Man I’m telling you.  If I set my diet to correlate with the amount of runs scored by the Mariner offense on a given night, I would be suffering from a serious case of diabetes by now.  After scoring 11 runs on Tuesday the Mariners got blanked by John Lackey last night wasting a 6 inning, 3 run performance by Cha Seung Baek. So we’re back to 2 games behind the Angels in the AL west with the big pitching showdown tonight in the rubber match.  It’ll be Jared Washburn vs. Bartolo Colon.  I don’t anticipate a lot of scoring coming from this one.

So I was listening to the local sports talk station on my way to the office this morning (when you spend as much time in traffic as I do you’ll do just about anything to alleviate the boredom and prevent yourself from commiting vehicular homicide) and they said that the Mariners are 11-5 in nights pitched by those other than the big 3 signed by GM Bill Bavasi last winter.  Calls against Bavasi’s incompetance and for his firing are loud and constant thoughout Trident Nation; with these facts in place It’s hard to blame them.  Considering this info you have to say that Hargrove has done a pretty good job with a mostly flawed rotation to keep the team over .500. 

This is a team on the rise if you look at the pieces we have in place and those that are poised to come up in the next few years.  With Felix, Wash and Baek the rotation is suddenly pretty solid coupled with a bullpen anchored by JJ, Morrow, Sherril, White and now Jason Davis. Justin Lehr can be promoted to join the staff to give a 4 deep roation and Jake Woods can be brought up for long relief.  This could be a good young staff for a long time barring injuries that have a history of derailing that dream.  The catching position is established with Kenji and also with Johnson and Clement in Triple-A. A talented young middle infield and young guns Jones, Belentien, Tuiosisopo (I butchered that spelling) and Saunders in the minors due to be in the lineup in 2 years the future is looking pretty good.  This could be the beginning of a second golden age if everything goes to plan. 

Imagine 2 years from now, the Mariners take the field with this rotation: Felix, Wash, Baek, Morrow and Lehr. This bullpen: Mark Lowe, Eric O’Flaerty (antoher slaughtered name), Sherril, Reitsma, Davis, Woods, Travis Chick (got him for Guardado) and JJ to close. This lineup: Ichiro (Jeremy Reed or Free Agent if he leaves), Adam Jones, Vlad Belentien, Sexson, J-Lo, Yuni, Marcus Tui at third, Kenji catching, Johnson backing him up, and an injury free Clement at DH. Young, talented and possible: hey, a guy needs hope these days.      

I am a fan of victory, in most cases regardless of how we manage to get it.  1-0 or 15-14 I like to see my team win and I think everyone else that watches this game feels the same.  Im saying this to shift the focus of last night’s 11-3 victory of the Californaheim Angels to the positive.  Felix Hernandez did return to the mound and did pitch last night as planned. However "34" showed some signs of rust after being on the shelf since April 18th and as a result his command suffered, unable to consistently locate any pitch other than his fastball.  His health no longer seems to be an issue, his velocity appeared sound hitting upwards of 98 miler per hour on the gun.  Hargrove and pitching coach Raph Chaves kept the ace on a short 75 pitch leash and pulled him after 78. Felix left the game after 3 and a third, 3 earned runs, 3 walks and 5 k’s. 

Fortunately we did not need a stellar performance from our injured ace to achieve victory on Tuesday night.  I did not expect the offense to do much damage against Angels starter Kelvim Escobar (top 5 in the AL for ERA at the time) but the fellas stepped up, chasing Escobar in the third and scoring 8 off of him.  The story of the night was the performance of Ichiro.  The prennial all-star played like one again list night with an astounding 5 hits, 1 run scored and a stolen base.  Now the Mariner glory yers for me are 1995 and 1997 not only because that was our first taste of success but because I was home to see them.  In 2000 I was on a naval vessel off the coast of Isreal and in 2001 I was at a Marine Base in North Carolina preparing for a possible invasion of Afghanistan; fortunately my unit was not sent to either theater and I got my dishcharge comabt free.  I bring this little tidbit up due to my observations on Ichiro’s performance this season.  Now he does not have the most hits nor the highest average of his tenure this season but this has been the funnest season for me to watch this guy play.  I wasn’t home during his MVP season of ’01 so I didnt see his fire then.  However this season he is playing with a fire I haven’t seen even in his record breaking ’04 and ’05 seasons. Maybe it’s the new talent around him or maybe it’s a contract year but he is doing everything he can to help this team win baseball games and I am loving every minute.  Hitting homers, stealing bases, it is really fun to watch.

