Sunday, October 31, 2004
I VOTED! i'm glad its up to me too. i did what i could, no one can blame me this time
so yeah, ballot is signed and in the mail. or, well, you don't actually have to sign the ballot, just the envelope. i'm assuming this is so they can add fake ballots easier when they are counting them.
so yeah, ballot is signed and in the mail. or, well, you don't actually have to sign the ballot, just the envelope. i'm assuming this is so they can add fake ballots easier when they are counting them.
Monday, October 25, 2004
tired in the brain banana.
work is work, i'll just leave it at that. i was supposed to have a new schedule. a real schedule, a schedule that didn't include overtime. it even had 2 days off in a row. it was supposed to be regular. it lasted for a week. back to overtime. its a new record though :D usually when i try to finagle my way into a decent schedule, it lasts 3, maybe even 4 weeks before it is thrown out the window and they schedule me all the freaking time. its probably simpler this way, there is no way for me to get used to it before its gone. just another week gone by.
it was a sad weekend for seattle sports. everyone lost. even everybodies favorite fictional soccer team lost 3-1. BomWAnk pride.
ahhh, sweet sweet seattle. i kind of like this time of the year though. its getting colder, darker, and starting to rain. it gives everyone an excuse for a little melancholy. if there is one thing that seattlites love, its a little mass melancholy. everyone is on the same page, and no one minds if you get a little mindless complaining off your chest, as long as you don't mind if they complain about it later. but everyone stays hopeful. we know we have 7 months more of the same, and that it is going to get colder before it gets warmer. it happens every year though, and the cold is nice. cold means snow. snow means skiing. and if i knew how to ski, i'd be excited :) for me snow means a real winter, and winter is the best time of the year. there is nothing that can bring the world back into perspective like covering the entire damn thing in snow. nothing can escape it, and everything looks more beautiful. there is nothing more peaceful than stepping out of your house and seeing everything equally covered in white; the absence of all sound. and then it just melts. everything is back to normal, like it never happened. well, if you are in seattle at least. thats what i miss about snow. in alaska it took months to melt. here it is gone by afternoon, and the little dreamworld is gone with it.
its better that way. its great, because when it snows the entire city shuts down. i mean, there are a few hardcore people who are still out and about and showing up to work and school because they don't know any better, but the rest of the city takes a collective day off. if it snowed all the time, we couldn't do this. but since it snows and sticks literally once a year, it turns into an impromptu holiday. everyone is outside, everyone is happy. i've met more of my neighbors on snow days than all of the other days combined. kids laughing and playing. grownups laughing and playing harder. i always expect everyone to break into song like in the simpsons. and you get to see all sorts of crazy snowmen that can only be created under the influence of drugs. like ours last year. the vampire snowman. with spikes on his back and on his giant feet for protection. screaming in horror with his arms in the air because of the wine bottle sticking out of his head.
6 more months until baseball season :)
work is work, i'll just leave it at that. i was supposed to have a new schedule. a real schedule, a schedule that didn't include overtime. it even had 2 days off in a row. it was supposed to be regular. it lasted for a week. back to overtime. its a new record though :D usually when i try to finagle my way into a decent schedule, it lasts 3, maybe even 4 weeks before it is thrown out the window and they schedule me all the freaking time. its probably simpler this way, there is no way for me to get used to it before its gone. just another week gone by.
it was a sad weekend for seattle sports. everyone lost. even everybodies favorite fictional soccer team lost 3-1. BomWAnk pride.
ahhh, sweet sweet seattle. i kind of like this time of the year though. its getting colder, darker, and starting to rain. it gives everyone an excuse for a little melancholy. if there is one thing that seattlites love, its a little mass melancholy. everyone is on the same page, and no one minds if you get a little mindless complaining off your chest, as long as you don't mind if they complain about it later. but everyone stays hopeful. we know we have 7 months more of the same, and that it is going to get colder before it gets warmer. it happens every year though, and the cold is nice. cold means snow. snow means skiing. and if i knew how to ski, i'd be excited :) for me snow means a real winter, and winter is the best time of the year. there is nothing that can bring the world back into perspective like covering the entire damn thing in snow. nothing can escape it, and everything looks more beautiful. there is nothing more peaceful than stepping out of your house and seeing everything equally covered in white; the absence of all sound. and then it just melts. everything is back to normal, like it never happened. well, if you are in seattle at least. thats what i miss about snow. in alaska it took months to melt. here it is gone by afternoon, and the little dreamworld is gone with it.
its better that way. its great, because when it snows the entire city shuts down. i mean, there are a few hardcore people who are still out and about and showing up to work and school because they don't know any better, but the rest of the city takes a collective day off. if it snowed all the time, we couldn't do this. but since it snows and sticks literally once a year, it turns into an impromptu holiday. everyone is outside, everyone is happy. i've met more of my neighbors on snow days than all of the other days combined. kids laughing and playing. grownups laughing and playing harder. i always expect everyone to break into song like in the simpsons. and you get to see all sorts of crazy snowmen that can only be created under the influence of drugs. like ours last year. the vampire snowman. with spikes on his back and on his giant feet for protection. screaming in horror with his arms in the air because of the wine bottle sticking out of his head.
