Friday, June 25, 2004
Sorry, but our manager has got to be one of the biggest idiots in baseball history. In this quote from Friday's Seattle Times, Melvin says that "It was not the case at all that he (Ichiro) was supposed to produce runs in the three slot." WHAT?!!!??? Why the hell is he batting in the 3 hole, so he can make outs? He's not supposed to drive in runs? He's supposed to come up with runners in scoring position and strike out? Is that why Ichiro tried to bunt the other day with a runner on second and two outs??? Melvin is the worst manager in recent memory, possibly even worse than the infamous Maury Wills, who "led" Seattle to a 26-56 record in parts of the 1980 and 81 seasons.
Me, I was hoping that Melvin's blunder today, using up 5 of his 6 bullpen guys in the first ten innings, would lead to his firing right after the game, when the M's were forced to use Jamie Moyer for four innings after J.J. Putz, the last pitcher in the pen, couldn't go more than four. I was half expecting Melvin to say after the game that he thought he could bring back pitchers he'd used earlier if the game went longer than fifteen innings... Alas, it was wishful thinking -- this bozo is still the manager of the Seattle Mariners as of this writing.
Gee, ya think now that the Mariners have proven that they're no match for the Rangers, that the idiots running the organization will finally allow Bavasi to trade Garcia and anyone else that has value, like Guardado, Mike Myers, Dave Hansen. Spiezio and Randy Winn should be dealt if anyone will take them, even if the M's have to pay half the money on the remaining financial commitments to both players. I've been a Bret Boone supporter but even I have to say after watching him the last two weeks, that nobody is going to take Boone in a trade unless he gets hot. If this continues, the team is going to have to figure out how to bench him or put him on the DL so he doesn't get the 450 plate appearances he needs to guarantee him $9 million for 2005...
I heard the most insane thing ever on the radio yesterday --- one of the KJR hosts, after saying that Bill Bavasi had said that the team wasn't giving up on the season yet because of the fans, made a comment about the Mariner fans wanting to see John Olerud and how upset the fan base would be if he weren't playing the rest of the year. Yeah, there might be some grandmother in Puyallup who wants to see Olerud ground out to second base for the umpeenth time, but I have to think that most of the fans are wise enough that they'd rather see some hot young prospect get a shot...
Me, I was hoping that Melvin's blunder today, using up 5 of his 6 bullpen guys in the first ten innings, would lead to his firing right after the game, when the M's were forced to use Jamie Moyer for four innings after J.J. Putz, the last pitcher in the pen, couldn't go more than four. I was half expecting Melvin to say after the game that he thought he could bring back pitchers he'd used earlier if the game went longer than fifteen innings... Alas, it was wishful thinking -- this bozo is still the manager of the Seattle Mariners as of this writing.
Gee, ya think now that the Mariners have proven that they're no match for the Rangers, that the idiots running the organization will finally allow Bavasi to trade Garcia and anyone else that has value, like Guardado, Mike Myers, Dave Hansen. Spiezio and Randy Winn should be dealt if anyone will take them, even if the M's have to pay half the money on the remaining financial commitments to both players. I've been a Bret Boone supporter but even I have to say after watching him the last two weeks, that nobody is going to take Boone in a trade unless he gets hot. If this continues, the team is going to have to figure out how to bench him or put him on the DL so he doesn't get the 450 plate appearances he needs to guarantee him $9 million for 2005...
I heard the most insane thing ever on the radio yesterday --- one of the KJR hosts, after saying that Bill Bavasi had said that the team wasn't giving up on the season yet because of the fans, made a comment about the Mariner fans wanting to see John Olerud and how upset the fan base would be if he weren't playing the rest of the year. Yeah, there might be some grandmother in Puyallup who wants to see Olerud ground out to second base for the umpeenth time, but I have to think that most of the fans are wise enough that they'd rather see some hot young prospect get a shot...
