M's Clinch .500. Celebrate Good Times!...I Will

2008 was a tough year for being a Seattle Sports fan, there wasn't a franchise or program that wasn't abysmal or stolen from us. Even with the Hawks going 4-12 and the Dawgs going 0-12 the Mariners and their $110 million payroll for 101 losses stuck out as the clearest example of pure fail.

Coming off a solid season prior, many fans felt the addition of Erik Bedard via trade would be the key to success in '08. People hoped the acquisition of a "true number one" was the final piece to make this team a contender, paving the way for domination. Instead it turned out to be one of the worst trades ever. So terrible in fact that it caused many fans to actively forget about the Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek for Heathcliff Slocumb trade.

The M's were in such a terrible state of disrepair after Bill Bavasi's tenure it seemed that there truly was no floor. I felt that no matter who was hired as the next GM they would have a Chernobyl sized clean-up in front of them. Fans seemed resigned themselves to the idea of a long rebuild. Enter Jack Zduriencik.

As a former Director of Player Personnel for the Brewers many in the blogosphere, including myself, worried that Zduriencik was too much of an old school GM when hired. With a solid field of up and coming stat-oriented candidates Zduriencik seemed too scout oriented to complete the overhaul needed to make the M's decent again. Feeling wrong never felt so right.

Tonight, with King Felix making his second to last start(ever?), the M's won their 81st game this year, ensuring a .500 record for the season. I, for one, am at Billy Mays on the excite-o-meter. My beloved M's seem to be building towards something good. FINALLY!!

Equipped with the best defense in the league-a full 20 runs better than the next best team- and possibly the best defense of the decade, a pitching staff and line-up(however impotent) built for the stadium it look to have a solid foundation for the future. The upgrades all over the team have added 20(!!!) wins so far to this season's total all thanks to Jack Zduriencik.

I am very excited to see what moves he makes over the winter to upgrade the offense and tweak the bullpen. Seeing what he has done so far I expect nothing less than a philosophers stone type move of turning Carlos Silva into Albert Pujols somehow. I kid, but I know there will be some move he does that has me standing and cheering when I get the news, even if it's in the middle of class.

Welcome To The Seattle Mariners Jack Wilson And Ian Snell. Hope You Survive The Experience!!

Much happened yesterday in the 100+ degree heat of hottest day in Seattle history. People complained, children swam, workers sweated through their clothes completely and The M's made a much anticipated trade. Former Pittsburgh Pirates Ian Snell and Jack Wilson are now Mariners.

Given up in the trade was former 3rd overall pick, failed catcher Jeff Clement, utility player turned everyday shortstop who's hitting woes make my struggles to put bat on ball as a little leaguer look good by comparison, and 3 Single A arms. Clement had lost favor in the organization because of his inability to catch, a required skill for a player signed to be a catcher. Clement's papíer maché knees caused him to miss significant time this year and also hindered his ability to get into the catcher's stance, another not so good sign. He looks to be a 1st baseman for the Pirates. :(edeño was only ever brought in to be a back up, but with Yuni sucking and subsequently traded he was forced into starting duty where his bats was about as effective as the French resistance. None of the 3 minor league pitchers were all THAT exciting, they were single A after all, but Brett Lorin was supposedly a pretty interesting prospect.

In return we get Jack Wilson, a light hitting, defensive wiz of a shortstop. The down side is that he is 31 years old and owed a decent amount for 2010, $8.4 mil. A major upgrade of the shortstop position to be sure. Still it's like going from a flesh light to a real doll, sure it's an upgrade but you can still do a lot better. Ian Snell was a highly regarded pitcher before mental health issues forced him to request a demotion to AAA. Many fans gave Snell no end of shit for being a pussy and wussing out when the pressure was one. However, if George Romero's "...of the Dead" movies have taught me anything, and they have, it's that the greater Pittsburgh area is an apocalyptic wasteland filled with flesh hungry zombies. If my commute to work was filled with fending off the undead and hearing the constant baritone of their guttural moans I would become suicidal as well.

All in all not a bad trade. Though not the trade many fans were hoping for. Wilson is not as sexy and Reid Brignac or even JJ Hardy, who're 8 and 5 years younger than Wilson respectively. Both seem to have better hitting upsides as well and would be cheaper longer term solutions at the position than Wilson. Snell could be a great value if he regains his form of a couple years ago, as he has a few relatively cheap club options left on his contract. But Snell was done with Pittsburgh and everyone knew it. Many thought it would be possible to trade someone like Wlad for Snell. Even if that was an exaggeration of Snell's stock, it probably wasn't too far off base.

Giving up the arms we did along with Clement and :(edeño seems to tilt this trade in the Pirates favor which is odd. I was hoping that Jack Z would pull off some jaw dropping trade like the 3 team deal with Tampa and Cleveland that had been rumored. Not only would have we aquired the long term shortstop of the future but we might have been able to get rid of Washburn(probably provided we ate the rest of his salary). Now, it seems, the M's over played their hand with Washburn. They made the deal with the Pirates and hoped they could restock what they lost by trading Wash. It looks like now he might not being going anywhere(which isn't a terrible thing) and we might not get anything for him when he leave(which rather sucks).

