"The house we hope to build is not for my generation but for yours. It is your future that matters. And I hope that when you are my age, you will be able to say as I have been able to say: We lived in freedom. We lived lives that were a statement, not an apology."


Thursday, April 28, 2011

Game 25: Bedard, Finally

Erik Bedard garners his first win in about two years and looks efficient for the first time...well, ever.  7 innings, 89 pitches.  Not 5 innings, 101 pitches.  Amazing.

What's more, instead of the litany of fly balls that he has been getting so far (half of which seem to have flown over the fence), he had a 52.4 GB%.

Bedard threw strikes early and often.  Bedard got outs early and often.

How much of this was Bedard and how much was the Tigers' lineup being surprisingly aggressive towards Bedard is an open question.  After the 4th inning (up until which Tigers batters had swung and put the ball in play within the first two pitches in a majority of their at-bats) they seemed to notice that they weren't following the tried-true-strategy of allowing Bedard to slowly asphyxiate himself and they started taking more pitches.

By then it was too late.  Bedard had made it through Four with a stunningly low pitch count and was within the first groove we've seen from him in quite some time.

* Miguel Olivo is really stinging the ball.  His LD% is above his career average so far and at long last he is finding holes in the infield and gaps in the outfield.  There is hope yet that he will elevate the Mariners offensive standards at catcher back to mediocrity.

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Swept in TEX

The M's were simply out-classed. In each of the three ballgames they managed to come back from early deficits (the first and third the fruits of poor fielding) only to come up short late.

The pattern was evident. When the M's would get a runner or two on base they would do just enough to get one of those runners home. When the Rangers were in the same situation they would put the ball in the gap and drive home two or three. They are an elite offense with ability to turn any base-runner or two into a big inning – a competency the Mariners simply do not have.

Couple that with elite fielding and most days the M's are not going to be able to do more than simply stay competitive with the Rangers.

Fortunately, we do not see them again for another month.

For his part, Felix was much the same today as he was in his first start. Lack of command in the first two innings (3 bases on balls) plus Wilson's foibles at second led to elevated pitch-counts early on. After that though, he was able to buckle down and make it through another five innings while giving up only one run.

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Pineda Tonight & Going Forward


What we saw from Pineda tonight is what we can reasonably expect to see from him for the next few months.

Right-handed batters are not an issue. His plus fastball and slider coupled with the command he has of them are more than enough to keep them off balance. Texas right-handed batters managed just two hits in fifteen at bats (.133). Ian Kinsler's lead-off at bat in the first (fastball up and in followed by a slider away; weak groundball to short) and Adrian Beltre's swinging strikeout in the fourth (slider low and away) are microcosms of the hell Pineda is to righties.

Pineda's problem in the spring was lefties, allowing them to hit .292 as opposed to the .179 right-handers batted.

That problem manifested itself again tonight. The three lefties in Texas' lineup went 3-7 (.429), with the largely pedestrian Mitch Moreland managing two hits (including an RBI triple) and Josh Hamilton leading off a two-run sixth with a double.

The problem, as has been oft-discussed, is inconsistent command of his changeup. Its potential is obvious (the strikeout of Josh Hamilton in the first), but until he develops the command of it he now enjoys with his other two pitches, lefties will cause him fits.

Accordingly, Mariners fans should prepare themselves for periods of dominance checkered by the kind of struggles we witnessed tonight.

Saturday, April 02, 2011

Opening Day 2011


Felix was not dominating tonight – not in the overwhelming, I'm-just-plain-better-than-you manner that we are used to at least. Instead he was remorselessly effective; getting contact early in the count (after the first two innings, before which he averaged 5.14 pitches per batter faced, 3.18 after), allowing his defense to get outs, walking no one, not relying on pitch count-busting strike outs.

In exhibition was the superlative pitcher Felix has become: in his first start of the season, following a spring where he was deliberately given a diminished workload, he economized his approach in a manner that allowed him to pitch a complete game without going much above a hundred pitches against a team built to get on base. A month from now, when he is stretched out, he can pitch against the A's again and strike out ten in the dominating, perennial Cy-Young contending manner we are accustomed to.

Felix has matured to the point that he can basically choose how he wants to beat you.

Offensively, the six runs look nice but are qualified by a hot-potato A's defense that committed five errors.

With that said, they did the best with what they have, which is not much. Ichiro and Figgins wracked up their hits at the top of the order and everyone after them took pitches.

That's all they did – they took pitches.

As a result, Mariner batters earned a lot of walks and a lot of strike outs, many of them backward K's. (M's batters walked seven times, struck-out looking eight.) Both results compelled Cahill to run his pitch count up and give the ball away before he could complete five innings (105 pitches in 4.2 innings, 4.38 pitches per batter faced). After that the Mariners were able to exploit porous defense and A's middle relief. They won, in other words, by not swinging, flailing, failing and losing. They did not make outs, they got on base (.349 team OBP), put pressure on the Athletics, and earned some runs.

This might be the only approach offensively that has any hope of success this year. They may not be able to punch much themselves, but at the very least M's hitters can make their opponent's pitching and defense work harder than they would like to and (hopefully) buckle against the extra leverage.

The high-strain innings force the starter out and the soft-belly of Major League middle relief in. The extra base-runners that come with the bases-on-balls enervate the pitching even more and place more pressure on the defense. Couple that with some timely hitting here and there and you have the seeds of a team that will exact a degree of attrition on their opponents and thus be able to compete most nights. A team that approaches the game this way is a very obnoxious opponent for the usually superior teams they play.

At the very least this approach worked for one night and hope for a competitive, entertaining, near-.500 season lives on.

Notes:


  • Miguel Olivo will probably never walk this season. He might not ever see a ball.
  • Other than being superlative defensively, Brendan Ryan might be the perfect bottom-of-the-order hitter. Picking his punches and wreaking havoc when he gets on base, he will at least provide a level of pugnacity to the bottom three that Jack Wilson, Josh Wilson, Rob Johnson and whoever else we had there last year never provided.
  • There was a swagger about Figgins tonight I do not remember seeing at any point last year.
  • Dave Niehaus had been visibly and, as he was a broadcaster, audibly aging the past few seasons. But by-God was it unnatural to watch an entire game and not hear his voice. You are missed, Dave. My, oh my, are you missed.