Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Tryin' to play catch-up a bit here

The problem in the last week isn't that there isn't enough to write about -- it's more that there's too much! Every time I sit down to write an entry on here, I feel overwhelmed. So let's see...

All-Star Game

Bobby Abreu! You the man! 24 home runs in one round of the derby... that was crazy.

Ichiro put in a nice showing with the hitting, but he looked pretty dumb getting picked off first. Man, I haven't seen a pickoff in ages, and it has to happen to Ichiro?

I thought Teixeira would be the MVP of the game for sure, but I guess I was wrong. Mr. "Swings-at-Everything" Tejada got it... I suppose putting the first run on the board is most important.

I was sad Jason Bay didn't come out to play at all.

Oh! But, but, Mark Fidrych came out to help with the pre-game festivities! That was cool! I had just been reading another book about him on the bus yesterday, and was sort of wondering where he is now.

Bret Boone

After work yesterday I walked down to Safeco Field to see the results of our deBooneification. It's surprisingly small, actually:

- Pokey Reese's face is now on Player's Row on the stadium side instead of Boone
- All the Boone merchandise in the team store is 50% off (which is still gratuitously expensive, I'd buy a Boone t-shirt if it was $5, not $10)
- Hahahahahahaha, the June 2005 issue of Mariners Magazine has him on the cover and they seem to be hiding the issues. Cover boy in June, DFA'ed in July. Nice going.

(Oh yeah, and he's been traded to the Twins for a PTBNL. Can we PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE have Joe Mauer? Or Justin Morneau? Please? I swear I'll be very very good and attend every game and never wear an opposing team t-shirt again. I'll clean the stadium after class and write "I will not make fun of Willie Bloomquist" on the board a hundred times.)

I'm a lot less bitter over this than I was when they DFA'ed Olerud last year. That SUCKED. Especially the part where he went on to kick our butts while playing on the Yankees later in the year. I'm just sad we won't get to yell "READY OR NOT, I STRIKE OUT A LOT" anymore.

It occurs to me that we pretty much knew Boone was going to be DFA'ed the day Lopez was called up and Boone didn't play for a whole weekend. He just wasn't staying here all year. I feel bad for all the little kids in my section who are going to be asking their parents, "Where's Bret Boone? Huh? Huh?" for the rest of the season, though.

The Angels, and Bloomquist

I have to admit, I really didn't pay any attention to the Angels-Mariners games this weekend because I pretty much expected us to get slaughtered.

Boy, was I wrong. Teach me to ignore the games, eh?

We slaughtered the Angels. We dominated them. It sounds like it was a great set of games to watch. And most of all, they featured Willie Bloomquist.

Now, this is vaguely a shame, because they should have all featured Chris Snelling a lot more. But, it is true that Willie has a lot of luck against the Angels, especially my favorite blue-eyed adorable lefty pitcher, Jarrod Washburn.

I remember a few months ago, someone saying "blah blah Willie is 9-for-18 against Washburn", and me going "Yeah, but if you don't count that extremely lucky debut of Willie's against him, where he went 4-for-4 and everyone was astounded, he's only 5-for-14, which is a respectable .357, but still."

Now I'm really not sure what to say. He's 10-for-20 against him lifetime, with two walks, two doubles, and a triple, for a .500/.545/.700 line. Crazy.

I guess we really are just doing better without Boone. Who'da thunk it? I do feel a little bit bad for Richie Sexson though, as he won't have someone around the clubhouse to watch Napoleon Dynamite with ninety more times.

Trade Deadlines

We need a catcher and a starting pitcher. I think we're doomed. I have a really bad feeling we're going to give up someone like Randy Winn or Raul Ibanez for a sack of beans. But really, neither Olivo nor Borders should be around as a catcher next year. Olivo's hitting is just apalling, and pretty much depends on opposing pitchers accidentally putting a fastball across the plate. I love Borders, but he's old, and there's really no way around that, even if I'd love to see him play until he's 50. Jeff Clement won't be ready to play until 2007 at the earliest, so where does that leave our catching? Dan Wilson may be back next year as our backup, but who's our primary? I'm guessing we'll solve that in the off-season rather than the trade deadline, though.

Oddly, I actually hope we don't trade Villone. I still hate him, but he HAS been pretty damn good this year, one of our more consistent relievers. He's still wild and walks people too much, but he also has been striking them out, and has given up only one home run in 35 innings pitched, which is amazing.

Rumors say the Red Sox want Chad Bradford, which I think is awesome, because they already have all the other bizarre weirdo pitchers (kickline Arroyo, sidearmers Meredith and Myers, knuckleballer Wakefield, etc. Only thing is, I really want to *see* Chad Bradford pitch, which won't happen if he ends up on the Sox -- I was hoping to catch him in a late-season A's game. Sigh.

Links

I loved this article from the morning before Boone was traded, but mostly because of the Eddie Guardado part:

About the only thing that has gone wrong for him, other than the Mariners failing to play up to expectations, is that he didn't get selected to the All-Star team. And he says that's not that big a deal.

"I'm going to hang around the pool with my kids and barbeque some ribs," Guardado said. "It's going to be a good All-Star break."


Ahh, Eddie.

Speaking of Eddie, Lookout Landing did a fabulous interview with Justin Leone a week or two ago, which you can read or listen to. Highlights:

LL: Well, with being a rookie last year, was there anything Eddie Guardado may have done to you? Any practical jokes or anything like that?

JL: He lit my pants on fire. (laughs) I still have the pants with the big burn mark on it. He did that to pretty much every rookie on the team. He lit Mickey Lopez's shoes on fire and Mickey didn't know for almost a minute, and it was burning off his shoe. (laughs) He makes fun of you as much as he can, and he'll pick on something and just continue to pick on it, but he's a great player. I like being around him.


And also, because LL used to be "Leone for Third":

LL: And finally a color question, were you ever aware about a year ago of a website that was named after you?

JL: I didn't know what it was called, but my mom is always on the Internet and she might have said something. I don't know what it was.


Heh. Oo, I just noticed a new funny post there, the Mariners Movie Matinee. Cool. Check out Spiezio's flick there.

My own win-loss records

Hmmm, that's probly enough for now. I'm going to the Mariners-Orioles game on Thursday, maybe I'll have something to say then. Would you believe, I'm already done filling up my scorecard book, and will have to start a second one at Thursday's game? For the record, my book contains scores from 19 Mariners home games, 2 Rainiers home games (well, one was rain delayed), 3 Mets home games, and 1 Yankees home game. Though overall I suppose you could say it has 2 Rangers games, 3 A's games, 2 Angels games, 1 Indians game, 1 Red Sox game, 4 Yankees games, 1 Blue Jays, 1 Tampa Bay, 5 Mets, 5 Phillies, 1 Marlins, 1 Orioles, 1 Salt Lake Stingers, and one rained out Las Vegas 51's.

In the 19 Mariners games I scored in this book, they were 10-9. I also went to two of the beginning Mariners-Twins games, where they were 1-1. Hmm, and I also went to two Pirates games when I was in Pittsburgh and bought a scorecard there, and they beat the Cubs but lost spectacularly to the Cardinals. And the thing is, I went to 5 games rooting for the Phillies and they only won 2 of those -- I wonder what that means? Sigh.

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