I have faith in Jack Zduriencik. He's made some damn good trades and pick-ups prior to this trade and I hope he pulls off some deadline move that will cause me to quieltly rise out of my seat and give a monumental slow-clap.

Stuck In The Middle With You

Since May 27th the M's have gone 30-18, one of the best records in baseball and something I would have sacrificed my first born for at the beginning of the season (I have 4 nieces. I don't need my own kids to screw up when I have my brothers I can screw up with no consequence to me.) And yet despite winning at a pace faster than a meth-head on a cleaning binge The M's have LOST 2 games on the Angels in the division standings.

I have lamented for some time now that I am growing a bit weary of this tease of a season. Don't get me wrong, I am ecstatic that we are even in contention. Especially last year when dreams of contention went tits up after the first month. But still, this Jimmy Cliff like limbo that The M's have themselves waiting in is less than ideal.

The M's have some valuable trade trips in Bedard and Washburn with which they could add quality pieces that could fill holes at a place like SS. But I fear that if Zduriencik were to trade Washburn now, which he really should do, Wash's trade value will never be higher, there will be a large backlash. Smart fans might recognize the trade as a savvy move but the majority of fans would be screaming their heads off. Despite Jack Z's prior successes with trades so far I worry that this fan uprising might put pressure on Lincoln and Armstrong to do something.

Even if L&A stay above the fray and let Zduriencik do his thing I worry that just being so close to contention will force Jack to hold onto his two pitchers. I worry that if The M's hover on the fringes too long they'll lose Bedard and Washburn at the end of the season for almost nothing.

I'm all for staying in contention as long as possible. This will instil in the fans a sense of confidence in the front office and carry over to next season, which is always nice. But goddamn is it ever annoying to see that hard scrabble wins the M's have been accumulating fail to make a dent in the Angels division lead. It feels like The M's blew up on of Cybertron's moons only to see the Angels/Unicron come through it unfazed. To quote Spike Witwicky "It's not even dented!!! Ahhh shit! What're we gonna do now?" Damn good question. I wish I knew

"Ohhh We're Halfway There. Oh-Whoa Livin' On A Prayer!" A Mariners First Half Recap

The lazy days of summer are my my half-breed ass like bloggers on this whole Erin Andrews Fiasco. As such I haven't posted in a bit. Granted, not a whole lot significant has gone down since I last posted. Erik Bedard and Jarrod Washburn are still with the team. There is no shiny new shortstop on the team nor a load of prospects to scrutinize. I guess Yuni got traded for something more than a bag of horseballs. This along with the move of picking up Hanahan for a 3rd base stop gap upgrade and the Lnagerhans for Morse deal show Zduriencik's ability to incrementally add to the team for little expense now or in the future.

Upgrades used to feel like such a zero sum game. Need a 5th starter? Trade your best bullpen arm for Horacio Ramirez. Need a DH? Trade away an oft-injured but damn-useful-when healthy player for a washed up Jose Vidro. Close to contention? Trade the farm for a damn-good pitcher who even at his prime isn't worth what was given up. That the new front office recognizes that +.5 wins here, +.3 wins here and +.75 wins there add up to just the same as a +1.55 upgrade but for much cheaper, is fucking great. It's like the act of cleaning your bong, combined with a new bowl piece and building a make shift ice catch is a lot cheaper than purchasing a new bong altogether.

Anyway, now that we are a little over the halfway point of the season I figured it was a good time to look back on what has been and what might be. As opposed to recapping every player or unit as a whole I will give out awards that highlight various players or units. At 49-43 The M's have been alternatingly great and terrible. They started off the season that made me look prescient when I mentioned the possibility of play-offs before the season started. Then they had a terrible May that made me look like a fool for the exact same statements. But a quality June and July has brought this team back into contention. Now if those damn teams ahead of us would stop winning.

The Beer Goggles award-Jarrod Washburn: Yes this man pitched as one hitter his second to last start and yes he's been one of the more consitent pitchers we've had. Here's the thing, Jarrod Washburn isn't that good and he knows it(check out thought #3). He has benefited from great outfield defense and spacious Safeco Field. His peripheral stats are all in line with his career norms save for a low BABIP(batting average for balls in play) which may rise a bit as the season wears but not too much with this D. So he's pretty much the same pitcher as he's always been. Trade him no for fuck's sake!!

The Private Willian Hudson Award-King Felix: In stark contrast to Jarrod Washburn King Felix has made the leap from damn good when he's on pitcher to a true ace. Opponents cry "Game over, man! Game over" every 5 days. He has finally learned to mix his pitches better to keep hitters off balance and is unafraid to throw his breaking stuff for a strike in any count. If he keeps up this type of work throughout the season the M's might have a Cy Young winner in their midst.

