Game 51, Mariners at Angels
Olson vs Santana.
I’m still looking forward to seeing Ichiro’s season spun into a negative story about him. Suggestions:
– Ichiro’s consistent hitting puts undue pressure on other players to perform, and they’re pressing at the plate, causing the team’s offensive woes, and he refuses to go 0-fer to let them relax.
– Ichiro’s speed and smart baserunning makes other players look comparatively worse, forcing them to worry about getting good leads and not being thrown out, distracting them and causing them to take bad leads and get thrown out.
– Ichiro’s (and the outfield’s, for that matter) consistent fielding are making the pitchers concentrate on trying to get fly balls, which takes them away from pitching to their strengths and makes them more prone to giving up home runs.
Good luck with that!
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This next series is going to suck, I have a feeling Adam Jones is going to light us up now.
Thanks Bavasi!!!
TomTuttle”
I doubt he could be all that pissed, since he, Wak, lost his game trying to see if is rookie starter could get out of trouble.
At this point in the season, with trades looming, he may feel that finding out what Olson can do is more important than a win.
Had he really wanted the win, he would have pulled him in the bottom of the 6th after Olson put the first man on base.
THE bad thing is who was Wak going to put in for Aardsma that wouldn’t of f-d it up even further?
Closers blow saves. The more chances they have, the more they blow. Putz in ’07 blew a couple in 42 opportunities; K-Rod blew 7 in 69 chances last year, or about 10%. Aardsma had 8 saves, so he was about due to blow one even if he was as good as KRod last year…and I doubt he is.
Pitchers aren’t perfect, especially when they’re tired; and even when fresh Aardsma is far from defect-free. He walks a lot of guys by the standards of any reliever, and especially for a closer. Among closers with at least 7 saves, Aardsma’s BB rate is topped by only Gregg and Lidge (and not by much); among the relievers who’ve saved even one game this year the only guy whose BB rate is significantly worse is… Morrow. You really can’t tiptoe through the minefield of the ninth while handing out one or two free passes every time without it blowing up in your face eventually. Given his inconsistent command, it’s remarkable he’s gone as long as he has without blowing one. That’s part of package when you tap him for this job, as Dave pointed out a couple of times during spring training. Aardsma had been getting away with it, but I think we’d gotten complacent about just how dangerous it actually was. Today just brought the reality home.
That was bizarre. I didn’t remember hitting the Submit button.
Wish you hadn’t said that earlier in the game. 🙁
Agreed. He makes my head hurt sometimes.
Whoa there. Put down the knife down and step back.
I swear, I have not been drinking! 🙂
Well, considering that:
1) You had one of your #4/5 starters, who averages just barely over five innings per start on his career to begin with, going against a tough lineup;
2) The Angles started banging on the door in the sixth inning, then just kept chipping away after that;
3) Ichiro and Beltre get thrown out at home plate in the same inning — reminiscent of the vintage 1980’s M’s;
4) There was one too many Miggy sightings today;
5) There was no way Aardsma was gonna keep racking up a scoreless inning streak a la Trevor Hoffman in his prime; &
6) They pulled one out last night that they probably shouldn’t have won
…no, it doesn’t surprise me at all that they lost today.
It would be funny to see the wild overreactions from the people here if it wasn’t so sad. Look, we won a game last night we had no business winning, AA was getting absolutely brutalized on the strike zone, we had 2 players thrown out at home in the same inning, and we had runners at third with one out twice and didn’t capitalize.
There were a multitude of things that went wrong today. There is no one easy scapegoat. Baseball is a team game, and today, the M’s lost as a team.
Now if we could please all move on past the useless finger pointing and instead be happy the team scored 8 runs today, the most runs the team has scored in nearly a month (and that game it took them 15 innings to score 8 runs). Be happy that Ichiro is absolutely dominating at the plate, and was a triple short of the cycle today. Be happy that, despite today’s loss, we won the series with Angels. Be optimistic that Quiroz came up with a big at bat.
