DaddyO links us to a fun GKG interview.

I/O:  You hear the things about certain people in the locker room - that wasn't going to happen because I think you know I'm a firm believer in everyone deserves to be in this locker room.

Because one person does something different, it doesn't mean you get all over that person. If you do your job perfectly, then you can have a reason, but ain't nobody perfect. So to say that one person divided a locker room, that's your fault.

Crunch:  In 2006-08, the M's obviously had a dysfunctional locker room, with Ichiro being the fall guy.  Junior came in, with his 20-year back-of-the-baseball-card, threw his arm around Ichiro, and all the Ichi-scapegoating vanished in a puff of smoke.

Ichiro is hitting .360/.390/.470 in Safeco, leading the league in IBB's, and the ballclub is well over .500.

In terms of Ichiro doing things differently -- one of the two toughest things that Wakamatsu said publicly:  "Instead of making fun of him, you might want to learn from him."

It was Hargrove's job to set that tone earlier, and because he didn't, the Mariners wound up with the clubhouse that they did.  But it's fixed now.  C'est la vie.

..........

I/O:   KG: [Regarding 2010] If they tell me they don't want me anymore, that's fine. I was able to come here and help as much as I could. We'll see how it is at the end of the year and we'll go from there. I'm having the time of my life.

Crunch:  Junior's open to coming back in 2010 ...

You can see, in the interview, how much of the real-life relationship is based on finesse'ing a player's recruitment.

It's nothing unusual at all in baseball to sweet-talk a guy like Junior tell him hey, you mean the world to this organization in just having Wok's back, teaching the young kids how to play the game the right way...

You hit pretty well when rested, so how about we bring you back, get you 200-300 AB's spotted, let you draw some walks, hit some home runs.  (Griff's BABIP was .228, but his EYE almost 1.00 and he hit 14 homers in 320 AB's.)

.................

Interesting to me to hear that 50% of the equation is fine for 2010.   Wouldn't doubt in the least that Zduriencik's bosses would like to market around Griff for 2010.    Question of course is whether there's a key bench player you'd be pushing out.

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I/O:  There are still people talking about how many wins the Nats have and will Dunn have more homers than they have wins.
KG: Well, that's the line in Vegas, and it's getting close.

CTR: No, you know what he does. He hits 40, drives in 100, scores 100, walks 100 - it's what he does.
KG: ... you don't just have those guys sitting in your minor league system. ... They found that out this year. Joey's a great guy and you can't say anything bad about him, but he's not the threat Adam is. Those pitchers who are now losing 2-1 games...

Crunch:  Eerily reminiscent of our insufferable harping about Dunn.  ;- )

The Mariners continue to run the #1 ERA in the AL, and their W/L?   Take a guess what the 2009 M's Pythagorean W/L is?   Wait for it ... 59-70.

Facing the #1 ERA in the league, the Mariners' opponents have scored 47 runs more than the M's have.

In other words, you can't pitch the ball, catch it, and figure that the offense will take care of itself.  In the American League, you've got to put a whale of a lot of energy into constructing an offense, or you're going to be in for a looooooong year.

When we get too smart to plan for a #3 and a #4 hitter, we've outsmarted ourselves.  :- )

............

This is neither here nor there, but I enjoy following the dude's season.  Dunn is running a 156 OPS+, with a .280/.410/.575 line.   A lineup of nine Adam Dunns would score 9 runs per game.

He homered Friday in a 5-4 Nats win, and has 103 weighted Runs Created so far this season.

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=== PCL Watch ===

The Mariners put a graphic on the screen Saturday night, "which of these four players are you most looking forward to in September.

Which four did the M's marquee?  Tui, Morrow ... Carp ... and Lahair.

Tui's last three games since we chatted last: 

Fri - Double, 2 RBI, plus a walk

Thur - Two home runs

Wed - Two singles

In August, Tui was .327/.427/.636 with 7 doubles and 9 homers in 28 games.   That pro-rates to 40 doubles and 50 homers in the same season. 

In other words, we might not cap Tui at '20-25 homers some day.'   :- )   It might be 20-25 homers some half, yeah.

Cheers,

Dr D