The R. Lee Ermy Award-Rob Johnson and Ronny :(edeño: I was unaware that they stacked shit that high. This award is a tied because both have been attrocious with the bat so far this season. Dave at USSM thinks there is hope for RJ and others feel :(edeño is bound for a major uptick in production.

"That's right, Iccccemaan! I am dangerous!" Award-Franklin Guitierrez: Many saw him as a decent player thrown in the Putz deal. Your average all glove no (bat) love outfielder. After a slow start Frankling Guitirrez has gone on a power surge. With his new found power stroke Gutz has blossomed into a beauty like Allyssa Milano post "Who's the Boss?"

The Moonraker award: Another great pickup by Zduriencik, Russell Branyan has gone apeshit once given regular playing time. Currently he has one less dinger so far this season than his career high. WTF?! While he's been struggling a little as of late, smart minds point out he soon should be hitting balls closer to the moon than Apollo 11 ever did.

"Who are those guys?!"Award- Justin Vargas and Garret Olson: Two more players from the Putz deal. These two have come on like Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid in place of fallen starters Carlos Silva and Chris Jakabauskus. These two prove with moderate stuff and great defense much success can be had. The fact that these two have been decent at the end of the rotation makes me higher than Dennis Hopper in "Blue Velvet".

"I'm so gangsta prissy chicks don't wanna fuck with me!" Who else but Ichiro? I'm not sure Seattle fans know just what a special talent they have in Ichiro. Much like people didn't realize for a long time how damn good Jay-Z was. Jay then went on to go make the Kingdom Come album and people realized that the great HOVA was gone. Don't do the same with Ichiro Seattle.

I'm damn tired and my brain is bleeding from the after effects of a crazy weekend. I may add a second part to this post for some of the unmentioned other stars on this damn team. Until then, peace be upon you!!

Jarrod Washburn Flirts With Perfection. Perfection Tells Him To Tuck His Sack Back. Wear Some Rouge

All manner of improbable things have occurred this week for the Mariners.

 First, they acquired a damn good outfielder, Ryan Langerhans, to replace the injured Endy Chavez for practically nothing. Then, they managed to go 5-4 on a road trip against the best teams in baseball in some parks that should spell death for our pitchers.

It was a road trip over which fans expected the M's to go 2-7 or 3-6  . That they managed to come out with a winning record revived hope presumed dead in April. Then came the return home against a tough pitching match-up against a hot Brad Bergenson and Jarrod Washburn who's results belied his peripheral stats. Not did the M's manage to mount some decent offense against Bergenson but Jarrod Washburn threw a one hitter. The one hit was the only thing keeping Jarrod Washburn from a perfect game.

Part of me is happy he didn't get a perfect game for a few reasons. First, I wouldn't have been able to see it and that woulda been a bummer. Second,  Jarrod Washburn has been a miserable acquisition prior to this year. High paid and poor performing, Washburn blamed his struggles on the poor pitch-calling of his battery, Kenji Johjima, which doesn't sit well with me. I'd rather the benevolent King Felix, throw a perfect game. It would sit better in the soul of this life long Seattle fan.

Despite these petty misgivings, a perfect game is a perfect game. When a pitcher is close you always root for the magic to continue. Plus, the accomplishment would have increased Wash's already elevated trade status,which could have have meant an even better haul for the M's in trading the soon-to-be free agent.

Right now the M's need to sell high on Washburn. He is an improved pitcher this year but, like I linked earlier in the post, his recent success is far more luck-based that skill baswed. The M's should trade him before that luck trends south.

I'm pretty sure team like the Phillies would be willing to give up some pieces to have Washburn shore up their injury-riddled rotation. Guys like Jason Vargas, Ryan Rowland-Smith when he comes up from Tacoma, and Garret Olsen provide the same profile of a pitcher with extreme fly-ball tendencies who rely on outfield defense to make outs.

Same goes for Erik Bedard. Sure he's been great when he's healthy but Bedard and health get along like The Sham-Wow Guy and hookers. Even when healthy it's not as if Bedard has gone deep into games. The best to hope for is for him to string together a few good starts so he can be traded before the deadline.

It's nice to be excited about possible trades to keep us in contention. At this point last year we were 18 games under .500 hundred. To be 4 games over this year and only 3 1/2 out of first means my summer banter can have a qaulity sports tinge to it and not just be about the badassness of the Black Lantern Corps.

"If Only Someone Had Warned Us The Bullpen Was About To Implode!"

After a rally the inning prior tied the score at 5-5 and the game feeling winnable again Sean White displayed the pitching ability of his snowboarding namesake. Which is to say, he allowed 3 runs and fucked things up quicker than Artie Lang on Joe Buck's talk show. If only some sage-like person had warned that the high highfalutin ways of our bullpen were about to end. Oh wait, someone did. Armed with this knowledge today's implosion would seem less painful. This is not the case, or at least not for me. I kept hoping that somehow the 'pen could push their regression back just a few more days at which point they would suck all collectively at once before returning to mediocrity. Sadly, this did not happen.

