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This Could Not Be More Humiliating

Tiny by Jeff on in Game Recaps

Mike Mussina has a little league fastball. Mike Mussina has a little league fastball and an assortment of slop that he throws in an effort to screw with the hitters' timing of his little league fastball. Through his first six starts he struck out all of 12 batters in 32.1 innings while putting up a swinging strike rate of six percent. SIX PERCENT. In middle school one of my English teachers taught me her little rule of thumb that you should spell out numbers up to ten and then switch to numeric form for higher ones. If I'm spelling out your swinging strike rate, that's bad. That's almost impossibly bad.

And yet there goes Mussina, whiffing five - all swinging - over six effective innings.

Top 6th: Seattle

- R. Ibanez struck out swinging
- A. Beltre safe at first on third baseman M. Ensberg's throwing error
- J. Clement struck out swinging
- R. Sexson struck out swinging

I can't even blame it on the lineup being too right-handed since three of the strikeouts were by lefties. So instead I'll blame it on the lineup being bad. This lineup is bad. And while I expect it to get better as Clement and Balentien get their sea legs (not a pun, shut up) and Johjima regresses towards the mean in a good way, it'll still be bad, and it'll still be a problem that costs us games. Our pitching is good, but it's not spectacular. We need run support, and right now, do you trust these guys to provide it?

There will be streaks. There'll be streaks where we look back on this post and think it's stupid, and there'll be streaks where we look back on this post and think I wasn't being harsh enough. But what matters is the overall picture, and when you can count the number of players you expect to consistently get on base on the severed right hand of Mordecai Brown, you're in trouble. This lineup just doesn't have enough talent to get away with making so many easy outs.

I suppose on a day like today, I shouldn't be picking on the offense, not when Felix was as bad as he's looked in forever. But where Felix has earned the right to have the occasional stinker, this offense hasn't, and the longer it takes to get its shit together, the further we sink. At 13-18, we're tied with the Nationals and behind San Francisco. This is a big hole. This team is in danger of ending its season before it even begins.

The clock is ticking.

Wake up.

5_3_08_medium

Biggest Contribution: Ichiro, +10.0%
Biggest Suckfest: Felix, -26.6%
Most Important AB: Ichiro single, +10.1%
Most Important Pitch: Jeter double, -10.9%
Total Contribution by Pitcher(s): -25.9%
Total Contribution by Hitters: -30.1%
Total Contribution by Opposition: +6.0%
(What is this chart?)

0 recs | Comment 177 comments

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According to the Baker

Johnny Mac gave the team a closed door beating (of the verbal kind). I’m not really sure yelling is a constructive way to reach people though. Meh. Go Blue Jays.

Coldly devouring reason as if it were a delectable snack

by Frosty Raptor on May 3, 2008 2:17 PM PDT   0 recs

Really?

I am sure Mac has them shaking in there lil booties. I don’t see McLaren as a scary guy. Have someone else lay into them, better then Grandpa yelling. He might hurt his shoulder again.

by bhsmarine on May 3, 2008 2:36 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Ruh rah rah

I don’t understand it either. How is Mac supposed to instill fear into a bunch of guys who make a ridiculous amount of money to play a game? Mac can’t dock their pay.

“Closed door beating”, my college really needs to raise its standards for Literary majors.

Coldly devouring reason as if it were a delectable snack

by Frosty Raptor on May 3, 2008 2:49 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Baseball players, by and large, actually want to do their job well.

And while I’m not sure that these sorts of ass-chewings ever actually produce results, I don’t really think it’s fair to chalk up the lack of results to the amount of money the players make.

Support local music.

by acblue on May 3, 2008 2:54 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

What a joke

We’re not winning shit this season. We should just nuke the whole team for prospects and start over since our farm system is now gutted.

by OlSalty on May 3, 2008 2:32 PM PDT   0 recs

Theoretically

The Mariners shouldn’t have to enter another “rebuilding” cycle. They have the resources to “retool” instead, much like the Red Sox are doing. It just requires competent management. I’d really like to see Ichiro get another shot at the playoffs, and all the important pieces (or most of them) are coming back next year. Plus, if Vidro’s option doesn’t vest, his 8 million and Sexson’s 14 million come off the books.