6 more months until baseball season :)
Thursday, October 14, 2004
looliloo looooo....
i hit someone today on the way home from work. it was at this wierd intersection where a two lane road turns into a freeway onramp and has a turn lane coming on from the left side with just a yield sign, and a light for the people coming from the right. so i'm in the left lane, and people are pooping themselves in from the left in front of me like they usually do. my light turns yellow, so i speed up to make it. last wanker doesn't even look and toodles his way into my lane while i'm in it. i broke as fast as i could, then turned my wheels at the end so i deflected to a stop, and he deflected going forward since he saw me too late to really slow down because he wasn't paying any attention. the really funny part is after it happened, i had the chance to just leave, like i went around him and merged into the other lane after it happened, and i went past him, and i could have just left, but in that one moment i could have just gone, i just sort of paused, then pulled off to the side. i just think its funny that my instincts had me back to full speed and inserted into traffic.
i had never hit anyone before on accident. it has been kind of the last unknown in the "am i a good driver?" question: how would i react if i really was about to hit someone. apparently well. he only had a ding on his passenger side door because at the last second i veered my wheels so we were going at close to the same angle as eachother and just bounced off eachother. i have a little crease in my front left fender. the funny thing is the crease is right on top of the dent that was already there. but yeah, i kind of walked up to him after and like so... what do you want to do? he kind of freaked out and tried to blame it on me, so i told him "dude, it was my light, i had the right of way, and you were merging in to my lane. you had a yield sign that you ignored" he shut up because he knew i was right and was like "so... what do you want to do?" so i told him i didn't really care, and i only had a little dent like his, and asked him if he was alright with not going through the whole insurance company deal. i said something like "i'm not even going to get it fixed anyways, so whatever." then he was just like fuck it, and so i just kind of wandered back to my car and drove off.
but yeah, apparently i done good. i thought i was going to nail him when he didn't stop, but i kind of slid into him then flicked him off of me. it was so anticlimatic. there wasn't even any damage. i made a scratch on the scratch protecting strip that runs across his door, haha. i was expecting at least some breaking glass or something, but there was just kind of a plastic thunk where my fender flexed his door and bounced off. i bent my driver side mirror, but didn't knock it off. i just poked it and it popped right back into place.
maybe i am a good driver. i'm pissed that i hit someone. i should have seen it coming sooner. i almost didn't hit him at all, but i failed. could it be my tires? i've been pushing them from difficult angles and the tread is worn down! (sorry, this post needed an initial d reference).
i hit someone today on the way home from work. it was at this wierd intersection where a two lane road turns into a freeway onramp and has a turn lane coming on from the left side with just a yield sign, and a light for the people coming from the right. so i'm in the left lane, and people are pooping themselves in from the left in front of me like they usually do. my light turns yellow, so i speed up to make it. last wanker doesn't even look and toodles his way into my lane while i'm in it. i broke as fast as i could, then turned my wheels at the end so i deflected to a stop, and he deflected going forward since he saw me too late to really slow down because he wasn't paying any attention. the really funny part is after it happened, i had the chance to just leave, like i went around him and merged into the other lane after it happened, and i went past him, and i could have just left, but in that one moment i could have just gone, i just sort of paused, then pulled off to the side. i just think its funny that my instincts had me back to full speed and inserted into traffic.
i had never hit anyone before on accident. it has been kind of the last unknown in the "am i a good driver?" question: how would i react if i really was about to hit someone. apparently well. he only had a ding on his passenger side door because at the last second i veered my wheels so we were going at close to the same angle as eachother and just bounced off eachother. i have a little crease in my front left fender. the funny thing is the crease is right on top of the dent that was already there. but yeah, i kind of walked up to him after and like so... what do you want to do? he kind of freaked out and tried to blame it on me, so i told him "dude, it was my light, i had the right of way, and you were merging in to my lane. you had a yield sign that you ignored" he shut up because he knew i was right and was like "so... what do you want to do?" so i told him i didn't really care, and i only had a little dent like his, and asked him if he was alright with not going through the whole insurance company deal. i said something like "i'm not even going to get it fixed anyways, so whatever." then he was just like fuck it, and so i just kind of wandered back to my car and drove off.