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Lost in all the fuss about Dan Wilson losing the ball (or having it knocked away from him), is the fact that Randy F Winn caught the damn ball about 10 or 15 feet from the infield. No mattter who was running, no third base coach in the game of baseball would send a runner from third on any other left fielder except Randy Winn. While his throw was technically on-line, it was far from perfect; it was a high, looping throw and took way too long to get there. Bagwell should have been out by 40 feet with a decent throw from an average left fielder. Instead, the throw made it close and it forced Wilson to have to lunge to reach Bagwell, causing the ball to come loose. Sorry folks, but Randy Winn has to have the worst outfield arm in all of baseball...
And if Winn plays another game in center field for the Mariners, I'm gonna scream. Hiram Bocachica, a 28-year old journeyman outfielder ($300,000 salary), comes up from the minors and makes two awesome plays in center field, the kind of plays that we've come to be used to with Cameron out there, the kind of plays Randy Winn, making 12 times as much as Bocachica) doesn't make in his dreams. Yet Melvin keeps insisting that he only moved Winn to left because "Hiram was more comfortable in center". Melvin actually had the nerve to say the other night that, since the first couple of weeks of the season, Winn has been fine in center. Uh, Bob, no he hasn't. He doesn't get a good jump on the ball, he looks lost out there and even with his speed can't get to balls he should get to in CF because he takes the wrong routes...No more Winn in CF --- EVER!
And if Winn plays another game in center field for the Mariners, I'm gonna scream. Hiram Bocachica, a 28-year old journeyman outfielder ($300,000 salary), comes up from the minors and makes two awesome plays in center field, the kind of plays that we've come to be used to with Cameron out there, the kind of plays Randy Winn, making 12 times as much as Bocachica) doesn't make in his dreams. Yet Melvin keeps insisting that he only moved Winn to left because "Hiram was more comfortable in center". Melvin actually had the nerve to say the other night that, since the first couple of weeks of the season, Winn has been fine in center. Uh, Bob, no he hasn't. He doesn't get a good jump on the ball, he looks lost out there and even with his speed can't get to balls he should get to in CF because he takes the wrong routes...No more Winn in CF --- EVER!
Monday, June 07, 2004
The Mariners have picked shortstop Matt Tuiasasopo, a local kid out of Woodinville High School, with their first pick in the amateur draft, the #93 pick overall. Tuiasasopo, of course, is the brother of former Huskies QB Marques Tuiasasopo and he also plays football and is the top quarterback recruit this year of the University of Washington Huskies. The 18-year old Tuiasosopo has been ranked the #9 quarterback in the nation. He now has a choice between playing football for the Huskies (he's their top QB recruit this year) and accepting a rich signing bonus to sign with the M's to start in the low minor leagues. As many of you know Seattle forfeited their first and second round picks in this draft in order to sign Raul Ibanez and Eddie Guardado.
Tuiasasopo was on KJR-AM here in Seattle earlier today, where he said that he would not play both football and baseball and that he would only play one sport. He said he and his family had spoken with the M's, who were aware that he would only play one sport. He said that he would make his decision in the next day or two.
Obviously if Tuiasasopo plays football, this is another blunder by the Mariners. Hopefully they're prepared to offer him enough money to forego a football career. Tuisasopo is reportedly a powerful Jose Canseco-type (without the steroids) who projects to a corner position in the major leagues.
Tuiasasopo was on KJR-AM here in Seattle earlier today, where he said that he would not play both football and baseball and that he would only play one sport. He said he and his family had spoken with the M's, who were aware that he would only play one sport. He said that he would make his decision in the next day or two.
Obviously if Tuiasasopo plays football, this is another blunder by the Mariners. Hopefully they're prepared to offer him enough money to forego a football career. Tuisasopo is reportedly a powerful Jose Canseco-type (without the steroids) who projects to a corner position in the major leagues.
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
In a long overdue move, Gil Meche and his 7.06 ERA have been optioned to Tacoma and Hiram Bocachica has been recalled from the Rainiers. Now I'm not sure how exactly Meche had an option but that's besides the point. This is another move by Bob Melvin and the M's that comes too late to matter. Not for Gil Meche -- hopefully he'll be able to bounce back and resume the promising big league career it seemed he had when he went 10-5 in the first half of 2003 (he's gone 6-16 with an ERA well over 6.00 since).
No, what I mean is that this move, like the delayed sending down of Rafael Soriano when it was obvious he wasn't ready to pitch at the big league level, is another move that proves that Melvin, et. al. just don't what they're doing. Meche has been awful for over a month, he wasn't giving the team a chance to win the games he was starting, but continued to pitch every fifth day because he was one of "our guys". Just like with John Olerud and Randy Winn, Melvin put Meche out there every fifth day because in spite of all evidence to the contrary, Melvin felt Gil Meche was gonna turn it around because he'd pitched well in the past.
The other reason it seems that the M's waited so long to make this move is because of the club's insane obsession with the record for the same 5 starters making all the starts. Melvin and the starters were all so proud of the fact that in 2003 they became the first team since 1966 to use only five starters over the course of a full season. Never mind that Meche had a 6.08 ERA in the second half of '03 or the fact that he should not have been starting in the pennant drive last September. It seems that record was more important to the club last year than actually trying to reach the postseason...
Now many would have expected the club to call up Jamal Strong instead of Bocachica, but Strong is still suffering from the effects of a hamstring injury and hasn't been stealing bases like he usually does (only 5 this year so far) so Bocachica was probably the better option at least for right now. Since Jamal Strong has very little power and his whole game is getting on base and running, if that part of his game is not 100% it's better that they wait until he's fully healthy to call him up. Let's hope the club uses this opportunity to insert Bocachica into the lineup to see if he can duplicate his spring training performance or whether he's the same guy who couldn't hit before with the Dodgers and Tigers. Give him a couple of weeks in the lineup, if he plays well then maybe they've found a cheaper, better CF than Randy Winn, with more power at the major league minumum of $300,000. If not, at least they gave it a shot and they can bring Strong up in 3 or 4 weeks...
By the way this move must have just been decided on, since I was down at the Tacoma game today, which began at 12:35 and Bocachica was in the lineup. If he's in the M's lineup tonight, will he be the first player to start for the M's and the Rainiers in the same day????
No, what I mean is that this move, like the delayed sending down of Rafael Soriano when it was obvious he wasn't ready to pitch at the big league level, is another move that proves that Melvin, et. al. just don't what they're doing. Meche has been awful for over a month, he wasn't giving the team a chance to win the games he was starting, but continued to pitch every fifth day because he was one of "our guys". Just like with John Olerud and Randy Winn, Melvin put Meche out there every fifth day because in spite of all evidence to the contrary, Melvin felt Gil Meche was gonna turn it around because he'd pitched well in the past.
The other reason it seems that the M's waited so long to make this move is because of the club's insane obsession with the record for the same 5 starters making all the starts. Melvin and the starters were all so proud of the fact that in 2003 they became the first team since 1966 to use only five starters over the course of a full season. Never mind that Meche had a 6.08 ERA in the second half of '03 or the fact that he should not have been starting in the pennant drive last September. It seems that record was more important to the club last year than actually trying to reach the postseason...
Now many would have expected the club to call up Jamal Strong instead of Bocachica, but Strong is still suffering from the effects of a hamstring injury and hasn't been stealing bases like he usually does (only 5 this year so far) so Bocachica was probably the better option at least for right now. Since Jamal Strong has very little power and his whole game is getting on base and running, if that part of his game is not 100% it's better that they wait until he's fully healthy to call him up. Let's hope the club uses this opportunity to insert Bocachica into the lineup to see if he can duplicate his spring training performance or whether he's the same guy who couldn't hit before with the Dodgers and Tigers. Give him a couple of weeks in the lineup, if he plays well then maybe they've found a cheaper, better CF than Randy Winn, with more power at the major league minumum of $300,000. If not, at least they gave it a shot and they can bring Strong up in 3 or 4 weeks...
By the way this move must have just been decided on, since I was down at the Tacoma game today, which began at 12:35 and Bocachica was in the lineup. If he's in the M's lineup tonight, will he be the first player to start for the M's and the Rainiers in the same day????
