Lookout Landing: FanPosts

Ichiro's comments on his fake flip at Yankee Stadium

2009-07-05T09:11:34Z

Hello all. I've been following LL since the start of this season, and for the first time I thought I came across something that might be worth contributing, so I thought I'd give a FanPost a shot. I live in Japan, but am a fan of the Mariners, and so I get something of a different angle than most of you get on their play. I came across these comments from Ichiro regarding his fake flip of the ball to the fans at Yankee Stadium in the Japanese sports news, and from what I can tell, he hasn't made the same comments to any American reporters, so I thought I'd translate them and share them in case anyone else is interested in getting another little insight into Ichiro's head.

When asked why he did it, Ichiro replied, "Well, it just seemed like the fans here [at the new Yankee Stadium] have become too well-behaved, so I figured I should do something to get them going. If you don't provoke them like that, they don't seem to get on your back much." He was, of course, booed for the act, but when he led off the next inning, he was expecting to be booed again, but was surprised to receive a less than hostile reception. "It was pretty disappointing," he said, "I wanted them to boo me." The tone of the whole article suggested that Ichiro felt that the fans at the new Yankee Stadium had become too "precious" and weren't the rude, heckling fans he'd come to expect in New York.

Ichiro also commented on the new stadium, saying how disappointing it was for him as a right-fielder. "With a field this small, you have no leeway to alter your positioning. It's a little boring, frankly, because you have no choice but to field in the same position for each batter. With the fence that close, anything over your head is a home run. So it becomes difficult in right field in this ballpark to use the knowledge you have about the batters, or any gut-feeling you might have, to your advantage." I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that the Yankees would be happy to pump up the home-run numbers as well as take away the element of outfield defense.

Sorry if these comments are common knowledge. I found them kind of interesting, so I just thought I'd share.

Want to go to tonights game in Boston? Please?

2009-07-03T17:53:16Z

Hello all- long time reader here. I apologize if this is an improper use of a fanpost, but this is highly time-sensitive material. I am a big Mariner fan, from Seattle, but am living in Boston and am fairly new to town. I have agreed to purchase 2 tickets to tonights (FELIX) game from craigslist at their face value (hard to find for redsox games)
of $50. I dont have anyone to go with, and think it would be great to have another mariner fan there to back me up in cheering for the Ms. It would be great to get back what I paid for it, but I really don't want to have to hawk one and go by myself and be the lone mariner fan among a bunch of jerk Boston ones. So how about $50 OBO? If interested, send me an email at jack.w.bader 'at' gmail.com with your phone number in it.

The situation is a little odd, but it should be a great night to go- FELIX!. I can talk a lot of baseball, as well. Thanks! And I apologize again for the semi-commercial nature of the fanpost.

Top 5 IFA Guillermo Pimentel signs with the Mariners?

2009-07-03T16:18:50Z

Why hasn't Guillermo Pimentel signed yet?

Never mind.

Two newspapers in D.R. say Guillermo Pimentel signed with #Mariners. Can't confirm, but I'd be surprised if they were wrong

Ben Badler (BP)

Trainer confirms OF Guillermo Pimentel signed with #Mariners for $2m. Contract was signed as the clock struck midnight on July 2

Jorge Arangure (ESPN) This had been long rumored, but good to see it apparently got done. Nice job Engle.

OT 7/2/05-- Flag Waving, Long Weekend, 4th of July Holiday edition

2009-07-02T15:37:35Z

Ahhhhh, a long weekend, complete with baseball.

Time for rambling thoughts, happy incoherence and some patriotic quotes from Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father:

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”

“To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.”

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

Topics for discussion:

Fourth of July traditions?

Worst fireworks? (gotta be snakes, right?)

New & different picnic food?

Beer or wine?

Flag-waving (in a good or bad way) movies?

Open Sounders vs. Timbers gamethread

2009-07-02T01:40:19Z

7:20 kickoff on FSN, broadcast begins at 7:00 right after the Mariners postgame show. LL will be a blog divided during this game.

Here's where I apologize to everyone and admit that I now find soccer to be an incredibly fascinating and entertaining sport. All it took was getting our own MLS franchise for me to realize that. I may not know much about soccer, but it sure is fun to watch.

Also fuck Zach Scott.

via media.publicbroadcasting.net

Happy Canada Day

2009-07-01T20:43:15Z

Which, of course, means hockey talk!