but yeah, apparently i done good. i thought i was going to nail him when he didn't stop, but i kind of slid into him then flicked him off of me. it was so anticlimatic. there wasn't even any damage. i made a scratch on the scratch protecting strip that runs across his door, haha. i was expecting at least some breaking glass or something, but there was just kind of a plastic thunk where my fender flexed his door and bounced off. i bent my driver side mirror, but didn't knock it off. i just poked it and it popped right back into place.
maybe i am a good driver. i'm pissed that i hit someone. i should have seen it coming sooner. i almost didn't hit him at all, but i failed. could it be my tires? i've been pushing them from difficult angles and the tread is worn down! (sorry, this post needed an initial d reference).
Monday, October 11, 2004
everyone is injured. its all for naught!!!! guardado and soriano are probably going to be out. so here is my opening day roster for not sucking quite so much.
ichiro rf
reed cf
beltre 3b
drew lf
boone 2b
howard 1b
ibanez/bucky DH
olivo C
lopez SS
rotation
clement
pinero
meche
moyer
madritsch
bullpen
closer: putz
lh: sherrill, thorton
rh: mateo, nageotte, franklin
so we spend our $30M on three players. so what! so what if they are the 3 best young players on the market and we won't get any of them. so what if our bullpen is made up of a bunch of rookies and mateo and franklin. i'm not the gm, these aren't my problems :D
but yeah, we trade some dudes to the phillies for howard instead of getting delgado who is old and injured and way way too expensive (he made $20M last year). maybe they will take winn. i think they need a center fielder, and he put up some stats last year that will convince people he doesn't suck (which he kinda does). they've got thome, what do they need with this dude. maybe scott boras will give us a volume discount if we go after beltre and drew at the same time :P NO, he's going to milk us for all we are worth and we are going to get neither. and by the time we've gotten neither, the yanks will already have beltran, so our big move in the offseason will be winn and talent for howard, and then overpaying for 2 veteran pitchers like morris and millwood, leaving us logjammed at pitcher AGAIN. go mariners!!!! king felix for overlord in 2006!
ichiro rf
reed cf
beltre 3b
drew lf
boone 2b
howard 1b
ibanez/bucky DH
olivo C
lopez SS
rotation
clement
pinero
meche
moyer
madritsch
bullpen
closer: putz
lh: sherrill, thorton
rh: mateo, nageotte, franklin
so we spend our $30M on three players. so what! so what if they are the 3 best young players on the market and we won't get any of them. so what if our bullpen is made up of a bunch of rookies and mateo and franklin. i'm not the gm, these aren't my problems :D
but yeah, we trade some dudes to the phillies for howard instead of getting delgado who is old and injured and way way too expensive (he made $20M last year). maybe they will take winn. i think they need a center fielder, and he put up some stats last year that will convince people he doesn't suck (which he kinda does). they've got thome, what do they need with this dude. maybe scott boras will give us a volume discount if we go after beltre and drew at the same time :P NO, he's going to milk us for all we are worth and we are going to get neither. and by the time we've gotten neither, the yanks will already have beltran, so our big move in the offseason will be winn and talent for howard, and then overpaying for 2 veteran pitchers like morris and millwood, leaving us logjammed at pitcher AGAIN. go mariners!!!! king felix for overlord in 2006!
Saturday, October 09, 2004
so yeah, bob melvin FIRED. good. he definitely deserved it. let him go wank around in arizona and learn. we want to win now, we don't have time for this losing shit.
howard lincoln said they are planning on a top 10 payroll and an operating budget that will lose them millions of dollars in order to win next year. i'll believe it when they shell out the moolah for some decent players. but its a good sign that he said that. and that they fired someone, at least. something had to give. we've got a lot of money to spend, like at least $25M
how to spend it, hmmmmmmm.....
pitching, do we need pitching? hmmmmmmmm......
right now we've got this in our rotation:
piniero
moyer
meche
madritsch
franklin
i'd like to see franklin out and back in the bullpen. so we need a new starter until king felix is old enough. might be this year, but he'll get injured like the rest. it depends on who we can get, really. franklin sucked it up though. i still like him, i just don't think he can be in the rotation. maybe not even moyer. moyer should be our #4 or 5 guy, not number 2. but keep moyer. moyer is a pimp. unless someone offers us something good in return.
bullpen is looking so so...
closer: guardado
setup: putz, soriano
long relief: shiggy, franklin, villone
i'd almost like to see some of our kids blow leads instead of shiggy franklin and villone. i'd almost get rid of shiggy and villone, and let thorton and nageotte have their spots, cycling whoevers hot down in tacoma up if needed. or spend more money for mediocre dudes who would blow leads like the rest of them. i don't know who we could get to do better than what we have when we have other more pressing issues. it wasn't our pitchings fault that we lost this year.
so now i guess i need to say what we should get. my team to not suck, potentially. so, we only need a pitcher, first baseman, outfielder, thirdbaseman....
