Houston, we (may) have a problem!

Mallex Smith is a rusty gate:  .165-.255-.247 and he's K'ing in 30% of his AB's.

However, Braden Bishop is at .271-.364-.447 in Tacoma.  The other day he launched one into the parking lot.  He's made 2 errors in CF, but then so has Smith.

Tim Beckham has made 11 errors at SS.  .286-.359-.533 will make you ignore a lot of a .913 Fld. % at SS, however.

JP Crawford has made 3 errors for Tacoma and is hitting .291-.378-.419.  OK, OK...much of that is due to a vL line of .387-.472-.581, but he is a career MLB .764 vR. 

Kyle Seager will be ready in a bit. 

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Tuesday pitching Tazoberrry

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Editor's note - going to hafta streamline the shtick a tad here kiddies.  For a bit.  Typing is a bit persnickety, so out go the wit wisdom and warmth, and in stay the acerbic abrasiveness and errors.  May only streamline from 450 to 435 but it's the principle of the thing.

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MIKE LEAKE 

The M's were skateboarding down the winning ramp like Galadriel down those stairs to the mirror fountain when Mikey took a 1x4 and broke it across our shins.  Out goes the 16-8, in comes the 16-9.  Which leaves us on pace for a measly 104 wins.

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Midweek Afternoon Macchiato

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BEST READ

If the Mariners have just pole-axed another hapless enemy, and you're looking for reading material of over-the-fold quality, you can do worse than to read the last night's Slack roundtable.  It'll be chock-full of Denizens' insights, ideas and impressions of the game in real time.

I don't know how to direct you to it; somebody in the comments will bail me out.  On a smartphone, though, you download SlackChat and then simply search Seattle Sports Insider or somesuch.  One a' you Slackers :- ) finish up here.

(Sez Andrew:  Here's the slack link:  https://seattlesportsinsider.slack.com )

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M's triumph 2-1, may never taste the dust of defeat again

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ANTHONY SWARZAK

HQ -- only $15 digital download at BaseballHQ.com -- sez,

Missed 14 weeks to two different injuries (oblique, shoulder). In resulting short sample, control slipped but FpK history gives hope for recovery. While he appeared to hold Dom gains, SwK drop suggests 2017's surprise breakout is likely an outlier. Skills and age make him a fairly average bullpen arm.

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Pesky Rodent Angels 3 ......

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SHORT N SWEET Dept.

Your bleary author will keep this one tight, whattaya say.  That was the best we've seen Felix look in months if not years.

His CTL was 4:0, he gave up no homers, his strike vs ball count was 60:32, and his #5 start spun us back around to Marc-O and Kikuchi unscathed.  I seen worse :- ) and I seen worse box scores than 5.1 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, and 4:0 CTL.

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.... M's 6 (4.1.19)

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Nothing April Fool's in here.  Our fave ball players have been giving us that, on the field, for a week.  

Normally you would have the right to expect a postgame with a Think Tank "favorite moments" to include a little obscurity, some weirdness and checked-swings and dives back to a bag.  Unfortunately for you, your lazy author is going to do little more tonight than to ... describe the hits he liked.  Ah well, isn’t that the accepted postgame convention anyway ...

;- )  

Pile on bulk numbers for another week, let's say a 4-3 record against two weakies upcoming, and the M's record will be 10-4.  At which point people will be noticing.  Well, could be.

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Over-under on wins: 107

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M's run totals seven games in:  9, 5, 12, 6, 6, 10, 6.  Which totals 54 runs, divided by 7? equals 7.7 per ballgame.  But which is more difficult?  Running seven straight games with 5+ runs, or averaging 8?  That was the question posed by the 2001 M's, who scored 5 runs in scads of games... 

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1927 New York Yankees' game run totals at the same pernt .... WOW!  NICE!  8, 10, 9, 6, 5, 14, 3.  Totalling 55 runs for 7.9 per ballgame.  Baseball history had no clue that the '27 Yankees' early blitzkrieg was an airhorn signalling their intent to finish 110-44 (109 even by Pythag), which woulda tied them with the '06 Cubs and '01 Mariners at 116 runs over a 162-game span.  

Of course you and I can only dream about the spectacle of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig facing off Chris Sale, but we know what would happen in a matchup with the '19 Mariners:   he’d be left for dead after four or five Back Leg Specials.

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Sizzlers & Fizzlers - Bottom Half of the Inning, 3.30.19

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Seems like you could give everyone in Seattle an A+ for their first 5 games.  They've got six regulars SLG'ing .588 or better, and they have scored 5+ runs for five games in a row.  ... 9, 6, 12, 6, 5.  That is against 5 TOR pitchers.

Sideways Stat:  Oakland SP's fired 18 shutout innings in their 2-1 series win over the Angels.

We'll start at the top:

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Sizzlers & Fizzlers - Top Half of the Inning 3.30.19

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SIZZLER - YUSEI KIKUCHI

After a couple of games, it's *not* the Mainframe's assessment that Kikuchi is going to finish 2019 as a Clayton Kershaw-level star.  His slider 'remains to be seen' just a bit, his velocity is less than overwhelming and he over-challenges.  But more to the point, in two games he's thrown just 53% strikes where ML average should be 60%.  

Of course that may be the weird spring training.  Blowers said Sale's first "real game" was May 15 so ... maybe that's the case here?  He's actually TOO confident, as evidenced by his jockeying with the umps early on.

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