Series Preview: Seattle Mariners @ Oakland Athletics

Seattle: 21-24
Oakland: 16-25

SUMMARY

We got worse. We played the Giants for three games, won two of them, and got worse. That takes a special kind of suck. This team is special.

GAMES

Game 1: Chris Jakubauskas vs. Brett Anderson*
Game 2: Jarrod Washburn* vs. Dallas Braden*
Game 3: Erik Bedard* vs. Trevor Cahill

Brett Anderson looks like he could grow into being a decent middle of the rotation starter soon. He's not going to miss many bats, but he controls his walks decently and does a good job of getting ground balls. Right now, he's being penalized for a high home run rate, but that seems likely to regress back. For a 21-year-old that is pretty good, but I wonder how much upside he has unless he learns an out pitch.

Dallas Braden is pretty decent as well. He misses a few more bats than Anderson, but sacrifices a lot in the ground ball category to do so.

Trevor Cahill needs to go back to Double-A where in time he might grow into a middle rotation starter. Right now he cannot control his walks or translate his decent, but not great, stuff into strikeouts. 23 walks to 19 strikeouts on the year so far this year.

Two lefties, albeit one a groundballer and a mediocre righty with bad command. I cannot wait to see how pathetic we look against a team we should have a chance to sweep.

THIS SERIES BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Stone Vanilla Bean Smoked Porter
Stone Brewing Company. Escondido, CA

Sticking with the special porters, this is one of Stone's special versions of their already excellent smoked porter. TDark inky black with little head. The aroma perfectly matches the description with loads of vanilla, cream and smoke. Carries a great balance.