Canada Day is also the start of the free agent signing period and unlike in those shitty other sports, hockey makes hay right away.

ESPN NHL Free Agent Tracker

The big news so far:

-Dany Heatley is still a Sen (thank god, that Edmonton deal stunk)
-Nikolai Khabibulin is now an Oiler (4Y, $15M)
-Marian Hossa is now a Blackhawk
-The Canucks resigned the Sedin twins
-The Canucks lost Ohlund to Tampa Bay on a 7-year, $26.25M deal

In the craziness of the day, Marian Hossa's deal pays him more than the Sedin twins, combined!.

Hossa: 12 years, $62.8M
Sedin Twins: each got a 5-year, $30.5M deal

Who will be heir to the King?

2009-06-30T19:45:27Z

With Beltre out the Mariners' IF goes from problem to disaster and I have no doubt the team is working on a solution. As Dave Cameron has pointed out several times, the team has pieces to trade in Bedard and Washburn, and sending those guys away hurts the team less than people think. But what kind of solutions are out there? I've spent a little time poking around ML rosters this afternoon trying to answer this question. What follows is by no means thorough, but is meant to be more of a jump off point where people can perhaps throw in their own suggestions.

In terms of players, I think basically any infielder except 1B can help the team. Since the team is already considering moving Lopez to third, then dealing for a 2B who is a significant improvement over Lopey and is under team control for a few years would be just as good as a 3B rent-a-player despite the higher cost. Similarly, finding a real ML shortstop would shift Yuni to 2B, where his range will play better, and Lopez to third. It's not that I'm a big fan of Lopez at third base, it's just that there aren't a lot of third basemen available and if the team is about to play Cedeno and Woodward at second base and move Lopez anyway.

Anyway, onto the trade-fantasies. By the way, in all these scenarios I'm figuring it's Washburn on the block on account of he's healthy and I don't really see Bedard getting much interest with Sheets hanging out waiting for a contract.

The first place to look, of course, is the Brewers; first place team, close race, loads of talent, and after Gallardo not much pitching to speak of. They have a few players who merit some attention. Craig Counsell, for one, is a lefty with an above average career OBP and gap power (sometimes). He's a GB hitter without the speed to make it really work, and some of his small sample success this season is on acocunt of a BABIP some forty points above career average. Still, ZiPS thinks he can hit for a .310 wOBA the reast of the way, and when that is combined his defense he's a valuable player. Oh, I forgot to mention, he's an excellent, excellent fielder. His career UZR/150 is in the 10< X <20 range at both 2B and 3B.

JJ Hardy is a little less tantalizing, if only because he's in the middle of a poor offensive year. Otherwise, he's a quality glove at SS, has above average power and a better eye than all but one of our current infielders. I'm not seriously considering him though because I don't think the Brewers can replace him as easily as Counsell. Bill Hall and Mat Gamel are also somewhat redundant, but I'm not that excited about either player, as one's not much of a hitter and the other's not much of a fielder.

The Phillies' rotation can use all the help they can get, so I spent a bit of time looking over their roster. Pedro Feliz is a great fielder whose bat will be a pretty good match for what Betlre had given us so far this season. But that's not a good thing. He's a righty with a below average OBP... I don't know why I even mention him.

Baker brought up Garett Atkins, and he has to be considered on account of he'd come real cheap. But he sports a career .730 OPS away from Coors comparet to over .900 at home, and he's a fuck-up fielder. One interesting thing about his splits is it's primarily his average that suffers away form Coors. His ISO is about the same, and he still has a pretty good eye. Anyway, he'd be better than Woodward and that's... actually that sums it up pretty well.

The best candidate, and of course the least likely, would be Willy Aybar. Tampa Bay is looking up at two excellent teams, has been getting poor performances out of Price, Kazmir, and Sonnastine, and could use some bullpen help on top of all that. In the meantime, with Longoria, Bartlett, Zobrist and Pena there isn't much room for Aybar in the infield, and while it's awesome to have a super sub like him, it's more awesome to have a starter who doesn't suck and use a guy like Brignac for your super sub. Aybar is a switch hitter with a good eye average power and a good enough glove. He's under a ridiculous contract through 2010 with a team option for '11 and his versatility would allow the team to be creative with the MIF situation in those years. I don't know how precious he is to the Rays' management, but right now he seems to me like the most desirable infielder in the majors who combines all the elements the Mariners need yet is not an essential cog in his team's machine.