Coldly devouring reason as if it were a delectable snack

by Frosty Raptor on May 3, 2008 2:38 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

They've tried this before.

It didn’t work. I agree that a competent front office could, given the amount of money the Mariners have to spend and the core of players they have coming back, could make a “retooling” plan work. The current regime (or whatever clones they’re replaced with, if it comes to that) have shown me absolutely nothing to make me think they’re capable of doing so.

I try so hard to be optimistic about this team and it’s future, but at this point, it’s impossible. And it’s gotten to the point that they’re going to have to go through a very long stretch of making smart decisions for me to ever feel optimistic again.

Support local music.

by acblue on May 3, 2008 2:51 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

I think the White Sox are trying to follow this

After their disaster of a season last year, they decided they still have a core that they could compete with rather than completely stripping the team down and rebuilding. We’ll see how they do later on. I think I’d like the Mariners build a core around Ichiro-Beltre-Felix-Putz-Bedard.

by Fin on May 3, 2008 10:30 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

This tree you speak of. Does it burn?

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on May 3, 2008 9:36 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

I believe that this ship is sinking

and that we are to play for ourselves IIRC

by Gomez on May 3, 2008 10:25 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

I completely agree, and I think the front office has to know this lineup needs help BAD.

The thing is, I don’t think it matters in the least, because to make the team demonstrably better, they’re going to have to add current ML talent from somewhere else. And I just don’t trust this front office to do that with any measure of success. If this team had the same record and personnel but a different GM, I wouldn’t be all that concerned. There probably aren’t enough pieces out there to compete with the Angels, but there’s at least enough to make this an above average team, and it wouldn’t impact next year’s chances in the least. There’s no way you can convince me that the M’s couldn’t pick up sort sort of an upgrade at a corner outfield spot without giving up anything of tremendous value. Even though Richie hasn’t been the biggest problem with the offense, there are still upgrades at 1B falling out of my ass right now. (And Richie would be a nice platoon partner with Clement at DH and a decent enough bat off the bench to boot.)

And I know that I’m not saying anything right now that hasn’t been said a billion times before by people who know more about baseball than I ever will. But it’s just SO FUCKING OBVIOUS that I’ve convinced myself that if enough people keep saying it, eventually someone will catch on. Far fetched, I know, but what the fuck else am I supposed to do?

Support local music.

by acblue on May 3, 2008 2:37 PM PDT   0 recs

well there is always

the all time HR and modern OPS leader… i heard he’s pretty good.

by RollingWave on May 4, 2008 4:44 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Missed the game.

Why did Felix take such a big dump today?

by chinn on May 3, 2008 3:00 PM PDT   0 recs

Maybe he was daydreaming

about the mythical kingdom of “run support”

by chinn on May 3, 2008 3:06 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

No sunshine, no lollipops, no rainbows

make Felix something something…

by thenatural on May 3, 2008 3:29 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Right.

King Barry rules the Kingdom of Run Support

by chinn on May 3, 2008 3:07 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

I wonder if Reggie Stocker is available...

(Yes, that was an MLB: The Show joke. Yes, I am ashamed of myself.)

Support local music.

by acblue on May 3, 2008 3:08 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

If not Stocker

then perhaps that Jon Dowd guy…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Dowd

The poster formerly known as Matt.

by bluemax on May 4, 2008 12:23 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Welcome to Mariner Offense

Played 6 games this week:

Total runs scored before the 9th inning: 9
Total runs scored before the 9th inning outside of Wlad: 6

Total number of multi-run innings: 2
Total number of multi-run innings before the 9th: 1
Total number of multi-run innings before the 9th outside of Wlad: 0

Bavasi: “This pitching rotation is designed to stop losing skids”
M’s Offense: “We’ll just see about that….”
M’s Defense: “Muhahaha….”

by ThundaPC on May 3, 2008 4:18 PM PDT   0 recs

so what needs to happen to fix this offense?

