Well...mine's raised. Here's why.
1. I thought Humber looked EXACTLY like Tomlin in terms of his rhythm. Catch the ball, stare at the fingers for two seconds, throw the ball. Never a shake off, never a bobble, never a delay. It was like he was pitching with a shot clock. I loved it.
Is that the scouting report against the M's? Throw at a wicked pace? Break up the M's batting rhythm (do we have one)? Is it an accident we've seen it twice in three nights? Would seem unlikely.
2. The back door curve (84 MPH, but with a bunch of bite. Could have been a wicked slider) he threw to Jaso (I think) was awesome. He was in the zone, man. But I think I loved most the 3-2 slider he threw to Saunders in the 9th. History on the line and you have enough nards to throw the ball off the plate. As good as a pitch ever gets.
3. I told Jennifer (my wife), about 16 seconds after the game ended, that Wedge is on borrowed time. Really. I mean it. Over/under is this side of the All Star break.
This team layed an egg last year. Wedge's "Eddie Shore....Old Time Hockey" stuff is sounding as inane as it did from the Hanson brothers.
Spit on Eddie Shore.
I don't know. Robbie Thompson? Chris Chambliss? Daren Brown? Who do you think?
I'm ready for a new schtik.
Humber was suberb today. I watched from the 5th inning on. I've never seen anybody better. Really. Baggins hit a hard foul ball. That was completely it, as far as the 5 innings I saw.
Seaver, Gibson, Maddux and Christy Mathewson would have been competely proud. In the pantheon, man. 20 guys and Humber.
Wedge didn't muck this game up, I'm not saying that. Man, he even pinch-hit Jaso, when it made great sense, even...but at some point, you've got to go big or go home.
Unless there is some clear statement that we can play loud or that Youth will be Served, then wev'e seen your typical Safeco crowd. Wedge might think about listing the condo.
Really.
moe
................
Q. What happened out there?
A. There are times in sports, when an average player has a great day.
Nate McMillan had 25 assists one night; Freddy Brown had 8 steals in one half once; Steve Blake threw out 14 assists in one quarter. Matt Flynn threw for 500 yards his last time out. I think Dan Doornik ran for 100 yards in a playoff game once.
Humber was an average pitcher, pitching great. He was at the very limits of his performance capabilities. Some guys score 40 points once; the difference is, Kobe Bryant does it 100 times.
.
Q. What was the arsenal?
A. The game reminded me, all the way through, of Brian Holman's near-perfect game.
I happened to be charting that game; it was amazing how Holman threw his pitches in "doubles." Two curves. Then fastball... and a second fastball. Changeup... here's another change. Not exclusively, but his 30-30-30 mix was so random it was funny.
Humber threw 40 fastballs, 30 sliders and 20 curves. I could never tell what was coming next, and he threw them all right where he wanted them. If you ever wondered what Holman's game looked like, that was it. (Especially the 84 MPH slider had the M's out in front all day.)
.
Q. He pitched at a fast tempo .....
A. About the 4th, I was taken with the way that Humber's eyes stayed locked on the catcher.
Once he got on the mound for the signal, his head leaned in a little bit and those eyes just locked. He visualized his pitch like 70% of the available lock time, not 10%, 20%, like other ML pitchers do.
His tempo was great, his movements smooth and repeated... if you ever wondered what we mean by "starter's rhythm," you just saw it. The pitcher stands out there and radar-locks in with the catcher, same timing, same bounce, same release point, and he just tunes it finer and finer as the game goes along.
It is when one pitch lock flows into the next that we can speak of starter's rhythm.
.
Q. How much was the M's fault?
A. Oh, somebody else might have disrupted his rhythm better. Maybe the Yankees would have kicked him out of the rocking chair.
Late in the game, Karros counted two hard-hit balls, Ackley's and then some foul ball ..."That's what we're down to here. We're counting FOUL BALLS for the Mariners."
Humber showed you the limits of his performance, but still, I felt the M's laid down to some extent. They were just whaling away popping them up, ah, what's the use. The last several nights their chests have fallen some, I'd say.
.
Q. A crisis for the M's?
A. After the #5 SP lost the 8-1 lead against Cleveland, blowing a 98.7% chance to win .... the M's have been consecutively butchered by Josh Tomlin, Chris Sale, and Philip Humber.
I don't say that it was "incorrect" to take such a laissez-faire approach to the rotation, and to the start of the 2012 season. It wasn't "incorrect" to go with Noesi and Millwood over Erasmo and Paxton/Hultzen. But your strategies have consequences, right? You can trace that 60-yard screen pass play to the fact that you chose to blitz. I'm talking about natural consequences.
