Seattle Mariners

Just noticed that...I will most definitely be there (I live 5 minutes from the stadium. Is there any interest in doing a group outing to an AquaSox game? If so, I can potentially help with any legwork as I live so close by. I would also be interested in a group outing to the NWL All-Star game, if anyone else wants to do it, too. Ticket availability is the widlcard...I don't even know how they're allotted, if at all. Anyway, speak up if you're interested...it would be really cool to mob deep to some AquaSox games with some of my fellow M's fans this year. I don't know how or when those A-S game tix become available, but I'm definitely going to try to pounce on some if I can. It's usually just a short stop for the better prospects, but if you haven't been to an AquaSox game before, it's a lot of fun and the baseball is pretty damn good, actually. The baseball atmosphere at Everett Memorial Stadium is top notch for minor league ball. I caught a couple of Zunino's game there during his very short stint in A ball, so it's excellent to be able to go do that kind of thing there, too. Just noticed that...I will most definitely be there (I live 5 minutes from the stadium. Is there any interest in doing a group outing to an AquaSox game? If so, I can potentially help with any legwork as I live so close by. I would also be interested in a group outing to the NWL All-Star game, if anyone else wants to do it, too. Ticket availability is the widlcard...I don't even know how they're allotted, if at all. Anyway, speak up if you're interested...it would be really cool to mob deep to some AquaSox games with some of my fellow M's fans this year. I don't know how or when those A-S game tix become available, but I'm definitely going to try to pounce on some if I can. It's usually just a short stop for the better prospects, but if you haven't been to an AquaSox game before, it's a lot of fun and the baseball is pretty damn good, actually. The baseball atmosphere at Everett Memorial Stadium is top notch for minor league ball. I caught a couple of Zunino's game there during his very short stint in A ball, so it's excellent to be able to go do that kind of thing there, too.

The Mariners have relied on offensive contributions from veterans during their recent climb up the standings, while Dustin Ackley and Jesus Montero have continued to struggle.

A couple of days ago, a gentleman some of you might know by the name of Jeff Sullivan cautioned Mariners fans to be patient. He was referring specifically to the Brendan Ryan benching, which drew some ire from the fanbase (and myself) at the time, and which has over the past couple of weeks sorted itself out. Ryan is back as the starter, and is showing signs of improvement. All the fuss was over next to nothing. There's a danger in patience, however, or at least a danger in avoiding fuss. Because if we take the philosophy to its logical extreme, one could easily argue that many of the things we care about as fans are similarly negligible over time, to the point where wins and losses themselves become meaningless. Because everything is based on perspective, and tinged with uncertainty, patience leeches out the passion in a fan. Why spend a Saturday afternoon listening to a Mariners game that ultimately won't matter? Why read a recap? Why write one? Why care about baseball at all? I don't think Jeff is saying that fans shouldn't be passionate. He's right; it's all too easy to lose perspective. But I do believe that while being too narrow in one's view can cause one to overreact to something like a Brendan Ryan benching, being too broad can be equally harmful. With this team, in this era, it can be so easy for the emotional fire to flicker and die. Joe Saunders nearly doused my own spirit with five-plus innings of eleven-hit, one-run baseball, a sort of water torture. But I persevered, partially because of my silly obligation to write this, and those of us who did were rewarded with two innings of legitimately exciting baseball. For a couple of innings, it didn't matter that we were hoping for a single victory in mid-May by an also-ran baseball team. We didn't really worry how each play affected the M's playoff odds. We got caught up. (The actual, abbreviated recap in this article: the Mariners came back from 4-0 to tie the game 4-4 with three home runs, only to cough it up in the bottom of the ninth.) There are countless different ways to approach fandom, and no right or wrong way to care about baseball. But from a communal standpoint, one of the greatest feelings is getting caught up, and we want to experience that wave from its very earliest moment, its origination. We wait for a time and a place for the story to start, where we can start constructing our own narrative of our fandom. Narratives get a lot of bad press lately, and certainly, they're really terrible if you're using them to make predictions. But there's nothing wrong with using narratives to frame our own experiences and create our own history. Today, for a little less than an hour, it felt like this might, just maybe, be the beginning of a wave. The two-run home run by Brendan Ryan, of all people, cascading down the LL comments before my phone had reached through the internet to learn of it, was one moment. It didn't quite work out. It usually doesn't, which is why it's so special when it does. Instead, we'll just wait a little longer. Seemingly needless bullet points: If there is such a thing as style in baseball, Joe Saunders is the absence of style. Every inning was a series of wounds, seemingly self-inflicted. Justin Smoak increased his season OBP to .374. That puts him in the top-20 in the American League. I'm going to disagree with Logan here and say that if Mark Reynolds wore a Mariners uniform next year, I‘d be perfectly content. At the right price, of course, which it probably wouldn't be. I'm probably overrating him, but from my viewpoint, his improvement doesn't look like all luck. Asdrubal Cabrera has about as much faith in Raul Ibanez's defense as we do. He was halfway to third when Ibanez caught a fairly easy (albeit wind-deadened) fly at the wall, and got doubled off easily running all the way back to first. Wedge's refusal to employ his best reliever in a tie game in the ninth inning was as frustrating as it was unsurpris