They’ve power flushed Wilkerson and Norton in favor of Wlad.
They’ve moved Vidro to the bench in favor of Clement.

What else needs to be done to make this an AL average offense?

Midnight Baseball - No Lights - Only in Alaska!

by MfaninAlaska on May 3, 2008 4:42 PM PDT   0 recs

The schedule

The next 13 games after Sunday looks like this:

4x Texas
3x White Sox
3x Texas
3x San Diego

If the offense is going to sort itself out that would be the time to do it. If they don’t by the time they finish San Diego this season will be over because:

3x Detroit
3x New York (Yankees)
3x Boston
3x Detroit
3x Angels
3x Boston

That’s a mighty long stretch of facing expected contenders.

by ThundaPC on May 3, 2008 5:13 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

So yeah...

How bout ‘dem Seahawks?

by BrianL on May 3, 2008 5:37 PM PDT   0 recs

Yes, but you guys nailed it!

Going in, the prevailing opinion was:

1) The Bedard trade didn’t make since because the Mariner’s really weren’t that close.

2) That’s because: nothing was done in the off-season to correct the defensive suck in LF, RF and 1B, and

3) nothing was done in the off-season to correct the offensive suck at 1B, RF and DH.

4) The bullpen would be solid, though the loss in consecutive years of Soriano and Sherrill made it much thinner and therefore more harder to withstand injuries or suckage to/by key guys.

5) The Pythag could catch up to us in particularly humiliating ways.

And so, you guys were right! At least for the first month, that’s pretty much what happened. That’s why the ’’re-build” course was such a popular choice (develop Clement to catch and replace Joh at mid-season or next year, develop Morrow as a starter, play Jones everyday in RF, keep Butler and Tillman moving through the system, keep working the draft, etc.) before the Bedard trade, the Silva-Wilkerson-Cairo signings and the Joh extension.

The upshot: It’s hard to watch the bad stuff come true, knowing you can’t go back to “re-build” alternative easily.

But: The M’s have lots of resources, still, and the season will also deliver some pleasant surprises. We just haven’t had many yet.

by flightrisk on May 3, 2008 6:28 PM PDT   0 recs

Yes it could.

...and now I'm here

by Librocrat on May 3, 2008 6:49 PM PDT   0 recs

Update: Sunday, May 4th, 12:47PM

I told you.

...and now I'm here

by Librocrat on May 4, 2008 12:48 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

er, "didn't make sense"

apologies to offended sensibilities.

by flightrisk on May 3, 2008 6:54 PM PDT   0 recs

The new line-up has just begun.

Clement and Wlad are doing fine, we have forgotten how new they are to the Majors…give them a few weeks to settle in. They will be far better than Wilkerson and Norton. I don’t know how the hell Cairo is still on our team, that is beyond me… Also, after Wilk/Nort getting sent down, I’m sure it’s put pressure on other struggling players that don’t want to be benched… JJ should get his groove back hopefully…. We can still have a great season.

by Alaska on May 3, 2008 7:11 PM PDT   0 recs

I'm glad you seem to think...

that these young kids will settle in fine… Personally I believe that this team needs to address the black hole that is 1B… I’m not convinced that JJ is fully healed… You’re far too optimistic…

by BrianL on May 3, 2008 7:27 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

I don't think

Sexson is exactly a black hole… he’s right about the middle of the pack for 1st basemen in the AL…...
The biggest problem for this offense is Ichiro not being Ichiro yet….. he’s 10th in AL for CF in OPS, 7th in BA, 10th in OBP….

He’s the important factor for this offense, getting on and creating runs… he’s not doing much of that so far this year and that’s a big problem.

Midnight Baseball - No Lights - Only in Alaska!

by MfaninAlaska on May 3, 2008 7:35 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Sexson is having success against LHP...