OFFTOP 6/29/09 - Avoiding Work Edition

2009-06-29T18:15:18Z

The last offtopic thread is getting a little full, so I figured we could use a new one for the new week ahead.

During SIFF, I saw Moon. Has anyone else seen it? I thought it was very good, though probably not super-fantastic amazing. It's more of a moody, thinker of a sci-fi movie, and it's stuck with me. It's odd, it just pops into my head again and again and I wish others around here had seen it so I'd have someone to discuss it with. No more showings in the area, at least for a little while. So, has anyone seen this? Or do you have any other movies (sci-fi or otherwise) that just kind of stick with you and keep popping up?

**********

Hahahaha Frankie. Mariano Rivera got his 500th save last night, but also his first RBI, off a bases-loaded walk by Francisco Rodriguez.

**********

Who is your favorite active non-Mariner baseball player? What is it about them that makes you like them?

Who is your least-favorite/most-hated active non-Mariner baseball player? What is it that makes you unable to stand them?

USA vs. Brazil Game Thread

2009-06-28T19:12:44Z

The U.S. just beat Spain, as I'm sure you all know. They're currently up 2-0 on Brazil with just about 10 minutes to go in the first half. Not sure that two goals is a safe enough lead for my taste with so much game left to be played, but damn has this been a good show so far. Is it possible that we beat Brazil just after beating the world #1?

Anyone meeting up in NYC?

2009-06-27T14:54:21Z

Any LLers planning on going to any of the Yankee games next week? I think I'll be at the Thursday game, maybe the Wednesday one as well. Depending on who is interested, I could possibly go to all of them. If anyone else is going and wants to meet up before/after, lets try and arrange something.

Bonus Note: Last NYY/SEA game I was at featured the infamous Lawn Dart. It was as amazing in person as it is in .gif form.

NHL Draft Open Thread

2009-06-26T23:09:24Z

Shut up haters. Some of us care.

Strip Club Cleared to Open Near Safeco Field

2009-06-26T17:52:48Z

Need a way to kill the hours between your planned Sounders and Mariners double header?

There's a solution coming

A King County Superior Court judge cleared the way today for a strip club to open within a home run's distance of Safeco Field, rejecting arguments by the Seattle Mariners that the City of Seattle improperly issued a business permit to the club's operators.

The Déjà Vu club, sought by longtime Seattle adult-entertainment figure Roger Forbes, would operate at 1530 First Ave. S., about 400 feet south of Safeco Field's main entrance in the Sodo area.

So who do you think will be the first Mariner to patron the establishment?

Also, typical Seattle:

No alcohol or food will be served, but a juice bar is planned.

We need numbers

2009-06-26T06:07:52Z

With Morrow and now Neftali Perez there's lots of assumption about what it's worth for a guy to start/relieve at the beginning of his career. Seems like plenty of pitchers have made the conversion back and forth. Maybe Earl Weaver suggested there was value to starting a pitching career as a reliever? I'm thinking there has to be a way to look at how it would help Morrow to develop in the minors as opposed to in Seattle, and whether Perez's time in the bullpen will cost Texas value in the long run. Otherwise it seems like we're assuming that relieving early in a career is bad, or that learning how to start in the majors is bad, and those are big assumptions.

Sounders/Mariners Doubleheader - 7/11/09

2009-06-25T22:52:57Z

So there will be a few of these upcoming, but on Saturday, July 11 there will be a Sounders game and Mariner game on the same day. The Sounders match against a damn fine Houston Dynamo starts at 1PM. The Mariners game against Texas that night starts at 7:10PM. That leaves a good three hours of bar time in between to hang out and bs.

I will most likely be heading to Fuel for pregame festivities for the Sounders, but mostly I am wondering how many LL folks are planning on going to both or either of the games and if you all want to meet up somewhere between the two games. I am throwing this up to give everyone a chance to do a head count and throw out ideas for where to meet up.

ken phelps and branyan; tony larussa and brandon morrow

2009-06-25T04:15:50Z

I probably don't read as much of this stuff as some people, but I haven't seen any of the stat guys write about how much Russell Branyan is like Ken Phelps. Maybe that's because, if you look at the stats, they aren't that much alike. Or maybe it's just too obvious. But if I remember right, the Mariners picked him Phelps up cheap; Phelps got his chance late, and took advantage of it - just like Branyan has done. Both big home run hitting machines. Branyan looks great but Phelps looked pretty good too. And then Dick Balderson - a smart GM, I thought (was he?) - traded him for Jay Buhner. Doesn't everyone seem to expect Branyan to be gone for the same sort of prospect?

