Mariners Lose, Reminds Fans Baseball Is Baseball

The Mariners swung the bats well tonight.  Tonight, of all nights, they scored six runs!  One of the things we’ve worried about as fans of this ballclub is scoring runs.  And, my oh my, did they score some runs.  Out of the 134 games played this season, they’ve scored six or more runs 27 times.  In 20.1% of the games played this year, they’ve scored more than six runs.  That’s one out of every five games!  What are we complaining about?  The Mariners really know how to swing the bats!

Oh yeah, there’s that whole pitching thing…

Anthony Vasquez, welcome to the big leagues.  In his first major league appearance against the Indians, he went five and one-third innings, giving up five earned runs.  In that game, however, he got 11 runs of support.  In this game, he got two runs of support until things blew up in the fifth.  That’s when the Angels decided to show Mariners fans how to really swing the bat.  Eight runs in the inning.  Oh man, the humanity!

Looking around the twitter-verse, I’ve noticed that people have been criticizing his velocity.  Saying that the speed of his pitches will never make him an effective major leaguer.  I honestly don’t think the speed has very much to do with everything in an at-bat, but it is definitely a huge factor.  Location, my friends.  Vasquez is very much a Vargas 2.0.  Should we visit fangraphs to look at a well known crafty lefty?

The sample for velocity averages I took from Moyer’s 2005 season with the Mariners.  The sample for Vasquez, well, I kind of just guess-ti-mated.  In no way am I saying Vasquez will notch over 250 wins in his career, I’m just offering perspective.  A crafty lefty can be serviceable when they hit their targets.  But they must be precise, or they will fail.  Moyer’s career FIP is 4.46, so it’s not like he was unhittable.  But, then again, it’s not like he was Horacio Ramirez or anything.

If we want to look at the little things, the rookies got the jobs done they were supposed to.  Mike Carp‘s still swinging the bat well, as he notched in a pair of doubles.  Dustin Ackley went 2-for-4 and scored two runs.  Kyle Seager hit a sacrifice fly.  Trayvon Robinson only struck out once out of his two at-bats.  Josh Lueke went three innings of one-hit relief.  See, positive things!

The thing that sticks out like a thumb smashed by a hammer is the walks, and Vasquez’s control.  I don’t know what he’ll become.  I don’t know if I want him to become a part of this major league roster.  All I know is that there are things he needs to improve on.  Being that this team is still learning and growing, he now just becomes a part of that synergistic experience.  Maybe he’ll develop into a fourth or fifth starter.  Maybe he’ll turn into Horacio Ramirez.

• Jeff Gray walked the bases loaded, with no outs in the fifth inning.  It’s funny how pitchers look at the ball like it’s the ball’s fault.  Scapegoating.  These professionals are so immature.
• In that same inning, Mike Trout took a belt high fastball all the way for a strike from Gray, down the heart of the plate.  It must be in “the book” to take the first pitch if a pitcher can’t find the strike zone.  But isn’t it also in the book that you should mash pitches down the middle of the plate?  What a weird book.
• Any pitch that Wily Mo Pena is jammed on will shatter into a million pieces.

Tomorrow I will be in the King’s Court.  If I get that chicken leg, I will share it with all of you.

###

Adam H. Wong
Follow: @adamhwong