Peabody: Life, Friends Baseball

For seven and two thirds innings Dan Haren was just a bit better than Felix Hernandez.

Hernandez surrendered a run grudgingly in the third. Mike Trout fisted a pitch to centerfield and was sacrificed to second by catcher Mathis. Eric Aybar strikes out, but with two outs Howie Kendrick pushes a ball between Kyle Seager and Brendan Ryan to drive Trout in.

Haren cruised through the sixth, but ran into some trouble loading the bases with two outs. Ryan has a good at bat against Haren but pushes the ball ultimately to Haren who easily threw him out.

In the 8th Haren quickly got two outs getting Trayvon Robinson and then Ichiro and Franklin Gutierrez lined sharply to centerfield, followed by Dustin Ackley bouncing one into right field. Manager Scioscia yanks Haren to bring left handed specialist Scott Downs. Mike Carp doubles off the base of the wall in left center and Gutie and Ackley scored to give Felix the lead.

In top of the 9th Felix struck out Abreu, then Hunter and kept Trumbo barely in the park with Casper Wells catching the ball on the warning track in right field.

Ackley was 1-3 with a walk. Carp 2-4 with two rbis and a double, Kyle Seager 2-4 with a double and some excellent work at third tonight. Gutierrez started the two out rally in the 8th. Olivo made a great throw to get Hunter at third and Seager swam after Hunter to tag him out.

Very crisp game, crackling energy about the field. Manager Scioscia had a look on his face during the eighth inning that could have passed for astonishment.

Two out of three so far with the fourth game tomorrow. Jack Wilson was traded to the Braves for a player to be named later.

Some call ups tomorrow, pitchers most likely. This is really good baseball.

Three Cheers.

Jack Zduriencik’s agreement with the Mariners has been extended.

Great stuff.

Center fielders:

Same format, name, OPS, Salary

1. Curtis Granderson .963, $8,250,000

2. Jacoby Ellsbury .890, $2,400,000

3. Mike Trout .829, $414,000

4. Melky Cabrera .808, $1,250,000

5. Adam Jones .805, $3,250,000

6. Peter Bourjos .776, $414,000

7. Endy Chavez .774, $2,000,000

8. Grady Sizemore .769, $7,666,667

9. Trayvon Robinson .754, $414,000

10. Mitch Maier .750, $459,000

11. Coco Crisp .712, $5,750,000

12. B.J. Upton .701, $4,825,000

13. Denard Span .673, $1,000,000

14. Austin Jackson .666, $440,000

15. Ezequiel Carrera .661, $414,00

16. Julio Borborn .654, $490,000

17. Colby Rasmus .637, $443,000

18. Craig Gentry .624, $414,000

19. Rajai Davis .623, $2,500,000

20. Ben Revere .590, $414,000

21. Alex Rios .572, $12,500,000

22. Franklin Gutierrez .544, $4,312,500

There are some interesting developments, observable and intuitive both. The highest salary in this group at $12,500,000 is far lower than the right fielders by some fifty percent and that contract, owned by Alex Rios, is 50% higher than the next highest contract at $8,250,000 of Curtis Granderson. Granderson is the best performing centerfielder, while Alex Rios is the second worst centerfielder, ahead only of our own Franklin Gutierrez. Some call-ups are included in this list, because that’s baseball. Some are auditioning and others are right in the thick of things in pennant races.

The other thing worth noting is that center fielders are the moral equivalent of NFL running backs. That is don’t bank on getting a lot of contracts, unless you can really drive the ball. If you can do that, then when you slow down, they’ll slide you over to right field or left field. BUT, if you can’t you’re not going to make the huge dollars on your legs.

In yesterday’s stirring description of the Mariner’s plight of having the worst hitting right fielder in the league, there was reaction from some folks that cover the team. One commenter took me to task for not recognizing the sanctity in baseball for streaks, e.g. Ichiro’s 200 hits per year streak. I responded and gently suggested that in no other franchise would such a streak be prized and in no other franchise would such a contract be awarded. I suggested that they look up Jayson Stark’s piece on Ichiro’s singular achievement as a singles hitter.

Perhaps in a bit prescience it was suggested that the Mariners had to determine if Gutierrez could recapture his hitting and power, which was more important than giving at bats to some of the rookies. Frankling Gutierrez has 53 home runs in 2,400 plate appearances, roughly one every 46 appearance. Again one every fifteen games or so, depending where he’s in the lineup. His monthly splits going back to June of last year are not good. I had been under the impression he became sick in August or September of 2010.

