Your Thoughts Exactly

Watching the Mariners tonight on ESPN I found myself surfing the net, listening to music, and occasionally checking on the NBA finals, one of the many D-Day specials on the History Channel, and Pimp My Ride. I was just thinking to myself how boring this team is to watch, when the ninth inning rolled along (it is now 4-4 with the bases juiced and, as goes the poem, Chol-bear at the bat – that’s a Hebrew ‘ch’ sound, not the hard American way), and, by golly, I’M HAVING FUN! Watching the ’04 Mariners is actually fun for an inning. Bocacrapa grounds out, and suddenly we’re off to the races. Single, double, (M’S WIN! M’S WIN!), walk, single, walk, walk, sandwiched around a fantastic 4 stolen bases. Ichiro going the other way. Winn going the other way. Boone going the other way. Boone not trying to golf an up and away pitch out to left. Anywho, it got me thinking: all this boring talk in the world of M’s bloggers is much like talk about team chemistry – this team is no fun to watch because they don’t win. If Ichiro was slapping singles and stealing bases, Boone and Edgar driving in runs with clutch hits, Olerud swinging and missing beautifully – but still getting aboard via the walk, Cabrera doing his best ’01 McLemore, Pineiro getting through the first couple innings and cruising, Hasegawa and Mateo holding leads, Guardado closing them out, this would be a fun team to watch. Its not that these guys are necessarily boring, it’s just that they suck. Watching our best inning of the year made me realize that as winning fosters team chemistry, so it does excitement.

Speaking of Melvin, I am really starting to believe he’s not as dumb as we all think. I posted recently about the possibility of him being either an idiot or a undeservedly loyal company man, and I think it is more the latter, and I think we will hear more dissent from him in the future. I don’t have much to support this notion, but I believe it because of one thing I saw tonight. In the 7th or 8th inning ESPN showed a shot of Melvin looking over the lineup card on the wall, pen in hand. The shot was mostly from behind, but what you could see of his face was definitely the sunken, dementor-just-sucked-my-soul scowl we all know and loathe, and he was sadly, slowly, shaking his head. His eyes must have been focused the list of his available hitters. Edgar had been used, and left was Cabrera, Bloomquist, Borders, and Santiago. Enough to make any manager cry. His body language screamed “I took over a successful, money-making-machine of a team, and this is what they give me?” Of course, he could have been simply thinking that they all are bad bunters, or how to use more pitchers than Ozzie Guillen tonight.

Way to manage yourself to a loss, Mr. Guillen. After burning Mike Jackson, he masterfully set up the Marte/Edgar matchup instead of Jackson/Hansen. (ok, it worked). Then instead of sticking with Marte, he uses Takatsu to face the fearsome righties Cabrera, Pop-up Aurilia, and Wilson. So when its time for Koch, who’s no guarantee, to close it out, he’s left with no good options bail him out and has to watch Koch melt away during what must have been a confusing inning for a pitcher. A few hits, baserunners stealing every other pitch, the crowd getting loud – no wonder an unreliable closer started missing the strike zone. Combine the pitching changes with 3 bunts in the first 4 innings, and I think we know whos notes he’s been stealing to get a leg up in his freshman season.

Random post-game thought – I can imagine how Henderson, Rizzs, and Fairly are still gabbing about how this game will turn around the M’s season and could vault them on a winning streak that will put us in contention. Thinking of that made me laugh when, taking a more cautious route, John Miller on ESPN says “Whether or not this will mark a turnaround to their season remains to be seen.”