Opening Day Awards
DMZ · March 31, 2008 at 7:28 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Time to hand out some hardware.
The Mike Hargrove Memorial Award for Aggressive Baserunning:
Jose Lopez, for getting thrown out at third
The Feigned Deafness Award for Ignoring Coaching Philosophy:
Eric O’Flaherty, for use of non-fastball pitches to dominate
The Turbo Giddy-yup Award for Excellence in GIDP:
Jose Vidro
Safeco Field Scorer Charity Hit of the Day to:
Jose Lopez
John Shulock Memorial Award for Umpiring:
Jim Joyce
Absolute Certainty Award:
No question about it, Mike Blowers
What about the “Welcome Back Dead Weight Award” for Broussard?
Lopez out at third, what a rally killer. Good game otherwise, though.
Pitch F/X has O’Flaherty’s pitch selection as follows:
Slider, Slider, Curveball, Slider, Not Recorded, Fastball, Changeup, Slider, Curveball, Splitter, Curveball, Not Recorded, Slider, Cutter, Slider, Slider, Fastball.
Now, Pitch F/X’s algorithm for determing pitch type isn’t perfect, and O’Flaherty doesn’t throw six pitches. But regardless of what you call them, that’s the exact opposite of establishing the fastball. And he was tremendous.
Take notes, organization.
Richie Sexson Memorial Ohfer with a K award:
Richie Sexson
I like the fact that the M’s are going to run more this year, but I do hope they re-think that whole “Jose Lopez stealing third” thing.
Does J.J. have a straight change now? If so, did he throw it on the last pitch of the game?
Who get the credit for the team having some plate patience? 7 walks a game would sure be nice.
according to Mac, Jose went on his own.
who would have thought the two patient hitters would be Lopez & Sexson?
and Rizzs say, perfectly seriously, that with the 3rd baseman playing back, Vidro could bunt for a base hit there. Uh-huh.
so many, many things that were wrong.
[ponies]
“Does J.J. have a straight change now? If so, did he throw it on the last pitch of the game?”
That’s what I saw. If it was a splitter it didn’t move and was 5-6 mph slower than nomral.
[ponies]
the person I was going with got stuck at work, so I was sitting in solitary splendour, being forced to listen to the pearls of wisdom being dropped behind me, along with the peanut shells…
“Adam Jones is another Jose Cruz, Jr. I couldn’t wait for them to get rid of Adam Jones”
“Sexson had 1 bad year, they boo him. Boone had 1 good year, and they loved him. and Olerud. I never understood that — and all anyone would ever say was, well, he almost hit .400 one year. and then they boo a guy who won the MVP two years ago.”
J.J. is a lot like Skynet from “Terminator”. He learns at a geometric rate. In a panic, the Rangers tried to pull the plug, but J.J. fought back…
3- I guess once you start fooling f/x is when you really have your A game. Lets hope Felix has the f/x thinking he throws a knuckle along with 8 other pitches tomorrow.
apparently Joh thinks Erik should get an award for the way he controlled his temper at the umping on the day ….
The weirdest thing I noticed today (other than the snow falling on the bleachers) is that I noticed three separate times where there was an overthrow or a dropped catch in the between innings warm up. I’ve never seen that from a major league team.
I just got back from a great, yet cold, day at the ballpark. What a game.
It looked like the home plate umpire was having some kind of issue all day. First it looked like he was calling a ridiculously tiny strike zone, then the trouble with Milton Bradley and so on.
Did the strike zone seem tight on TV? Was Bradley really hit? Was the umpire acting funny, or was everyone in my section insane?
Just got back from the game.
Crazy Mother Nature Award:
Snow blowing in hard with the roof closed, drenching fans in LF bleachers and the bullpen.
Idiot Fan Award:
Someone threw a snowball from the LF bleachers and it almost hit the Rangers left fielder. He didn’t even notice it, though.
Awesome Experience Award:
For the first time in a while, no one thought it was odd that I was keeping score, and people engaged me when I thought out loud, instead of giving me dirty looks for (gasp) talking baseball.
Did the strike zone seem tight on TV?
Very much so. Go back through the game threads here (and especially Lookout Landing) and you’ll see. It widened in the end though.
Was Bradley really hit?
Yes. On the foot.
Was the umpire acting funny,
“Not ha ha funny, peculiar I guess.”
or was everyone in my section insane?
Most likely.
msb–
No way! You were two rows in front of me! Section 337, row 13 for you, yeah? I was the one who prompted said gentleman to comment on Jones by saying that though I wasn’t sold on Jones as the greatest thing since sliced bread, I am even less sold on Jones+Sherrill+three propsects for Bedard. 5 innings, 5 K’s, one ER=solid, but not great, and for what we gave, I expect better. I’ll give him more time to grow on me.
turned out it was one of the better starts for a Big-Time Opening Day pitcher today — aside from the show Peavy just put on in SD
8 –
Sexson boggles the mind, but I recall Lopez being relatively patient during his short stint in the 2-hole in the past.