It’s one thing to be bummed about a loss – and today’s loss was certainly one to be upset about. But to sit in misery, and stew in it, and point fingers is just, so, well, useless, I wonder why people bother.
Amen, Axtell. As much as it sucked to lose today, I hardly think the M’s have been mathematically eliminated yet at this point…and, having just gone in there and taken two out of three, I hardly think Anaheim is the friggin’ unflappable “dynasty” that the media sometimes makes them out to be.
We deserved to win two of three and won two of three. The Angels had more reason to be pissed about yesterday than we were about today. It’s baseball, one team wins and one team loses.
Except the All-Star game, sometimes.
Ichiro and Beltre get thrown out at home plate in the same inning
agressive, adj. = foolhardy
No way the M’s should have won on Saturday. No way they should have lost on Sunday.
Anyone else notice Ichiro’s on pace for 243 hits (assuming he makes every start from here on thus 154 games at his current rate of 1.58 hits per game). bah! that guy is so selfish. I mean… think how it makes the opposing pitchers feel when he gets all those hits. 😉
On another note, anybody interested in Figgins next year at third (he’s a free agent i believe)? His OBP over his career is quite impressive and he’s good for stealing a base when you need it. Also pretty versatile and a switch hitter, which the M’s could use.
Ichiro and Figgins would make a great 1-2 punch at the top of the lineup. With a decent cleanup hitter or two, those two would score a lot of runs. He’ll also probably not be all that terribly expensive, relatively speaking, given his lack of power.
I only expect sweeps when the M’s are up 8-1 and this is a “statement” game.
If the Mariners take this I don’t think the team is automatically revitalized as a contender, but it works wonders for the mentality of a team and their resolve. I mean the Angels did what they had to do, but you can’t give games away like that.
A team that wins games it isn’t supposed to tends to progress a lot faster than a team that has to learn how to win… that’s all. At least the lady Huskies made the finals though.
We’re back to the “statement game” canard? Really?
That was a statement comment right there.
Ichiro’s failure to hit home runs deprives his teammates of the social bonding provided by home plate celebrations. It doesn’t matter how many times you reach base or score if you’re an afterthought when the real men (i.e., the English-speaking men) get done with their rituals.
This late in the thread, too!
That’s clutch, I tell ya!
Ichiro’s consistent hitting puts undue pressure on other players to perform
Come on… He only went 4 for 5 today and only hit 1 jack. He sucks. I’m surprised they haven’t sent him down to AA.
When are they going to get a clue?
{edit}
And frankly, only getting a double in his last at bat in lieu of taking third for the cycle was inexcusable. Staying at second instead of getting tagged out at third… SELFISH BASTARD!
I knew something bad was going to happen when they were up 6-0 and the fourth inning was over in FOUR PITCHES. It’s like they just take the day off once they get a lead. Don’t want to blame Aardsma for this, all though his walks are getting pretty painful, but he’s been able to get it done consistently.
Actually the statement game was a little sarcastic, but hey, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t.
After a good night’s sleep I guess I’m slightly content with that school of thought.
hence “statement” and not “statement game”
I’m reeeeealy late to the party (thanks for not saving me any cake).
@Tek
I love Ichiro! and this wouldn’t change that – but the hotel thing is inaccurate, right?
Mostly. I know that it has happened in the past. But Cal Ripken Jr. often stayed in a separate hotel. Many big time stars have separate suites or stay in separate hotels depending on the city.
Hell, Carlos Silva has his own suite, and he isn’t a big time star.
The only reason to mention the hotel thing is if you are already predisposed to dislike Ichiro and are fishing for reasons to cast him as a bad guy.
The way in which the hotel is supposed to matter is based on the notion that team chemistry depends on bonding together outside of work time, and that this activity should be a primary focus of players’ discretionary time. There are so many arguments to rebut that, I’m not even sure where to start. Also, even supposing chemistry to be important for team success, this is low enough on the list of factors that would go into it that the argument isn’t worth the time.
