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Series Preview: Mariners at Athletics
By Editorial Staff
Hey.
Welcome to the series preview for the events of this weekend. It’ll be my pleasure to offer up some musings about the hitters, pitchers managers and ballpark involved.
…after these words!
Haha. I got you with the teaser!
- Graphical Explorations
Yeah, stats are nice. But let’s deviate this time. There’s a month left in the season, both teams stink and I have tunnel vision with a weekend on the San Juan Islands in sight. You call it laziness, I call it, well, I don’t know, something else.
The Oakland Alameda / Computer Associates / McAfee / Overstock.com / O.co / Mount Davis Coliseum is a yucky ballpark. It’s in a bad location. It’s across the bridge from the best city on Earth. It’s never full. There’s just nothing nice to say about it. O.co Coliseum? Really?
I predict there will be 27 weak fly ball outs in foul territory this weekend.
- Pitching Matchups
Data Via FanGraphs
On Friday, we get to see if Jason Vargas shows up, or this ugly-headed version of him that isn’t a major league starter. The former would be fantastic, obviously, so I’m rooting for that. In the second half, his number have been [deleted, too ugly. May make you smash something].
Saturday will be the third to last start for Michael Pineda‘s rookie campaign. Luckily for us, it’s a Saturday afternoon game, which means we won’t be able to watch! Yay, I hate watching awesome stuff! You can drop 15 bucks on MLB.TV but only if you don’t live in Oakland or Seattle! Haha! Go MLB! Tune in for some Rick Rizzs action on 710 AM. Or, follow gamecast. Or, fly to the Bay Area. The choice is yours.
On Sunday, Blake Beavan and Trevor Cahill lock horns. This could be a huge matchup. Not because of the guys throwing, but because if the M’s had somehow won the first two games, they could move past Oakland an out of the AL West cellar by half a game with a sweep.
Funsies!
If you thought Eric Wedge‘s manager score of 0.18 was bad, meet Bob Melvin. Owner of a 0.29 score! Er, wait, what? How the heck has Bob Melvin had a better managing career, albiet extremely marginal, than Eric Wedge? Do I only remember the good Indians team and not the bad ones?
Ichiro looks to stay hot. Over his last 14 games he has 22 hits. Don’t sleep on the wizard yet, folks.
Leach Tits is an Anagram for Athletics.
Bud Selig is making more money than Ichiro or Felix this year. Speaking of Ichiro’s salary, he makes $111,111.11 per game. I don’t know why this is interesting, but it is.