3 of the 4. we need a left handed bat. i'd like to steal some people from our people in our division :) glaus or garret anderson would be funny. if we got one of them we wouldn't have to do as much to fill other spots. rangers-mariners clean out the farm trade?
bah, i'd make a terrible GM.
1. Ichiro Rf lh
2. Reed Cf lh
3. Lowell 3b rh
4. Anderson Lf lh
5. Bucky DH rh
6. Ibanez 1b lh
7. Boone 2b rh
8. Olivo C rh
9. Lopez SS rh
so yeah, get two players, a lh bat and a rh bat off of this list i'm going to make
anderson lh OF
drew lh OF
beltre rh 3b
glaus rh 3b
lowell rh 3b
delgado lh 1b
sexson rh 1b
beltran sh OF
we have ibanez who can play in the OF or at 1b if we need him too. so, therefore we should probably get glaus or lowell since there is no chance in hell we are getting beltre and we should get drew or delgado or garret anderson, since there is no chance at beltran. anderson isn't likely, drew isn't likely, and delgado will cost too much. so we are sunk. we aren't getting any of them. fuck it, i'd be happy if we could get one of those guys, but we can't because we suck.
i don't know why i even worry about this anymore. every year i wonder what we are going to do, and every year we do nothing. so screw it. i'm done. we aren't getting anyone. we are getting rid of everyone. they will sign ex-microsoft employees who pay them millions just to be on the team.
howard lincoln said they are planning on a top 10 payroll and an operating budget that will lose them millions of dollars in order to win next year. i'll believe it when they shell out the moolah for some decent players. but its a good sign that he said that. and that they fired someone, at least. something had to give. we've got a lot of money to spend, like at least $25M
how to spend it, hmmmmmmm.....
pitching, do we need pitching? hmmmmmmmm......
right now we've got this in our rotation:
piniero
moyer
meche
madritsch
franklin
i'd like to see franklin out and back in the bullpen. so we need a new starter until king felix is old enough. might be this year, but he'll get injured like the rest. it depends on who we can get, really. franklin sucked it up though. i still like him, i just don't think he can be in the rotation. maybe not even moyer. moyer should be our #4 or 5 guy, not number 2. but keep moyer. moyer is a pimp. unless someone offers us something good in return.
bullpen is looking so so...
closer: guardado
setup: putz, soriano
long relief: shiggy, franklin, villone
i'd almost like to see some of our kids blow leads instead of shiggy franklin and villone. i'd almost get rid of shiggy and villone, and let thorton and nageotte have their spots, cycling whoevers hot down in tacoma up if needed. or spend more money for mediocre dudes who would blow leads like the rest of them. i don't know who we could get to do better than what we have when we have other more pressing issues. it wasn't our pitchings fault that we lost this year.
so now i guess i need to say what we should get. my team to not suck, potentially. so, we only need a pitcher, first baseman, outfielder, thirdbaseman....
3 of the 4. we need a left handed bat. i'd like to steal some people from our people in our division :) glaus or garret anderson would be funny. if we got one of them we wouldn't have to do as much to fill other spots. rangers-mariners clean out the farm trade?
bah, i'd make a terrible GM.
1. Ichiro Rf lh
2. Reed Cf lh
3. Lowell 3b rh
4. Anderson Lf lh
5. Bucky DH rh
6. Ibanez 1b lh
7. Boone 2b rh
8. Olivo C rh
9. Lopez SS rh
so yeah, get two players, a lh bat and a rh bat off of this list i'm going to make
anderson lh OF
drew lh OF
beltre rh 3b
glaus rh 3b
lowell rh 3b
delgado lh 1b
sexson rh 1b
beltran sh OF
we have ibanez who can play in the OF or at 1b if we need him too. so, therefore we should probably get glaus or lowell since there is no chance in hell we are getting beltre and we should get drew or delgado or garret anderson, since there is no chance at beltran. anderson isn't likely, drew isn't likely, and delgado will cost too much. so we are sunk. we aren't getting any of them. fuck it, i'd be happy if we could get one of those guys, but we can't because we suck.
i don't know why i even worry about this anymore. every year i wonder what we are going to do, and every year we do nothing. so screw it. i'm done. we aren't getting anyone. we are getting rid of everyone. they will sign ex-microsoft employees who pay them millions just to be on the team.
