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Q. Did Maurer change his pitch selection?
A. He did, yes, and he changed it radically. This change was absolutely the key to his success.
In his last start, he was KO'ed by the Houston Astros in the first inning. There might have been a certain amount of luck involved, but make no mistake: he got KO'ed, and it took smelling salts to peel him off the canvas.
The Mariners are 5-7. It feels like 2-12 but it's really not that bad. Getting blown out by the Astros has the emotional impact of half-a-dozen losses, but that's the great thing about baseball: no matter how badly one or two games go, the ups and downs should even out over time. It's hard to be unlucky over 162 games - our record should approximate our talent level and on-the-field output by the end of the year.
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=== Lookin' At You Sideways, Dept. ===
First pitch of the game, WBC-san rocked, paused at the top, drove forward and --- > fired a stinging little fastball --- > exactly into Shoppach's mitt, on the black and knee high.
The pitch had excellent life and drive, and was one of the best fastballs I've seen Iwakuma throw. Okayyyyyy.
And then guess what he did with the next pitch?
Dr. D lurched forward in his chair. We were two pitches in, and Iwakuma-ShoppAckA-Tack owned the building.
Pitch #3 came in looking just like a fastball, and the bottom fell out of it at the last second... 88 shuuuto. The only thing that saved Kinsler was the fact that he knew he could count on the ump to give him an 0-2 grace pitch (Kinsler didn't have to swing in any case).
But they two were jus' gettin' loose.
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Homework and studying are the stuff of legends. Almost everyone moans when they find out they have to do it, and feel great when it's finished. There are elaborate networks of student cheating, elaborate excuses of how the dog ate it or the computer deleted it and even the occasional diatribe against the worth of homework to try and get out of it. Teachers spend a ton of time grading it and students spend twice that avoiding it. Some education reformers have tried to eliminate it, while others have focused on better after-school programs to help students do it well.
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Q. Is there anybody left who does not think that the Mariners are going to be Mike Zunino's club very shortly?
A. Nobody within the organization, not that I know of. And Jack Zduriencik his ownself certainly plans to give the team to Zunino before too much time passes.
The few people left, warning us not to get too excited, are bloggers. Not the baseball people.
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Q. Would there be any precedent, for asking Mike Zunino to hit in the major leagues after so little time in the minors?
A. You know about John Olerud, of course, who skipped the minors and posted a .364 OBP back in 1990.
The fascinating thing to me, was that when the Mariners signed Danny Hultzen -- do you remember Hultzen's demands, back then? -- that Jack Zduriencik pointed to the one NCAA starting pitcher who had recently skipped the minors, that being Mike Leake.
November 22, 1963 is a dark stain on American history. On this date, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy died at the hand of Lee Harvey Oswald. But Oswald's guilt has become shrouded in contrived theories of innocence practically since the day he was mortally wounded by Jack Ruby in the Dallas PD's underground parking garage.
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I/O: The Mariners limited the A’s 3 hits in each of the first two games of the season, the first team to open a season with back-to-back games allowing 3 or fewer hits in each game since the Reds in 1970.
Hisashi Iwakuma has struck out 10 and not walked a batter in his first two starts this season (14.0 IP)...he is just the fourth pitcher in club history to pitch at least 6.0 innings and not walk a batter in each his first two starts of a season...Cliff Lee was the last to accomplish this, recording three straight starts in 2010, joining Mike Morgan (1987) and Jamie Moyer (2002).
CRUNCH: Since 1970 ... in other words, nobody here has probably ever seen or heard of a team pulling off what the 2013 Mariners just did.
Iwakuma's liable to mess around and give the Mariners a surprise 1-2 combo at the top of their rotation. If he can stay healthy.
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It became clear what Bazooka Joe was talking about, that Montero didn't "get" Saunders' game last time around. The typical inning has around 15 pitches, and in those 15 pitches his Monday mix was:
| Pitch | # thrown per IP |
| Fastball | 11 |
| Gloveside slider | 2 |
| Armside changeup | 2 |
Saunders pitches even more like Jarrod Washburn than we gave him credit for. He wants to "pitch to contact," to challenge (right hand) batters to do something with a located fastball. In theory, that's fine, provided you're not missing out and over the plate, allowing two home runs to mess up an otherwise pleasant evening.
Bazooka Joe wants to mix only enough offspeed to keep the (right hand) batters from cheating on his fastball. I didn't get this before tonight, and I kinda doubt Jesus Montero did, either. Montero favors offspeed pitches, but tonight it was almost like "Okay, pal, you like fastballs so much, I'll just put down the 1 every time."
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Tacoma Rain, taking his own cyber-life in his hands, speaks of He Who Must Not Be Named:
I know we are sooo much better than the Astros, BUT what IF.... Then what?
Do we lynch Z? Is it Wedgie's fault? Can we trade Morales already?
Life has this wonderful way of giving you unexpected scenarios...
......
Silentpadna and Dr. D have been pleasantly jousting with Benihana since about 2002; usually he's been about a 3 or a 4 on the 1-10 scale from |-- Cynic -- to -- Sunshine and Rainbows --| .
It's a treat to see him weighing in with his granite-steady point of view:
We're 3-4, and have only been outscored by 3 runs so far, despite some pretty abysmal performances from our 3, 4 and 5. Plus, now we get to come home and get healthy with a dose of the Stro's. The M's April schedule is a very difficult one, with series against the A's (94 wins), White Sox (85), Texas (93), Detroit, (88), LAA (89) and Baltimore (93). The two series against the 55 game winning Astros is where we need to make some hay. I'll take 5-1 against Houston and hope for a .500 month. Then the reinforcements will start to arrive.
I can't help but imagine a mid-July rotation of Felix, Iwakuma, Hultzen, Erasmo, Paxton dealing us down the stretch... just need to stay in contention. First away series: mission accomplished.
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Baker also, in his column, looks The Kids' OBP squarely in the eye but shrugs that it will be "at least a month" before any real assessments can be made.
There’s been considerable talk lately that President Obama is poised to approve the Keystone XL pipeline and what impact a large scale pipeline disaster might have in the U.S. and now we actually have an example...on a small scale.
