Seattle Mariners Continue Losing Road Trip

The Mariners follow up a net nine-runs-below-average-in-two-game-series performance with a net negative 10-runs-below-average-in-two-game-series performance. Way to go, losers. Now this series features baseball's second-worst hitting, its second-worse fielding, its second-worst rotation and its second-worst bullpen. Huzzah!

The current forecast predicts little to no rain over the weekend.

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/
http://vikingfest.org/
http://www.zoo.org/
http://www.siff.net
http://seattlebeerweek.com/events/5/18
http://www.spl.org/locations/central-library/cen-events-at-the-central-library
http://psso.org/concerts-tickets/2011-2012-schedule
http://leavenworthspringbirdfest.com/
http://www.selahdays.org/
http://www.penncovewaterfestival.com/
http://www.udistrictstreetfair.org/
http://www.laceyspringfunfair.com/
http://www.chinaartandculture.com/

If you're watching the Mariners, it's your own damn fault.

Fri 18 May 17:40
KEVIN MILLWOOD	ALEX WHITE

The 15th overall pick in the 2009 draft, Alex White was sent to Colorado from the Indians in the Ubaldo Jimenez (who we just saw!) trade last year. He's had reasonable success in the minors but was absolutely atrocious in the Majors. After the trade to the Rockies, White got seven starts with the big club and in 36.1 innings was tagged with 12 home runs. He also has a control problem.

Uninterestingly, White was promoted to the Rockies rotation right around the same time that they added Kevin Millwood for his handful of starts. Millwood's went way better, but his 3.6% walk rate has certainly shown itself to be a total fluke, which, of course it was.

Sat 19 May 13:10
JASON VARGAS*	CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH*

Christian Friedrich is another one of Jeff's complete sentence names, but more hidden. It can actually be two, and very different!, sentences depending on how you parse Christian's surname. It could also be a three, or more, different sentences if you're illiterate. You might be here just for the colorful graphs, I don't know. I don't even know if you're real. What if this is some dumb thing like The Truman Show? I don't see how my life would make for entertaining television (or whatever medium you weird voyeurs are using), but then again, have you seen what people voluntarily watch? GASP! Unless those people don't exist either and it's all a construct to see how I'd react to stupid pop culture. This is deep.

That did not go where I anticipated. Friedrich was a first round pick back in 2008, taken five spots after the Mariners picked Josh Fields, and this will be only his third Major League start. His previous two came at San Diego and at San Francisco. Christian Friedrich must be confused why he was demoted from Colorado Springs.

Sun 20 May 12:10
BLAKE BEAVAN	JEREMY GUTHRIE

The Mariners currently are joined with the Rays, Dodgers, Reds, Cardinals, Angels, Marlins and Nationals in not having used more than the default five starting pitchers so far in 2012. The Rockies are tied with the Twins, Royals and Padres in having used eight different starters, most in baseball. The Rockies have also used 12 different pitchers already in relief. The Red Sox and Royals are the highest, each at 14.

I was inspired to look up that information because at the time of the first draft of this post, the Rockies' starter for this game is still to be determined. I hope that's remedied by final draft time!

[They have not, so Jeremy Guthrie is my best guess based on the past turn in the rotation]

Series Beer: Elysian Split Shot Coffee Milk Stout
Seattle Beer Week draws to a close this weekend, so here's a shout out to the official beer of the celebration.