Grand Salami Blog

Bob F Melvin was true to his word -- Jeremy Reed is not in the starting lineup tonight --- against the Cleveland Indians. Last I looked the Indians were about 9 games out in the AL Central and not even in the Wild Card picture. Yet apparently Bo Mel doesn't think it's fair to the Minnesota Twins to start Reed tonight. After tonight Seattle has a four game series against Boston -- will Reed be glued to the bench for all four of those games too???

Never mind that the people this bozo should be concerned about are the people in the stands at Safeco tonight -- all 20,000 (maybe) of them. Those are the people that are anxious to see Jeremy Reed, to get a glimpse of this kid the team got in the Freddy Garcia trade. But instead

This just in --- Rich Waltz just asked Melvin on the pre-game show on TV when we'd see Jeremy Reed in the lineup. Melvin replied "I'm not gonna tell you. I've got to tell him first.
The best I'm gonna do is you might see him in the lineup in the next couple of games." Then he went on to add, "with all these contending teams coming in, you're kind of under the gun to put your veteran lineup out there and put your supposed best lineup out on the field. You could see up to 2 kids in the lineup on any given day but we're not gonna put 8 kids out there against one team and not another." Who exactly is putting Bob Melvin "under the gun" not to play the orgnization's best outfield prospect??? What an idiot.

And finally, it looks like Greg Dobbs may get more playing time than Reed this month. More Melvin: "Dobber (Greg Dobbs) you might see a little more in that we don't have an everyday guy out there at third. " So I guess Melvin hasn't figured out that he has the option of moving Ibanez to first (he has played there before, both with KC and Seattle), a position where we don't have an everyday guy either (last I looked Wille F Bloomquist was starting 5 of the last 7 games at first base). With Ibanez at first, Reed could step in in LF -- but NO! FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW! FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW! FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW! FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW! FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW! FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW! FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW! FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW! FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW!

More Bob Melvin BS. The September callups aren't going to get much playing time because Melvin thinks the Mariners owe it to the teams that are in contention to play "the veterans". So instead of seeing Jeremy Reed in the outfield, Raul Ibanez moved to first, Willie Bloomquist on the damn bench and Greg Dobbs at third, we'll supposedly continue to see Ibanez in the OF, Bloomquist as the starting 1B and Reed and Dobbs in pinch-running roles and as defensive replacments.
FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW! FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW! FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW!
FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW! FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW! FIRE BOB MELVIN NOW!

Thanks to Trident Fever for the following unbelievable numbers:

OK, enough is enough. BOB MELVIN MUST GO! The man is an embarassment. Tonight he put in a new pitcher, George Sherrill for the ninth inning after Masao Kida pitched a 1-2-3 eighth. Fine, no problem. Then, with two outs and a man on first and the M's trailing 5-0, Melvin comes out to make another pitching change, removing Sherrill in favor of righty J.J. Putz.

Why Bob felt it was that important to make a right-left switch with the club trailing by 5 runs in the ninth is beyond comprehension. What's his thinking? He wants the fans to feel that he still thinks the ballclub can win the game, so he's gonna manage right to the end? Or, "hey, if we lose 7-0 instead of 5-0 I could get fired"? One more thing -- if Melvin hadn't already lost the respect of the club (by all reports he has) , this probably did it. The players on the field, who all couldn't wait to get home, just had to be shaking their heads, thinking "What the hell is he doing! We don't have a chance in this game. Let's just get this one over and get this fucking awful season over!"

I caught the pre-game TV interview with Melvin tonight in which he said how happy he was for Mickey Lopez to get the call, because he goes way back with Mickey, to their time in the Milwaukee organization. Since there's really no reason to be calling up Mickey Lopez unless he's next year's Willie Bloomquist (he is better -- but who isn't?), it seems that Bo Mel had some influence here. If by all accounts Melvin is gonna be fired soon, why is he getting input on who the organization calls up for the final month? Firing Melvin and getting Dan Rohn in here as the interim manager can't come soon enough for me -- it should have happened in July or August...