Spring training madness!
Setting aside for a second that Hargrove and the front office are doing things like putting old, never-hit infielders on the active roster for no reason, there’s going to be baseball on! Woooo! The M’s again flout the rule that they’re supposed to take at least two recognizable regular players and one guy on top of that they can point to and claim is a recognizable regular player, putting only Vidro in the early game.
Mariners at San Francisco! 7:15! FSN! In San Francisco!!! Fun note: the Giants are charging $90/seat for premium field club seats to this game. Really. And they’re available.
I was so excited I accidentally queued this up to run yesterday at this time, to briefly hilarious results.
For your game thread discussion: if the M’s spend $110 million and only (as seems to be the consensus prediction) win 73 games, what other teams since the start of free agency will have spent so much so poorly? And I’m not looking for cheap teams who sucked – I’m trying to think of massive spending done to so little effect. Right off the bat, a couple candidates: the 1999-2000 Cubs and Orioles teams.
Really? Long-running good-defense rep, will probably wind up with 2,600 hits or so … not that I’d vote for him. But you’d think he’d get a fair amount of support from writers who are enamored of the aforementioned virtues.
Hall of Wrongly Deemed Inferior to Ramon Santiago.
Jamie Burke, gun for hire.
Umm… that was great and all, but… I’m not sure he didn’t get that arm in.
I don’t even think The Powers That Be are thick enough to conclude that Omar = Ozzie.
Simontacci started for Italy in the WBC last year.
yeah, thats a AAAA rotation for you.
Umm… that was great and all, but… I’m not sure he didn’t get that arm in.
TiVo says he didn’t.
Yeah, well, safe or out, he still probably is better defensively than Joh. That was a darn good throw nevertheless…
Oh, and I apologize for comment #1. I thought I had an excuse to get out of watching Sonjaya (or however the heck ya spell it) on Idol last night…
#98– Rizzsy prob. thinks he should be. and ig I hear a 40 year old called Little O one more time…..
G is for Gookie, that’s good enough for me…
Gookie, Gookie, Gookie, Gookie starts with ‘G’!
it makes me wonder if there are any other active players from team Italy in the majors or minors.
i forget where/if team piazza played for in the wbc.
Personally, I don’t think Omar deserves to be in the Hall, but I could see how sportswriters could vote for him. I mean, what’s the difference between Omar and Ozzie Smith? Backflips?
Brian Wilson on the mound, HEY A BEACH BOYS REFERENCE HA HA HA!!!!
Apparently, he has one pitch, or else that’s an awfully fast changeup.
Gookie has had one lucky spring.
marinerschas2 – The M’s have a good minor league player (Alex Liddi) that is from Italy.
Hooray for the Italians!
I went back & looked and it seems to be pretty standard for this time of the season for the Ms — even coming off the 116 win season there were still singles for the opener. Last year 2 days before, they had 1500 still available; wonder what the number is this year?
ah, look, Randy Winn and Justin Leone
and crap, Armando Benitez, too.
I suddenly was reminded of Jim Parque, and so took a look at his spring training blog
Asterisk that double. Benitez was pitching.
I had an epiphany earlier in the evening after hearing for the 12 billionth time how Willie B has always “done everything that has been asked of him, and more.”
They need to ask him to hit!!! It’s that simple! He has done everything they’ve asked him to do for all these years. But nobody ever asked him to hit!
I know. Brilliant.
you are a genius. I think I owe you two beers now.
You write to Hargrove and suggest he ask Willie to hit – and we’ll call it even on the beers.
I’m really glad I didn’t go to this game. Garlic fries aside the schedule said split squad so I didn’t want to waste my money in the proposition that I would see a starting lineup with the likes of sure to be cast offs such as Rey Ordonez, oh wait….
I had an epiphany earlier in the evening after hearing for the 12 billionth time how Willie B has always “done everything that has been asked of him, and more.â€
They need to ask him to hit!!! It’s that simple! He has done everything they’ve asked him to do for all these years. But nobody ever asked him to hit!
I think you’re on to something. It was 2002 when Willie hit .455 as a September call-up. That was the last season with Lou as the manager. Of course Lou would ask the kid to hit, that’s all Lou ever really asks of anybody (well, he asks pitchers to throw strikes, but he’d probably forgive them if they could hit).
BoMel and Grover just forgot to ask.
By Marginal Dollars per Marginal Win over league average, the 1995-1999 Blue Jays have to rank up there.
Jay Bell? LOL
Has a 110 Million dollar team ever had 4 NRI players make the final cut for opening day?
I’m late to the discussion because I had to bowl last night, but how about the 1999 or 2005 LA Dodgers? In 1999 they were 77-85 and in 2005 they had, I think, the 3rd highest payroll in baseball and went 71-91.
How about the ’89–93 Yankees? I don’t know what their budgets were, but they had to be Yankee-sized, and they finished 74-87, 67-95, 71-91, and 76-86.
I’m going to wait and see how the 2007 Cubs pan out, and out, and out, and out, before choosing one.