M's 2, Jays 7

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THE SPIRIT WAS WILLING, THE COMMAND WAS WEAK, Dept.

Back in the day at Boeing, we heard that they tested airplane windshields by firing 600-MPH chickens at them.  Previously euthanized, we'd like to assume.  The chicken cannon may be an apocryphal story; Chase De Jong's outing was not.  No such pre-euthanasia luck applies for 23-year-old control artists who can't control anything.

You could see the seeds of an Aaron Sele-type attack, at least if you were rooting for the kid.  He threw a 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock curve ball with excellent late break and deception, so much so that --- > the first four or five he maneuvered into the strike zone were high ...and yet the Jays' subs still froze.

Of course, "the first 4-5 curves for strikes" were actual curves #11-15.  De Jong ran 3-ball counts on about half of the hitters the first four innings.  Considering that he was outmanned approximately Poland vs Blitzkrieg 1939, he battled gamely.  Nice makeup.

SOOOooooo... every pitcher whatsoever, he's going to have an A game and a B game.  This was a B- game for De Jong and the modern game is not forgiving to guys with short stuff who are behind 3-and-0.  Neither is Dr. D forgiving of Dipoto and Servais, because they had signalled 3 IP, 3 IP, 3 IP type setups through the Cheney Carousel.  

If they'd yanked De Jong in time, we'd only have lost 4-2.  Remember on Friday, chaps.  If Bergman gets you through three or four innings, count your money and push back from the table.

As it was, Chase De Jong shuffled off the field, hanging his head worse than Picasso's "Old Guitarist."  Don't do the kid any favors, Scott.

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What To Do at Catcher?

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ZUUMBALL

Obviously has the glove of a 1st-string catcher.  Obviously has shown flashes of easy power.  Obviously is well-liked by teammates, pitchers, and coaches alike.  Obviously is working with one whale of a Cirque Du Soleil net, as far as the Mariners are concerned.  Does this make his 3rd or his 4th turn in Tacoma dry dock?

Jerry Dipoto just gave Zunino a 72-hour leave of absence before his Tacoma report.  This means he is probably sincere about repairing Zunino (again) as opposed to head-faking his fellow GM's.  Besides that, it was just a great human thing to do.

But the M's have a serious problemo:  if not Zunino, who?  Tuffy Gosewisch is going to hit about .140 and Carlos Ruiz simply can't get into a squat for nine innings, more than about three times a week.   The word "crisis" gets thrown around a lot, but ...

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Arenaball M's 11-10, Phillies 9-6 ... Sizzlers

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HANAGAMEREDIA DYSMOT

Does not sound at first glance like a syndrome you would want to contract, does it?  Well, maybe the Astros will catch a good case of it, next time around.

This is where you step out of a fresh shower ... pour a steaming cup of strong coffee ... toggle on your computer ... and settle in to enjoy 1,200 words of sthick that tell you the M's are hitting good.  Whether you are Russell Wilson or an SSI Denizen, it's all about routine.

Dr. D's own routine is searching for stats tables like this one:

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Who ARE These Guys?

I mean, really, who ARE these guys?

Mitch Haniger, Jean Segura, Guillermo Heredia, Ben Gamel, Taylor Motter.

Young, good and in Mariners uniforms.

We have been treated to a succession of young busts over the years (including from this team Mike Zunino-- he went out from among us because he was not of us). But these guys are different. Are we sure there isn't some cosmic mistake, a sort of Bizzaro World in which young Mariners players are not only not bad, not only good, not only doggone good, but, in the words of Tony the Tiger, "GrrrrEAT!"

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Happy Totals

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Andrew Moore gets the start for the AAA Rainiers on Tuesday night.  

Jeff:  "The Mariners promoted their best pitching prospect to Tacoma.  Maybe we should head out tomorrow night."

Cindy:  "They moved him up because they're getting ready to put him on the Mariners or because he was good in AA?"

Jeff:  "I think I'll put that on my blog.  Thanks hon."  

G-Money:  "You do realize I adopted Moore circa 2013, right.  I just don't remind people of my groks every other post."