In a battle of highly touted bullpen arms turned struggling starters the M's tried their best to stay with the Yankees. Going into the today the game was predicted to be a death march for the M's. This prediction was due to Brandow Morrow being a extreme right handed fly ball pitcher going against left hand heavy lineup built to take advantage of the short right field porch like Jerramy Stevens on a drunk girl. These factors combined with the fact that even pop up bunts are being blown out for homers in the new stadium made the chances of a close low scoring game about as likely as finding a well adjusted person on reality TV.

In a reversal of expectations Morrow magically managed to give up 2 fly balls compared to 12 ground balls which helped him not have the Yankee's hitters go all Kobe Bryant on him. However, ever struggling with his command, Morrow walked 5 compared to just 4 strike outs. The walks ended up being his undoing and he was pulled after 98 pitches. He limited the lumber of the Yankees to just 3 runs with only one of them coming as earned.

Things look bleak for the rest of the series as the M's run out Washburn, another extreme fly ball pitcher, against Petitte and then another flyballer in Jason Vargas against CC Sabathia for the finale. I'm holding my expectations low and praying to Jobu that the Mariners can manage to come out of the series with at least 1 win. However if things start to fall apart I'm gonna root for some real fail only so that there is an impetus to trade Bedard and Washburn.

In reality, with Beltre gone and Chris Woodward not being the answer, this team needs some serious luck to make it into the playoffs. I know many would see trading two of our better pitchers as punting the season and giving up on '09. In reality this is not the case. With the upgrades in areas like the middle infield could make for a net gain for the pitching loss.

These next few series before the all-star break will prove our mettle. My guess is, though, without key contributors like Beltre and his awesome glove at 3rd this team will start to fall apart. Sad but true.

Well, That Was Unexpected

Behind the decent pitching of Garret Olson and the bullpen combined with a few timely runs the Mariners managed to escape Chavez Ravine in East LA not only with their wallets and money but also come out 2 wins richer putting them at 3 games over .500 this year. Going into the series I had felt we would be lucky to come out with just one win. It's a damn pleasant feeling to double that prediction.

After getting knocked around like Rihanna in the first game the M's went all Lifetime movie and took the fight back to their abusers. Felix threw 8 innings of 4 hit 1 run(unearned) ball, keeping hitters off balance with his pitch selection. He even threw 8 breaking balls out of his first 20!!! In the past few games Felix has been looking deserving of his title of King, mowing down all opposition. He has come to chew bubblegum and kickass and he is all out of bubblegum!!

The M's offense, while not a juggernaut, has come back from it's comatose state in May and shown some quality power. This is a nice change of pace as there was a stretch where even the shittiest of right handers(Vincente Padilla, Sidney Ponson et al) could make this team look like a bunch of blind little leaguers. There is a comfort from not expecting to be shutout every time this team faces a moderately good right handed pitcher.

This stretch of 7-3 over the last 10 games has all come at a time when this team has had more injuries than a hypochondriac. Outfield defensive specialist Endy Chavez was lost this week when he tore his ACL in a collision with "shortstop" Yuniesky Betancourt. A few games later Betancourt was put on the DL with a hamstring pull or possible tear. Jarrod Washburn has missed time with a back injury and Erik Bedard has been bothered by shoulder inflammation and will hopefully be back on July 5th.

An already injury plagued team was told yesterday that it would lose 3rd baseman Adrian Beltre for 6-8 weeks when he goes in for surgery to clear out bone spurs in his shoulder. There is a lot of speculation on how the team will make up for the production of his combined bat and glove. While the organization has a derth of oufielders and 1b/DH types in the system 3rd base is not a position of depth. To get the most out of Beltre's absence it may take some creative ideas on player positions.

Many people are lobbying for Griffey to take over as the every day left fielder for the team. What people fail to realize is even if Jr didn't have to get 3 liters of fluid drained from his knee every time he sees extensive time out in the field, he is simply not a good defender. Luckily the front office recognizes this and brought in Ryan Lagerhans, whom Dave Cameron lobbied for the team to pick up. Lagerhans isn't quite the defensive wiz that Chavez was,though who is? But he brings more patience and lefty power to a team in desperate need of both.

As the team heads out to the east coast to face the Yankees and Red Sox there looks to be little hope to continue to play so well against top teams. But hell, no one expected them to take 2 of 3 from LA. So maybe with a little energon and a lot of luck they can come out of the road trip above .500. If not, I make a simple request, tank the damn trip and acknowledge that you are now sellers!! We have a lot of attractive and valuable pieces for trade. I'd like to either see us gain a little ground on those ahead of us or just end the suffering all together.

Ok, You Guys Have My Attention. Now, Stop It!!!

"I'm not dead yet!" "We'll see about that!"