Speaking of stellar performances; Kenji Johjima had 2 hits and hit another homer last night raising his average to .312 on the year.  Please vote for this guy, he is an All-Star and deserves to be honored as such.  Jose Guillen continued his hot play with 2 more hits and 2 more RBIs and he is creeping pretty close to .300. May be sending an All-Star ote his way if he keeps this up.  J-Lo, who had been struggling on the road trip lifted a 2 run shot off of Escobar and helped run the righty from the game.  Last night also saw the Mariner debut of Jason Davis.  The new guy pitched a scoreless ninth with a hit and a K looking pretty sharp.

Tonight the Angels series continues with Cha Seung Baek opposing former ace of the Halos John Lackey. Correction to yesterday’s post, Miguel Batista will not be pitching in this series, instead Thursday will be a Washburn-Colon matchup.   

Paul Sancya

To no one’s suprise we lost today and Jeff Weaver fell to 0 and 6 on the year with an ERA above 14.  Once again the opposition got an early when Weaver gave up 3 in the bottom of the first to the Tiger’s in Thursday’s 7-3 loss at Detroit.  The man appears to be coming apart mentally as well as physically. The rotation is not the place for him to work out the issues that he has.  Now the question is what do we do with him? Personally I would see if he would accept an option to triple A so he can work with the coaches down there and he can regain his confidence to possibly help us down the stretch if the M’s are still in contention.  If he will not accept a minor league assignment he may have to be released and the club will have to eat the rest of the 8 million dollar contract.

Another point of concern coming from this game was the staggering number of runners left on base (11) and runners left in scoring position (6). The Mariners had 12 hits and only scored 3 runs.  It may be the effect of enduring such a long stretch of games without rest.  Focus can be lost and mistakes can be made when a team plays for weeks without rest. 

The Mariners come home to play the Yankees for the weekend starting tomorrow. Run support starved Jared Washburn will face New York starter Darrell Rasner, whom shut us down pretty good just a few days ago.  Here’s to hoping that a return to Safeco will help rejuvinate a team that is starting to show some signs of fatigue.  I will say this though, despite the Weaver issues, the missed games and breakless schedule the guys are hanging at .500 and playing hard despite the circumstances.  I applaud them for that. 

Im’ sorry that I haven’t been as one the ball as I usually am. There has been a lot of non-baseball related Josh business that I needed to attend to.

We dropped the first game in the Detroit series and it was a game that we should have won. Horatio Ramirez blew his second straight big 2nd inning lead and I am offically putting him on notice for it. I’ve addressed the importance of keeping leads against good teams on the road in the past and when your offense is as unpredictable and streaky as the Mariners are, adequate (not good, not even decent) is needed to keep our collective heads above water.  Ramirez’s poor performances gave away two potential wins on an important road trip against some of the ALs most talented clubs.

On a happier note we continue to be undefeated everytime Cha Seung Baek takes the mound.  Tonight the 26 year old right hander got his first win of the year in a 9-2 rain delayed victory over a red-hot Detroit Tiger team.  Cha’s first  win ended the impressive multigame win streak for the Tigers and according to Jim Street of mlb.com threw his first complete game since A ball in 2000.  You all know that I am high on this kid and he is starting, little by little, to make me look smart.  Baek gave up only 2 earned runs on 6 hits over the 9 innings.  To do that after a 90 minuite rain delay is impressive in itself.

The streaky and often impotent offensive performance during the road trip has been murder for the numbers of Mariner hitters.  As of tonight only one Mariner hitter, No-Legs Vidro, was hitting over .300.  But when they do hit they hit well.  Jose Guillen and Richie Sexson have hit 3 run homers the last 2 nights.  We have all of the pieces there we just need to get them to work together.  Props to Jose Lopez and his stellar field work this trip.  J-Lo has had over 120 fielding chances without an error, 2nd in the AL.

Tomorrow the Weaver project sets up for loss number 6, just when we don’t need it. To make things even more pleaseant he will be opposed by defending AL rookie of the year Justin Verlander.  Im no psychic but I cannot pretend to think our chances tomorrow are that great.    

Yesterday’s impromptu day game came out well for us; the Mariners winning their 3rd straight 3-2 over a struggling White Sox club. Good day for the ptiching staff, Miguel Batista got his first set of back to back victories this season and knocked another point off of his ERA, it’s now a mediocre 6 and change from a horrible 7 and change.
I’ll be the first to admit I wasn’t exactly riding the J.J. Putz for closer bandwagon back when he came in for an ineffective Eddie Guardado.  I watched the kid pitch in Triple-A and just he just didnt scream "dominate closing candidate" to me.  Well I think it goes without saying that he has proven that to be the right decision.  J.J. got his 5th save in last night’s win and dropped his ERA to 1.38. I read an article on SI.com that ranked him as one of the best in sheer dominance. 

