps after the team fails to score him from first with no outs in an inning and finally says something clear about Hargrove (which will, I suspect, be exceedingly subtle and delicately worded: “While I am not a manager and have the utmost respect for Hargrove as the head of this club, I wonder if, as I am suited to right field and do my best work as a leadoff hitter, managers also have situations in which they are best at, and situations where they are not the best fit…”): gone
* really
Isn’t there some fear that the first thing out of Dan Rohn’s mouth at the press conference will be “I think this team needs to be even more aggressive on the basepaths”?
The only way I can still follow this team is like they are the old NY Mets…loveable losers. Ok, not quite loveable, but definitely Losers!
I’ve seen a decent number of Rohn games when he was in Tacoma, and listened to a good number more, and I don’t think there’s any reason to think that Rohn, as much as he might be a little predictable with the steal and the hit-and-run, encourages nearly the reckless, stupid baserunning with the wrong players that Hargrove does.
Public vote of confidence from Willie Bloomquist: gone.
I got to see Jeff Cirillo hit a single off Arthur Rhodes today, and my dad doesn’t even know who Ryan Franklin is and already hates him. It’s been a good weekend, I guess.
Anyway, so what happens if Hargrove doesn’t get canned no matter what happens with Texas, and then comes home and sweeps Kansas City? Does that earn him more time, or does it become “Oh, come on, the Aquasox could sweep Kansas City, this means nothing”?
Hargrove, in Monday’s P-I, shows no sign of backing off:
“I have been upset with our baserunning,” Hargrove said before the game. “But I said before that there will be times like this. If you look to put pressure on the other side, you’ll do that. I’d rather have aggressive base-running mistakes rather than passive ones. Having said that, it’s not been pretty.”
He amplified after the game.
“We’ve run the bases aggressively,” Hargrove said. “But right now it’s hurting us. The good thing is there are ways to address that.”
Look for Hargrove to have more talks with his base runners.
I don’t think the KC series means anything unless KC kicks the team around, because that would embarass everyone.
List of Hargrove peeves (what am I forgetting?):
The 12 man bullpen (Earl Weaver always said that the last man in the bullpen only pitched in blowouts, but the last man on the bench was used in close games or extra inning games when the game was on the line)
Leaving bench players to rot month after month, releasing them when they complain
Bunting with your best hitter, in situations where scoring more than one run would be desirable, even in counts where said hitter is ahead
Putting the worst hitters in the middle of the lineup, leading to bases loaded-no outs-no runs
Putting the same lineup out there day after day, even if a middle of the order hitter is batting .190
Using the only pinch-hitter for Betancourt, who is not the worst hitter on the team
Selecting a roster that does not fit together, resulting in needing Morse to sit on the bench because he can play poorly at multiple positions
“aggresive” baserunning
Coaches that are either asleep or cowed (what is Hassey doing when Hargrove does dumb stuff?)
Relievers that don’t pitch for many days and then pitch 3 games in a row
“Lew Ford’s 10th-inning home run Sunday was the 11th game-ending home run that Eddie Guardado has allowed in his career. That’s the most among active players (one more then Troy Pervical has allowed) and it’s the most against any pitcher since Randy Myers retired having allowed 12 game-ending home runs.”
From Elias
#9: Well, Dirk, that’s what a closer does, you know. He closes games. Nobody was specific about how.
The latest managerial nonsense I’ve seen that reared its ugly head this week was platooning Reed/Willie and then keeping Willie in against the righthanders on the bench. He did that at least twice in the last week and it is completely befuddling.
I mean, I don’t like the platoon at all… but to use it as a launching pad to get the worst of both worlds is insane.
Re:Rohn – is this a foregone conclusion? Any chance he would be an interim manager, perhaps?
If so, it makes me a little nervous, because we could end up with someone worse (Dusty Baker)…
I don’t know enough about Rohn to be excited for any other reason than his middle name is Nothargorve. But that, of course, is a pretty good reason.
Check out Monday’s TNT – McGrath crushes Hargrove, and rips on him for all of the bunts.
I wouldn’t have let Hargrove on the team plane out of Minnesota. Hand him bus fare and tell him to leave an address for the team to send his stuff.
Something occured to me last night. Now, I am, by the standards of USSM, a Willie Bloomquist fan (meaning, I’m okay with paying him a million or so to be our utility guy/pinch runner, and am happy to cheer for him when he’s in the game – possibly because he’s never hit on my wife, but then Morse has, and I still like him). Anyway, I am getting really sick of Hargrove’s stupid platoon in Center. Reed needs to play, every day, righty or lefty. Nobody else is going to be our CF this year, and next year, maybe we’ll need to make a decision about Jones, so give Reed this year to get it together or not.
Bloomquist isn’t helping by actually being (some of you might say imitating) a decent hitter. He’s not hitting for any power, but he’s getting on base better than anyone except Ichiro. So what to do?
Trade Carl Everett. Take whatever you can get for him, pay some of his salary if need be. Someday, Doyle will be ready to come off the DL, but until then, put Bloomquist in LF and Ibanez at DH (where the angry bees can’t get him) and start Reed in CF every damn day.
Ichiro
Bloomquist
Lopez
Ibanez
Johjima
Sexson
Betancourt
Beltre
Reed
Swap Bloomquist and Beltre if you want, or Reed and Betancourt. Break up the Misdemeanors Row of Sexson, Beltre & Everett who are far too likely to rack up three outs without putting a ball into play.
Do something for crying out loud!!!
#12 — Read the McGrath piece. It does a good job of honestly detailing why Hargrove should be replaced without sounding mean or personal.
Best line from McGrath:
“The third-inning squeeze play with Ichiro Suzuki on third base and Jose Lopez at the plate might’ve been the single-worst strategic move since Coca-Cola briefly decided to change its recipe 21 years ago.”
“We’ve run the bases aggressively,†Hargrove said. “But right now it’s hurting us. The good thing is there are ways to address that.â€Â
One way would be to give EVERYBODY the green light, and if the right guys use it, we have more sensible SBs, and hopefully the wrong guys will have more sense than Hargrove….
#11: I don’t know enough about Rohn to be excited for any other reason than his middle name is Nothargorve. But that, of course, is a pretty good reason.
Are you kidding? That’s practically a anagram for “Hargrove”! Twins separated at birth?
I don’t mean to be picky, but let’s not make this look any more stupid than it was:
The blown squeeze didn’t happen in the third, nor the fifth, it happened in the seventh inning.
#16 My optimistic anagram for Nothargorve is: NOT HARGROVE
Don’t look now, but the Royals start off against us with . . . that’s right: two LHP.
Tonight’s lineup is posted, and shaken up. Beltre to the 2 hole, bumping Lopez and Ibanez down a spot. Petagine batting 6th. Maybe Hargrove can hear the calls for his head.