We've discussed the lack of athleticism by catcher Jesus Montero before and it came into play at a couple of key moments in today's 5-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians. The biggest play was the one in the bottom of the ninth, when Brendan Ryan made that diving snag of a Mark Reynolds shot that appeared headed into left field. With the bases loaded and none out, Ryan had to come home with his throw and made a pretty stellar effort to get the all there. But catcher Montero -- wanting to catch the ball before the runner touched home -- took his foot off the plate in making his stretch. To be fair to Montero, catchers don't practice stretching for balls the way a first baseman would and it was pretty evident on that play. “That’s the reason right there,’’ Montero said. “We usually block the plate. But in that moment, I was thinking ‘Just touch the plate and catch the ball.’ But the ball was a little far.’’ Mariners manager Eric Wedge had not viewed a replay yet, but said he felt Ryan's throw would have beaten the runner had Montero stayed put. "You have to stay on the plate,'' Wedge said. "If the throw pulls you, that's fine. But if there's a spot to stay on the plate, you have to do it. And then either he's out or he's safe. You have to give yourself a chance there.'' Montero also didn't help matters in the third inning when he was the lead runner with men on first and second. Endy Chavez squared to bunt, but held up and Montero -- having strayed too far off second in an attempt to cheat towards third -- was nabbed in a rundown by catcher Yan Gomes. Once again, the lack of athleticism and speed by Montero played a part. "That's happened to me before,'' Montero said. "I tried to get t third base and I never made it to third base because I'm so slow. I tried to cheat a little bit and when I saw Endy was not bunting, I was like 'Oh, God!' So...I gave up, because I'm not fast.'' No, he is not and the Mariners know full well about Montero's limits as a baserunner and as a defensive catcher. They are trying to work on those aspects of his game ut there is only so much that will wind up being accomplished. He's here to hit and at some point, he'll either have to do that or the team will have to make some decisions. As somebody pointed out, even had Montero kept his foot on the plate, there still would have been bases loaded and only one out. The Mariners, as we pointed out earlier, took far too long to wake up on offense today, mustering only four hits the first seven innings and entering the eighth down 4-0. That they came back on a late homer by Ryan in the eighth and then two more by Raul Ibanez and Justin Smoak in the ninth was as much a testament to the pitching by Seattle as anything else. Danny Farquhar had a stellar debut, retiring all eight batters he faced -- five via strikeouts. Prior to that, Joe Saunders had toughed it out for 5 1/3 innings on 120 pitches. He escaped jams for the most part, but got hurt in the sixth when he allowed two of his four runs. Saunders had trouble finishing some innings off after good starts and could have used a reak or two along the way. But he hasn't had many this season on the road, where he's still winless. "We're going to sacrifice a live chicken before my next road start,'' Saunders quipped. "Just bad breaks. I threw some great pitches, they made some good swings on great pitches and I didn't get the breaks again. I battled my (butt) off today and tried to keep us in the game as much as I could. I told Wedgie (Eric Wedge) and I told (pitching coach) Carl (Willis) after the fifth, 'I'll throw 150 if I have to.' '' Saunders said he had nothing left by the time he was pulled. "That was everything I had,'' he said. "Everything humanly possible to keep us in the game today. I battled my tail off