News and Notes:

-First I want to apologize for the melodramatic response to the Weaver news.  I simply could not think of any other way to express the suprise and anger that his continued time in the rotation brought out.  Hargove says that they discussed all possible options with him. I think that the steam needs to stop thinking with its’ wallet and get to thebusiness of winning games. Putting a pitcher on the mound that not only denies your team a chance to win but almost guarantees a loss is not sound managment. Jeff Weaver gives this team zero chance to win.  When your club is down 6 runs before your first batter even comes to the plate that means something is wrong.  Look at these guys pitching in Triple A right now.
Ryan Feierabend: 6 starts, 1-1 3.16 ERA
Jorge Campillo:  5 starts, 2-2 2.70 ERA
Justin Lehr:     5 starts, 2-0 2.79 ERA
Either one of these guys is not only signficantly cheaper, but any of them gives the team a better chance to win than Weaver right now.  A move should have been made and this decision is going to bite the organization in the a*s again after he gives up 8 in 2 innings at New York. 

-The return of Felix Hernandez has been pushed back one more turn just to make perfectly sure that he is at 100 percent.  I do agree with this move because Baek has done well in his absence and it is better that he really be healthy instead of playing on it too early and having a repeat of the shin-splint issue that dogged him last spring.  He says he is ready to pitch so I expect him to have great stuff on the 9th, shaky command from rust but great stuff.
-Former Mariner and Bill Swift All-Star candidate Chris Snelling was traded to the A’s for Ryan Langerhans.  Right now the Vidro trade is looking pretty smart. 
-Winning streak has been extended to 3 games.  With the exception of the Weaver issue the team is starting to play pretty well. The true test is coming on this east-coast trip that’ll take us to Boston for a make up game, New York and Detroit. We are going to find out just what this team is made of.   

—just got word that Jeff Weaver is going to get another start..in New York…against the Yankees. 

The White Sox were who we thought they were!  That is, a lineup decimated by injuries struggling against a lefty on a hot streak.  However you go play the game with the lineup you have, not the lineup you don’t have (I am rolling with the cliches today) and the result is a 5-2 wint for the M’s over the Sox at the Safe last night. (All photos can be found at www.tribnet.com)

- Big day for the big free agent pickups for ’05.  Adrian Beltre in waht is probably his best game thus far in a Mariner uniform went 3 for 4 and scored 2 runs (and I’ll be a nice guy and ignore the fielding gaffe) and Richie Sexson showed signs of busting out his hitting funk with a critical 2 run smash in the 4th off Chicago starter Javier Vazquez. Richie’s play reminds of the playground commentary we used to give Jose Canseco back in the day (Canseco and Mark McGwire were popular subjects for us kids abck in the 80′s because in those days the Oakland Triple-A affiliate was here in Tacoma). The running joke at the time was Jose never got a hit unless it went over the fence, some could say that Richie is doing the same thing right now.
- Another great start for Jared Washburn. The stubbled lefty went 7 innings allowing only 4 hits and a couple of solo homers.At this rate he will be approahing ninjahood in just a few more starts; puts a smile on my face because the team is really hurting for some consistency out of the rotation. Love the quote from Ozzie Guillen after the game “With all due respect, anybody who pitches against the White Sox right now looks like Cy Young.” That guy is always good for honest feedback, even when it’s too honest. 
- Speaking of great games, how about the 8th inning tossed by Brandon Morrow?  Dude struck out the side and walked one. He was reaching back and throwing the ball as hard as he could (it hit 96 more than once) daring White Sox hitters to swing.  Now this is really fun to watch but I’m afraid that his right arm is going to explode sending the bloody stump into the first row.  I’m not pessimistic just aware of our history with young arms. 
- Raul is showing real signs of improvement with his 2 hit, multi RBI day but I cna tell that he is still thinking too much.  The Raul of last year would not have tried for that double costing us a run, he just wouldnt have.  Raul, dude, relax and enjoy the game, it’s when you are at your best. 
- Finally shout-out to "Mr. Personality" Jamie Burke.  The catcher position has evolved from a glaring weakness to a point of strength during the past two years and the work of Burke and Johjima are directly responsible for it.  So Mr. Burke, this Stripe’s for you. 
- I heard a rumor this morning on the radio that Hargrove is keeping Jeff Weaver in the rotation.  If this is confirmed stand by for signs of nuclear fallout to rise all over the Puget Sound, fallout from pure anger..with just a touch of terror.

Today’s game got moved up to 12:30 so I won’t get to watch it but I will follow on the internets. Projected starters are Miguel Batista (2-2 7.54) vs. John Danks (0-3 5.32).

We’ve won 5 of our last 6 but just started a long three week stretch with no rest.  Time to dig in.