The Mariners managed to find a new way to lose today, as the rest of the division won their games. I have admit, I'm afraid I may be behind this disastrous collapse that has seen the M's go from 15-10 to 16-18. My negligence has caused this team to falter.

You see, before the season started I extolled the virtues of the new look M's to anyone who would listen. I told them our new GM knew what the fuck he was doing and that, while certain players leftover from the old regime hamstrung his ability to compile an optimal roster, he had built a team that could compete today that also was not in the hole to anyone in the future. Once the season started and The M's started winning I listened to every game on the radio or caught an occasional game on the TV. I blogged the hell out of this team to start the season. I told my readers that there was every reason to be optimistic. Then, like a parent lets go of their child and the bike as momentum takes over, I stopped paying as much attention to the team.

I figured I could trust the team to do well without me as I focused on school and getting laid. How selfish of me. To attract my attention again The M's knew all they'd have to do is revert to what had me watching them the past few years. If they played terribly I would come back. It's just like when a child holds its breath to get a parents attention or that psycho girl you're dating who threatens to hurt herself if you leave. I know in both cases ignoring the problem normally causes it to go away. And when Erik Bedard broke the losing streak two games ago I thought my plan had worked. Little did I know.

Truthfully I'm rather glad I haven't been able to watch this team implode. Just listening to Dave Neihaus describe two straight batters take a walk from a pitcher struggling with his command and then hear him tell me that Yuniesky Betancourt swung into a double play on the first pitch is maddening enough. I can't imagine seeing the pitch location would do anything but infuriate me more. Same goes with Felix starting off the game with 25 of 27 pitches being fastballs. I think I would punch something if I had to witness one of the many casual errors commited by Yuni or Lopez. I might have gouged out my eyes Oepdipus style if I had to witness this teams offense get dismembered by the Unicron of terrible right-handed groundball pitchers like Vincente Padilla, Bartolo Colon, Scott Feldman and others.

I believed contention this year, damn it! I don't buy into the idea that these are our Mariners and they will always be hapless losers. I won't be a shell-shocked fan constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. I believe in what Zduriencik is building with this team. But damn if this skid isn't awfully familiar.

This extended slide has put us in a very precarious situation. If one was a terrible writer really reaching for an analogy they might compare this to hanging off a cliff from a vine with a tiger above and a tiger below. But that's some wussy arsty fartsy bullshit we here at NLS won't stand for. 3 1/2 games out isn't a terrible amount to be out this early in the season. At the same time the premise of contention for the M's this year was to grab the division lead and never let go. Just like the offense this team is not built to come from behind.

No one wants to admit this team's season is done before June. But the sad reality is it very well might be. Even if the season is not over yet Zdruriencik faces the uneviable decision of whether or not to become a tenement finisher and gut this team of all or most of it's valuable pieces. This move would be tantamount to waving a white flag and declaring the season dead. The casual fan would hate it if this were to happen but smart fans know that the M's farm system is more of a barren wasteland than Super-Nanny's womb and top flight prospects would help ensure this team could remain competitive years from now. Selling off players like Bedard, Washburn, Beltre and maybe even Felix or Ichiro would be a necesary evil like taking the fat girl home so yer buddy can bang her hot friend.

These next few games will be hyper-critical in determining the M's fate for the rest of the year. If I pay attention will they stop making idle threats and no longer hurt themselves or will I regret the decision when I watch them unravel. Only one way to find out. Ok, Mariners, I'll play your little game now quite fucking around and win something!!!!

Mama Told Me There'd Be Days Like These

She just didn't tell me they'd suck this hard.

The Mariners managed squeaked out a series win over the weekend against the A's bringing hope to their fans. Going into their series with Texas sweep looked very possible. The 1-2 punch of Felix and Bedard was set the shut down the always high powered Texas offense when cruel fate stepped in.

Felix came down with a mean case of the swine flu and was not himself last night. Not himself in the sense that he was throwing a large amount of breaking balls and k'ing Texans like he was the second coming of Santa Anna. Keeping with my Alamo simile, just as Santa Anna killed many Texans he also stretched himself too thin and the army took a heavy toll, Felix k'ed many batters but when a Ranger did manage to make contact the ball left the park. Felix may never throw a breaking ball again after this terrible outing. That he won't is a travesty because those are his best pitches.

Today Erik Bedard took the mound to face the Rangers. He had hoped to pitch well and help the team out of the park early for some arbitrary drinking day Cinco De Mayo festivities. Pitch well he did, giving up only 1 run through seven innings. Too bad for him the run support failed to show up. Vincente Padilla sent out a notice to the M's bat's telling them the game had been canceled and that there was a team meeting at Peso's instead.

The fact that the offense struggled against a RHP is nothing new. Dave over at USSM wrote an article a few days ago talking about this glaring weakness. The gist of the post was that the M's need power left hand bats like David Hasslehoff needs rehab. Without anyone in the line-up to make RHPs worry fans will see many more games like these even against terrible pitchers like Padilla. As Dave pointed out

You know how I keep harping on the roster being too right-handed and how it’s costing us wins?

