Same Mariners Begin Half Against Good Rangers

The Mariners took four days off and return to Seattle with zilch in the way of Major League roster moves. That is probably good since the roster moves available wouldn't be paradigm-shifting, but is also boring. I assume the brass wants to make changes. They can't be happy with how the team is faring, any more or less than the fans are. But making changes just to make a change is rarely a positive step and is almost impossibly improbable to be a significantly positive step.

The Mariners are bad because the talent is bad and right now there's little anybody can do about it. You can do something about how much you watch, listen and care though. Join us. Join us on the dark side of long summer nights not spent with the Mariners.*

*except, I guess, this Saturday. //le sigh

P/PA = pitches per PA [avg~3.8], nBB = uBB + HBP, Sw = swinging [avg~45%], Ct = contact [avg~81%], Qual+ = a measure of quality of batted balls [avg=100, higher is better]

Hahahahahahahahahaha, pathetic. Utterly, totally pathetic.

I wonder if Dustin Ackley is slowly evolving before our eyes into some kind of zen master wherein he no longer swings at any pitch because that is deemed a violent action. Eventually, he would move on from the need to mark himself in this territorial world of sports at all.

If you combined Miguel Olivo's swing rate with Dusin Ackley's contact rate, you'd get Yuniesky Betancourt. If you combined Dustin Ackley's swing rate with Miguel Olivo's contact rate, you'd get Jonny Gomes. I don't remember why I looked this up anymore but now I am sad.

In case you notice the lack of home runs here, be mindful that the numbers are over the last 14 days, not 14 games. So the break is partly to blame. Still, the Rangers' lineup is much less pathetic and that's even with the team slumping on offense. Over the last two weeks, the Rangers posted a .635 OPS. That is still about 7.8 kilometers ahead of the Mariners, who come in on a .496 OPS hot spell.

It is curious to see the Rangers' infield rate so poorly with Adrian Beltre at one of the key positions, Elvis Andrus decently regarded for his glove coming up and Ian Kinsler having improved greatly in recent times. I don't put my thumb on the formula though; the Rangers have allowed a .272 RBBIP on ground balls this season. Baseball outside the Rangers have held those grounders to a .260 mark.

Nope, I got nothing.

It sure is nice of the Mariners to oblige a blog gathering with an appearance by Felix Hernandez. Remember last time, or possibly some time other than the last time, when it was Ian Snell? Remember that? I do. I vividly remember that. I don't want to.

Hisashi Iwakuma has made one start. In it he went five innings and threw 71 pitches, only 39 (55%) for strikes. He did strike out four, miss seven bats and generate four pop ups, but he also walked three, allowed more fly balls than ground balls and even a home run. Time for sample number two.

Str% = strike rate [avg~63%], Ct% = contact rate [avg~78%], GB% = groundball rate [avg~45%], Qual- = a measure of quality of batted balls [avg=100, lower is better], LI = leverage [avg~1.2]

Of course Joe Nathan has been awesome in the Rangers' bullpen. Tanner Scheppers hasn't though!

Series Drink: Gin & Tonic
Unfortunately I already used Baltic Thunder in the beer category, so I couldn't pair up a beer with our current weather in Seattle. In fact, with the switch over (finally) to actual summer temperatures, I've found my hankering for beer slacking and so, instead, how about a nice gin and tonic? And yes, that picture does have a Titanic-shaped ice cube sinking in the gin!