Toronto

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K-Pax, M's Pull to -2.0 of Toronto

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Intro:  Nice to be -2 games back of one team, rather than five.  You only need Toronto to have a bad week.  Which they absolutely will.

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1.  In followup interviews, Jack Zduriencik stated ... um, clearly implied, at the least ... that Taijuan, K-Pax and D.J. Peterson "are our future."

This show-stopping little cliche' was not invented by Zduriencik.  But is Dr. D the only one who chokes on this cliche'?  

What are the 25 guys on the active roster, for example?  And are there no drafts coming up?   There is no international scouting, no free agent market?  There are no other minor leaguers, than those three?  etc.

And wouldn't you have said that Addison Russell and Yoenis Cespedes "were the A's future"?

Besides that:  don't two out of three minor leaguers get hurt or fail?  How can three bushers "be your future"?

But.  Okay.  The Mariners love K-Pax.  I'm wit' dem.

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2.  Paxton's release point was just about 7' off the ground Saturday.   If you just joined us, "throwing downhill" takes the ball off the plane of the hitter's bat.

It also produces garbage swings when your knuckle curve starts at the same point...

Trades raining from the sky!!

We picked up Kendrys Morales, a proven MOTO bat, for a RP with 32 MLB innings who was getting beat up in AA and AAA this year. We're renting a good bat and the cost was next to nothing. The interesting thing is that there wasn't a better offer coming the Twins' way.  Pryor was the best guy dangled in front of them?  Really?  Was every team fearful that Morales' bat wouldn't come around, eventually?  All the same, you have to look at this move as a feather in Jack Z's cap.  

 

The 2014 Mariners are "Playing for a 1-game Playoff" ... NOT

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This idea comes up constantly, probably because one notable Fangraphs dude flatly stated that --- > the M's are playing only for "a 1-game playoff, on the road, against a better squad."  Clearly implying that it is unintelligent to set such a goal.

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There was a very similar argument on Field Gulls last week, "demonstrating" that a 14-team NFL playoff was "incorrect."  We kid you not, the words "Correct" and "Incorrect" were used many, many times.  The logic was:

Let it Go

A wise and ancient Judo sensei once stated: "Don't ever wait for the perfectly balanced feeling, or the perfect opening.  Against tougher judo players, that moment will never come.  Begin to execute your throw as soon as you get your favorite grip, because it won't last long."

M's +2 in Wild Card Race!

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Q.  They're on pace for 86 wins, 76 losses.  Would that ever get the second Wild Card?

A.  In the AL, the #6 teams over the past ten years -- the teams the #5 squads have had to exceed -- have been as follows:

Season W's needed to be #5 WC2 Club W's by #6 Remark
2013 91 TB/Tex 91 Playoff #5 vs #6
2012 91 Bal 90, Tampa  
2011 87 Bos 86, LAA  
2010 89 Bos 88, ChiSox 95+ L's  Bal, Sea, KC
2009 87 Tex 86, Det 97-98 L's by 3x clubs
2008 89 NYY 88, Min  
2007 88 Sea/Det   M's made new playoffs
2006 88 LAA 87, Tor  
2005 89 Cle 88, Oak  

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The last two years were the only times, the last decade, when it required 90 wins to make the new playoffs.

New Roger Ebert documentary gets rave reviews

The world lost one of the greatest film critics of all time when Roger Ebert passed away in April of last year. I don't know about you guys, but I still find myself regularly wondering, "What would Ebert think about this movie?" I miss his reviews tremendously. Now, a new documentary about Ebert, Life Itself, has debuted to raves at the Sundance Film Festival, and I find myself eagerly anticipating seeing it. Ebert was a complicated man and, I believe, a fascinating subject for any documentary.

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A Few More Days' Hope on Tanaka-san?

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IceX points out this Chris Cotillo article, on Lookout Landing, which claims the Mariners are "heavily involved" in the talks.  

  • One agent said that the Yankees, Dodgers and Blue Jays were involved when asked what he had heard about Tanaka. Although reports from Toronto made the Jays seem like an unlikely destination, the agent said that the "Jays are in for sure". He also mentioned that there is talk around the game of the Mariners being heavily involved in the talks.

(I don't know anything about Mr. Cotillo, nothing at all, and the article seems to claim that he talked to an agent who relayed this.  Maybe one of you amigos can give me a feel for the situation; if Mr. Cotillo is on Lookout Landing, he's okay by me.)

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Necessary Inference 1:  if an agent is saying this, then the Mariners did NOT miss an offer deadline.  Not in the way that the blog-o-sphere (and I) fretted that they might have.  They're still eligible to sign Tanaka.

Probable Inference 1:  if the M's were ineligible to sign Tanaka, the beat writers would almost certainly have notified us of that.  It never seemed to me like the M's were out of it.  So we held our peace, as it were.

New trailer alert: 'Dom Hemingway'

I'm determined not to let trailers slip by this time of year. We've got a lot of excellent films left to go in 2013, and one of them might just be the dark comedy Dom Hemingway, starring Jude Law. Law's movies (for me) are hit or miss, but this looks like a good one. Technically Dom Hemingway doesn't open in theaters until 2014, but I think this film is worth of a mention here today.

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