9/29: Open game thread

It has come to this. All year I've ended a game thread with the simple exhortation: "Win, ya ________." With 162 games there's almost always something more "important" going on than the day's game. But at the end of it, regardless of job hiring/firing, personal narratives, standings, and what not I really just enjoy watching the Seattle Mariners win baseball games.

But today that stops. I can't do it. In 2008 the miserable Mariners swept the Oakland A's in the last series of the year. finishing 61-101 and 2 games ahead of the Washington Nationals, and missing out on Stephen Strasburg. Now, the Mariners sit 74-83, 0.5 games ahead of the Detroit Tigers for the 10th and final protected 1st round pick in next year's draft.

I can't, I think for the first time in my life, root for the team to win. I can't root for them to lose, mind you. That's just not something I'm capable of; I'll also continue to root for success for all my favorite players in individual moments. But with a new general manager rolling into town and a roster in desperate need of help both at the MLB and MiLB levels I don't want to have to choose between a quality major league outfielder for next year and a shiny, top-5 organizational prospect. This team needs bodies, preferably ones good at baseball, and it needs them fast.

The team appears to understand this. They won't say it, because that violates a lot of unspoken things about competition and "respecting the game" and other such things. But, well, Mark Trumbo is in RF again. James Jones is in CF. Vidal Nuno is on the mound. The team has told James Paxton to take his fingernail to fall ball:

Mariners have shut down James Paxton. He will begin preparing to pitch in the fall league

— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) September 29, 2015

"It's not that. But yes it is that." It has come to this.

Play baseball, ya nincompoops.

Game info

• Astros @ Mariners, 7:10 PM PST, Safeco Field
• TV: ROOT, Radio: 710 ESPN, Online: MLBTV