=== Shut Out Again ===
Had Carlos Peguero started in left field, the Mariners would (on paper) have suffered a no-hit, no-run game. (The M's only two hits were from backup OF Greg Halman.)
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Chuck Knox used to do midweek reviews of Seahawk games on TV with Bruce King. Knox cowboy'ed up, win or loss. In the middle of one Seahawk slump, he watched the Jets hit a long bomb down the middle for a TD, against double coverage.
Knox growled, "When one o' theirs beats two o' yours, there's not a thing you can do about it. From a coaching standpoint."
You feel 'im? A coach can read the play perfectly, can put the players where they need to be ...but sometimes he watches from the sidelines and the players are just losing individual battles all over the field.
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In the 7th, Brendan Ryan reached on an error, and Wedge sent him on a SB. Ryan made it, no problem. Guti moved him to 3B.
Justin Smoak was at the plate. Who else can you put up there? The inning was engineered perfectly from Bartlett's bobble.
Smoak, with the platoon advantage, struck out weakly on a low-away fastball way off the plate.
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I'm not in the mood for a technical analysis of what's wrong with the Mariners' offense. But: the M's coaches, and GM, have done everything they can do. It's not on them. You can coach great and your players can play bad.
One thing, though: I'd have Mike Carp in there, because Carp deserves a third, and final, 400-AB look in Seattle.
And I'd have Greg Halman in there in CF. His OPS+ going into the game was 153, and his K/BB/PA/EYE is fine. Franklin Gutierrez' OBP is .223 and his SLG is .240.
All the Mariners can do right now, short of trades, is keep Ackley - Smoak - Ryan - Kennedy - Carp - Halman - Cust - Olivo in there. The last move left would be Kyle Seager, but would it be him, Kennedy, or Cust who sat down, or would you put Seager/Kennedy in LF?
***
On paper, this offense should -NOW- be much better than in 2010. You have the following swapouts:
- Smoak for Kotchman's 72 OPS+
- Olivo for Moore's 43 OPS+)
- Ackley for Lopez' 70 OPS+
- Kennedy a push for Branyan
But CF, RF, and 3B (Guti, Figgins, Ichiro) have fallen way off.
All the M's can do is keep flipping twist cards. The good news is, any 100 bat that comes in, helps a ton.
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BABVA,
Dr D