Well
Dave · August 29, 2007 at 4:30 pm · Filed Under Mariners
That went about as poorly as humanly possible. Swept at home, despite throwing the three arms you’d choose against LAA, while missing out on having to face Kelvim Escobar – the M’s are now five games back of the Angels, and the chances for taking the division are plunging towards slim and none.
But hey, at least we’ve got Horacio Ramirez on the road against Cleveland tom… Uh oh.
The folks at AN are having a fit because Esteban Loaiza was just picked up by the Dodgers on waivers. He would have had to clear the American League first before getting to the Dodgers.
If that is all true why didn’t the M’s pick this guy up. He is a reasonably priced # 3 starter, makes less than Washburn, and under contract through next year, and better than anything we have after Felix and Batista, so if it was only $$$, why didn’t the M’s pick him up?
Now I probably have a idea of what my dad felt like when the ’78 Red Sox got swept against the Yankees in late August in what is now called The Boston Massacre by many.
If only Lou Piniella and Pat Gillick would come walking through that door. . .
It’s been said before and I’ll repeat it: There is something deeply wrong with this franchise.
Hmmm…wonder who our next washed-up Flavor-Of-The-Week veteran reliever might be?
Maybe Pat Rapp or Izzy Valdes can be brought out of retire-…oh wait, Bavasi already failed with THAT experiment years ago when he was in Anaheim.
So…is it too late to put out an APB on a red pickup to drag Hargrove back to Seattle?
At least tomorrow’s game isn’t on TV, so I wont be able to watch it.
you know you will be watching the gamecast or gameday on either espn, or mlb .com
now that is marketing 😉
-Ti
buy something!!
So we sign and release Parrish, promote White, and pass on Loaiza. Such prodigious idiocy.
In other news, Clemens has nearly shut down Boston today.
Strange flipping the TV around and watching other games now after whatever it was the M”s were doing the past few days and see professional baseball being played.
i should shoot myself…. I think A-Rod is the future of baseballl….
In any case, we will probably still have to beat the Angels at some point if we want to win.
I am disappointed…but I am not surprised. This year’s record is a big improvement over the last couple of seasons, but I’ve never drunk the Kool-Aid that this was a serious playoff team and that’s beginning to show.
Pitching…ummmm…yeah. It says a lot when even our young phenom goes to 10-7 with an ERA of @ 4 and today gets whacked around for 13 hits in 7 innings.
Offense…streaky…and can we please unload Sexson? Please?
The division is the Angels’ to lose. And I can’t convince myself that the wildcard is realistic either. 🙁
McLaren is putting to rest the belief that ‘managers don’t matter.’ His insistence on using Rick White in important moments boggles the mind. His mismanagement of the bullpen begars belief.
And the Yankees win, completing the day.
Denial: The M’s are still in the hunt. They’re just a few games back.
Anger: What were the brain trust of the M’s thinking??? You leave two of the three best players you have on the bench the ENTIRE series (Putz and Jones).
Desperation: All we have to do is turn the tables on the Angels in a couple of weeks and sweep them at their place. Then we’ll be just a game back.
Acceptance: Hey…College Football starts this week!!!
63: Well, I’d say McLaren is an outlier. That’s how bad he is.
The most positive thing I can say about McLaren is to extend my appreciation for the meltdown performance he put on during game 1 of the Angel series. I haven’t laughed that hard at a Mariner broadcast in a long time!
The M’s picked a fine time to go through one of their patented 7-game losing streak!!!
This is the glaring problem for the Mariners that I knew would come out sooner or later.
Against crappy teams, our weakness is not as noticable (Oakland, KC, CWS, Baltimore, TB, Texas).. but against the best teams, starting pitching wins. It doesn’t matter what the bullpen or the offense is, in the playoffs and down the stretch, the team with the best starting pitching ALWAYS wins.
Unfortunately, our #1 pitcher is not as good as the #3 Angels pitcher. As a result, we may barely make the playoffs (but I doubt it), and even if we do, we will be 3 and done vs. the Red Sox…
How can Felix, Washburn and Bastista compare to Beckett, Schilling and Dice-K?? They can’t.