The Mariners have been detonated by the awesome strike force of Tomlin, Sales, and Humber, and --- > this current crisis of confidence is probably traceable to blowing the 8-1 lead. Blowing the 8-1 lead wouldn't have occurred if --- > Danny Hultzen (or Erasmo Ramirez) had started the 8-1 game, and we'd had Capps and Pryor in the pen that night.
There's such a thing as losing 4, 5 games. And there's such a thing as being in crisis. This would be the latter.
.
Q. Where are the M's going this year?
A. This afternoon, my MOOD is that I want to see the Mariners' best 25 guys on the field, or maybe I'll walk.
Well, y'know. I want to see their best 25 players, and a trade. Easy for them to say, "well, we're just figuring this as a developmental year." Fine - so will we. I'll go watch Arsenal.
From a fan's standpoint, my BEST case here is to hope that the M's tread water through May, and then see what we can do on June 1 when the best players get here. Starting with Paxton, Hultzen, and Capps, but not limited to that. Figgins out when Carp's back - it was a good idea at the time, but the upside isn't worth worrying about. Montero to catch and a hitter to designated hit. See what the deal is on trading for an expensive bat, even a short-term bat.
That's my MOOD. ::laughs::
............
The attendance out there is truly alarming now. Cindy and I skipped Friday's game because I love Ichiro, but deeply loathe :- ) Ichiro Bobblehead night. Then I turned on the game and it was ... 19,000 in attendance?! With 20,000 bobbles handed out?! Hasn't every previous Ichiro night sold out with lines 2 hours early?
These guys have NOBODY to blame but themselves. NOBODY. They have been pathetic for years, and they have been TEDIOUSLY pathetic. You can't blame 513 runs on the crowd.
They've got an improved team and precisely nobody cares. This is a consequence of their management decisions, not a consequence of Seattle being a weak sports town. Baker isn't ranting because he's grouchy; he's not grouchy. He's a happy guy. He's ranting because he sees the reality. Other MLB franchises realize that they're selling W's, not a nice night in the open air.
There is a long lag in the attendance after you've been good a while, you know. If I'm calling the shots, I don't figure I have the same LUXURY to worry about "Year 7" as the Rangers have. They've got more than they can handle with next week.
Bah humbug,
Dr D
Comments
What do you do with Zduriencik's pre-season comments that 2012 is going to be a tough year anyway? The scary attendance being the trump?
Tonight he had his 2nd straight game in which he couldn't throw a strike ... 30 strikes, 39 balls, 5 walks, two wild pitches. The game before wasn't much different.
Still sitting on 22K's in 17 IP, of course, but with his mechanics that's weird, occurring back-to-back. Kind of like if Dustin Ackley was sent back to the minors unexpectedly, and then struck out in 13 straight appearances or something.
G-Money, you watch either of those games? Know what the deal was?
I appreciate the edit Doc. Thanks. Was just trying to remain faithful to the movie and McGrath.
Is there anybody saying, "Wedge is doing a great job?"
Haven't heard it....although I'm pretty removed from the Seattle press.
I remain on the edge of not watching much Mariner TV.
Really.
Stupid, I know.
Call me frustrated.
moe
So I can't tell you what happened. Guess? Couldn't throw his curveball over the plate and unlike last time they just sat fastball. He obviously couldn't aim anything. I hope he comments on it - I'd like to know what he thinks happened. It's strange to see him get shelled. Even when he loses command guys can't hit him.
We'll see. The Ms aren't promoting anybody from there til June anyway, so they've got time to have it shake out.
In the meantime...free Erasmo.
~G
Passivity. Man do I ever hate seeing a team lay down and die, even if it is to a pitcher having the game of his existence.
They don't seem serious about this season yet. Except for Felix, Vargas and Seager, I guess, and that's not enough. Is that the unconscious message being sent by management and conveyed through Wedge?
I don't want to turn off the Ms for a month and then come back to see if they're really trying to compete yet.
Figgins + Olivo in every bloomin' lineup is not being serious. Shoving Noesi to the front just because you traded for him, even though you know he's got to refine his other pitches (and that's why the Yanks had him in the pen) is not serious.
"It's just two weeks in, don't panic," you say? I don't think I am. The Ms are doing some things right, just not at the right times, and it's catching up to them.
It's not panic to want to see the 25 best players the Mariners can get their hands on playing together. Paxton blew up today. Happens. As Spec says, he's the combustible one. It's not a death knell that Noesi blew up, or Smoak isn't hitting. Or even Olivo.