Call me cynical, but maybe just maybe we’re trying to set up a trade or two this winter or even in the event of an emergency during September…Which is ok conceptually, but let me bring up some names, Milton Bradley, Jack Wilson, Jack Cust and Eric Bedard. What name does not belong there? Bedard, obviously, the only person with any talent and not a quitter or whack job, with apologies to Jack Cust.

You can’t compete with two starting outfielders who hit like this. One argument I heard from several of the folks is that the Mariners will accept lower power production in return for great defense. To which I quickly responded, Ichiro doesn’t provide either and you can’t win with 513 runs scored, no matter how good your pitching and defense might be. Won’t happen.

Center fielder in the Safeco must be good, have a good arm and provide some production. There are some candidates on this team.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/6908844/information-age-changing-way-game-played

Here is a thorough look at how technology and the use of data mining and digitization have combined to invest major league baseball with an immediacy and urgency in terms of adjusting to players.

5,000 words by Jayson Stark of ESPN. Fascinating stuff. Lots of sidebars too.

Worthy read for baseball lovers and it really provides insight as to what is going on with new and old players.

Why not start with right field? By OPS and salary:

1. Jose Bautista 1.098 $8,000,0000.

2. Nelson Cruz .869 $3,700,000.

3. Nick Swisher .847 $9,100,000.

4. Carlos Quentin .842 $5,050,000.

5. Matt Joyce .836 $426,500.

6. Michael Cuddyer .832 $10,500,000

7. Brent Lillibridge .824 $426,500

8. Josh Reddick .803 $426,500

9. Jeff Francoeur .790 $2,500,000

10. Eric Thames .779 $426,500

11. Jason Kubel .775 $5,250,000

12. Torii Hunter .749 $18,500,000

13. Nick Markakis .744 $10,600,000

14. Shin-Soo Choo .736 $3,750,000

15. Kosuke Fukudome .733 $14,500,000

16. David DeJesus .701 $6,000,000

17. Corey Patterson .665 $850,000

18. Ichiro Suzuki .645 $18,000,000

19. J.D. Drew .622 $14,000,000

20. Maglio Ordonez .580 $10,000,000

With Ichiro’s latest hit streak he has surged past Maglio Ordonez and J.D. Drew into 18th place. If it is possible to have empathy for the plight of owners just view the players from 15th place on down. Six players from Fukodome to Ordonez all so vastly overpaid for what they can do now or perhaps ever.

As the eighteenth best right fielder in the American League some basic math is in order to make sense of this. There are fourteen teams. Which suggests that some teams have two right fielders that are performing at a higher level than Ichiro. The list is redacted for some of the recent call ups who for a month or so also play at a higher level so that his place might be twenty first or twenty second.

The money thing is the deal. The Mariners are obligated for another year and knowing this group they might re-sign him after that. I’m twisted, in that I don’t begrudge any guy getting a deal, so they should feel the sting of being stupid. I am very close to a former player who was in the majors for thirteen years and never made over $15,000 a year. All of you gold bugs, please don’t write in and tell me that was a lot of money once, because its not so. It might have been middle class once, but it was never big money. So good for Ichiro.

I don’t want to talk about defense, which now sucks too, rather it is important to ask the question if you can build a winning team with a guy in a production position who will not ever be average for the position, let alone good for the position? Which embodies the dilemma about the player.

The ownership thinks he is critical to the team’s topline. They think he sells a significant number of tickets and fundamentally, they doubt two things:

1. Whether winning baseball will sell tickets, and;
2. Whether they can win consistently if at all.

They would rather hedge their bets due to the fear intrinsic to number two and keep running him out there so they can show a break-even to modest profit and everybody gets paid and no capital calls occur.

We might see Ichiro for another ten years or so.

Tomorrow centerfield

Ackley doubles into the gap and Carp launches one deep to right. Five runs for the rookies.

Olivo singles and steals second base and gets pushed to third by Kennedy’s pool shot. Scioscia walks Wells and Takahashi gets to pitch to lefty Seager and gets him after a great ab. Seager just a hit down the right field line by a foot or so.

Ryan flys out…two runs to take the lead going into the 9th.

League comes in gets the save, Tom Wilhelmsen the win, picking up for Blake Bevan.

Carpe Diem.