Padilla, career vs RHB: .241/.300/.370
Padilla, career vs LHB: .299/.381/.484

The Mariners are starting seven right-handed bats and two left-handed bats today

There is one in-house option that could possibly destroy the foul beast of RHP like the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. His name is Jeff Clement. Many people, including I, lamented Clement's demotion at the beginning of the season. Few foresaw the lack of a daily dose of Jeff in the line-up would be the factor that would cause the center not to hold. Yet here The M's stand defeated after being 1(!!!!!!!) hit against a very pedestrian Vincente Padilla.

There is no good reason for Clement to languish in the purgatory of AAA. His defense can't be any worse than that of Rob Johnson. His bat, however, would be a YUGE upgrade. Even if Clement continued to move like a retarded rhino behind the plate his bat would more than make up the difference. I know Jeff has done some unknown and unforgivable sin but now is not the time to hold a grudge, Zduriencik.

M's fans will have to sit through many more games like the one today if some action is not taken to remedy the lack of lefties on the roster. I for one would like not to endure such punishment. Can we please have the shiny new toy of a power LH bat? We needs it so bad!

6-2? Did Someone Spike My Tea with Shrooms Again?

It's early in the season still and at times like these it is very easy to overeact to small sample sizes and lose perspective on the season. But 6-2 after a big win over the Angels, HOLY FUCK!!! Not even in my most wild orgasmic fantasy did I envision the M's to start off the year so well. This is exactly what the team needed to prove to the general viewing public that they are as different from the 2008 team as the coach's daughter in Remember the Titans is from 2009 sexpot Hayden Panetierre.

Had the team started out shitty and came home with a losing record not even the Return of The Kid could get most casual fans interested in this season. Instead The M's have been treated to great pitching performances from King Felix and a finally healthy Erik Bedard. Not only that but they've been witnesses of the Death to Flying Things outfield of Franklin Gutierrez and Endy Chavez. With Ichiro coming off the DL this outfield will make defense sexy again. Add in the high-wire act of the bullpen and their always exciting attempts to get out of innings and you have a pretty damn fun team to watch. Which is something no one would ever say about last years team, not even while drunkenly booing the team as per Ichiro's suggestion.

My more recently developed rational/statistical side knows this kind of play isn't sustainable. M's starting pitchers have been stranding a shit ton of runners and at some point the luck is gonna run out and some team is gonna hit us hard when one of our pitchers gets into a bases loaded situation. Same thing with the bullpen. Throwing gas is all well and good but soon a patient team will force the relievers to actually throw strikes and that's when thing get dicey. David Aardsma's battle against Jack Cust to end the finale down in Oakland is the perfect example. Cust, being a fastball hitter, kept fouling off the high heat he was being fed before lining out to Endy Chavez. A little luck the other way and the great play on the ball isn't made and Bedard's beautiful game is wasted.

Meanwhile the primitive f-complex part of my brain is screaming out in sheer joy as we amass early season wins and vanquish our enemies like Vigo the Carpathian. The sight of Griffey taking walks is glorious to me. The unbelievable hot streak Endy Chavez is riding allows me to forget about his inevitable regression to the mean. Listening to Dave describe Carlos Silva pitching and it not be a terribly painful experience is dizzying. It's nice to see my favorite Seattle Sports team do well again.

Even often alleged pessimist DMZ at UssMariner.com points out this heartening factoid

The M’s, at 6-2, have now won 10% of last year’s total. If they go .500 the rest of the way, they’ll finish 83-79, an improvement of 27 games.

I'll buy that for a dollar!

Even if the Mariners eventually regress to their true talent level I'll be happy. This team is fun to watch again. Felix and Bedard are a latter day Riggs and Murtaugh, a pair of lethal weapons, The offense while pretty damn terrible doesn't have that feeling of bleak hopelessness of last season, and the team speed and defense The M's possess ensure that every ball in play is a bit of enjoyable chaos.

Thanks Zduriencik for putting a quality team together after such a shitty 2008 season. Now that's change I can believe in!

More Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Seriously, fuck me running!!!! According to sworn enemy of the blog Geoff Baker things done changed. Phillipe Aumont, the M's 2007 #1 draft pick, is now being converted to a full-time reliever. WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!
This is a terrible idea!!!!! Words fail me to express how terrible of an idea Aumont in the pen really is.

The M's will now have used their last three first round picks on starters in Morrow, Fields, and now Aumont. This is after Zduriencik put together a, probably, passable bullpen out of spare parts. Which is the exact type of thing the A's have been doing for years. Taking FAILED starters and making them bullpen studs and flipping them for picks has been incredibly successful for them. It is an amazing waste of talent to move potential starters to the pen.

