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Cross-Sport Dept.
Dr. D was flattering himself to the effect that he could intelligently watch an F.A. Cup final. The mighty Arsenal Gunners, featuring several "Ballon d'Or" (player of the planet) finalists, vs the feeble Burnley Whatevers, featuring some guy from the pub downwind. Burnley comes from a lower division, but it's not like the Mariners vs the Rainiers. It's more like the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. the Duke Blue Devils.
During play, the announcer said something like, "Burnley can't play a coherent passing game like Arsenal does. In [minor-league soccer] it's about hustle, ricochets, and winning 50-50 balls and second touches. You need Mesut Orzil and Santi Cazorla to complete those high-speed passing plays under heavy defense."
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As Dr. D always suspected. The sport looks incoherent because it is. They finally confess.
Still, he would have thought that in soccer, you needed to outclass your opponent to make coherent offensive plays work. In other words, the #1 team in the lower division ("Championship") should be able to do it against the #17 team, right?
No, the announcer was right, sez SSI's go-to soccer coach. Everybody plays ricochet and hustle until you get to the top 100 or so players in the world. It just takes too much genius.
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Chuck Knox once groused, "the line between winning and losing is hair-fine. Unless you have a dominating football team" (like the 1922 Canton Bulldogs or 1985 Bears or 2015 Seahawks or something).
The Mariners have played what ... 26 of 27 games decided by 3 runs? Meaning basically EVERY game was a "save opp" game?!
You do that, you are going to bounce around .500, more or less. The M's split two in Anaheim. They mighta won two, or lost two.
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Moral of the story, gentlemen: the Houston Astros are NOT baseball geniuses. They're just lucky, and they're hot, and they're coming back to doomed to sink below the division. MEANING, in case you can't connect the pollyanna dots, that the M's are only -1 game out of the lead.
You go watch curling if you want. I'm crunching my popcorn, wide-smiling and with maximum revulsion factor. Keep clicking your SSI bookmark. It beats work, and today only Dr. D is offering an "every comment gets a reply" special. Yes, really. He's curious whether this will drive participation down or up...
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Monday Morning QB
Dr. D was all set to write a cheerful little post about the way that Carson Smith and Charlie Furbush have given us a "poor man's Nelson and Rhodes."
We thought Lloyd had that straight, too. In game 1 on Monday:
- the M's clinging to a 3-2 Felix lead
- the M's had Trout and Pujols coming up (yowchy)
- the M's had a 4-game losing streak blossoming nicely
- the M's were on the road
- Did we mention this was a heroic Felix (and Nelson Cruz) game)
- in other words, most major league managers would prefer not to give up runs here
In came the rookie Carson Smith, way ahead of everybody else in the bullpen line. Smith blew down the Angels' heavy hitters with ease, extending his scoreless app's streak to 56 games. The M's broke a 4-game losing streak. All seemed right with the world.
But with Dr. D skating happily down Bullpen Street, he folded over an unseen handrail he caught waist-high. McClendon brought in Danny Farquhar to throw the 8th. A few poblems with this strategy:
- James Paxton had thrown exactly 90 pitches
- James Paxton's last fastball had clocked 96 MPH
- Carson Smith is the appropriate RH setup man now
- The appropriate LH setup man was ready in the bullpen
- Farquhar's fastball is down this year from 94.5 MPH to 92.5 MPH
- Farquhar lost the game
- It's feebleminded
Even more oddly, after Farquhar gave up his first three baserunners, the left hand Erick Aybar came up to bat and ... Charlie Furbush fired a "last warmup," stepping off to come in. McClendon left Farquhar in. To which Dr. D confidently replied, "How long until we get the replay booth on pitching changes?"
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Farquhar threw four fastballs/cutters to Aybar, sidearm righty against KBIZLT lefty, clocking 90-89-92-89. The 89 MPH pitch, this gorgeous little blue circle below, was a "Pitcher's Pitch" if you ever saw one:
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Aybar hit a rope into right field, as any High Desert catcher or shortstop would have done. It sez here that you bring in Furbush, the Mariners are 12-15 and in first place this morning.
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Listen, you "baseball men" lurking out there. When you got Jeff Nelson and Arthur Rhodes, you use 'em. Like you use Rodney: if they gotta come in four games in a row, that's what they do.
;- ) I don't say that McClendon is an idiot. You've heard SSI defend him a bunch of times. And objectively speaking, Farquhar is hardly consigned to long relief just yet.
But! Somebody explain this one to me. In one-syllable words, so even Dr. D can understand it. Why Farquhar ahead of Charlie Furbush? He was all set to go.
Bah humbug,
Dr D