So far the ROOKIES have all three of our RBIs, Ackley with two and Seager has one.

Wells doubles up Aybar at first base with a huge arm.

Meanwhile Angels are playing three rookies in Hank Conger, Mark Trumbo and Peter Bourjos to M’s Carp, Ackley, Wells and Seager. No Robinson tonight.

The Mariners enforced the talking points from last night and are pushing the 200 hits for Ichiro as their year end marketing blitz. Dave Sims and Mike Blowers started the game talk about it….Both of those guys know how wrong this.

http://mariners.sportspressnw.com/2011/08/28/thiel-playing-time-needs-to-go-to-kids-not-ichiro/

Thiel: Playing time needs to go to kids, not Ichiro

Art Thiel the venerable and respected columnist, late of the PI and now the majordomo behind Sportspress Northwest pounded out thousand words that you could almost see the indentation on the paper.

No hint of being in the team’s back pocket and the keeper of the soul in Northwest Sports, you can hear the sound of his fists hitting the desk top reverberating around the sound.

No dilettante, Thiel’s book after the Mariner’s singular year in 2001,

provided a road map for the subsequent ten years. He told us that baseball was not important to the ownership and management, rather they thought they needed to build a team that was good enough to attract people to the new stadium where all the merchandising would provide good family entertainment. They believed their focus groups.

Well a funny thing happened, Seattle fans became knowledgeable about baseball and love baseball and great players and have become sickened by the serially horrific presentation of mediocrity which then descended in baseball hell.

He slaps them about the head, admonishing them not to trade the only talent that has washed up on shore in decades and says, who cares if Ichiro gets 200 hits. It means less this year than it has the past ten years. Give the at bats to the kids, they are the future.

Welcome back Art!

Follow the link above, it’s a great read.

Talk about mixed metaphors! Mariners kicked about today and lose 9-3.

Our friend the Times blogger Geoff Baker has the thrust of his piece about the loss being Wedge asserting the rookies need to step it up, blah, blah, blah.

So far in this series before today Ichiro was 3-9 with no runs scored and no RBIs. Today he was 2-5 with no runs or RBIs.

Gutierrez overall in this series was 4-11 with one RBI.

Miguel Olivo was 2-6 with a homer, 1 rbi. Brendan Ryan was 1-9.

Furbush and Pineda pitched well enough where the team not losing was possible. Not so with Vargas.

When somebody writes that the rookies need to adjust and step it up, I am reminded of the fact that this team scored 513 runs last year with most of these veterans, Ryan and Olivo excepted and the veterans on the team now are not part of the team’s future, no matter what goofy night the marketing department has conjured up.

It is a bad thing, when you have your manager afraid to play the best players and not sit or bench guys who for all intents and purposes look like they quit on the team.

Oh in praise of veterans, Josh Bard played his fanny off again today.

Jake Peavy and John Danks have held the Mariners to two runs in the first two games. Both pitchers changed speeds throughout the game and it was probably Peavy’s best game since returning from surgery.

Danks was enjoying his mastery and was very quick to get the ball and throw it. Mariners did nothing to try to change his momentum and several guys were quick pitched through out the game. There are a lot of subjective things to make observations about, but suffice to say, the Mariners pitching although a little soft on Friday, pitched well enough for the team to compete in both games.

The Mariners are not ready to compete against a high end pitcher who wants to dominate and intimidate as part of his approach. Not yet. Some of the younger guys will get there, Seager, Robinson showed something. You can see the lack of confidence in Willy Mo Pena against those pitchers who break him down very fast.

I wanted to write another skree about stealing at bats from these rookies, but it would fall on deaf ears.

Robinson did not play yesterday, so that Wells could play in lf.

Both of them should be playing every day. In the field. Who needs to watch either Gutierrez or Ichiro play now?

Nobody will trade for Ichiro unless the M’s eat about two thirds of his salary or more. He would like to play in Boston, but apparently there is no way to cross that gulf or chasm. For the Mariners, it might not be a bad deal, even eating that salary to clear the lineup and the clubhouse both. Wells could settle in right field and the team could move forward and compete.

The marketing department could think about promoting baseball and good players instead of fictitious characters. I doubt if any players for the Yankees or White Sox would let them be turned into buffoons, but then there are no veteran leaders on this team to advise the younger ones.

Jason Vargas will pitch today. I love his Johnny Unitas shoes…but that is about it.