The bullpen used to be consistent enough, but isn’t anymore.
I disagree. They’re still solid. Last night, Green and O’Flaherty pitched pretty well. Morrow was a little shaky, but not really any different than he’s been all year (as a wag said, he has two pitches, fastball and wild pitch). Sherril was the only “A” reliever we used today, and he did his job (Jose Lopez, not so much). Too bad McLaren thinks he’s only a LOOGY.
The rest of the team though is not very solid at all.
I agree, the team isn’t that solid, and i was wondering when they were going to start to break down. Maybe now they are, and the schedule isn’t going to get any easier with the road trip against tough teams. I’ll pray that maybe they can manage not to embarress themselves on the road trip. Maybe the Yanks and tigers will take a dive when the M’s roll in, but thats too much to hope for.
The Yankees fan at the bar said he had been worried for about 2 weeks about the M’s.
I assured him there was nothing to worry about cause we still start HoRam. He also had a nickname for Richie, Homo-Sexson-ual. I laughed.
Can someone explain to me why we *must* keep Horam in the starting rotation? During the broadcast today, they mentioned giving Rowland-Smith a start. At this point, what have they got to lose?
65: Was that supposed to be an HK-47 reference?
Anyways, I’m pretty sure that the Mariners are going to turn me from a teetotaler to an alcoholic if they keep this up.
Random comment/question:
There was some fun regarding the general mood or the perceived negativity of this blog not many game-posts ago…when we were the “hottest team since…” and Vidro — in spite of it all — was garnished with “he’s on fireâ€.
I’m late to this (incredible) blog/resource and don’t know whether it existed during the 2001 season. So, what were the comments like back then?
For me, 2001 was what got me back into baseball post-strike, and it was all about winning numbers and about managing wins. But the losses to Oakland away, and home to the Yankees in the playoffs that year shocked me back into realizing, again, the failure part of it.
I ask because the poor decisions and weak performances we witnessed in the last series brings out some of the better posts on this site. There’s something about adversity that brings this out…something we hope the ’07 Mariners respond to also…
Anyway, when I hear baseball described as a game of failure, it reminds me of what’s fascinating about this sport, and what was realized this last series.
Is Albie Lopez available possibly? ;D
Can someone explain to me why we *must* keep Horam in the starting rotation?
I’d pretty much go for anyone else at this point. Campillo, Jiminez, Lehr, Rowland-Smith, Tomko, Bloomquist… Maybe start White instead of HoRam. At least that way, we know White wouldn’t enter the game with a leverage index over 2.0.
I’d also pretty much go for a closing italics tag, but too late for that now. Sigh
Yea…maybe the sweep will be a wake up call for the Mariners. Could work both ways. I was in cleveland last week, i kind of wish i could’ve been there for tomorrow’s game. But i would probably be embarressed being the only Mariners’ fan when HoRam starts getting shelled.
Yea…maybe the sweep will be a wake up call for the Mariners. Could work both ways. I was in cleveland last week, i kind of wish i could’ve been there for tomorrow’s game. But i would probably be embarressed being the only Mariners’ fan when HoRam starts getting shelled.
72 – “He also had a nickname for Richie, Homo-Sexson-ual. I laughed.’
I’m not sure which of those sentences is the most pathetic.
79: The very thought of HoRam as a “stopper” kinda ranks right up there with nails scraping down a chalkboard on the ole’ cringe scale…OUCH!
Aw, John, if you can’t get some good old-fashioned fag-baiting in a sports crowd, where can you these days? Whatsamatta aintchagotta sensahumah?
I have a (fearless) prediction: When the Mariners collapse out of the pennant race, Seattle major sports media will blame it on Ichiro’s lack of leadership.
Ok, maybe I’m missing something here, but why are the Yankees willing to give a guy like Mussina (who’s track record and “veteraness” would make our front office weak-kneed) a rest but our team keeps putting Horam out there with out any second thought? We’re both in the exact same position and have just as much at stake. As much as I despise the Yankees I have to give them credit for making adjustments when needed (i.e. Mussina and Damon) while our brain trust keeps closing their eyes and hoping everything will be fine when they open them back up.