8/25/20: Open Game Thread

Hopefully the Mariners are feeling good after sweeping the hapless Rangers because they’re about to run into the Tatís-led buzzsaw that is the San Diego Padres. They’re not favored to win any of these games, with some projected margins of victory bigger than others for the Mariners’ natural rivals.

Even if the Mariners lose all three of these games, the Padres represent an opponent that isn’t the Angels, Astros, or Rangers, and therefore these games will represent a nice change of pace no matter what happens. Fresh faces and all that, even when they’re wiping the floor with you. If you’re so inclined, you could also squint at the Padres and hope the Mariners are following their blueprint, although Mets fans still bemoaning the Kelenic trade should probably give White Sox fans the floor for giving up a budding superstar like Tatís. While both Preller and Dipoto love to swing deals in trades, San Diego has followed a very different path from the Mariners in drafting and acquiring talent, swinging big in the Latin IFA market (too big, some might say, as they went over their allotted amount in 2016 and were penalized—yet continued to aggressively hand out max bonuses to the extent of their ability) and taking risky, high-upside prepsters in the draft (including my favorite player from this year’s draft, Tennessee high school bat Robert Hassell III). The Mariners have followed a more staid path back to contention, shedding big contracts for posthype prospects, drafting lower-risk college arms and bats, and investing moderately in Latin American acquisitions.

Speaking of the moderate Mariners, tonight features Marco Gonzales on the mound, which is a very comforting sentence to type for someone still scarred from that 10-run first inning against the Astros a couple weeks ago.

He’ll be opposed by Chris Paddack, who squashed the Mariners in 2019 and then had a sort of uneven season after that. I’m very curious in watching Paddack and Cal Quantrill over this season to see if they continue the trend of Padres starters who get off to really promising starts and then sort of...fall off some, it seems. I’m also interested in watching Dinelson Lamet who is a worldburner who happens to be on my fantasy team (Go Team Fun!), but that’s a different day.

For the Mariners, the most notable thing about this lineup is Dee Gordon getting a start over Shed Long, who has been slumping lately. Please get well soon, Shed’s bat.

Game info:

Game time: 6:10 PM

TV: ROOT Sports, MLB dot TV for those of you out of area

Radio: 710 ESPN

Today’s game is not the free game of the day on MLB TV, which it should be, because instead it’s the Angels-Astros doubleheader Game 2 and I don’t know if you’ve looked around lately but the Angels are bad. And like, not really in a fun, haha way, it’s just kind of sad at this point. Although they are currently leading so, good for them.