But he can’t seem to handle life against RHPs…I propose an Ibanez/Sexson platoon…Perhaps call up Reed to play LF…

by BrianL on May 3, 2008 7:38 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

What Reed can't do with the bat...

he makes up for with his defense…

by BrianL on May 3, 2008 9:31 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

I've seen Raul and he is terrible.

But I believe Raul makes it up with his bat which evens things out. Adding Reed would improve the defense a lot but his bat doesn’t even come close to Raul’s or Richie’s. I just don’t see how Reed would make a difference.

by Susheel Ramasahayam on May 3, 2008 10:28 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Raul can't hit lefthanders

Sexson can’t hit righthanders. You platoon them at 1B you mitigate the suck factor both of them bring to the plate. Reed may hit as poorly as both of their bad platoon splits (which I doubt), but in the end might net a win or two with his defense alone.

by BrianL on May 3, 2008 10:31 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

What about Raul vs. RHP + Richie vs. LHP?

I think we should really start mentioning this. If Geoff Baker gets wind, he usually passes along the idea to the team if he likes the idea.

by Fin on May 3, 2008 11:10 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

A 1B platoon makes too much sense

But I doubt the M’s would have the balls to platoon a 14 million dollar man and the FOF.

by Fin on May 4, 2008 12:28 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Yikes.

I didn’t realize it was that bad.

by BrianL on May 3, 2008 11:12 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Even with the horrid glove play

this team is putting out there… giving up runs isn’t out of hand…. scoring runs is the problem. Putting Reed in the lineup is not going to help this team score runs which is the most significant issue this team has right now.

Midnight Baseball - No Lights - Only in Alaska!

by MfaninAlaska on May 3, 2008 10:30 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

cool

so they lose 3-1 instead of 4-1… that’ll make a lot of difference in the W-L column.

Midnight Baseball - No Lights - Only in Alaska!

by MfaninAlaska on May 3, 2008 11:15 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

So what would you do to improve the team?

Seems you’re not overly keen on improving the defense and keeping Richie/Raul’s suck platoon splits out of the lineup.

by BrianL on May 3, 2008 11:18 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

I'm not interested in Reed

Unless some bigger impact can’t be brought in to help this offense.

Otherwise its shuffling the cards with the same exact hand.

You can put Reed in LF and Raul at first. You gain defense in the outfield and don’t gain any offensive increase, and likely make the defense at first even worse….. side step.

There’s nothing in the minors left that’s going to make this team better, so its time to look outside the organization to see what can be acquired…. or just play the hand you have and hope they get better.

Midnight Baseball - No Lights - Only in Alaska!

by MfaninAlaska on May 3, 2008 11:21 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Raul does far less damage at first

than he does in left field. It’s an overall net gain to platoon Raul with Richie and put Reed in LF. Dramatic net gain? No. Improvement, Absolutely.

by BrianL on May 3, 2008 11:23 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

far less damage based on what evidence?

Raul hasn’t played first in years…. he’ll have a ton more responsibility in the infield then he does to the outfield.

So far Richie has had 263 total chances… Raul has had 61. There’s a much bigger chance that Raul costs this team alot more outs moving to first

Midnight Baseball - No Lights - Only in Alaska!

by MfaninAlaska on May 3, 2008 11:27 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Really?

based on what?

Midnight Baseball - No Lights - Only in Alaska!

by MfaninAlaska on May 3, 2008 11:28 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

common sense

firstbase may handle the most chances, but it also handles the most easy chances. Left field, particularly in Safeco Field, involves more skills (running, throwing) than first does.

