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MARCO GONZALEZ
Had his B- game going. (1) When you come into the game walking 1+ men per 9 innings, and then walk 4 in 6+, that tells you that you weren't having your best day. (2) Turning from the Esteemed Skeptics to the rest of the crowd: if you didn't see the game, trust me. Marc-O missed with several curve balls by 2-3 feet, failed to "teacup" many of his fastballs, and threw maybe 2-3 changeups to the low-away corner all day.
He just wasn't sharp.
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Mariners pitching staff has worked it's way up to a team ERA+ of 104. That's quite an achievement considering where they were. It also matches their OPS+, which, of course, has come down.
With regard to the hitting, the reason for the comedown is obvious, injuries and the concomitant slumps that come with the remaining players buckling under the increased load and the pitch-around tactics of their opponents (Mitch Haniger, for example).
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About three starts back, Andrew (Malcontent) offered the outRAGEous opinion that Wade LeBlanc had a very nice chance of becoming the second Jamie Moyer.
This is the sort of assertion that is rejected out of hand because (1) every 87-MPH lefthander is the next Jamie Moyer, whereas (2) there have been exactly two Jamie Moyers in all of baseball history, those being Moyer himself and Preacher Roe. (It so happened we asked the Founding Father whether there are any precedents for Moyer -- soft-tossing lefties who wandered the tundra with survival beards, for 10 years, and then became upper crust All Stars.)
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SSI is back into repairs for a few weeks. Bet the "under" -- usually their repairs are quicker than they advise me.
Until dry dock is finished, though, we get 3 articles on SSI per week -- that will be Sun-Tue -- and we'll use D-O-V the rest of the time (along with Slack) to keep the community percolating, should it so desire.
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SSI is in repairs for a few weeks. Bet the "under" -- usually their repairs are quicker than they advise me.
Until dry dock is finished, though, we get 3 articles on SSI per week -- that will be Sun-Tue -- and we'll use D-O-V the rest of the time to keep the community percolating. Here's an article on Span and Colome. Got another one coming on Paxton's gem last night; it'll be up in an hour.
So, D-O-V the second half of the next few weeks to keep things moving, if thass' OK with you. :- )
Best,
MLB Trade Rumors has the scoop:
M's acquire Denard Span. We send Andrew Moore and farm lefty Tommy Romero to Tampa Bay.
Go back one thread and you will find something that I posted jsut this morning about a potential Span trade. It reads exactly like this:
Span is still a decent 100-ish bat, although this year it is driven by a huge number of walks that might be unsustainable. He's mostly squishy with the glove in CF AND he would cost you a $4M buyout next season. Again, we have farm guys for stuff like this.
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I asked Cindy, what would she write about the game or season? She says, Robinson Cano going down reminds her of Ken Griffey Jr's injury in 1995 and the "Refuse to Lose" attitude from all the replacements. :- ) I dunno about that echo, one way or another, but in 1995 it did seem like a different Scrub every night.
On Wednesday, John Andreoli had his family in from Massachussetts (?) to watch him collect his first ML hit and also to make a really critical diving catch in RF, one that not many RF's would have made. Good on him and it reminded me of Alex Diaz in '95.
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PitchER STALK MODE, Dept.
Against Michael Fullmer, it looked like the M's were going down to one of the best-pitched games of the season. Against Francisco Liriano, it looked like the M's were going to be no-hit (and Liriano did take a no-no into the 7th). Again Tuesday, the A's had one of their two good pitchers, Trevor Cahill, scheduled and HE had his A+ game in full swing going.
On Tuesday, it so happened that Mike Zunino hit a long, sharp LF double ... that got the benefit of a wind-blown 170 PX to clear the LF fence and tie the score. Finally, Jean Segura scored to win the game (more in his section).
In all fairness, this isn't a recipe that wins against Houston or NYY, because those teams don't run out of bullpen pitchers. But! You don't play 162 games against Houston and NYY. You've got to play .600 ball against the non-elite teams. So be it.
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MIKE LEAKE
This is a pitcher who -- with 5 different pitches and a decade's worth of strategems under the bill of his cap -- defies triangulation. Servais laughed about as much in the postgame interview: "He seems to find a different way to pitch every night."
Short and Sweet!
Our 2B dudes are dropping like flies: Gordon on the 10-Day with a fractured toe. Originally injured it on the 9th, reinjured Sunday. He may be out longer than 10 days. That's probably a safe bet, in fact. So you now have need for BOTH Beckham and Romine.
10-Day DL for Gordon