Baseball

01/11/12 on Fangraphs

1:01	Comment From MarinerDan Do you like the DH or would you prefer pitchers to hit in both leagues?

1:01	Dave Cameron: I don't get why anyone likes watching pitchers hit.

From your mouth to God's ears.

It's Baseball!

First Ichiro Interview, question, what are you going to do about Jr's practical jokes?

It is important not to touch the bomb because the bomb will explode. Just let it sit.

It's a bad sign....

They've removed the standings from the front page. Maybe nobody will notice when they finish last....

In a nutshell.

"The Mariners get a man as far as third but can't get him home."

Mariners' play by play announcer Dave Sims
Middle of the fourth inning, Mariners down 6-5.

aaargh!!!

I can't decide who I hate more, Aubrey Huff or Bryan Roberts.

Feh!

No matter what the manager says, the Mariner's home series with the Angels is THE critical series of the season. Not winning this series means no chance at winning the division. Zip, none, nada. That is what this series always meant.

Not winning the division means the only playoff chance is the wildcard and they are still in the running for that. BUT, it will probably mean playing the BoSox and getting creamed by their pitching in the first round.

Thank you Jeff, they gave you a 5 run lead and you GAVE IT BACK! Take the 8M next year and use it to resign Jose Guillen.... Trade Weaver for anything you can get, if you can get anything. He may be great on a good day, but he's entirely unreliable and doesn't have enough good days. Let somebody else gamble on him.

Kim

Gettin' it done....

The family spent the weekend at Mom's cabin on Lake Coeur d' Alene and I added to the Pile o' Blocks....






I'm still not entirely happy with it. The wall with the paving stones on top makes a seat for tall people, but too tall for short people. I used all the bricks I had with me, so I'll take another one up sometime and put a second brick on the singleton at the top of the steps to make a seat for shorter people.
The other major modification would be to lift the steps, pour concrete, then set the pavers in the concrete so you don't have to keep pouring sand on them. The sand holding the pavers doesn't work on the steps very well, because it just washes away. If you enlarge the photo (just click on it) you can see the top step is uneven and the sand just washes out from between the pavers on the lower steps. Concreting them in will be for next spring though.

The Mariners ended up with a split with the cellar dwelling Rangers after the loss again today (Sunday). That is NOT getting it done. They stay two games back of the Angel's, and are only a game and a half up on the Yankees for the wild card. If they don't win the homestand against the Angels this week, they are no better than tied for the wild card and buried out of the running for the division, since they have an away series with the Yankees coming up, and three games in Oakland and four games in (Not) Los Angeles to close out travel for the season. By that time, three games at home with the Rangers probably won't matter unless they win some away series'.

Kim

Woo Hoo!

The Mariner's shut down Texas' record setting (33 runs in one game) attack, winning last night 9-4. They are one game back of the Angels for the division and two games up on the Yankees in the Wild Card. And the Angels and Yankees are done with each other, so my schadenfreude is back.

And, Voila! The Highland Badger Stronghold

Mariners LIVE!

Tuesday night, David Tuttle (may he be as blessed as I) called and said he had a couple of tickets to Wednesday's day game and nobody had been able to use them, did I want them? I called my boss and begged. He gave me the vacation time and we went. They were beautiful seats, front row of the second deck just off the first base line. The Mariner's lost.....

It was an outstanding game for eight innings, a pitcher's duel at 1-1 after 7, and a bobble to let a Twins run score in the eighth. Jarod Washburn pitched a great game. The bobble made it 2-1 after eight, certainly a salvageable situation. But Sean Green gave up a hit, a walk and a sacrifice getting two outs in the top of the ninth, to put men at 2nd and 3rd. They walked Joe Mauer (.305, 5 HR) to get to Torii Hunter (.296, 24 HR), loading the bases. Hunter parked one for 4 RBI. The crowd got up and walked out. It was really quite weird to look back from the ball landing to see the aisles now filled and the seats empty..... I wondered about the intentional walk to Mauer and hindsight is 20-20, but dang! Bad move.

Are they good enough? This one belongs to the manager....

Kim

Mariners +16

Minnesota is a dangerous team still. Richie Sexon starts off the game with a two run double and then the team scuffles for a third run off of Johan Santana, last year's Cy Young winner. Minnesota ties the game with a big inning against the relievers but Richie mends his reputation with the home crowd with a walk off home run in the 9th. (Jeff Weaver's got a ways to go yet.) They have to keep winning these games to stay in it, but they are finally hitting good pitching and their pitchers are keeping it close. If they keep it up, they will have an October. But they've gotta keep it up.

Kim

Mariners 63-49

M's sweep the Oriole's with a win over Daniel Cabrera who had a 7-0 record in 9 starts against the Mariners. Meanwhile, the A's are getting the same treatment the M's got from the BoSox so going into the weekend they are a game up in the Wild Card and only 2 1/2 back of Anaheim (which is not in L.A.... or even L.A. County.) Beating up on the sub-.500 Orioles or ditto the White Sox won't prove they're good enough, but at least their keeping the jury out....

Kim

58 - 46, 3 back

Newcomer Miguel Batista handcuffs the A's while the bats scrape up two runs. Ibanez robs Guerrero of a couple RBI's with an OhMIGOD he got to it catch. JJ strikes out Bad Vlad with a high fast one, then gets two more flyouts on three pitches... Yep, they're better than last year. Are they good enough????

Kim

UPDATE: Jeff Weaver.

Please bring back Cha Seung Baek. And, thankfully, it's only one year at 8M. Just write it off as a bad expense.

K

UPDATE II: King Felix

Not often you can score three on JJ. It took to the 12th inning to get one back... Good enough? Maybe.

Detroit 1, Seattle 6 after 6, Update D4, S6 final

Why wasn't Kenji Johjima in the All-Star game???? He puts the eighth pitch of the at bat in the stands for a grand slam against an veteran All-Star pitcher, he's hitting .288 with an OPS (Offensive Production Statistic, hits plus extra bases plus walks per at bat) of .782. He plays every day, if there's a stat for passed balls, he's near the top, he has a good arm and never makes a mistake. Ooops. He just let one by in the seventh. Anyway, who's having a better year? This is why I won't vote in the All Star balloting....

Kim

Update: JJ Putz gets a four out save on four batters for his 26th straight save this season. No, Mr. Leyland, you did not shake his confidence when you lifted him with two outs and men on in the All-Star game.... Nice try.

Vacation is over/news is good

After being off line for six days, I came home to find that 1) the Mariners are solidly in second and moving up on the Angels and 2) a majority of American voters favor impeachment (Impeachment numbers) of Dick Cheney and George Bush. A majority of all Americans favor impeaching Darth Cheney.

I spent a good deal of the holiday thinking about how to put a little militance into my anti-war convictions. This included some meditation on the venerable peace symbol. Regardless of what its mystical origins might be, it remains for me and a lot of my generation a simple expression of the notion that violence begets violence and only peaceful solutions last. So I think I might let it sprout all over everything I own again....

After driving past the old guys with flags (VFW?) peace demonstration on Saturday at fair, I started waving the old two-fingered peace sign around. I guess biking to work isn't the only reason I'm feeling 10 years younger.....

Kim

How about those Mariners!