Over/under on 5 more games of 7 or more walks?
msb – Exactly.
If anyone is going to judge Bedard off one start, they are delusional. Not to mention, a different umpire creates a completely different outcome. Safeco, as expected, was his friend, also.
I’m glad Bedard didn’t try to adjust his game and pitch into the zone too much. The result could have been FAR worse.
I’m not sure what the award would be, but could we give an award to the guy who took the time to pass on the right, slow, roll down his window and bitch at me for driving slow in the fast lane on Aurora– imagine, I had the nerve to drive there, and only be going 50-55 in a 40-zone.
man, he must have been ticked when he got a few car lengths down the road and found every one else was driving in the same annoying fashion in all the lanes.
And the show Santana put on in New York. 7 innings, 2 runs. Admittedly, a higher ERA after one start, but he went deeper (and on fewer pitches). I mean it when I say “solid.” I appreciate Bedard’s start, and if that’s what he’s like on a bad day, I’d hate to be an opposing hitter on a great day. I’m just saying: we pony up for a number one starter to one-up our number one-and-a-half starter in Felix; is it unreasonable to expect better? I’ll continue to give him time. By the end of April, when he’s sitting on an ERA under 3.40 and has gone at least 7 innings in 2 out of his five or so starts, I’ll hop on the bandwagon. Until that day, I will cheer him on as a Mariner fan as opposed to a Bedard fan.
Mainly, though, I was just pointing out: small world. At the end of the day, a W is all that matters anyway. Welcome back to Mariners’ baseball. How I missed thee!
25 I’d take that start any day (with a slight chance of an exception with Felix starting) if I know there will be a reasonable strike zone. Not fully dominant, but if he hadn’t been squeezed it would have looked much better in the stats.
And the second I saw that curve ball that looked like it dropped two feet and moved 8″ to the right…and was finally called for a strike. Well, that was a filthy pitch.
oh for the love of… — that gets an award, I’m just not sure which one. Darwin, I think.
completely laughing my ass off at these awards
27 – Maybe so, but Wren and Company aren’t going to waste to much time on him
I don’t like it, but if he stays in Richmond all year and keeps his head down more power to him. But I don’t want to see him in Atlanta any time soon.
Ichiro and Lopez off to the early lead in the “Funny Comments After the Game” sweepstakes:
We LOVED being at Opening Day yesterday. Sure it was COLD, but nothing like having the fireworks go off as the coaches, players and support staff are introduced. We left the game early, at the end of the seventh inning and listened to the rest of the game on the radio while we warmed up in our car coming home.
Some observations: I think a lot of people were expecting Bedard to be the “second coming” and strike out every batter he faced. He struggled, but hung in there and got 5Ks – which isn’t all bad.
The pen did their job.
The Jose Lopez steal on third base was one of the dumbest moves I’ve seen.
After three seasons as a half season ticket holder at Safeco – it helps to bring a blanket to the early season games. Those field level seats can get mightly cold on a day like yesterday. Certainly makes them a lot more bearable. Some prices on food and other items have gone up this season – so be warned of that if you haven’t been to a game yet.
On the post-game radio show there was lots of whining about Bedard. Face it folks – there are another 160 games to go and it’s a long season. He did well last year for a much worse team, and I suspect he will do as well this year in Seattle.
One last thing – I exchanged some of our tickets for tickets to the Yankee Series in September. Field Level seats for the series are going fast – so if you are looking to get some, NOW is the time.
What?! That’s it, you’re outta here!
[U.S.S. Mariner Comment Umpiring Award?]
Oh, yeah, that strike zone Jim Joyce umpired was EXACTLY the size of the plate.
I think he’s the first umpire to reveal the Questec computer chip implanted in his brain.
Yeah 6-4-3! We left early because we live a three hour drive away in Gresham,OR.
I don’t know about anyone else, but when Kenji came up to the plate looking for his third straight walk, it felt to me like Mike Cameron going for the fifth straight home run. Almost.
The embarrassingly goofy new in between innings feature goes to…
Mariner-aoke.
The bad, bad, very bad video of various Mariner fans trying to sing a bad 70’s metal tune.
If they’re going to continue this feature, they need to rename it Mariner-hoaky and warn fans who cringe easily to close their ears and look the other way.
um, The Mariner Black Hole of Calcutta Award?
“Raul Ibanez became a footnote in franchise history on Opening Day — the first player to start the season in left field four times, including each of the past three seasons.”