This move also really sucks because, unless Zduriencik makes some crazy move or we magically manage to draft Strasburg, our rotation past this year looks Olsen twin thin. Bastista and Washburn are gone. So, most likely is Bedard. That leaves the rotation with Felix, Silva who, despite his girth, only counts as one pitcher and RRS. Which is one good pitcher and two marginal ones. Gone are the innocent days where dreams of Felix, Morrow, Aumont led rotations floated happily through my head. In this post-apocalyptic rotation reality there is no hope, no hope, no hope, no hope at all.

The move shakes my faith in Zduriencik to it's very core. There is no good reason to make Aumont a reliever. NONE! I don't care if there is a chance he may not become a starter. Oh well, let him FUCKING TRY FIRST. If he can't hack starting then have him be a reliever. To just move him to the pen when he's only TWENTY FUCKING YEARS OLD is incredibly short sighted!!!

Let's not leave out Zduriekcik's reasoning on the move.

"We felt that this was a guy, who, if used in a relief role, could be on a real fast-track to the major leagues,'' he said. "And we're talking a real fast track.''

and according to Baker

Zduriencik said that when you look at Aumont's size, most notably his 6-foot-7 height, it lends itself to being a top-of-the-line reliever.

Yes, because he is 6'7" that means he is perfectly suited to come out of the bullpen. WHAT KIND OF TRIG PALIN REASONING IS THAT?!

I'm not sure what else to say. I'm stunned. I can only hope this is some sort of sick joke. This is not the news I was hoping to hear less than 24 hours before the start of the new season. I feel like Brad Pitt at the end of Seven and I just found out Aumont's head is in the box.

Seattle Sports Slurry aka I <3 alliteration

A lot has happened in the Seattle Sports Scene in the months that have passed without regular posting. To catch up I'm gonna rundown the various storylines that have cropped up and provide some of my own thoughts as well as links to complement said thoughts. After this I hope to get back to posting regularly on one subject providing my usual ample amounts of snark, porn and drug references mixed in a bit of occasional commentary and attempts at analysis. Enough with the formalities, let's blog!

I think the major occurrence that happened while I was busy neglecting my baby like I was Karl Malone was the return of The Kid. You would be hard pressed to find a fan in Marinerdom that wasn't excited about the return of Ken Griffey Junior to the Mariners, even if he isn't the Junior of old. Many people, including Junior himself are hoping that he will spend a significant amount of time out in the field. Dave over at the always insightful USSM lays out a hell of an argument as to why Junior should see as little time in the field as possible. Basically it comes down the fact that compared to Junior, Raul's terrible defense over the past few years looks gold glove worthy (take that as you will). My hope is that Griffey sees the outfield minimally and platoons at DH the rest of the time. The one downside to Griffey coming back is that the M's front office is no longer forced to find an interesting way of selling this team of relatively unknown, albeit solid, players.

That brings me to my next point, Jack Zduriencik, the Mariners new GM, has done a very solid job of acquiring cheap talent. Many Mariner fans would look at the guys one the 2009 roster and automatically assume we are in for another 100+ loss season. I have to disagree with that idea if for no other reason than defensively we are light years ahead of last years defensively inept team. To the uninformed defense is the third and least important aspect winning baseball games. Hell to some it may be even a distant fourth behind the all-important yet ever so unquantifiable chemistry factor.

To know just how much defense matters I present two examples. The first is the offensive juggernaut that was the 2005 New York Yankees. Despite having an incredibly impressive offense and high-powered pitching staff the Yankees fell short in the playoffs. The reason? That team possessed one of the worst defenses to ever make the playoffs. In the playoffs, when the importance of every out is magnified and runs scored are at a premium a poor defense can be the spark the destroys the Hindenburg.

Conversely, the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, much like the 2001 Mariners relied on their defensive prowess to advance all the way to the World Series. An already solid young pitching staff was augmented by a defense that could convert balls in play into outs, balls that the 2005 Yankees would only be able to make nominal attempts to catch.

With the defensive upgrades and the possibility of a decent amount of production from the DH platoon and first base this team will be better than people think. The AL West is east-coast-pot weak and in the only 4 team division in baseball some people think the M's have a decent shot at winning it. I, for one, am holding out hope.

The Seahawks have the #4 pick in the Draft. Too bad it's a pretty weak draft. There has been a lot of speculation on who The 'Hawks will draft. I have no real idea about what Tim Ruskell is going to do with the #4 overall pick. He moves in mysterious ways. But I would like the Seahawks to get some O-Line depth and find someone that can replace Brian Russel. Because despite the apologists out there that try to cover-up B-Russ' suckitude like holocaust deniers, there is no religious body to destroy the massive amounts of video evidence that display Russel's pure suck.

The Seahawks signed Colin Cole to be paired with man-beast and possible Werewolf by Night, Brandon Mebane at DT. Ostensibly this move will allow Mebane to move to the more disruptive 3-technique tackle where his quickness off the ball and ability to use his leverage to break through blocks will allow him to rush the passer.