Sunday, October 03, 2004
the mariners are done. the season is over, 99 losses later. i didn't expect great things. i was hopeful they would pull something out of their ass. they tanked, they blew it, they just sucked this season. it was painful, a full 6 months that should have been devoted to baseball excitement was wasted on these boobs.
what went wrong this season?
no one wanted to take the blame. everyone pointed fingers, and so everyone just kept sucking. so who was to blame?
bob melvin? sure. kind of. a lot of people are to blame above him, but he didn't get the job done. he thought he was walking into a really cushy job. the team was setting win total records, and had kept its core veterans and a proven core of young pitching. there weren't any problem players, everyone was very professional. he wanted to sit back and let the kids play and win on their own. he did, for a season. he even got 93 wins, but he missed the playoffs with the better team. he is waiting for everyone else to do their jobs, but they aren't. he's new, so he doesn't quite have that motivating quality built through years of experience. he's a corporate manager who does great if he has the right personnel, but when things get hairy, he doesn't know what to do.
i just don't know. he has one year left on his contract? two years? i think a youth infusion will be good for him. get some enthusiastic young kids to build some momentum. this staff was built to maintain momentum, there was no one to start it. we have a unique opportunity right now to build a very talented young team. he's a very smart guy, a good baseball guy or whatever. i know he knows how the hit and run works, he just needs to get the hang of being the one who makes the calls. he's paralyzed in fear, so scared of losing his job. he's not playing his own game, and he's out of his element. i'd like to see someone else, but lets see if he can pull something off with some kids. he's a kid now, as managers go. how is he going to tell a group of established veterans what to do, especially since he has never won like they had been with anyone. i was really excited when we got him, but a season like this will leave anyone with doubts.
the real problem? too many people have to be involved in every personnel change. everyone has to ok it, in triplicate, blah blah. corporate beauracracy literally has killed this team. we have a gm who can't sign players, a manager who can't build the roster he wants. we have owners with a history of bungling trying to have their hands in everything. they are worried too much about money to realize what the real currency in sports is, the athletes. you couldn't put a price tag on what griffey had. they tried too, and he left. he was a spoiled little dick, but in the end we were too worried about overpaying to get a deal done. same with a-rod. we should have offered him a contract before he went to free agency and someone REALLY overpaid him. now, we have the money. we are overpaying mediocre players instead. we have no talent, none of that spark that makes sports so exciting. we have a great supporting cast, but everyone is depressed because no one could play the lead, even if they wanted too.
bill bavasi came in too late to do anything but bow to the tight fists in the owners box last season. i'm annoyed at that, but its hard to blame him. i think that freddy garcia trade was an absolute steal. we got two really young talented starters at two positions we desperately needed to fill and lost an unhappy player in an area we are overflowing with - pitching. we weren't going to keep him at the end of the year, because he was unhappy and he would have been too expensive. he'll be back, just you wait. we'll see freddy in a mariners uniform again. can bill keep things going? does he have the balls to swing with the big boys and try to haggle with the most evil man in sports history: the agent known as scott boras? i think i heard they have had dealings before, have some sort of repore. will boras take advantage of a weak market and give us a few reasonable deals very early in free agency? will the ownership finally realize that the choice is between overpaying a little now or overpaying a lot in the future? if bavasi doesn't make a huge splash early and ownership doesn't give him the go ahead for at least one 5 year contract, he's gone. and so are the mariners chances of doing something special.
because oh man do we have a chance right now.
so yeah, we need to find out what we need. in order to do that, we need to find out what we've got. lets not even deal with pitching right now, because that will take longer and it will be more difficult. lets get our lineup and defense set up. what do we have? it took them a while, but management finally gave up and gave up the season to testing young talent. it gave us a look at who we should plan on having on the team next season. it also gave all of them the most important thing they could get as young as possible, major league experience.
here is who i would keep for next season.
outfield:
this one too mean should be the easiest part. if we wanted too, we could keep the 3 starters we have now and have a pretty good outfield. Ichiro is a no brainer. i really hope Jeremy Reed has proven that he deserves a shot at a starting role. he hit .400 for the season on his first trip to the big leagues. apparently the kid has some power also, who knew. he looked sketch in center to begin with, but he got much, much better in each game he played. he almost had a beautiful catch out in safeco against the wall straight away center. i was worried about his range, but he finally looks a little more accustomed to the hugeness that is safeco. he's no mike cameron as far as gloves are concerned, but if his bat is as potentially huge as it looks, i'll keep him. i think he deserves his shot in center, if not, then in left. i don't mind ibanez in left if we can pick up enough talent in the infield to make up for him in the outfield. ibanez is ok, but he pretty much needs to be one of the worst starters you have. don't get me wrong, he's a great worst starter to have on your team. i love the guy. i was happy we resigned him. i hope we keep him. but if we don't fill the holes in the lineup with infielders like we should, we'll need to do it in the outfield and that means definitely no winn and also no ibanez. luckily ibanez also plays first, so he gets to stay on the team no matter what. bench doesn't matter now. ibanez-reed-ichiro, or if things go terribly terribly wrong, then our only hope is something crazy like reed-beltran-ichiro or drew-reed-ichiro. otherwise it means that management has screwed us again, so we will probably end up with ibanez-winn-ichiro again and we are sunk.