Also, a good reference tool

by JI on May 3, 2008 11:39 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Richie would have more total chainces though

if he ever was able to get to a groundball.

by Edgar for Pres on May 3, 2008 11:45 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

We should flip Sexson and Beltre on the infield

that way our best fielder could handle the most chances.

by JI on May 3, 2008 11:46 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

This post is highly amusing

but still a very valid way to illustrate that defense deals with far more than total chances.

by BrianL on May 3, 2008 11:48 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

If the M's are completely out of it in September,

I would completely endorse something like this. Put Richie at short, Johjima in center, Yuni catching, and Ichiro pitching ever five days. I’d buy a ticket to watch that.

by Teej on May 3, 2008 11:54 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

so on that defensive spectrum

first base is #2 and LF is #3 ….. Raul having not played there in years, not being exactly mobile, its highly predictable he plays far worse then Sexson…. so you stregthen one position with Reed, weaken another with Raul…. and still have a sub .700 ops hitter in the lineup with Reed.

again… that still equates to a side step in my book not an improvement that’s going to make a lick of difference to the W-L column of this team.

Midnight Baseball - No Lights - Only in Alaska!

by MfaninAlaska on May 3, 2008 11:53 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

That's the general defensive spectrum

In a park like Safeco or Yankee Stadium, left field is much more important than it is in a typical ball park. Think of left field in Safeco as almost a second center field.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating here; the outfield at Safeco is backwards in terms of defensive setup. While center field is still the most important position defensively, left field is not that far behind, with right field being the least important. The alignment of the walls is the big factor here. Simply put, the best chance for a double or a triple in Safeco is to hit one into the left center field alley. In most stadiums, right center or the right field line is the place for gap hits to turn into extra base knocks. However, because of Safeco’s short porch down the right field line and relativel shallow RF-CF gap, combined with the wall aiming caroms toward the center fielder, that isn’t the case in Seattle.

So, while it’s true that most teams can simply hide their worst defensive player in left field, the Mariners are not in that position. Left field is an important area for defensive value. Safeco is traditionally a flyball park, making outfield defense more important than in a neutral park, and it’s also a park that is at the extreme of run values on balls hit into the LF-CF gap. Balls hit there that are turned into outs are more beneficial than average, while balls hit there that get down for hits are more harmful than average.

In fact, if I was going to design a defensive spectrum for Safeco specifically, it would go SS-CF-LF-2B-3B-RF-1B. I’d argue that left field is the third most important defensive position (excluding catcher, a whole other animal) for the Mariners, and the fact that they’ve assembled a staff of flyball pitchers only emphasizes that.

linky

Also, keep in mind, the gap between each position of the spectrum is not equal.

by JI on May 3, 2008 11:58 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Wow, thanks for this link.

Going straight to the bookmarks.

by BrianL on May 4, 2008 12:01 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

whatever the gap is it doesn't make this team

any better if at all, because this teams biggest problem is scoring runs. You can put all the gold glove fielders out there you want, if they can’t hit they don’t make this team better and Reed can’t not hit any better then what Raul and Sexson do in their negative splits.

Midnight Baseball - No Lights - Only in Alaska!

by MfaninAlaska on May 4, 2008 12:01 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Yes scoring runs is a problem

but given that there are no realistic options in house or via trade that this club is going to look into, you’d best start give the defense another look. Regardless of whether Reed’s bat is an asset or not, his defense coupled with platooning Richie and Raul DOES make this team better.

by BrianL on May 4, 2008 12:05 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

this is just wrong

there’s no other way to put it.

Some defensive systems last year had Raul giving away more wins with his glove than he provided with his bat—which is astonishing considering that he is a good hitter.

Think of it this way (and lord knows that the LL authors could use actual numbers instead of estimates and explain this better)

hypothetically (using not real values, but made up estimates)

that Raul’s bat is worth enough runs to equal 3 wins, but his fielding is so atrocious that it’s cost the team 4 wins, you have a player’s who contribution is worth -1.

Let’s also say that Reed’s punchless bat is worth -3 wins, but his glove adds 4, you have a +2 player. Raul’s contributions: -1, Reed’s +1.

This is the fundamental reasoning behind the Reed for LF bandwagon.

by JI on May 4, 2008 12:09 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs