Game 21, A’s At Mariners
Dave · April 22, 2011 at 6:40 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Pineda vs Ross, 7:10 pm.
The Michael Pineda World Tour continues tonight, and while this team might not be “good”, it’s tough to argue with Felix and Pineda on back-to-back nights for entertainment value. I noted this on Twitter the other day, but Pineda has the best average fastball velocity of any starting pitcher in baseball so far this year. The secondary stuff still isn’t there, but the fastball is one of the best in the game.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 3B
Bradley, LF
Cust, DH
Kennedy, 1B
Olivo, C
Langerhans, CF
Ryan, SS
Wilson, 2B
Okay, let’s wager on the final score… any bets? I’m thinking 4-3– we still win it!
AND IT’S FINALLY OVER
Brandon!!
Good, I lost my bet!
Brandon, I’m gonna have to stop doubting you.
Let’s hear it for 3-1 Michael Pineda!!! He of the sub 2.00 era.
I have to give it up to Brandon this year, he has been much better. Keep it up!
MARINERS
That’s 22 innings… =)
Guess the team read Dave’s run prevention article.
Let’s give League some credit.
Nice win! And woohoo Pineda!!
Chappaquiddick.
I kid, I kid…
Actually I like “The Senator” for some reason.
BTW I am enjoying the Wilson-Ryan combo.
I know this is late, but – the worst thing about the Theismann injury was the way they kept replaying it, over and over, afterward.
I dunno, Westside, I’m just grateful we didn’t have the wall to wall sports TV and every angle footage and super slow mo… It was bad enough to see that sort of fuzzy full field shot and having that sickening thought, wait, a human leg doesn’t bend in that direction.
Tonight’s game thread word cloud indicates someone had a headache?
hehehe Carson.
Even with Jack Cust’s low BA, he still has an OBP of .321. Even Ichiro’s current OBP is only .330 at the moment. I think Jack is doing exactly what we hired him to do. Walk a ton and hit an occasional bomb!
Uh…When is that bomb coming?
Or I can see plenty of bombs, just not over the fence.
Well… we can be pretty sure Ichiro will get better, but we don’t know that about Cust. Thing is, .321 is still a bit worse than league average IIRC – that may be a bit better than we’ve done the last couple years, but is “a bit worse than league average” really what we want from the DH slot?
I do like the walks, honest I do – but it’s like he brings absolutely nothing else to the table.
Cust’s OPS is .523. Saunders’ OPS is .595. Bradley’s OPS is .789. Moving Bradley to DH and letting Saunders play every day – even if he doesn’t improve (!) – improves the team offensively. Plus I’m concerned the back spasms that sidelined Bradley tonight are just the first wave of expected issues caused by running him out into the field. He needs to be DH’ing, and Cust isn’t showing us anything that says “hey I deserve to keep running out there”.
MY EYES, MY EYES!! OH MY GOODNESS, SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!!!
I just made the mistake of looking at Olivo’s current OPS.
Oh, Adam, if only you weren’t hurt…
I truly see your point. However I’m not quite ready to give up on Cust. I like the idea of Saunders playing everyday, however Cust gives us the better chance to compete right now. So I don’t mind that Wedge is shuffling Saunders and Langerhans around out there too much. Plus we really don’t even have a problem right now with playing time until Guti comes back. I bet that Rodriguez or Langerhans might be expendable. Who knows!
Olivio’s poor hit though was destroyed… it’s just that you couldn’t possibly hit it out to center last night.
sexymarinersfan
Cust is MUCH more expendable than Rodriguez or Langerhans.
Not only has Cust been godawful this year, but he can’t play a position either. Rodriguez can play multiple places, and Langerhans is a competent hitter who can play the OF and fill in at 1B in a pinch, Cust is an immobile K machine with no position and his one skill (this supposed power we keep hearing about) seems to be non-existant anymore.
Bradley at DH and Saunders in LF is absolutely the best thing for this team going forward.
According to fangraphs, Pineda now has the 5th best ERA in the league. Not bad for a rookie!