infield:
our infield died, and killed our team with it. we are dumb. we went with the aging defensive, slow, with no offense approach. oops..... what do we have? jose lopes at 20 years old flashing some fancy leather. booyah, answer at short, with some experience (we hope). i liked him. he's young enough that he shouldn't be getting any hits, but he still hit 5 dingers. and he looked confident at short. he deserves a shot, even if he hits .250 next year. he'll be good eventually, and the more experience he has by then, the better he'll be. give him the shot, and if not, we are STACKED with shortstops in the minors. we should not be signing shortstops. i'm afraid we are going too though. we don't need a renteria. we wouldn't get him though, he's too good. i'm afraid of omar visquel. i'm afraid he'll be back, clogging up our minor league system of amazing shorstops. give lopez his shot for a while, he'll come around. second, boone has a big contract. its really the last one we have that is big. and he still is one of the best second basemen in the league, offensively and defensively. he'll be 36 though, so he's really only got a few seasons. no more 40 year olds please. i don't think he can handle being leading man, but he'd be great with some more talent around him, especially considering the alternatives at second base. so, we have a hole at first and a hole at third. we have people who can play both, but not people who should be starting at both. leone and dobbs are good for minor leaguers, but they aren't what we need. ibanez shouldn't be our answer at first, no way no how. bucky isn't either, i'm afraid, we need to let him worry about hitting so he doesn't tear his knee again. luckily there are some huge names at both positions this year.
so, we need a first baseman, a third baseman, and maybe an outfielder.
our lineup so far (what it should be based on our potential payroll)
ichiro
reed
3b
1b
ibanez/of
bucky
boone
olivo
lopez
as you can see, we just need the 3-4-5 hitters in our lineup :P and people wonder why we lost every game this season, jeesh. it seems so obvious now, we are missing our 3 most important hitters. the great thing? that lineup is much younger than the beginning of last year, and already its twice as fast :P its already got some decent veteran leadership. you have boone, the all american guy, fun loving, passionate. you have ichiro, silent but awe inspiring. he doesn't have to say anything to be a leader. he just needs to be there as an example. ibanez is the perfect example of patience paying off. bucky should be a hero to all other young guys, if he gets his shot at his spot in the lineup. every lineup needs someone like him in the bottom half. some huge ass dude who can hit a pitch out of the entire stadium any where any time. you get lazy because you just had to deal with the top of the lineup, you wing a fastball in there that catches a little too much of the inside corner? gone. its on the parking garage across the street 550 feet from homeplate straightaway center. some scary hitter that strikes out, flies out, grounds out into double plays, but can hit it a freaking mile. jay buhner kind of guy. well, we've got bucky who's a bigger jay buhner with more power, more patience, and more pure hitting ability. he'll be 29, but thats 5 years at dh easy for very cheap. so what if he only hits .275. hell, so what if he only hits .260. as long as we get the talent in elsewhere, cough 1st and 3rd. more important, young talent. young hungry talent who can keep up with our other young hungry players.
who should we get you say? oh please do tell us your opinions on the matter!
first thing we should do out of the gate if we get the chance is talk to scott boras about overpaying for adrian beltre. we really really need a 3rd baseman. really really really. we have for a long long time. there are some veterans out there this season like always who i don't want to get. the only true talent is beltre. he had one of the greatest offensive years by a third baseman in history this last season. in a pitchers ballpark. injured. and he's 25. did i mention he's gifted defensively? i say we sign him with no expectations of a repeat performance, but every expectation of filling a glaring hole with a very talented young prodigy. how often do you get to do that? its going to cost a lot. we should take the risk though. 3rd base filled. but, we won't get him. the one thing we have going for us is that the yankees won't be going for him. or the cardinals. but the red sox probably will. a lot of teams probably will. none of them have the money to burn that we do though. we should go in hard and fast and get this one done early, it would leave us with a lot more leeway in how we tackle the rest of the offseason. but no, while everyone else is bidding hard and fast for beltre, we are going to go hard and fast after corey koskie, who is going to turn cirillo on us because he sucks, just like all our other third baseman.
