Good Things in 2008

by Matthew on Sep 19, 2008 8:15 AM PDT in Seattle Mariners News, Good

Jeff's brought it up already in some other forms, but it got me to thinking. If I wanted to make a comprehensive list of all the positive or semi-positive things about this year, what would it look like?

Raul Ibanez continues to hit *
Jose Lopez rejuvenation at the plate **
Ichiro shows no sign of slowing down ***
Adrian Beltre hit lots of line drives and played very fine defense ****
Willie Bloomquist's insane walk rates *****
Erik Bedard's first PA to Ian Kinsler ******
R.A. Dickey the reliever was pretty effective and fun to watch. ******
Arthur Rhodes was decent enough to net us Gaby Hernandez at the deadline. ********
Sean Green continues to be a valuable piece out of the bullpen *********
Brandon Morrow is awesome in relief and awesome in his debut start **********
Roy Corcoran comes out of nowhere to become our most valuable reliever. ***********
Felix Hernandez hit a grand slam off Johan Santana. ***********

* But his continued poor glove robbed almost, if not all, of that positive value away. Amazingly, Raul still played LF after we dumped the monstrosity of Jose Vidro.

** But most metrics agree his defense has fallen off considerably.

*** But his defense is slipping a little bit and he's now moved back to right field.

**** But he's probably going to get traded this winter in 2008's version of the annual retard trade that we know from day -4,077 is dumb.

***** But he also went nearly all season without an extra base hit and finished with but a lone double.

****** But he apparently injured his hip and tore his labrum in that game.

******* But R.A. Dickey the starter got battered around like the self-worth of this guy.

******** But Gaby Hernandez runs shitty ratios even after moving down a level to Double-A upon arriving in Seattle.

********* But he gets overused and becomes ineffective by August.

********** But Morrow's next two starts reveal just how much more work he has to do and dreams of him, Felix and Bedard at the top of the 2009 rotation are dashed by the realization that Morrow will need 2009 as a learning year and Bedard will need 2009 as a rehab year.

*********** But his K and BB rates are bad and he's probably not going to keep limiting line drives to under 9% in the future.

************ Did you hear what I said? He hit a fucking grand slam off Johan Santana! That was mind-numbingly insane!

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There was that time we almost got rid of Washburn...

Funny thing, I saw every one of the single-game events. And not much else. At least I got caught up on my reading, and was able to make time to join a baseball league of my own.

It's hard to convince people to let you eat them if you're an asshole. - Thingray

by Faux on Sep 19, 2008 8:44 AM PDT reply actions

Dave Niehaus inducted into the HOF

by josh_h on Sep 19, 2008 8:57 AM PDT reply actions

That may have been the highlight for me

And of course it has no relation to the team on the field.

by Sec 108 on Sep 19, 2008 9:26 AM PDT up reply actions

Good Things in 2008:Arizona edition

1.Brandon Webb is awesome once again.*
2.Danny Haren is having an excellent year in his first year in Arizona.*
3.Justin Upton has put up a 111 OPS+ as a 20 year old.*
4.Randy Johnson has provided the club with 170+ good to great innings and has only miss 1 start.*
5.Conor Jackson has shown he can be an above average LF after being a below average 1B.*
6.Mark Reynolds may hit 30 homers.****
7.Chris Young took a huge step forward with his defense.*******
8.Stephen Drew showed the power potential he flashed in the minors(203 isoP)********
9.Adam Dunn was very good after he was traded to Arizona.*********
10.Orlando Hudson had another excellent season in his walk year.**********
11.Chris Snyder continues to improve both at the plate and behind it.***********
12. Yusmeiro Petit has been excellent when starting.************
13.The DBacks were in first place for a franchise record 134 games.*************

*But not good enough to win his 2nd Cy Young(or at least he shouldn’t be) and he sucked during some key games the last few weeks.

**But he had his usual 2nd half fade and sucked during some key games the last few weeks.

***But he spent almost 2 months on the DL.

****But he didn’t get his 300th win this year.

*****But he hasn’t had the breakout year at the plate that it looked like he was gonna have in June.

******But he also has a 99 OPS+ and is 9 K’s away from becoming the first player in history to strike out 200 times in a season.

*******But he took a big step backward with his offense and base stealing.

********But his walk rate has been cut in half.

*********But the DBacks didn’t make the playoffs despite that.

**********But he had a season ending injury for the 2nd straight season and will sign elsewhere in the offseason.

But at one point he went on the DL with a “testicular fissure”.

************But it isn’t sustainable.

*************But they won’t be in first place when it matters, and ultimately they greatly disappointed by being just a .500 team in 2008.

I’m ready for this season to be over.

"All I’ve ever done is be Juan Pierre when I wear this jersey. They’re sticking it to me this year for whatever reason. "

.277/.324/.316

~Juan Pierre

by Goose on Sep 19, 2008 9:16 AM PDT reply actions

SBN 2.0 raped my post.

"All I’ve ever done is be Juan Pierre when I wear this jersey. They’re sticking it to me this year for whatever reason. "

.277/.324/.316

~Juan Pierre

by Goose on Sep 19, 2008 9:17 AM PDT up reply actions

Yahoo did something similar the other day.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Ten-reasons-the-Diamondbacks-became-rattlesnake-?urn=mlb,108224

The road to hell is paved with Mariners.

by .Taylor on Sep 19, 2008 9:33 AM PDT up reply actions

3.5 out with 9 (?) to play

You might as well wait until you are officially eliminated to lose all hope.

It was thereupon decided that the world began in 1984.

by JI on Sep 19, 2008 9:50 AM PDT up reply actions

Less than 3% odds

They’re pretty much done. That series where Webb and Haren got torched was their death knell.

If it wasn't for college football I'd probably have given up on sports.

by bluemax on Sep 19, 2008 12:07 PM PDT up reply actions

Well yeah it's bleak

But the Dodgers aren’t the greatest team in the world and I can see them dropping 6 of 9

It was thereupon decided that the world began in 1984.

by JI on Sep 19, 2008 12:11 PM PDT up reply actions

We got rid of McLaren and Bavasi*

*but no doubt their replacements will be just as impotent

by appleshampoo on Sep 19, 2008 10:36 AM PDT reply actions

There's no reason to think that.

J.K.L.

by Aaron Campeau on Sep 19, 2008 10:37 AM PDT up reply actions

There is every reason to think that

and a shred of a rumor that things may change at the top.

by Bearskin Rugburn on Sep 19, 2008 10:53 AM PDT up reply actions

There's really not any good reason to think that.

We’ve had this discussion many times, and as far as I can tell the only reason people assume that the new GM will be just as bad as Bavasi is because they’re being defeatists.

J.K.L.

by Aaron Campeau on Sep 19, 2008 10:59 AM PDT up reply actions

They're not claiming he'll be just as bad

they’re claiming he may not have the freedom to do what he needs to do to fundamentally alter the team’s strategy.

by marc w on Sep 19, 2008 11:14 AM PDT up reply actions

And I just don't really buy this.

J.K.L.

by Aaron Campeau on Sep 19, 2008 12:28 PM PDT up reply actions

Eh

They’ll probably give him a budget and orders not to trade Ihciro and a few others.

It was thereupon decided that the world began in 1984.

by JI on Sep 19, 2008 12:36 PM PDT up reply actions

Which is the case with the vast majority of teams in baseball.

I can live with that.

J.K.L.

by Aaron Campeau on Sep 19, 2008 12:38 PM PDT up reply actions

The comment wasn't that they'll be incompetent

but that they will be impotent which is different. As long as Lincoln and Armstrong are negotiating extensions for players like Joh behind the GMs back you can forget about fielding a consistently competitive team.

by Bearskin Rugburn on Sep 19, 2008 1:14 PM PDT up reply actions

fuck HTML

by Bearskin Rugburn on Sep 19, 2008 1:15 PM PDT up reply actions

Johjima was almost certainly a mandate from the ownership.

Yes, the last few years have sucked horribly, but the Mariners were a consistently good team for 8 years before that. They’re not incapable of winning with Armstrong and Lincoln in charge.

J.K.L.

by Aaron Campeau on Sep 19, 2008 1:30 PM PDT up reply actions

Yes

I am being a defeatist and overly negative. It’s part of the whole “set your expectations low and then it’s hard to be depressed when things don’t get any better” strategy.

by appleshampoo on Sep 19, 2008 2:38 PM PDT up reply actions