Mariners roadtrip vs Rangers, White Sox & Angels

Slats · Post #1 » by **Slats** » Mon May 28, 2012 11:39 pm

Game 1 @ Texas Rangers

Kevin Millwood (Sea) vs Matt Harrison (Tex)

Tonight's lineup:

1: Jaso (DH)
2: Figgins (LF)
3: Ichiro (RF)
4: Montero (C)
5: Smoak (1B)
6: Seager (2B)
7: Liddi (3B)
8: Saunders (CF)
9: Ryan (SS)
SP: Millwood

Interesting to see Jaso leading off vs a lefty! Just happy Olivo is out.

Post #2 » by **Bulltalk** » Tue May 29, 2012 3:35 am

I had a real rotten and eerie feeling after that loss on Friday night when League blew yet another save. It was just one of those losses with a young team at a fragile psychological time that could easily send you into a mini downward spiral. Which it unfortunately did.

This is the third time already this season where we are in danger of fading into oblivion. We fought our way back the first two times. No, winning isn't something that I expected a lot from the team this year, but you do have to win enough, especially at key points, for the psychological health of the team.

There's really not much at all Wedge can do. He's saddled with a very young team, and the few vets he has around have mostly been underachieving, some quite so, or are not much to speak of anyway in the first place. It's tough to manage a team like this. Who can you honestly say is locked into a particular playing position and place in the batting order for the future? You could make the argument that nobody is. Things are up in the air in this way, just as Wedge mentioned.

I just wanted the team to retain its competitive spirit, fight to stay as close to .500 for as long as possible before capitulating. I was hoping such a thing would come later rather than sooner.

Post #3 » by **Sweezo** » Tue May 29, 2012 9:54 am

What's the deal with Steve Delabar and home runs? Guy has electric stuff, but it doesn't seem to matter as he's given up a ridiculous amount of home runs for a RP. Just another thing to be disappointed about, I guess.

Slats · Post #4 » by **Slats** » Wed May 30, 2012 11:45 am

Sweezo wrote:What's the deal with Steve Delabar and home runs? Guy has electric stuff, but it doesn't seem to matter as he's given up a ridiculous amount of home runs for a RP. Just another thing to be disappointed about, I guess.

Delebar's HR/FB is 46.7 % on the road but 0.0% at Safeco!

Needs to keep the ball in the park on the road.

Jeff23 · Post #5 » by **Jeff23** » Thu May 31, 2012 1:41 am

I am watching this celtics-heat game, bummed that i cant watch this one WOW 16-0 in the 4th..

Jeff23 · Post #6 » by **Jeff23** » Thu May 31, 2012 1:43 am

I am watching this celtics-heat game, bummed that i cant watch this one WOW 16-0 in the 4th..

TTown · Post #7 » by **TTown** » Thu May 31, 2012 2:54 am

17-7 in the 8th. wondering if there's a serious chance we could blow this...

amazing offensive output, though. 17 runs on 17 hits? by this team? ackley, montero, seager, smoak, olivo, and saunders all with multi-hit games.

TTown · Post #8 » by **TTown** » Thu May 31, 2012 3:13 am

21-7 now. smoak goes yard again.

seager w/ 4 hits, smoak/montero/saunders with 3.

21 runs!

TTown · Post #9 » by **TTown** » Thu May 31, 2012 3:34 am

for those keeping score at home, we took a series from the best team in baseball (or thereabouts), got beaten like a rented mule by the angels, then took another series from the best team in baseball (or thereabouts).

what a bi-polar mess we are.

Post #10 » by **Sweezo** » Thu May 31, 2012 4:54 am

I tried to post about the game a couple times but the site wasn't having it. Must've been a basketball game on or something...

WOW! What the hell happened!?! 21 runs in one game?

What the hell is the deal with Smoak? Nothing all season then suddenly he's hitting .308 with 5 HR and 15 RBI in his last ten games. Power!

Figures that this all happens on a day Ichiro has off. As much as I like Ichiro, he's been miscast as a #3 hitter. His games all about singles and speed. I wonder how long it will take for the team to move him around in the order, whether that means back up to the leadoff spot or down in the order.

Post #11 » by **Sweezo** » Thu May 31, 2012 5:00 am

Slats wrote:
Delebar's HR/FB is 46.7 % on the road but 0.0% at Safeco!

Needs to keep the ball in the park on the road.

Now he gets the chance to keep the ball in the park in Tacoma. Delabar down...Pryor up!

And suddenly I'm super interested in the Mariners again.