In spring training we boggled about his Ultra King Felix (TM) pitch sequences, which apparently have not abated SO far.  (See also the directly previous March post for Moore's arsenal.)  Less importantly, Jamie Moyer (TM) boggled about Andrew Moore's scale weight or pitching future, one of the two, hard to tell which.

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M's 4, Rangers 3

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THE STATE OF THE M'S IN 7 BULLET POINTS

1  Sitting on an OPS+ of 112, and facing the Rangers' easiest pitcher, M's fans settled in for 8 runs by the ballclub and 3 hits by Ben Gamel.  (True, the M's have only scored 8+ runs in 6 of the last 13 games, but they're still *THIS* close to 5.00 runs per game.  In Safeco.)

We setted in for 8.  What we got was zero runners past first base for, oh, two three hours real time.  "Fate of the Furious" made thirty, forty million bucks during the time it took the Mariners to get a runner into scoring position.  Tell me that's not microcosmic.

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2  With a 3-0 lead, the Rangers walked ten or twelve Mariners in the 7th to throw away their win.  Takeaway:  the Mariners play in an easy division.  (With one exception.)  They're now within a series, -2.5 games, of the playoffs, behind ... Minnesota.  

From here, let's play two!  Preferably with the Phillies, who have lost 8 of 10.  Then preferably a 4-gamer with the worst team in the American League, which as you knew would be the Blue Jays.

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Chase de Jong and Other 6, 7, 8 Starters

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Sez Bill,

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The Phillies announcers are saying that when Howie Kendrick (33) comes back, it will cause a problem in finding playing time for Tommy Joseph (25) who is in a bit of a slump and Aaron Alther (26) who is hot. At what point do teams decide to play the young guys even if the older guys are hitting better? I mean, I get that if Kendrick is hitting that helps you win now, but surely if you think Joseph might develop (though he's not THAT young, surely) then Kendrick needs to watch while you let Joseph and Alther play?
Asked by: MikeChary
Answered: 5/3/2017
It is a problem in a lot of organizations.   Well. . .you have to treat players fairly despite their age.   It does create a problem on your team if players perceive that some players are "chosen", and others don't get a fair shot.   But also, there is a problem sometimes of managers or others not caring anything about what happens two years down the road; they're fighting to survive.  
Herk Robinson once told me that one of the biggest mistakes he made with the Royals was a small thing.   Somebody in the organization wanted to invite Vince Coleman to spring training in '94, so he said "Sure; let's bring him in."     Coleman was in his 30s by then and coming off two or three subpar seasons.   Robinson THOUGHT that he had an understanding that Coleman was coming in to fight for a job as a fifth outfielder, pinch runner, but once he got to camp, he was in the lineup every day, pushing out young guys who needed the development time.   Hal McRae--who was a very good manager--was more comfortable with the marginal veteran than with a marginal rookie.   Once he is on the roster there is not much that the GM can do about his playing time.

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That seemed like a pithy statement of the "entitlement" problemo to me, so maybe it's useful to some of you amigos also.  

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M's 8, Rangers 2

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14-AND-17 with +8 RUN DIFFERENTIAL

Don't know why I hadn't thought of it this way, but the Mariners are missing their #1, #2, and #3 starters.  And their Mike Trout.  (Everybody else has played close to 30 games, to Haniger's 20, but Haniger is still #7 in the American League in WAR.)  Yet the Mariners are close to .500 and have a +151 -143 run differential.

So, we've been about an 85-win team about to add four big names at the trade deadline.  LOL.  Well, maybe not.  But we were missing Segura too, with Felix and Smyly, so the run differential ain't really all that bad.  Maybe you even count Steve Cishek's injury, considering the games we blew in the late innings.

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Apology to Gallardo, and Dipoto

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HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED

In the second half of 2015, and all during 2016, Gallardo threw a fastball that was (1) slow, or "minus," and (2) more wild than most AA pitchers throw them.  The result, last year, was an inconceivable 6.5 strikeout, 4.7 BB, plus Gopheritis tragedy.  In spring training 2017, his fastball had some juice back (to average-solid) but was, if anything, even wilder.  

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