SEA Pitcher WPA CLE Pitcher WPA J Saunders -0.112 Z McAllister 0.315 D Farquhar 0.034 R Hill 0.036 O Perez -0.302 C Perez -0.295 Y Medina -0.064 T Wilhelmsen (N/A) SEA Batter WPA CLE Pitcher WPA E Chavez -0.001 M Bourn 0.074 J Bay -0.023 J Kipnis -0.011 M Saunders 0 A Cabrera 0.227 D Ackley -0.07 N Swisher -0.01 K Seager -0.111 M Reynolds 0.256 K Morales -0.072 M Brantley 0 M Morse -0.075 C Santana -0.082 R Ibanez -0.039 M Aviles 0.047 J Smoak 0.418 Y Gomes -0.039 J Montero -0.172 D Stubbs -0.018 B Ryan 0.089 Hero: Justin Smoak (+0.418 WPA) Goat: Oliver Perez (-0.302 WPA) Honorary Bonus Goat: Jesus Montero (-0.172 WPA) Questions posited for the reader: 1. Is it better to be hurt than to never feel at all? After seven innings, this game was more of a surreal, hangover-fever dream than an actual sporting event. If the game had ended then, would you have been better or worse off? 2. As pretend general manager, would you potentially sacrifice wins for the big league club by demoting Jesus Montero for the sake of a Shoppach/Sucre combination? 3. Perform some internal calculus. Raul Ibanez, as you have no doubt noticed, has hit 6 home runs in 7 games. Is he, at this exact moment, lovable? If not, how many games of averaging .86 of a HR per game would it take to make him so?

Oliver Perez picked the wrong time to have a rare off day, giving up a leadoff single and then a double to Asdrubal Cabrera in the ninth. The Mariners intentionally loaded the bases with none out after that and brought Yoervis Medina on to pitch. But Mark Reynolds then hit a shot to the left side that a diving Brendan Ryan made a stop on. But Ryan was off-balance when he threw home and had no chance to get the runner. Mariners take their second straight walk-off loss, 5-4. The loss came after the Mariners had tied the game in stunning fashion in the top of the inning. After spending most of the day going through the motions, the Mariners were down to their last out, trailing by two runs and with nobody on base. But Raul Ibanez kept hope alive with a solo homer to right and then Justin Smoak tied it up moments later with his own solo homer to right-center. That's two hard hit balls by Smoak today, an earlier double nearly going out to left field before striking the top of the wall. That's a welcome sign for the Mariners. Unfortuantely for them today, they waited too long to get untracked. Had they actually done anything on offense prior to the eighth inning, they might not have still be tied in the bottom of the ninth.

Joe Saunders vs. Zach McAllister, 10:05am Tough loss last night, as Jason Kipnis hit a walk-off off of Lucas Luetge. Today’s game starts before some in Seattle have woken up, but as all baseball fans know, you can’t sleep on a pitching match-up like this: Saunders. McAllister. In the baseball mecca of Cleveland, Ohio. You’ll punch yourself in the face if you miss this. McAllister is a fastball/slider guy with a change to lefties. As I’ve talked about, he’s perhaps best known for massive gaps between his ERA and RA, thanks to a slew of unearned runs. He’s got another 5 already this year, which is pretty remarkable. Still, his ERA is even prettier this year as he’s finally got his strand rate above 70%; even so, his career rate is in the mid 60s. Be patient, get some runners on base, M’s. Michael Saunders hadn’t had a day off since his return from the DL, so he gets a day today. In his place, Endy Chavez leads off against the righty McAllister. 1: Chavez, CF 2: Ackley, 2B 3: Seager, 3B 4: Morales, DH 5: Morse, RF 6: Ibanez, LF 7: Smoak, 1B 8: Montero, C 9: Ryan, SS SP: Saunders -- This post came from: U.S.S. Mariner, and is copyright by the authors. This RSS feed is intended for the personal use of readers and not, for instance, spam blogs.Game 42, Mariners at Indians