Carson, don’t automatically make the assumption that “Staying in separate hotel = Jerk/Bad Guy who doesn’t socialize with teammates”. You see, Ichiro is a very, VERY OCD-ish person in case you haven’t noticed. He follows the same exact life style and routine every single day. There was a special Japanese program about the life of Ichiro (in 2007 or 06, I forgot) and he follows such a strict pattern every day, all he does is eat curry sauce w/ plain rice for lunch, every single day, every single lunch. Imagine eating the exact same thing for lunch your whole life. When his wife Yumiko opened the refrigerator there were like 10 identical dishes of Curry white rice. This man is insane/boring/awesome. After playing with his dog and working out in his mini gym, he goes to the ballpark and does the same routine (batting practice, fielding, etc).
With that information, you can probably imagine why (if it is true) he would want his own hotel during road trips. He probably shuts himself up in his hotel room eating curry rice, then goes work out in the gym, etc. He doesn’t want anyone asking him to lunch or asking him to play cards. He doesn’t want any unpredictability. He wants to go through the exact same routine every single day until game time, then after the game he can relax and go socialize with Ken Griffey over dinner, until he goes to sleep and the cycle begins again.
Yeah, which is why I said it wouldn’t change my feelings on him. Because, it’s a pretty silly thing to even bring up if you’re a radio host trying to prove a point.
I can’t imagine they spend much time in their rooms anyway. Well, The Chef might if the room service is good.
I was just more wondering if that was a joke or if he really does, so I can continue my thinking that most of these people on the radio haven’t got a clue on how stuff works.
I am worried about Ichiro. If he keeps this hitting streak up, it will likely prove very stressful. And stress already put him on the DL once this year.
Ichiro should try less hard and care less.
I don’t think a lot of these radio hosts have a clue, either. I think sometimes they just invent “controversies” to have something to talk about on the air.
The whole hotel thing is just stupid, and I don’t get why people keep bringing it up all the time (not you guys, but people who don’t dig on Ichiro). I don’t know how many of these radio hosts have ever traveled with a group of people for months at a time, but I’m willing to bet that very few -if any- of them have. As someone who HAS, I can tell you that any opportunity to get a spare hotel by yourself is extremely welcome, no matter how much you like the people you’re traveling with. People are not robots, and every once in a while, getting away from your travel partners is a welcome reprieve. Granted, it’s most likely cheaper for the team to have two people to a room, or however the sleeping arrangements work out, but it wouldn’t surprise me if every once in a while, ALL of these guys might pony up for their own rooms, just for a break. I don’t understand why that is viewed as hating your teammates or being a difficult person. I viewed it as a necessity.
One of the few I can think of (at least locally) is Shannon Drayer…but, then again, she has a heck of a lot better gig these days than having to put with Mitch’s goofiness.
“but the hotel thing is inaccurate, right?”
Shannon Drayer debunked this myth a month or two ago. She said Ichiro stays in a separate hotel a couple times a season. The rest of the time, he stays in the hotel the rest of the team stays in. (not that it really makes any difference. If I spent 8 months out of the year with 25 other guys around me just about all the time, i’d want a separate hotel too, even if we were all best buddies ;-).
But she hasn’t ever gotten weird about Ichiro, has she? I was more referring to the people who are anti-Ichi. If more people traveled in packs, they might understand the value of a nice solitary single room from time to time, and then we wouldn’t have to hear some uppitty radio guy talk about how Ichiro is selfish….
No, we probably still would. haha!
Ichiro’s on pace for 243 hits
Paces/schmaces DMITRI YOUNG hit 3 homers on opening day last year.
He was on a pace to hit 486 homers in 2008.
He didn’t get them.
BTW, the benchmark for good closers seems to be 5 saves out of 6 save opportunities. AARDSMA is 8/9. What’s the big deal?
How silly to think that the guy who owns the single-season hit record at 262 hits in a season could possibly get 243 hits in a season.