Again, welcome to Seattle, Cliff! Here is to you being as happy here as you thought you were going to be in Phillie. I just hope we can afford what you are going to want in a contact after this season. Nevertheless, lets have a fantastic 2010!!
Going to a game in August when I go back home. Haven't been to the safe for probably 7 years. I'm beyond excited!
Believe me, when I was growin up, I thought the worst thing you could turn out to be was normal, So I say freaks in the most complementary way. Here's a song by a fellow freak - E.V
played a great game in the strat-o-matic computer game the other night - hernandez and verlander each go the distance and the mariners win 1-0 on a griffey home run in the ninth.
Reading 2004
Albany 2006 Camden 2006 E. Rutherford 2, 2006 Inglewood 2006,
Chicago 2007
Camden 2008 MSG 2008 MSG 2008 Hartford 2008.
Seattle 2009 Seattle 2009 Philadelphia 2009,Philadelphia 2009 Philadelphia 2009
Hartford 2010 MSG 2010 MSG 2010
Toronto 2011,Toronto 2011
Wrigley Field 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Philadelphia 2, 2013
Philadelphia 1, 2016 Philadelphia 2 2016 New York 2016 New York 2016 Fenway 1, 2016 Fenway 2, 2018 MSG 2022 St. Paul, 1, St. Paul 2 2023 MSG 2024, MSG 2024 Philadelphia 2024
"I play good, hard-nosed basketball.
Things happen in the game. Nothing you
can do. I don't go and say,
"I'm gonna beat this guy up."
Giants parallel overachieving club to the north
Ray Ratto
To those of you who have raged about the Giants' insistence on using hitters who are devout in their mission to harm as few baseballs as possible , we give you their American League counterparts - the Seattle Mariners.
I mean, just in case you thought this was just a Giants fetish designed to make you claw at your eyes while inducing you to buy their tickets.
The Mariners were every bit as grisly in their offensive pursuits last year as were the Giants, ranking at or near the bottom in every meaningful-without-being-abstruse offensive category. In fact, they were brutal - just like the Giants. Worse still, they play in the American League, where National League-level brutal is beyond brutal.
But using good pitching, great defense and the-best-they-could offense, the Mariners won 24 more games than they did a year earlier, and won 85 games while being outscored by 52 runs (the Giants were plus-16 with a run differential of plus-42). It was either a triumph of overachievement, or maximizing one's virtues, but either way, manager Don Wakamatsu knows just how long he got to enjoy that.
A day. He cheated and used three, maybe even four. Then the team had to be changed, and was, to reflect the same devotion to pitching and defense, and the crying need for offense the Giants felt.
"In a lot of ways, this is going to be a lot more challenging," he said. "More options, more decisions, more alternatives - things we just didn't have last year. I'm looking forward to it."
Of course he is. He's a manager with one good year's experience, having helped stretch a threadbare menu into a solid three-star restaurant. And he now has a general manager, Jack Zduriencik (like it sounds), with a world view toward team-building that is active without being grandstand-ish.
Instead of running in the Jason Bay-Matt Holliday sweepstakes, he signed Chone Figgins to be his third baseman (though there's talk Figgins might move to second). They signed outfielder Milton Bradley with a notion toward finding the quiet spaces in his personality to enhance his obvious onfield gifts, while exchanging bad contracts with the Cubs, who got pitcher Carlos Silva, whose upside isn't as up as Bradley's. Even the eye-opening trade for pitcher Cliff Lee wasn't a straightforward power-for-power deal with Philadelphia, but a four-way deal with more nuances than an antique jewel box.
It's a lot of change for Wakamatsu, the 47-year-old former A's coach and Hayward High School product who has aimed at this opportunity for more than a decade, and yet got the opportunity at just the right time by his reckoning.
"I wasn't ready to be a big-league manager before this," he said with an earnestness that was almost off-putting. "I just wasn't. I was in Texas working for Buck Showalter and learned a lot about organization, and then when I went to Oakland, I had to learn about different styles of managing and running a team. When I interviewed for this job, I could say I'd worked for every team in the AL West."
But having taken a team from 61 wins to 85 without actually scoring runs, Wakamatsu now gets to know the weirdest kind of expectations there are - the counterintuitive ones that experts often like to thrust on a team with phrases like "the surprise team," or "the upset special." They don't look at first glance like the best team in the division, like the Giants, but they have enough elements that they could be, like the Giants.
The Mariners and Giants were 1-2 in defense last year, and top four in most of the pitching metrics, and when you adjust for the difference in the leagues, the Mariners really are the Giants, and vice versa. Now, and maybe in the future.
The Angels (Dodgers) have come back toward the pack, at least a bit. The Rangers (Rockies) have more pitching than usual but still hit plenty. The A's (Diamondbacks) are a brand new iPad. And other than the Padres, who are just God-awful, any of them can rise or sink and shock nobody in doing so.
Thus, Wakamatsu is surrounded by unknowns that make last year's unknowns seem like the sevens time table.
"That's why we worry about what we have here, first and foremost," he said, leaning forward over his desk as if to drill the point home. "We overachieved last year, so now we have to instill that belief system so that the guys who were here before understand that this is the new direction we're taking. The players, the staff, everyone. We have some success we can build on, but now we have to make that more like the minimum standard. And this really is a much different team."
If that sounds like what the Giants are and what they want, well, that's because they are. In other words, as much as you like to think your angst about your team is unique, you are not alone. Just look up the road.
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
I need to stock up on Mariners gear when I'm home this summer.
Do you guys know of ANYWHERE I could find a teal jersey. The Alternate Jersey in the 90s. I want to feel like I'm 5 again!
Believe me, when I was growin up, I thought the worst thing you could turn out to be was normal, So I say freaks in the most complementary way. Here's a song by a fellow freak - E.V
Cliff Lee had is first start today in Cactus league. Looked solid..
Go M's!!
you son's of bitches!
Blame the Phillies front office. Halladay will be good for you guys.
That said, we're extremely happy to have him in Seattle, even if only for a season. But it sure would be sweet if it all works out and he wants to stay and we can afford him. Him and King Felix ruling the mound for a few years together would be sweet!!
Seems like the M's are trying to move Figgins to 2nd and Lopez to 3rd? Guess they feel Figgins has more range and can turn more double plays. Gives me one more position to play Jose Lopez at in my fantasy league, so, I'm happy.
In my fantasy baseball circles, people are saying Jose Lopez is gone after this year ... I ask real Mariner fans ... really? Is that the sense you get?
He's 26 with rising power and good contact skills. Might be nice if he took a walk once in a while, and his defense is nothing to write home about ... but, his 2011 option is for $4.5M, seems cheap ... would the M's realy dump him?
I know Dustin Ackley is coming soon (and the M's are trying to move him to 2b) ... but jeez, keep Lopez, move him to first, move Figgins to 3rd and give Ackley 2b. Lopez at 1st base has to be better than the Kotchman/Garko disaster that's going to happen there this year.
M's fans thoughts?
"You're one of the few Red Sox fans I don't mind." - Newch91
"I don't believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I'll drill him in the ass." --- Pedro Martinez
Seems like the M's are trying to move Figgins to 2nd and Lopez to 3rd? Guess they feel Figgins has more range and can turn more double plays. Gives me one more position to play Jose Lopez at in my fantasy league, so, I'm happy.
In my fantasy baseball circles, people are saying Jose Lopez is gone after this year ... I ask real Mariner fans ... really? Is that the sense you get?
He's 26 with rising power and good contact skills. Might be nice if he took a walk once in a while, and his defense is nothing to write home about ... but, his 2011 option is for $4.5M, seems cheap ... would the M's realy dump him?
I know Dustin Ackley is coming soon (and the M's are trying to move him to 2b) ... but jeez, keep Lopez, move him to first, move Figgins to 3rd and give Ackley 2b. Lopez at 1st base has to be better than the Kotchman/Garko disaster that's going to happen there this year.
M's fans thoughts?
I agree with everything you said. I know Ackley is a 2b but I thought they were maybe putting him at 1b which would be OK. Ackley, Lopez, & figgins will all have good spots.
Seems like the M's are trying to move Figgins to 2nd and Lopez to 3rd? Guess they feel Figgins has more range and can turn more double plays. Gives me one more position to play Jose Lopez at in my fantasy league, so, I'm happy.
In my fantasy baseball circles, people are saying Jose Lopez is gone after this year ... I ask real Mariner fans ... really? Is that the sense you get?
He's 26 with rising power and good contact skills. Might be nice if he took a walk once in a while, and his defense is nothing to write home about ... but, his 2011 option is for $4.5M, seems cheap ... would the M's realy dump him?
I know Dustin Ackley is coming soon (and the M's are trying to move him to 2b) ... but jeez, keep Lopez, move him to first, move Figgins to 3rd and give Ackley 2b. Lopez at 1st base has to be better than the Kotchman/Garko disaster that's going to happen there this year.
M's fans thoughts?
I understand why they want to do the switch, I am just not sold Lopez will be able to be as productive at 3b as he is at 2b.
Yeah, it seems as though Lopez may not last but another year or two.
I am just not sold Lopez will be able to be as productive at 3b as he is at 2b.
Do you mean defensively?
I'm a little stunned why people seem down on Jose Lopez, and I've yet to hear any concrete reasons WHY.
any argument that could be made about his defense I think it outweighed by his offense
I don't understand it...his on base % was low last season...but he was our RBI leader and HR leader next to Branyon....who is gone now on top of that and he is one of our most clutch hitters.
"Well, I think this band is incapable of sucking."
-my dad after hearing Not for You for the first time on SNL .
I am just not sold Lopez will be able to be as productive at 3b as he is at 2b.
Do you mean defensively?
I'm a little stunned why people seem down on Jose Lopez, and I've yet to hear any concrete reasons WHY.
Yeah, defensively. I have nothing concrete, jsut from what I have read this spring that he personally hadn't taken to the new position yet. Time will tell. I hope he can get comfortable there. Sure don't want to lose his bat.
what's the over/under on teh frist Bradley incident?
Come on Milton is a nice guy who just had problems in all 7 cities he played in the last 10 years.
This could happen to anyone.
He has a hard life making 10 million dollars a year.
Cut him some slack.
what's the over/under on teh frist Bradley incident?
Come on Milton is a nice guy who just had problems in all 7 cities he played in the last 10 years.
This could happen to anyone.
He has a hard life making 10 million dollars a year.
Cut him some slack.
Haters...
MB will prove you all wrong this year. He'll be fine - or he'll be cut from the team. Either way, our clubhouse is too strong to let it become a distraction. But, I really don't think it will be. Seattle, media-wise and fan-wise, is different from any place he's played before. That, coupled with the fact that for the first time in MB's career, he gets to play with one of HIS idols - Junior.
Heard Cliff Lee got suspended for the first 5 games of the season cuz he threw at someone during pre season.
8/28/98- Camden, NJ
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Tres Mts.- 3/23/11- Philly. PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
Comments
Welcome to the wonderful world of Milton Bradley!!!
Ill bet you 5 candy bars....
That Milton Bradley doesnt START in 100 games for the Mariners, this year....
For whatever reasons, injury, traded, let go, busted for drug possesion, punching a fan in the mouth, etc. etc.
I will bet you 5 candy bars....Milton Bradley doesnt start 100 games...
I will also bet you he doesnt hit .300
He doesnt hit 15 home runs...
He doesnt drive in more than 70 RBI's........
Take all the bets...
And its 20 candy bars..........
Till there aint nothing left worth taking away from me.....
"Punching a fan in the mouth"
20 candy bars.
*shake*
Go M's!!
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/news/ar ... p&c_id=sea
I cannot wait to collect my candy bars from Speedy when this season is over with!!
Go M's!!!
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/news/ar ... p&c_id=sea
Again, welcome to Seattle, Cliff! Here is to you being as happy here as you thought you were going to be in Phillie. I just hope we can afford what you are going to want in a contact after this season. Nevertheless, lets have a fantastic 2010!!
Go M's!!!
I will hopefully be a local early in the summer after I'm laid off
Find me a job and you'll get to go to some games. Plus I'll need some peeps to hang out with anyways up there.
Go M's!!
Albany 2006 Camden 2006 E. Rutherford 2, 2006 Inglewood 2006,
Chicago 2007
Camden 2008 MSG 2008 MSG 2008 Hartford 2008.
Seattle 2009 Seattle 2009 Philadelphia 2009,Philadelphia 2009 Philadelphia 2009
Hartford 2010 MSG 2010 MSG 2010
Toronto 2011,Toronto 2011
Wrigley Field 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Philadelphia 2, 2013
Philadelphia 1, 2016 Philadelphia 2 2016 New York 2016 New York 2016 Fenway 1, 2016
Fenway 2, 2018
MSG 2022
St. Paul, 1, St. Paul 2 2023
MSG 2024, MSG 2024
Philadelphia 2024
"I play good, hard-nosed basketball.
Things happen in the game. Nothing you
can do. I don't go and say,
"I'm gonna beat this guy up."
BWAAAAAHHHHHAAAAAAAHAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You Seattle fans are in for some good times!!!!!!!
Till there aint nothing left worth taking away from me.....
Plus, Seattle has a much more forgiving fan base. We will only boo him when he punches a fan or teammate in the face.
Alright, the Winter Olympics are done, The Pacific is about to start in a couple weeks. I need some MLB!!!
Go Mariners!!
we should arrange some sort of Pearl Jam/Mariners Fan pre-opening day party or something. All 5 of us can be there
-my dad after hearing Not for You for the first time on SNL .
Giants parallel overachieving club to the north
Ray Ratto
To those of you who have raged about the Giants' insistence on using hitters who are devout in their mission to harm as few baseballs as possible
I mean, just in case you thought this was just a Giants fetish designed to make you claw at your eyes while inducing you to buy their tickets.
The Mariners were every bit as grisly in their offensive pursuits last year as were the Giants, ranking at or near the bottom in every meaningful-without-being-abstruse offensive category. In fact, they were brutal - just like the Giants. Worse still, they play in the American League, where National League-level brutal is beyond brutal.
But using good pitching, great defense and the-best-they-could offense, the Mariners won 24 more games than they did a year earlier, and won 85 games while being outscored by 52 runs (the Giants were plus-16 with a run differential of plus-42). It was either a triumph of overachievement, or maximizing one's virtues, but either way, manager Don Wakamatsu knows just how long he got to enjoy that.
A day. He cheated and used three, maybe even four. Then the team had to be changed, and was, to reflect the same devotion to pitching and defense, and the crying need for offense the Giants felt.
"In a lot of ways, this is going to be a lot more challenging," he said. "More options, more decisions, more alternatives - things we just didn't have last year. I'm looking forward to it."
Of course he is. He's a manager with one good year's experience, having helped stretch a threadbare menu into a solid three-star restaurant. And he now has a general manager, Jack Zduriencik (like it sounds), with a world view toward team-building that is active without being grandstand-ish.
Instead of running in the Jason Bay-Matt Holliday sweepstakes, he signed Chone Figgins to be his third baseman (though there's talk Figgins might move to second). They signed outfielder Milton Bradley with a notion toward finding the quiet spaces in his personality to enhance his obvious onfield gifts, while exchanging bad contracts with the Cubs, who got pitcher Carlos Silva, whose upside isn't as up as Bradley's. Even the eye-opening trade for pitcher Cliff Lee wasn't a straightforward power-for-power deal with Philadelphia, but a four-way deal with more nuances than an antique jewel box.
It's a lot of change for Wakamatsu, the 47-year-old former A's coach and Hayward High School product who has aimed at this opportunity for more than a decade, and yet got the opportunity at just the right time by his reckoning.
"I wasn't ready to be a big-league manager before this," he said with an earnestness that was almost off-putting. "I just wasn't. I was in Texas working for Buck Showalter and learned a lot about organization, and then when I went to Oakland, I had to learn about different styles of managing and running a team. When I interviewed for this job, I could say I'd worked for every team in the AL West."
But having taken a team from 61 wins to 85 without actually scoring runs, Wakamatsu now gets to know the weirdest kind of expectations there are - the counterintuitive ones that experts often like to thrust on a team with phrases like "the surprise team," or "the upset special." They don't look at first glance like the best team in the division, like the Giants, but they have enough elements that they could be, like the Giants.