The Mariners fell to the Indians 6-3 in 10 innings last night, as Jason Kipnis ripped a walk-off three-run blast off of Lucas Luetge. Seattle missed out on their first opportunity to reach the .500 mark since the second week of April, and fell to 20-22. This morning, the Mariners get underway at 10:05 PT, with Joe Saunders taking on Zach McAllister. Before they get Bad road starter Joe Saunders. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports underway in Cleveland, here are some things to look out for. Woeful road Joe Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Saunders’ four starts on the road in 2013: April 3, Oakland: 4 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 4 BB, 3 K April 19, Texas: 4.2 IP, 7 ER, 9 H, 3 BB, 0 K April 24, Houston: 5 IP, 8 ER, 11 H, 2 BB, 2 K May 5, Toronto: 5 IP, 7 ER, 9 H, 2 BB, 0 K All four of these are horrid starts in their own special ways, and all four are Mariners’ losses by wide margins. The closest game of the bunch was the first one, a 6-2 loss to the A’s. Anything can happen in baseball, but starting Joe Saunders on the road this year has been akin to a forfeit for the Mariners. Part of that may be that he only has five strikeouts in 18.2 road innings this year. He’s relying on contact too much and paying the price. His 12.54 road ERA has to come down today for the Mariners to sniff success. Saunders gets day off Endy Chavez is leading off and playing centerfield today, a role Michael Saunders has occupied in every game since returning from the disabled list. Eric Wedge and my northwest.com’s Shannon Drayer played it off like a regular day off, but Saunders has been slumping lately. Three of his last four games resulted in 0-for-5 performances, and in those three games, he totaled seven strikeouts. That doesn’t equate to quality lead off hitting, and Saunders’ time in that slot could be limited if Chavez or Dustin Ackley can keep hitting. Morse returns from eye trouble The official word on Michael Morse’s eye irritation last night was that he poked himself in the eye some time leading up to Friday’s game and had issues with a dislodged contact and blurred vision for the rest of the night. The Mariners could have used his hot bat yesterday, as runs were few and far between. Hopefully the eye issue doesn’t derail Morse’s hot streak, during which he has racked up nine hits in his past four games. Here’s the lineup for today: Chavez CF Ackley 2B Seager 3B Morales DH Morse RF Ibanez LF Smoak 1B Montero C Ryan SS

This is a big start for "Safeco Joe" Saunders today. His home-road splits have become a bit of a running joke, but nobody on the Mariners is laughing and Saunders sure isn't. Saunders is 9-0 with a 1.72 ERA in 13 career starts at Safeco Field. He's 3-0 with an 0.94 ERA in four starts there this season. Problem is, he's 0-4 with a 12.54 ERA on the road. For the Mariners to be a winning team and contend this season, they need more stability after the top two guys in the rotation. Saunders is being paid $6.5 million to provide some of that stability, but, so far, as you can see, he's been rather unstable. That has to change. A mid-rotation starter doesn't have to win every game. But he does have to deliver quality innings on a routine basis regardless of the ballpark. Otherwise, he's just fourth or fifth starter material. The Mariners right now have too many guys delivering those performances. They need Saunders to do more. He can start by delivering a good performance in a road game.

Franklin Gutierrez played designated hitter on Friday for the second straight time in his injury rehab stint for Tacoma, but the Mariners want him to get work in right field during his time in Triple-A in order to provide more options for when he returns from a strained hamstring. Gutierrez is eligible to come off the 15-day disabled list as soon as he’s ready now, but manager Eric Wedge said he’s not going to just keep doing the same thing with the injury-plagued outfielder and one of the changes will be getting him ready for more than just his normal center-field duties. “We want him to play some right field as well as center, for a couple reasons,” Wedge said. “One, I think it’s easier to stay healthy if you’re playing left or right field versus center field. Two, Michael Saunders has been great in center field. And three, if he’s not 100 percent, then we’re better off with him in right field. “Now if he’s the Guti of old, 100 percent, then of course you want him in center field. But he just hasn’t proven he can do that. So we’re going to give him some time down there to work things out. We DH’d him last night just because of the weather conditions, but we want him to play both.” Saunders has played very well in center and Wedge is very comfortable keeping him there. But he’d be glad to have a fully healthy Gutierrez there if that is possible. Wedge said Saunders is the better center fielder right now “if Guti’s not 100 percent. But if Guti’s 100 percent, I don’t think there’s anybody better.” Getting Gutierrez healthy has long been the issue, however. He’s now on his fifth disabled list stint in the past three seasons. He’s played just 148 games in those three seasons while missing 218. So Wedge wants to see something different during this rehab stint before he returns. The Mariners have 20 days to make that decision. “I’m going to work off him,” Wedge said of a possible return date. “But like I told him, I need him not to just be able to play up here, but be able to play every day, steal a base and do some things. Otherwise we’re just going to end up back where we are right now. I want to give it some time.” The tough part for the Mariners is when they bring Gutierrez back, they’ll need to make a roster decision. They can’t carry six outfielders, so someone will have to go at that time and Endy Chavez seems the likely man out unless there’s an injury in the meantime. But sending Chavez down would mean exposing him to waivers and someone could claim him, given he’s played pretty well. But the Mariners will face that decision when it comes. For now, they just push ahead with Saunders in center and Gutierrez in Tacoma. Saunders has started 15 straight games since returning from a sprained shoulder and has struggled on the current road trip, going 2-for-19 in the first four games. So Wedge gave him Saturday off and had Chavez in center, with Saunders expected back Sunday. Michael Morse was also back on Saturday, recovered from an eye irritation caused by a contact lens problem before Friday’s game. Here’s the full lineups: