Off-Day Thoughts

The M’s have pulled off two straight wins.  I’d almost forgotten how it feels to win consecutive games.  More importantly, I’d forgotten how it feels to be satisfied with one of Don Wakamatsu’s lineups.  I have to give the man credit – yesterday’s lineup was pretty much the optimal Mariners lineup if the goal of which is to score as many runs as possible.

• Fister’s xFIP is more than two runs higher than his ERA.

• Michael Saunders looks ready to start every day in left, or at least 75% of the time.  He’s a slick fielder, has plus speed, has some pop in his bat, and makes good contact.  Why he was out of the lineup for an entire week, I cannot fathom.

• Enjoy every Cliff Lee start you can.  Watch him pitch in a Mariners uniform.  Time is running short, so do yourself a favor and get to that.

• Let’s deal Cliff Lee to the Reds for Johnny Cueto.  This is both probable and makes sense.  [Sarcasm!]

• The M’s are only 7.5 games back.  We could still technically pull another “Refuse To Lose” campaign, with a few obvious transactions.  [Griffey, Sweeney, etc.]

• I’m going to go on record and say that I think tRA is a superior pitching analysis metric than FIP and xFIP.  I originally had my doubts about tRA and whether simpler metrics like FIP or xFIP were more or less telling, but I now fully endorse tRA.  What changed?  I figured out how the park-adjustment works, and it’s really, really well done.

• The Mariners’ winning percentage on the season is more than 100 points lower than that of the Nationals.

• Texas and Oakland are both 18-9 at home.

• Every team in the NL East has a record at or above the .500 mark.

• Steve Phillips advocated for the Nats to trade Stephen Strasburg for Roy Oswalt.  This is a man who is paid to talk about baseball.  Seriously.