first base, sexson. he's injured. he will have a bad season next year. he needs to do some major work on his swing so he doesn't hurt himself again. he's a former brewer, who better to help him than molitor? they probably already know eachother. he's another big risk considering the injury, but we may be able get him over here. all the first baseman out there are risks. Delgado. will cost a ton. but he's left handed. and he's really good. but he sucks defensively. dh? leaving bucky and ibanez platooning at first? hell all three of them splitting 2 positions so none of them get injured? i'd like sexson though, who is actually a good first baseman. i mean, i'd really like to steal texiera from texas for some young pitching, but they would have to be really really stupid to get rid of him. maybe they could get adrian gonzalez from the rangers or that howard guy from philly. more risks, more rookies who haven't proven themselves. we've got those... we need people to produce now. if we got sexson or delgado, i would almost be able to forgive not getting beltre iffffff.....
we got some help in the outfield to replace raul ibanez.
outfield:
no, randy winn is not the answer. to any question. if all else fails, our only hope is beltran. and we'll never get him. he's going to the yankees. they need a new centerfielder, he's going to get the millions we would never ever ever ever ever pony up. jd drew has had one year out a bunch of other ones with injury, but he's a really good player. is he out of his funk? if we got sexson or delgado and drew, i could almost forgive not getting beltre or beltran.
we won't get any of them though. watch, this season we'll pick up corey koskie and mike sweeney. it will be a repeat of this season, especially since spezio will be their backup, and probably outperform both of them. it will be disaster again.
mariners free agent hitlist
1. beltre 3b
2. beltran cf
3. delgado 1b
4. sexson 1b
5. drew lf
if we don't get one of these guys, then its going to take a miracle. they are the 5 best players in the free agent pool. we want to be a top 5 team. we have the revenue, which means we should have the payroll. we don't have the balls.
otherwise, its lowell, hidalgo, and a whole host of other players who we shouldn't see, but who we will all wish we saw because the alternative is even worse. ugh, i'm so tired of watching the mariners make no moves. step up and be a real team!!!!! you have to make some changes when you start LOSING HORRIBLY
what went wrong this season?
no one wanted to take the blame. everyone pointed fingers, and so everyone just kept sucking. so who was to blame?
bob melvin? sure. kind of. a lot of people are to blame above him, but he didn't get the job done. he thought he was walking into a really cushy job. the team was setting win total records, and had kept its core veterans and a proven core of young pitching. there weren't any problem players, everyone was very professional. he wanted to sit back and let the kids play and win on their own. he did, for a season. he even got 93 wins, but he missed the playoffs with the better team. he is waiting for everyone else to do their jobs, but they aren't. he's new, so he doesn't quite have that motivating quality built through years of experience. he's a corporate manager who does great if he has the right personnel, but when things get hairy, he doesn't know what to do.
i just don't know. he has one year left on his contract? two years? i think a youth infusion will be good for him. get some enthusiastic young kids to build some momentum. this staff was built to maintain momentum, there was no one to start it. we have a unique opportunity right now to build a very talented young team. he's a very smart guy, a good baseball guy or whatever. i know he knows how the hit and run works, he just needs to get the hang of being the one who makes the calls. he's paralyzed in fear, so scared of losing his job. he's not playing his own game, and he's out of his element. i'd like to see someone else, but lets see if he can pull something off with some kids. he's a kid now, as managers go. how is he going to tell a group of established veterans what to do, especially since he has never won like they had been with anyone. i was really excited when we got him, but a season like this will leave anyone with doubts.
the real problem? too many people have to be involved in every personnel change. everyone has to ok it, in triplicate, blah blah. corporate beauracracy literally has killed this team. we have a gm who can't sign players, a manager who can't build the roster he wants. we have owners with a history of bungling trying to have their hands in everything. they are worried too much about money to realize what the real currency in sports is, the athletes. you couldn't put a price tag on what griffey had. they tried too, and he left. he was a spoiled little dick, but in the end we were too worried about overpaying to get a deal done. same with a-rod. we should have offered him a contract before he went to free agency and someone REALLY overpaid him. now, we have the money. we are overpaying mediocre players instead. we have no talent, none of that spark that makes sports so exciting. we have a great supporting cast, but everyone is depressed because no one could play the lead, even if they wanted too.