But if Montero is catching instead of Olivo then Liddi or Jaso can get a shot to DH. If Figgins steps out of the lineup for a second then Wells can try to hit a HR. Carp isn't hitting yet on his rehab assignment but assuming he's healthy he can't really hit much worse.
Your ballclub can tell if you're trying to win or just to put on a good show, IMO. That's how Wak lost the team, and how the team cratered in June last year. Sit Smoak for a couple of days. Same with Olivo. It's not panic - they're not producing. Failure to produce has results. This is not the 2010-2011 Ms, right? That's what we keep saying, isn't it? We're not giving 300+ plate appearances to a dude (Figgins) with an OPS+ under 40, right? Or 300 MORE to another dude under 55 (Guti)? We don't HAVE to.
Production gets you more playing time. Nobody's entitled to anything on a team that's been this bad the last 2 years, certainly not guaranteed lineup spots and playing time.
You don't have to bench Olivo for all time in order to get at-bats to deserving players. I thought the ENTIRE POINT of trading a guy like Fister was to provide this team with enough movable parts to construct a functional roster out of whomever would actually hit or pitch. Isn't that why Wells is here? Why we traded for Jaso?
Isn't that why we have pitchers stacked like cordwood in the minors?
This year above many we need to show that we're agile. Ossifying the playing time until June 1st to make absolutely sure you're doing right by the struggling hitters is a good way to keep up the same results that plagued the previous incarnations of the Mariners that were morbidly pathetic.
Our offense has started the year as moribound as they were last year.
Gotta get some life in this team. Iwakuma waited 15 games to sneak in and pitched great. Erasmo has made a pretty decent pitch for starting consideration. Wells and Jaso are doing fine in limited ABs.
The time is coming when we have to get appearances for those people who can perform. We have a usable bench and a 40 man that has pitchers we can use.
Use em - June is too late. But maybe that's just the perfect game talking. Frustrating series of games this week, that's for sure.
~G
Man I'm feeling really, really dejected right now. It started when Felix was robbed a couple nights ago and I literally couldn't sleep. How does he put up with this? I honestly want him to be somewhere else where he can get the results he deserves. But then the thought of him not being at the top of our rotation is too painful as well. But we don't deserve him, really.
And then this garbage game. Yay, congrats Humber, you threw a perfect game. Now onto more important things like me feeling like absolute crap after I have poured my heart into this team the past two years. I believed in Smoak. I believed in Ackley (I know I know, but let me feel my feelings). Saunders was gonna turn around. Wedge was gonna be the tough-as-nails sarge who makes a difference, makes us winners.
But it's more of the same. It's like the Mariners are programmed to lose and lose. Do we not get nice sports things here in Seattle? And Chuck and Howard are enjoyin' the view, and the profits. And the owner had his team in Japan and didn't see them. And no one is showing up to the games.
Wow it feels like we are more than 2 below 500. And I hope ya'll realize this is just an irrational rant on the part of a frustrated fan.
-Nick
gentlemen.
Flows through the veins. The Mariners organization knows how to do bobbleheads. Apparently they haven't yet faced up to the fact that it's not enough, y'know. You would have thought that the M's had hit rock bottom and got religion after the last two years.
Hey, how 'BOUT that Ichiro?! C'mon fans, come on out and see Ichiro Suzuki and listen to Rick Rizzzzzzzzzzzz and carry Golden Cards in the King's Court and hang out at the Pen with all the gang and, hey 14-year-old girls, isn't Brad Adams cute?, and Angie Mentink is a LOCAL gal, and Jen Mueller is a gal, and aren't those commercial funny?, and hey, have you seen that we have another night dedicated to remembering 1995 and one for 2001?
Frankly, as Mariners fans we don't know what it's like to root for a home team serious about making the same sacrificies the players make in order to make it to the World Series. In it to WIN it? Nah, in it to SPIN it.
The problem is that we still don't know enough about our kids to see who's going to fly and who's gonna need replacing. Which hitter would you kick off the island right now (other than Figgins)? Milwood is the only obvious pitching placeholder.
Liddi and Wells are screaming for more playing time. As is Jaso. Give 'em a chance. They can't be worse than Figgins. (and Olivo).
That is definitely in order.
When Earl's teams went into offensive funks, he snapped them out of it. Anybody who could hit was in there, even if just for 3 days until the funk ended.
"If a rookie goes 4-for-50, you're out of a job" said Earl. Punish (the ball) or perish.
anybody have his phone number?
He would ACCOMPLISH what Wedge SAYS he wants to accomplish. I have no doubt Wedge is sincere, but I''m beginning to have doubts that he knows how to successfully go about it.