23-39, Game Thoughts

The players-only meeting.

I'm never sure what to make of these. As a fan, it's hard not to be cynical. "Oh, you want to talk it out? Maybe try winning a baseball game." As a fan, it's hard to see what something like this could accomplish, and when you look at the schedule and see that the M's dropped seven of nine after the last one of these they staged, it's tempting to call them ineffective and pointless.

Remember, though, we're not in there. We don't know why it was called, what's being said, or which problems they're addressing. It's just another one of those clubhouse things about which we as fans have no idea. And when we have no idea, we should defer to the parties involved. What we do know is that the team is starting to come apart. That morale is low, and that the unit isn't as cohesive as one would like. Well, it's hard to fix something like that without meeting about it. They don't call these things so they can shoot the shit with each other. They call these things for a reason, and if Cliff Lee, Milton Bradley, and Chone Figgins saw fit to get everyone together, we can imagine that the seasoned vets are taking on a leadership role in an effort to stave off a total collapse.

Will it work? I dunno. Doubt it. We aren't very good. But you have to try something. The alternative to having a meeting is not having a meeting, and a team that doesn't meet is a team that isn't doing everything it can to pull out of a slump.

With luck, maybe we'll even see some of the other guys start to develop leadership qualities. Cliff Lee won't be here forever. Cliff Lee might not be here in a month.

By the way, the Mariners lost by six.

• They didn't have to lose by six. They didn't have to lose at all. In the first inning, they loaded the bases with nobody out for the 4-5-6. And in the eighth inning, they loaded the bases with one out for a couple of platoon-friendly pinch-hitters. Nothing. Not a single run. The only run the Mariners scored came off a pair of bloopers in the second.
  
  Would you believe me if I told you the M's came in having hit .293 with the bases juiced? It sure seems like every time they load them up, they leave them stranded. Every time. Okay, there was that one cheap grand slam, but aside from that, I honestly have trouble remembering a hit. Apparently Jack Wilson drilled a bases-clearing double at some point. That does not sound familiar.
  
  I think the moment we all knew this would be another one of those games was when, with nobody out in that first inning, Jose Lopez pulled a 1-1 changeup to third base for a 5-2-3 double play. Even a more conventional 6-4-3 would've at least scored a run. Lopez can't even bounce into a productive double play. Making things worse was that Chase Headley hesitated on his throw home, and then Yorvit Torrealba double- or triple-pumped before he threw down to first. They still got Lopez by a step. I don't want to accuse Lopez of dogging it, but he is one of the slowest players at an athletic defensive position that I've ever seen. That guy played middle infield last year. That guy came up as a shortstop.
  
  After the M's went down scoreless in the first, Dave Niehaus let out an exasperated 'Unbelievable.' The Mariners are going to kill him. The Mariners are going to kill Dave Niehaus.


• The Padres got two on with none out in the bottom of the second when Wade LeBlanc stepped in to hit. LeBlanc fouled off a first-pitch bunt, and then the runners took off on the next delivery. LeBlanc watched it go by. I don't know if this was a missed sign, but the end result was the Worst Stolen Base Attempt Of All Time.
  
  
  
  That's Jose Lopez catching the ball and getting into tag position with Jerry Hairston Jr. still 15 feet away. Teams who are deliberately throwing games make closer outs than that one. Hairston didn't even slide. When he saw Lopez make the catch, he just continued forward on a straight path to the dugout.


• Cliff Lee was really good again, because Cliff Lee is always really good. Seven more innings. 75% strikes. No free passes. He just made one mistake and got burned, as so many do, by the spectacular Adrian Gonzalez, who got ahead 2-0 and destroyed a low cutter about 420 feet to the deepest part of the ballpark. It's scary how good Gonzalez has become. He'll still swing through a pitch from time to time, but when it comes to plate coverage and power, he's probably top-five in the world. I don't know that there's an easy way to get him out, and you can't even shift since he hits the ball everywhere. He would just eat Fenway up.
  
  But I distracted myself from Cliff Lee. Lee has now allowed four walks and 25 runs in 68.2 innings over nine starts. He's pitched so well that I'm terrified of letting him go, but then he's pitched so well that he could conceivably bring in a haul in a trade. I hate this situation. Watching Cliff Lee is the most fun I've had watching a Mariner starter since I first got to start watching them on a daily basis, and now any given start with Seattle might be his last. Screw this team. Screw this season. This team has wasted one of the best things the organization has ever had.


• Sean White's performance:
  
  -falls behind Will Venable, allows a well-hit double
  -David Eckstein bunts
  -falls behind Chase Headley, allows a well-hit double
  -intentionally walks Adrian Gonzalez
  
  Sean White has made 19 appearances. His ERA now stands at 7.47. He has more than four times as many hits allowed as strikeouts. All of his meaningful and less-meaningful statistics are worse than they were in 2009.
  
  Can we get over this notion that Sean White is a dependable bend-but-don't-break reliever who can pitch to big league bats? Wak likes him because he didn't really melt down in 2009. Well, he's melted down in 2010, and he's melted down because he isn't very good. He's regressed. Granted, he's kind of over-regressed, but if you're going to pretend like he's good because his ERA was shiny, then you have to think he's bad now that his ERA sucks. It has to be both.
  
  Don Wakamatsu knows a lot more about baseball than I ever will. When it comes to evaluating a relief pitcher's prospects for the future, though, you can't just defer to authority. Authority thinks that Sean White is an integral part of a Major League bullpen, and authority, therefore, is wrong. There's no other way around it.


• Brandon League has been really annoying too. The groundballs are nice, but I'll go ahead and repeat that he currently has a lower strikeout rate than Carlos Silva. You know how often he threw his splitter a year ago? 32%. You know how often he's thrown his splitter this season? 16%. That splitter is his most unhittable weapon, and without his most unhittable weapon, he's worse. He's even more unreliable than he already was.
  
  I know the M's were futzing around with his mechanics, and I know they cited health as a big reason why. But they also cited command and an improved slider, and so far he's thrown just as many strikes as before, and less than 4% sliders. It's just...I haven't been impressed. I haven't seen any indication that he's taken a step forward. He's taken a step back.
  
  The splitter is what made Brandon League so exciting when we got him. When he threw his splitter today, he got two whiffs against Chris Denorfia and struck him out. When he threw his fastball, Oscar Salazar took him deep. What's the deal? When can we have our Brandon back? If he isn't as confident in his splitter anymore, and if he isn't as confident because his delivery is different, then that doesn't really reflect very well on the organization.
  
  I'm trying to be nice, but it's hard.


• Mike Carp made a couple athletic efforts at first base. He was flopping all over. Say it with me now. He was flopping all over like a fish out of water.
  
  But seriously though, he's a person.