BayAreaMadSkill · Post #12 » by **BayAreaMadSkill** » Thu May 31, 2012 5:13 am

I was at a birthday dinner until I got a text from my dad saying the mariners scored 8 runs in the second inning. After that, I followed the game on my phone.

I'm watching the replay right now and this is one of the most satisfying Mariners wins in a while.

Nice to see Smoak bashing.

Post #13 » by **Sweezo** » Thu May 31, 2012 5:18 am

BayAreaMadSkill wrote:I'm watching the replay right now and this is one of the most satisfying Mariners wins in a while.

Same here. We went out to dinner and I was watching on my phone...had to come home and watch the replay once we were done running errands.

TTown · Post #14 » by **TTown** » Thu May 31, 2012 5:34 am

Sweezo wrote:Now he gets the chance to keep the ball in the park in Tacoma. Delabar down...Pryor up!

And suddenly I'm super interested in the Mariners again.

been waiting for this. between 28 innings in jacksonville and tacoma this year, pryor's been nigh unhittable. .064 era, 39 k's, 12 hits.

Post #15 » by **Sweezo** » Thu May 31, 2012 8:30 pm

TTown wrote:
been waiting for this. between 28 innings in jacksonville and tacoma this year, pryor's been nigh unhittable. .064 era, 39 k's, 12 hits.

And damn near a 4:1 K/BB ratio, too.

Post #16 » by **Sweezo** » Sat Jun 2, 2012 11:47 pm

Game's tied 8-8 in a back-and-forth affair. Smoak continues to hit, Saunders continues to hit, and Pryor's first appearance was thrilling [until he hung a slider for a tying HR...no one was touching his fastball so that was a poor choice by somebody]. Oh, and Ichiro appears to be happy back in the leadoff spot. With the personnel currently on the roster, today's lineup is about as could as we can field right now.

Also, an interesting game for Ryan. He hit a two run double, stole third, then scored a run on a wild throw on the attempted steal. And he just stole an out by pretending he was going to let an infield fly drop, which he caught at his knees and then threw a confused baserunner out. He can't hurt worth a damn but his defense and heads-up play have been a difference maker today.

Carp is an atrocious LF. A misplayed ball lead to a double instead of an out, and another misplayed ball [where he backpedaled instead of setting up for a throw] allowed a baserunner to tag, and his lack of range let a ball fall just foul that Figgins/Wells/take your pick could've have gotten to. I stand by my thought that Carp should DH and Montero/Jaso should platoon at catcher.

And who should play LF? Saunders. When Guti comes back, Saunders should shift to LF. Saunders has gotten better and better as the season's gone along. A strong defensive OF who very well may get a 20/20 season when it's all said and done.

Also, Wells has been hitting the crap out of the ball in AAA. Please don't let him rot while Figgins continues to enjoy undeserved employment.

Post #17 » by **Sweezo** » Sun Jun 3, 2012 12:53 am

M's win!!!! Once again, Jaso does something in the clutch.

With the recent promotion of Pryor from AA to AAA to MLB in a relatively short time, I wonder how long it takes until Hultzen makes a similar move? With the exception of Noesi the starting rotation looks good-to-competent. Noesi has some talent but tends to make some poor choices and is susceptible to the longball. Why not bring Hultzen up and move Noesi to AAA where he can learn to be a starting pitcher?

Slats · Post #18 » by **Slats** » Mon Jun 4, 2012 4:55 am

Angles are starting to hit their strides so tough series for the M's coming up.

BayAreaMadSkill · Post #19 » by **BayAreaMadSkill** » Tue Jun 5, 2012 4:17 am

We should have traded Ichiro a few years back when we could have gotten some quality talent in return. Shesh.

TTown · Post #20 » by **TTown** » Tue Jun 5, 2012 4:33 am

Sweezo wrote:And who should play LF? Saunders. When Guti comes back, Saunders should shift to LF. Saunders has gotten better and better as the season's gone along. A strong defensive OF who very well may get a 20/20 season when it's all said and done.

saunders is indeed developing into a major league outfielder right before our eyes. since guti is... less than reliable these days... i think he's a fairly substantial asset for us going forward, especially if guys like trayvon robinson don't end up panning out.

also, i'd get casper wells back. i really liked what carp brought to this team last year and i was willing to overlook his defensive liabilities with his 2011 bat, but i've been really disappointed in what carp's brought to the table this season. and no one wants to see chone figgins and his noodle arm in left... just give the everyday job to casper, i say. he's got some time to earn it before guti comes back and a decision has to be made on where to stick saunders.