18 Innings of pain

Ouch.

Freaking Ouch

It’s a day game, and not on television. So Dave and Rick bring me the game through the magic of scratchy AM radio.

The last 6 hours have been eventful. But ultimately, ……

Well, I’ll just lay out the roto nightmare. You make the call.

Hitting

Ichiro: AB = 7 (-3.5), H=1 (+5 (3B)), BB=3 (+4.5) Total add= +4.5
Edgar: AB = 4 (-2), H=2 (+9 (1b, HR)), BB=5 (+7.5) Total add= +14.5
Olerud: AB = 7 (-3.5), H=1 (+3), BB=1 (+1.5) Total add= +1
Wilson: AB = 3 (-1.5), H=0 , BB=0 Total add= -1.5
Bret Boone: Mercifully, Jughead was not allowed to stink up the joint today. But his replacement (and that may be the case in more ways than one) didn’t do much better. In 9 trips to the plate, Jolbert Cabrera managed but one hit.

Dropping his average down to.292, 70 points higher than Boone’s

Of course, JC was an 11th hour trade from the Dodgers, and as such is not in the player pool.

Raul Ibanez: Still out, still hurt, still a gaping hole in the lineup. But Randy Winn’s replacement (another non-pool player) is playing and hitting well.

That’s right, true beleivers. Two of the best hitters on the Mariner’s staff are unavailable for my purposes.

On the bright side, my esteemed opponents have control of Spezio, Aurilia, and Winn; none of whom are exactly setting the barn on fire.

Total Gain from two games’ worth of AB’s = 18.5 points, most of which belong to Edgar

Now, the minus side. Of my also Mariner-heavy pitching staff, 5 pitchers got into today’s game.

Piniero: IP= 6 (27), H=11 (-27.5), HR=1 (-3), W=0 Total adds= -3.5
Villone: IP= .1 (+1.5), H=1 (-2.5), Total adds=-1
Mateo: IP= .2 (+3), H=0 BB=0, Total adds= +3
Guardado: IP= 2.0 (+9), H= 3 (-7.5), HR=0 SV =0, W=0 Total adds=+1.5
Moyer: L=1 (-3) IP= 3 (13.5), H=3 (-7.5), HR=1 (-3), BB=4 (-4), GF=1 (1) Total adds= -3

Total pain from 12 innings of pitching= -3 points

But here’s the real crapper. Moyer got moved up, so he doesn’t get to start tomorrow, taking 4 innings of work away from his arm. He pitched like crap, but it was surviveable crap, if his three innings were the first three, instead of the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th.

He gets tagged for the loss, in a game we really should have forfeited in the 8th inning when we called Hasegawa from the pen. that’s really what we did, since the first pitch he threw went back the other way at about 1 million miles /hour, and landed in the seats.

Now, we’re all getting Shiggy wit’ it. Good news, Mariners fans. He only has 2 more years left on his contract.

Good one, Bavasi.

Or perhaps we forfieted when Bob Melvin pulled two of our better pitchers after minimal work. Two pitchers that could have bridged the gap to our closer, even if they gave up a run or so.

Maybe it was the sacrifice bunts in extra innings, for no gain, with a slow, light hitting third baseman on first.

And a young, speedy infielder sitting on the bench, doing nothing.

Bob Melvin, I choose YOU

Again and again this year, I am left with the feeling that Melvin really has no clue what is going on between the lines. It’s no longer an issue of the Mariners “catching bad breaks.”

The organization seems to have forgotten how to win. Moyer was scheduled to start today. It was Moyer’s day to start. So him recording a loss isn’t the worst thing in the world.

But if Moyer was going to get a loss, we should have started him at 11 Am. Regardless of the temperature, or the extra day of rest, or his “record” in night games.

That’s all crap.

Now we have a used-up pitching staff, tired hitters, and more meaningless interleague games to play through the weekend. After which, we have to trot out exactly the same pitchers against exactly the same hitters that just spent the last three days kicking the crap out of us.

And don’t look for help from Tacoma. All their pitchers are tired as well.

The Mariners are done. Trade everyody over the age of 30, and start from scratch.

Including Melvin.