The Mariners and Giants were 1-2 in defense last year, and top four in most of the pitching metrics, and when you adjust for the difference in the leagues, the Mariners really are the Giants, and vice versa. Now, and maybe in the future.
The Angels (Dodgers) have come back toward the pack, at least a bit. The Rangers (Rockies) have more pitching than usual but still hit plenty. The A's (Diamondbacks) are a brand new iPad. And other than the Padres, who are just God-awful, any of them can rise or sink and shock nobody in doing so.
Thus, Wakamatsu is surrounded by unknowns that make last year's unknowns seem like the sevens time table.
"That's why we worry about what we have here, first and foremost," he said, leaning forward over his desk as if to drill the point home. "We overachieved last year, so now we have to instill that belief system so that the guys who were here before understand that this is the new direction we're taking. The players, the staff, everyone. We have some success we can build on, but now we have to make that more like the minimum standard. And this really is a much different team."
If that sounds like what the Giants are and what they want, well, that's because they are. In other words, as much as you like to think your angst about your team is unique, you are not alone. Just look up the road.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... z0gyhAGF9I
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
oh man...some asshole at starbucks called me a bandwagon fan today because I bought a new hat...I wanted to kick his teeth in.
hmmm....starbucks mentioned in the Seattle Mariners thread on a Pearl Jam forum
-my dad after hearing Not for You for the first time on SNL .
And yeah, lets keep the Starbucks talk to a minimum as it just brings up bad SuperSonics feelings. :twisted:
But Go M's!!!
Do you guys know of ANYWHERE I could find a teal jersey. The Alternate Jersey in the 90s. I want to feel like I'm 5 again!
Cliff Lee had is first start today in Cactus league. Looked solid.
And Mike Sweeney continues to swing a really hot bat this Spring. We have to find a way to get him on our 25-man roster.
Go M's!!
you son's of bitches!
That said, we're extremely happy to have him in Seattle, even if only for a season. But it sure would be sweet if it all works out and he wants to stay and we can afford him. Him and King Felix ruling the mound for a few years together would be sweet!!
Seems like the M's are trying to move Figgins to 2nd and Lopez to 3rd? Guess they feel Figgins has more range and can turn more double plays. Gives me one more position to play Jose Lopez at in my fantasy league, so, I'm happy.
In my fantasy baseball circles, people are saying Jose Lopez is gone after this year ... I ask real Mariner fans ... really? Is that the sense you get?
He's 26 with rising power and good contact skills. Might be nice if he took a walk once in a while, and his defense is nothing to write home about ... but, his 2011 option is for $4.5M, seems cheap ... would the M's realy dump him?
I know Dustin Ackley is coming soon (and the M's are trying to move him to 2b) ... but jeez, keep Lopez, move him to first, move Figgins to 3rd and give Ackley 2b. Lopez at 1st base has to be better than the Kotchman/Garko disaster that's going to happen there this year.
M's fans thoughts?
"I don't believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I'll drill him in the ass." --- Pedro Martinez
Yeah, it seems as though Lopez may not last but another year or two.
Do you mean defensively?
I'm a little stunned why people seem down on Jose Lopez, and I've yet to hear any concrete reasons WHY.
"I don't believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I'll drill him in the ass." --- Pedro Martinez
any argument that could be made about his defense I think it outweighed by his offense
I don't understand it...his on base % was low last season...but he was our RBI leader and HR leader next to Branyon....who is gone now on top of that and he is one of our most clutch hitters.
-my dad after hearing Not for You for the first time on SNL .
Come on Milton is a nice guy who just had problems in all 7 cities he played in the last 10 years.
This could happen to anyone.
He has a hard life making 10 million dollars a year.
Cut him some slack.
MB will prove you all wrong this year. He'll be fine - or he'll be cut from the team. Either way, our clubhouse is too strong to let it become a distraction. But, I really don't think it will be. Seattle, media-wise and fan-wise, is different from any place he's played before. That, coupled with the fact that for the first time in MB's career, he gets to play with one of HIS idols - Junior.
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA