Game 77, Athletics at Mariners
marc w · June 23, 2013 at 1:21 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Jeremy Bonderman vs. Jarrod Parker, 10 minutes ago (sorry)
Parker was brilliant in his rookie campaign, but he’s regressed quite a bit this season. Jeremy Bonderman’s BABIP’d into quite a run of late.
Line-up:
1: Chavez
2: Franklin
3: Seager
4: Ibanez (DH)
5: Gutierrez
6: Smoak
7: Zunino
8: Saunders (LF)
9: Ryan
SP: Bonderman
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103 Responses to “Game 77, Athletics at Mariners”
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>>Ibanez should get an electric dog collar and anytime he goes near the outfield, he gets a hefty jolt that tells him “NO! Bad Raul…” (Morse should probably get one too)
The collar idea is fine, except that the hefty electric jolt needs to go to HowChuckZWedge, not Raul…
I don’t think there is anyone here who is “pointing the blame” at Raul Ibanez.
Yes, it’s nice when he hits dingers. He’s not the worst Mariners hitter, to be sure…but he’s not Miguel Cabrera, either.
He’s not the best defensive outfielder, but at least he’s able-bodied…which is more than you can say for Guti, Bay, Morse or Morales. (And I’ve seen Morse, when healthy, try to play in the outfield…and at worst, Raul vs Morse is a push.)
He’s 41 years old and as long as he is healthy…he has a place on a MLB roster. I don’t blame him for continuing to play to the utmost of his ability. I don’t think that Raul is the reason the M’s are bed–but neither do I think Raul is reason enough to hope that we’re secretly good.
The fact that Raul HAS to play the outfield (or, better spoken, is our best option to do so) is indicative of the M’s problems…and they’re the same problems that we all knew the M’s would have going into the season. We have a poorly constructive and less-than-competitive roster with precious little depth anywhere.
To be respectable this year, we needed everything to go right. The fact that we’re seeing Raul regularly playing in the outfield is a sign that everything did not go right.
Raul, himself, is not the problem. If he plays here again next year–won’t make us significantly better and, depending on his salary and other options available to the team, probably won’t make us significantly worse.
I have no problem joining my wife in being happy when Raul = Dingers! (Just as long as she doesn’t have a problem with me covering my eyes whenever a fly ball is hit in his direction.)
We ALL know that Raul is not, personally, the problem…but he’s not any sort of a solution to any of our problems, either…
“Such as why the Mariners put together a shoddy roster that necessitates using a 41 year old DH primarily as a LF.
Seriously- depending on a bunch of guys with histories of injury problems (Guti, Morse, Smoak, Bay)? Really, really dumb.”
Exactly my point. Why is everyone so focused on Raul…signing him as a part time bench bat/DH wasn’t really a bad move except they already had a bunch of other DH’s that shouldn’t be full time position players already. It’s been mentioned enough times here…the problem is the way this team was constructed….not Raul himself.