Second thing: a few weeks ago I posted something about Tony Larussa and his failed (with not enough of a chance, really) experiment with pairing pitchers in tandems. I was looking to get some of the modern thinking on that topic. Since then it looks like the Mariners, with Morrow and Jakubouskas, are doing exactly that. It looks like it's working to me. Isn't "stretching out" a pitcher to make it in the major leagues at least 50% mental? Why is this a bad model to use with a talent like Morrow? And doesn't it maximize what Jakubouskas can do, too? I'd like to see someone who knew something about the stat side of life write about that.

OFFTOP 6/24 - The Last One Is Imploding Edition

2009-06-24T20:43:54Z

I'm short on time but we need a new one. Here, folks, are some suggested topics.

In your humble opinion, what was the worst cover song ever recorded? How about Celine Dion doing "You Shook Me All Night Long"?

What is your favorite Roller Derby name? Mine is Betty Ford Galaxy.

I used this one last time and enjoyed it.... what did the last text message you sent or received say?

Who is your favorite local band?

Zduriencik on the State of the M's

2009-06-23T16:07:14Z

Today, Larry Larue has a long interview with Jack Zduriencik on where the Mariners are at about the halfway mark, after their 101 losses last year.

"“I always said [during spring training] ‘We’re the fourth best team in our division – we lost 101 games,” Zduriencik said. “I wouldn’t ever talk about our record this year, I never concentrated on it. What I wanted were players who played hard and cared about this franchise and this community. Talent wins, and until we raise our talent level we need maximum effort. I think the fact that we’ve played 31 one-run games, come from behind so many times this season – that speaks to the character of a team."

Zduriencik, however, must separate the fan from the GM occasionally, and he knows that the Mariners’ record on June 23 isn’t the yardstick by which to measure progress in the franchise.""

M's record when leading/trailing after each inning

2009-06-23T07:41:22Z

I've been doing this every night but don't really have time to do any bargain-basement analysis of the data, so I'm submitting this without comment.

Thru June 21

Overall: 35-34

Record by starter:
Felix 10-5
Bedard 6-5
Silva 3-3
Washburn 5-8
RRS 1-0
Jakabauskas 3-5
Vargas 5-3
Olson 2-3
Morrow 0-2

Record with lead
After 1: 10-6
After 2: 15-9
After 3: 18-9
After 4: 20-12
After 5: 24-9
After 6: 24-6
After 7: 24-5
After 8: 27-3
After 9: 31-0
After 10: 2-0
After 12: 1-0
After 15: 1-0

Record when tied
After 1: 18-17
After 2: 10-11
After 3: 7-10
After 4: 6-6
After 5: 5-8
After 6: 7-6
After 7: 6-4
After 8: 6-5
After 9: 4-4
After 10: 2-1
After 11: 2-0
After 12: 1-0
After 13: 1-0
After 14: 1-0

Record when trailing
After 1: 7-11
After 2: 10-14
After 3: 10-15
After 4: 9-16
After 5: 6-17
After 6: 4-22
After 7: 5-25
After 8: 2-26
After 9: 0-30
After 10: 0-3
After 11: 0-1

SBN Suggestions Thread

2009-06-20T18:16:12Z

So it's been more than a year since we made the switchover to the live-commenting madness of SBN 2.0, and a lot of the initial kinks in the system have been ironed out. However, it's still not perfect, and with that in mind I thought I'd open up a post here to talk about what could be done better. From the authors' point of view, here's a list of things we'd like to see:

1) Auto-updating hidden comments.

2) Easier figure titling/captions

3) Linking to individual comments not requiring a load of the entire thread (the way it used to be in SBN 1.0)

What about the rest of you?

Vacation Pictures

2009-06-20T03:49:08Z

Shannon and I went to Denver for the M's series. Minus the thunderstorms and the tornado evacuation, it was a pretty good trip. We ended up staying in the same hotel as the Mariners. I told Bedard that I wasn't stalking him, not too sure if he believed me though. For those that are interested, here's the recap in photo form. Enjoy.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=105308&id=651320670&saved#/album.php?aid=105308&id=651320670