Sodo Oh No

Read all about the M's Bill Bavasi bemoaning the lack of having a serviceable shortstop on the major league roster. Poor poor Bill. As you read the article don't forget to pay special attention to the part where it mentions the M's deciding to get rid of Carlos Guillen because he wasn't worth a long term "investment" and he was "fragile". How much was Carlos Guillen making when the M's traded him? $2.5 million, then during an all star year with the Tigers he signed a 3 year $14 million dollar deal.

The M's had their shortstop, signed at a decent wage, locked up for an entire year before they had to make any decisions on a long term investment. Instead Bavasi went for Omar (the emptiest .300 hitter on the planet) and Rich Aurilla. In 2004, at worst, the M's would have had a great utility player locked in at a decent salary to take over for either Spezio or Aurilla in case they got injured or failed to perform (as ultimately both did). At best they would have had Guillen's breakout year before deciding to pursue him into free agency. What did they get instead? A couple of non-prospects and a hole at SS for the next 3-4 years.

Since when does getting TB misdiagnosed by the medical crew on your team make you fragile? Even if Carlos only played his average of 130 games a year (over the last 4 years) his production of last year .318/.379/.542 towers over anything the existing M's shortstops have done or will do.

I'm sorry Bill. You don't get to cry to the press when you are responsible for the stupid decisions that got you into your mess.

posted by John @ 4:07 PM 0 comments

Aaron Sele throws a 4 hit, complete game shutout, facing only 30 batters? Wow, kudos to Sele. I guess that makes him the staff ace right about now.

Ugly statement of the week: M's take their first homestand since July of last year.

We'll have a new show up sometime this week responding to viewer comments, the return of Pat Borders and the current blog world infatuation with pitching mechanics, aka - why does it take Gil Meche 117 pitches to complete 6 innings?

posted by John @ 1:03 PM 0 comments

Lost in the joy of last nights comeback win over the Yankees is the fact that Jamie Moyer pitched poorly for the 4th start in a row. His line last night was a woeful

Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	PC-ST	ERA
J Moyer	5.0	8	6	6	3	2	1	101-57	6.11

He allowed 11 baserunners in 5 innings. That is Selesque and doesn't bode well. The fact that it took him 101 pitches to struggle through 5 innings is also a bad indicator. How long do we let Moyer go before admitting 2004 was a strong indicator of his current, true ability and stop waiting for a bounceback 2005 season? The M's have already started tinkering with the rotation, sliding in Mateo and "optioning" Joel to AAA.

BTW - The M's do play the Yankees one more series this year. (Unlike my statement in the podcast). They are done with the BoSox after a single home & away matchup and only get to play Tampa a single home & away this season. If you get some time, take a look at the entire schedule. It's a mess. Frankly I don't remember a season having as many home & away, back to back series against the same teams. They played at Boston & NY, then hosted them. At Tampa, then host them next homestand, At Cleveland, host Detroit, Cleveland then play at Detroit. It's not a big deal when playing within your division but the bunch up the other AL series this way seems kind of strange and silly.

posted by John @ 8:16 AM 0 comments

Mostly Mariners Podcast - Episode 19 - 5/16/2005

Another Mostly Mariners is up! In this show John talks about his experience amoung the Red Sox fans at Sunday's "home" game, Olivo's good day, the Starting situation and other Mariners topics. Here is the direct MP3 download. Of course, it's even better if you subscribe to our podcast feed with a podcast client.

Give us feedback on the show by leaving a comment here or sending us a text or audio email. Enjoy!

posted by Mike @ 3:50 PM 0 comments

The M's East coast road trip was a total disaster. Winning only 1 out of 3 in Boston wasn't bad, however the M's then went into New York and did the one thing we said in our show that they just couldn't do. They got swept by a bad Yankee team. When the hitting was there, the pitching wasn't, when they pitched well, they didn't score runs.

Jamie Moyer has had 3 miserable starts in a row. His last 3 starts has seen him pitch a total of 8.2 innings, giving up 27 hits, 17 runs, and watching his ERA go up 3 points. That's truly miserable.

The team has lost 9 out of 10 games are in danger of losing any goodwill they managed to generate at the start of the season by simply not being as bad as the 2004 team. With a team OBP of .309 and OPS of .672 they aren't providing the offensive numbers that the truly mediocre pitching staff needs to win. Only Randy Winn and the mighty Ichiro! are providing their expected offensive numbers.

It's already apparent that this team isn't going to contend. My stretch goal for the team is now a .500 record

posted by John @ 9:15 AM 0 comments

Mostly Mariners Podcast - Episode 18 - 5/09/2005

Another Mostly Mariners hits the net! In this show we talk about the M's losing streak and answer some viewer mail. Here is the direct MP3 download. Of course, it's even better if you subscribe to our podcast feed with a podcast client.

Give us feedback on the show by leaving a comment here or sending us a text or audio email. Enjoy!

posted by John @ 10:28 PM 0 comments