Game 25, Mariners At Tigers
Bedard vs Verlander, 4:05 pm.
File this under the “we won last night, so let’s not change what worked” strategy, but guess who is hitting clean-up again tonight? Yep, Miguel Olivo. Last night, you could justify it with an LHP on the mound, but against Justin Verlander? The guy is one of the best RHPs in the game, and Miguel Olivo’s career OBP against all RHPs is .267. Batting order doesn’t matter all that much, but really, there’s no reason for Olivo to hit fourth against a righty – he’s one of the worst hitters on the team when a southpaw isn’t on the mound.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 3B
Bradley, LF
Olivo, C
Smoak, 1B
Cust, DH
Kennedy, 2B
Ryan, SS
Saunders, CF
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123 Responses to “Game 25, Mariners At Tigers”
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Get away game tomorrow? 10 AM PST?
Detroit is looking like Safeco now.
I hate to only pick on a guy when he is down. Cust stinks. He is a miserable, sorry excuse for a baseball player. Josh Bard is a much better hitter than Cust (currently) and he can play a defensive position. Dump Cust. He is an embarrassment. There is no reason to keep him around. Let him go out on a high note. His career is over.
Hey Detroit, sleep fast … you get to see our best pitcher so far this year – tomorrow.
Props to Wedge for hitting Olivo 4th. He had a hunch. He guessed correctly … good for him. Give credit where credit is due.
Whatis the problem with the scoreboard? There are TWO digits showing the Mariners’ score, a 1 and a 0. Do we have one run or no runs?
Every time the announcers said “Benoit,” I couldn’t help but say “Balls.” (Archer reference)
.400!
I don’t know, but it would be a supremely horsehit move that the team would never want to make because it would only cost them later. People have long memories. I see no way in the world that the team would do this. They need to keep their studs (the small list of them that they actually have) happy.
Msfanmike,
Remember when the nationals had strasburg last year and they let him pitch over 150 Innings and he blew out his arm. Well the Mariners don’t want that to happen to Pineda, so it is in their best interest to “shut down” Pineda once he reaches that threshold. ( unless the Mariners are in a playoff race)
Overheard at ‘Sizzler’ after the game…
Jose Vidro: Hey Jack you got a hit tonight hey? Nice!
Jack Cust: Hey thanks Jose! Can I get a refill on this soda?
Jose Vidro: Sure, no problem, just gotta take these dishes into the kitchen.
Carl Everett: Hey Carlos! While you’re up there grab me some more of these Dino Buddies…mmm!
Carlos Silva: Go f*** yourself, wife beater!
Carl Everett: Wow! That was harsh…what’s his problem?
Jack Cust: Yankees told him he had to get into shape..plus they are discontinuing the ‘Double Down’ at KFC…
Carl Everett: Man I love that sandwich!
Jack Cust: Me too! I had three before the game today.
Word Cloud time. Smoak, we love you.
Kind of funny reading this thread from top to bottom after the game. A bunch managerial prodigies would have missed this one yet no one around to admit their mistake. Instead, I will get ten comments of how it was lucky and Wedge is still an idiot for starting that lineup.
KDawg-
It’s just part of being a fan… It’s fun to hypothesize about lineups that might be more effective, given that until recently every semblance of our’s has been not very good.
Buy yeah, props to Wedge for batting Olivo 4th yesterday AND today… He saw that he’d been hitting the ball hard (and deep) but getting robbed (as evidenced by his lowest BABIP to date) and figured some of those have to start falling…
Winning makes even the crudest decisions seem brilliant. No one expected Justin Verlander to get knocked around either. That’s just the way baseball works. It all revolves around the luck of stringing together 25-30% success rates in a way that results in more runs than the other guys.
Kudo’s when we win… Insults when we don’t. *laugh*
Go M’s!
It is def more fun being on the winning side of a 10-1 game..I had forgotten…
KDawg, if at the end of the season Olivo has put up solid numbers… then it’s worth revisiting. But right now, what’s more likely to succeed – making decisions based on what’s happened 22/25 of the time so far this season, or making decisions based on what’s happened 3/25 of the time?
BTW Las Vegas loves guys who think like you. “I’ve lost 10 deals in a row – I’m due!” 😉
On a completely different note – my track record sucks. I’ve ended up missing most of what few lopsided games this team has played…
Wow. Just saw the out call on Figgins in the first.
Wow. That was horrible. How do you miss that call from two feet away?
Above .500 in night games! And terrible in day games… oh noes tomorrow =(
Did Pineda pitch like 160 innings last year???? If yes why can’t he throw like twenty more?
Where’s the post game post (yeah I think that’s right) for this game? If USS Mariner is to remain the leading Mariners blog (which I believe it still is), I think there needs to be more dedication put into it.
I don’t mean to anger anyone. And I don’t mean to suggest the bloggers have no life. It’s just so many important things happened today and if there’s not a piece on it (maybe there’ll be one tomorrow this time?), then I’ll have to start getting my Mariner-fix where it’s supplied.
Thanks
He pitched almost 140 innings last year.
I’m not sure whether the extra question marks are supposed to represent more years or something.
But I’m sure the thought is that he’s only 22 years old, and the M’s aren’t going anywhere this year anyway.
Jeff over at LL recently discussed this in more depth.
That was about the worst possible lineup Wedge could have started. Luckily, the order of the lineup was not the deciding factor last night.
I also want to point out that Olivo’s OPS+ against RHP is now all the way up to 8. (I’m being sarcastic).
They play a lot of games in a baseball season, and in the short term almost anything can happen, but in the long term there is regression to the mean. Making one decision in one game (e.g., batting Olivo 4th against a RHP) may not be important, but doing that same thing in 100 games will yield some sort of measurable result.
Dude, cheap shot.
I am not questioning a limitation to his innings, I am questioning (i.e. violently reacting to) the inference that they would consider moving him down so as to avoid “service time.” They are separate issues.
BTW KDawg – looking back at my previous response… while I think my points are valid, I regret the snarky tone I used. I apologize for that.