Sadly, I don't see this being the case. Not because I don't think Mebane has the skills but because I don't think Cole has the skills. Cole was a back-up on a terrible Packers run defense last season and, when given playing time, was ineffective. That is the football equivalent of being the guitarist for Limp Bizkit after Wes Borland left and being fired. It wasn't as if there is some high standard being set by the person being replaced. So if the replacement performs below the artificially low level set by their predecessor they must really be terrible.

Cole, despite being a seemingly stout 6'1" and 330lbs, fails to hold the point of attack against a double team which was the specific duty he was brought in for. If Cole is blown off the ball easily and fails to command a double team then Brandon Mebane won't have the luxury of seeing one on one match-up to get to the quarterback. If this is the case, it slows Mebane's pass rush considerably and could well be the difference between a hurried and incomplete pass and a complete pass. Let us hope that Red Bryant steps up big time this year and takes over Cole's job.

Steve Sarkesian, former offensive coordinator at perenial powerhouse USC, was hired to turn the UW Football team around. Coming in late to the recruiting process, due to the exit of Tyrone Willingham, Sarkesian managed to put together a respectable recuiting class, despite losing out on a few quality recruits at the last minute.

In his short tenure at Montlake so far Sarkesian has managed to impress. He brings a much needed vitality to the program that was sorely missing under the dour business like approach of Willingham. I wanted Willingham to suceed but by the end it was clear he was not the right man for the job. Already Sarkesian is making a big push for the 2010 recruiting class. Even going so far as to simulate coming out of the tunnel at Husky Stadium complete with smoke and effects. And while technically this is a recruiting violation I enjoy seeing the coach go to such lengths to get kids excited about playing at Montlake again.

While Dawg fans might see more kids leave the program than huge dividends early on, down the road the intensity and results will be there. Already, there is talk of possibly getting Jake Heaps, considered one of the best prospects in the nation to commit early to UW. IF this happens, and that is a big if considering the offers he has in front of him, it would be a huge gain for the Huskies who could use his commitment as a recruiting tool to try and draw in more talent with the lure of playing with Heaps. After enduring the worst season in Husky football history, a strong draft class, especially one highlighted by Heaps, would do a lot to give Dawg fans hope for the future.

That bout does it for my Seattle Sports Slurry. Hopefully you will enjoy my efforts to give you interesting bits of food for thought on the recent major local story lines. I would update you on Sounders FC news but we all know Nobody Likes Soccer.

M's hire new GM: The Z Man Cometh

Let's hope Jay-Z(pictured on the left) has a better eye for talent than he does shirts.

I had been meaning to write a post about the M's GM search for quite some time but laziness impeded me from culminating my plans. The gist of the post was going to be that no matter who the M's picked out of the talked about crop of potential GM's the organization I was going to be happy. This would show that the M's were willing to take a step forward in looking at building a team due to the fact that the finalists all had strong backgrounds in well-run organizations that used statistical analysis as a main cog in player evaluation. I liked the idea of the M's taking a "flyer" on one of these young hot shots schooled in the A's, Jays, Rays, Sawks, D Backs, and Padres school of thought in building a team. Then old man river had to come in and shit in my cereal.

Don't get me wrong from what I have read about Jack Zduriencik( zur-EN-ah sik) has been really positive. He comes from a Brewers organization that focuses heavily on scouting and player development, a lot like the Angels of the Twins. The proof of his good work is apparent in the large amount of major league ready home grown talent available in the Brewers system. And that is something much needed with the M's. While Bill Bavasi did help rebuild the farm system he also instilled failed philosophies in player development that saw many players rushed to triple A only to languish there as they tried to learn facets of the game that should have been taught in the lower levels.

The reason this hiring kind of bums me out, despite it being a step in the right direction for this team that has been running the wrong direction at full speed for years, is complex. In my mind he was chosen By the tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber team of Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong not because he necesairly had the best plan to turn the organization around but because he was the safe pick. He was the oldest of the potential GM's(not that he's old per se, 57) and was closest to the old school of baseball thought of any of the others in the running. This quote pretty much sums up my fears on why he was hired.

"Jack is extremely well-respected throughout baseball," Lincoln said. "His track record in recognizing and developing young talent in Milwaukee was instrumental in the Brewers steady improvement over the past several seasons."

It's that whole respected throughout baseball and track record part that gets me. They point to a good outcome achived via poor decision making. Or take a look at Paul DePodesta's sucess matrix to see where it'd fit.

A bad process of choosing someone because they fit into your pre-established concepts of what's good but still getting it right, that's down in the left hand corner under dumb luck.

The hope is that Zduriencik incorporates some statistical analysis into the organization as well by hiring young bright minds who would love nothing more than to crunch numbers for their hometown team. I'm sure Seattle has a lot of those types. Perhaps we can then build and front office where it's not a one man show but other bright minds can take the work they did here in Seattle with them as the become succesful assistant and full GM's through out the league. A new day has dawned and anything is possible.