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Another lovely Friday in the Pacific Northwest. The site's resident bohemian/artisan/non-sleeper-person Munenori's Espresso Stand has once more provided User Generated Content (tm) for us to enjoy. His introduction is below.
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Hello. How are you? I am well. This week, we welcomed back one-time All-Star of baseball and perennial All-Star of sex appeal Franklin Gutierrez. Franklin played in left field for the first time ever on Wednesday. He got a minor ovation from the crowd, which was apparently less important to ROOT than showing the Royals' defensive alignment. Guti the Cutie hit a sac fly, caught a ball, and managed to be in the outfield for 9 innings without suffering some sort of Catastrophic Existence Failure. I'll take it. Fangraphs estimates his time on Wednesday as being good for a wRC+ of 38 in 4 PA. Willie Bloomquist has had 68 PA so far this season and has a wRC+ of 2.
One benefit of the fates and fortunes of the Mariners this season is that it seems to have paused a long-standing lament of the Mariner fan, that being "could we have a decent everyday left fielder prettyexpletiveplease". Not because we have one. Ha ha! Ha. Hooo. No, it's just because that's somewhere in a growing list of things that have gone kumquat-shaped so far this season.
So, it's been seemingly forever since we contemplated left field around here. For many periods in the M's history, it can be represented thusly:
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In today's quiz, let's take a stroll down memory lane. Gaze fondly at the lawn darts, dinosaurs, wizards, fish and birds strewn about like discarded puppy toys. Marvel at the defensive stats hanging above left field like a grey August sky that keeps threatening to open up but just never does. Make a silent "tch... aw." at what might have been, as some of the names go by. Wonder if there's any rest stops on this lane, because it's been a little while since lunch and that Thai/Japanese/Chinese/
All quiz stats are valid through midday Thursday the 25th.
HAPP-y Friday! GOMS.