Mariners Moose Tracks, 8/18/17: bad Mariners, good Gareth Morgan, Roenis Elias and Mark Twain

Hello everyone. It is Friday, and if Friday means anything to you, then yay! Friends, I have some petty severe cranks. Do you ever get a case of the mean reds? What are your tips for instant mood lifters? Asking for a friend, obviously.

In Mariners news...

• Yesterday there was no game, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t still get some bad news.

• No, I mean really

• No but should I maybe just unfollow bb-ref? For health reasons?

In Mariners minors news...

• The Rainiers lost, because Guy Fieri Ernesto Frieri couldn’t protect the two-run lead his offense handed him in the seventh. Taylor Motter went 4-5 with two doubles and a home run. I am really, really over the “everyone’s a long reliever” strategy in Tacoma.
• The Travelers lost because they couldn’t get anything going against Texas’s top pitching prospect Yohander Mendez and rehabber Jake Diekman. All three pitchers who pitched for the Travs are guys who were added recently—like Ralston Cash, literally signed yesterday—to plug up holes, and they only allowed three runs as a group, of which only one was earned. Braden Bishop continued to impress, going 2-4 with a double; he’s now been on base in every single game he’s played at the Double-A level. Oh, and he can do this:

• Modesto defeated rehabber Robbie Ray in a game against Visalia; Donnie Walton, fresh off the disabled list, went 3-4 with a double, and Nathan Bannister, who’s been jerked between Modesto and Tacoma this year whenever the Rainiers need a spot starter, threw five runs of one-run ball (on a HR).
• If you’ve been wondering why Eric Filia hasn’t been in the Modesto lineup lately, it’s because he’s a dad now! Of twins! So tiny!

• Gareth Morgan is quietly having a much improved season at Clinton. He’s still striking out too much but has raised his BB% to 12%, which is literally more than his 2015 and 2016 seasons put together. And the power tool is still a very real thing:

That’s a walk-off winner. Make sure you have the volume up so you can listen to the sound of the crack of the bat. Positively Boomstick-ish.

• Cool piece on MIT grad David Hesslink from the MiLB flagship site.

Around the league..

• Old friend alert (come back to us Roenis):

• We Mariners fans have it bad for pitcher injuries, but the NL Central/East pitchers had a pretty rough day:

Kate’s picks:

This is from a couple of years ago, but it came up on the podcast and I feel like it’s worth reminding people that there was a TEN FOOT ALLIGATOR IN A DUGOUT because Florida:

• Also relevant to podcast interests: If you haven’t read it, I can’t recommend Mark Twain on James Fenimore Cooper’s literary offenses enough. It’s one of my favorite pieces of literary criticism, or of just plain writing, of ever.
• Okay, last podcast thing. I still can’t find an online version of the brilliant annotated Showgirls commentary done by David Schmader, but this “Everything Wrong With Showgirls in 22 Minutes” is pretty great.