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ADVANCED REPORT - WES BANKSTON

Wes's middle name is Wade and he is 24 years old. He was born in Dallas which means he was probably a Rangers fan growing up. Ha. How funny is that? You think he hates playing against the Rangers?

Wes was a darling outfielder and QB in high school and he was going to go to the University of Texas before he was drafted by those pesky Devil Rays. That's just like them to draft young people. Did you know they barely have anyone over 30 on that team? How do they win? I wonder if Bankston would have been the starting QB at Texas. Wouldn't Vince Young have been there too? Awkward!

Bankston started pretty well in baseball and then didn't do pretty well for some time. He made a Triple-A All-Star team though so that's really impressive. He's been designated for assignment three times in the past year though. He really needs to get cracking on that assignment lol.

Anyways, he's on the A's now so he probably never swings at anything and loves drawing walks and then standing on the base waiting for the next hitter to walk. Or hit a home run. Whatever. He might start some games this series because Poorland (get it? lol) has all these, injuries and stuff. So retarded.

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"I'd never faced the guy before. I didn't really know how to approach him. Usually, Oakland guys are really patient and take some pitches. I thought I'd get a nice little strike one right there, and he was on it.'' Yes, Washburn had read scouting reports on Bankston. But no, he added, those don't really help. Won't tell you the guy is going to hack at a first-pitch breaking ball.

Link

I'm not totally convinced my above scouting report is 100% accurate, but if a scouting report isn't going to have information like the percentage of times a hitter swung at a first-pitch breaking ball, then what does it have? And you cannot even claim this is hard information to get. If I wanted to, using information like this, I could generate all sorts of stats on Wes Bankston's tendencies in about 15 minutes.

Either the Mariners know this and think it's not important because they're stupid, they know and do this but somehow don't get the information to their pitchers because they're incompetent or they don't know this is possible because they're ignorant. If it's the latter, hey Mariners! Look at me! I can do this for you!

Over here!

Hey!

...goddammit.

It's no secret that Penny's shoulder has been a problem off and on all year. Apparently, it was worse than ever today. "In the bullpen today, I knew I probably shouldn't have went out there," Penny said. "But that would have put the team in a horrible position."

Source: Rotoworld

Penny got shelled and is now undergoing an MRI on his shoulder. When will athletes learn that, in a majority of cases, playing through pain is stupid? I know it must be incredibly hard for them to sit games out, but come on guys, eventually you have to see the pattern here right? Missing 30 games now is always better than missing 100 games later.

If it feels like we're losing is extraordinary fashion a lot more often this year, it's because we have been.

April 1: WE = 87.2%
Done 3-1 entering the bottom of the 8th, the Mariners gain three runs thanks to errors by the best middle infield in baseball Michael Young and Ian Kinsler and got the lead run across thanks to a wild pitch. They had the bases loaded with 2 outs too but a Brad Wilkerson pop out ended the threat for further runs. Never the less, it seemed safe with J.J. coming up. Nope. A single and a Josh Hamilton homerun put the Ms to bed with a 5-4 loss.

April 6: 94.9%
Felix tossed 8 shutout innings in his second start of the year, giving way to the pen in the 9th with a 2-0 lead. The M's had 2 outs in the ninth with the bases empty, albeit down to a one-run lead when single, single, walk, wild pitch, single ended the game.

April 18: N/A
Torii Hunter

April 23: 82.6%
The Ms put a couple runs up early against Daniel Cabrera while Carlos Silva cruised through five. Silva hadn't allowed a hit through the first four frames than escaped massive danger in the fifth when Aubrey Huff couldn't figure out how to run. It felt like we had been granted a reprieve. Then the sixth inning rolled around. Single, triple, RBI groundout. Bam, game tied, except we already knew it was over. A Nick Markakis first pitch HR off RRS in the 8th sealed the deal.

April 24: 92.4%
Ms race out to 5-0 lead. Give up trying to score. Let Orioles climb back in. Orioles take lead. Ichiro ties game back up with 2-run bomb! Three batters later Brian Roberts no-doubts Sean Green in the 8th.

April 25: N/A
Batista is wild, hurt, puts us in early 3-0 hole and departs in the 2nd. Baek comes on and tosses 6+ innings of 1-hit relief while the Ms gasp to get back into the game. They climb within one run and load the bases with one out for Yuniesky Betancourt who takes a 1-0 pitch off the plate away at below his knees, and bounced into a 6-4-3 double play.

April 27: 88.2%
Ms grab an early 2-0 lead, Felix looks uncredible through 3 and settles into a groove through 7. Then; walk, double, walk, single, walk, single, K, single and it's 4-2 A's.

May 1: 83.2%
J.J.'s clearly not healthy. Fuck this season.
I even thought this just felt like a win. I smiled knowingly when Richie hit it out in the 10th. I had felt confident the entire later innings. I was confident with J.J. I was sure he was going to come up and put the fears instilled in that Oakland game to rest. And for one batter he did. Kudos to Batista, Rhodes, Morrow, Richie and Ichiro.