bill bavasi came in too late to do anything but bow to the tight fists in the owners box last season. i'm annoyed at that, but its hard to blame him. i think that freddy garcia trade was an absolute steal. we got two really young talented starters at two positions we desperately needed to fill and lost an unhappy player in an area we are overflowing with - pitching. we weren't going to keep him at the end of the year, because he was unhappy and he would have been too expensive. he'll be back, just you wait. we'll see freddy in a mariners uniform again. can bill keep things going? does he have the balls to swing with the big boys and try to haggle with the most evil man in sports history: the agent known as scott boras? i think i heard they have had dealings before, have some sort of repore. will boras take advantage of a weak market and give us a few reasonable deals very early in free agency? will the ownership finally realize that the choice is between overpaying a little now or overpaying a lot in the future? if bavasi doesn't make a huge splash early and ownership doesn't give him the go ahead for at least one 5 year contract, he's gone. and so are the mariners chances of doing something special.
because oh man do we have a chance right now.
so yeah, we need to find out what we need. in order to do that, we need to find out what we've got. lets not even deal with pitching right now, because that will take longer and it will be more difficult. lets get our lineup and defense set up. what do we have? it took them a while, but management finally gave up and gave up the season to testing young talent. it gave us a look at who we should plan on having on the team next season. it also gave all of them the most important thing they could get as young as possible, major league experience.
here is who i would keep for next season.
outfield:
this one too mean should be the easiest part. if we wanted too, we could keep the 3 starters we have now and have a pretty good outfield. Ichiro is a no brainer. i really hope Jeremy Reed has proven that he deserves a shot at a starting role. he hit .400 for the season on his first trip to the big leagues. apparently the kid has some power also, who knew. he looked sketch in center to begin with, but he got much, much better in each game he played. he almost had a beautiful catch out in safeco against the wall straight away center. i was worried about his range, but he finally looks a little more accustomed to the hugeness that is safeco. he's no mike cameron as far as gloves are concerned, but if his bat is as potentially huge as it looks, i'll keep him. i think he deserves his shot in center, if not, then in left. i don't mind ibanez in left if we can pick up enough talent in the infield to make up for him in the outfield. ibanez is ok, but he pretty much needs to be one of the worst starters you have. don't get me wrong, he's a great worst starter to have on your team. i love the guy. i was happy we resigned him. i hope we keep him. but if we don't fill the holes in the lineup with infielders like we should, we'll need to do it in the outfield and that means definitely no winn and also no ibanez. luckily ibanez also plays first, so he gets to stay on the team no matter what. bench doesn't matter now. ibanez-reed-ichiro, or if things go terribly terribly wrong, then our only hope is something crazy like reed-beltran-ichiro or drew-reed-ichiro. otherwise it means that management has screwed us again, so we will probably end up with ibanez-winn-ichiro again and we are sunk.
infield:
our infield died, and killed our team with it. we are dumb. we went with the aging defensive, slow, with no offense approach. oops..... what do we have? jose lopes at 20 years old flashing some fancy leather. booyah, answer at short, with some experience (we hope). i liked him. he's young enough that he shouldn't be getting any hits, but he still hit 5 dingers. and he looked confident at short. he deserves a shot, even if he hits .250 next year. he'll be good eventually, and the more experience he has by then, the better he'll be. give him the shot, and if not, we are STACKED with shortstops in the minors. we should not be signing shortstops. i'm afraid we are going too though. we don't need a renteria. we wouldn't get him though, he's too good. i'm afraid of omar visquel. i'm afraid he'll be back, clogging up our minor league system of amazing shorstops. give lopez his shot for a while, he'll come around. second, boone has a big contract. its really the last one we have that is big. and he still is one of the best second basemen in the league, offensively and defensively. he'll be 36 though, so he's really only got a few seasons. no more 40 year olds please. i don't think he can handle being leading man, but he'd be great with some more talent around him, especially considering the alternatives at second base. so, we have a hole at first and a hole at third. we have people who can play both, but not people who should be starting at both. leone and dobbs are good for minor leaguers, but they aren't what we need. ibanez shouldn't be our answer at first, no way no how. bucky isn't either, i'm afraid, we need to let him worry about hitting so he doesn't tear his knee again. luckily there are some huge names at both positions this year.
so, we need a first baseman, a third baseman, and maybe an outfielder.
our lineup so far (what it should be based on our potential payroll)
ichiro
reed
3b
1b
ibanez/of
bucky
boone
olivo
lopez
as you can see, we just need the 3-4-5 hitters in our lineup :P and people wonder why we lost every game this season, jeesh. it seems so obvious now, we are missing our 3 most important hitters. the great thing? that lineup is much younger than the beginning of last year, and already its twice as fast :P its already got some decent veteran leadership. you have boone, the all american guy, fun loving, passionate. you have ichiro, silent but awe inspiring. he doesn't have to say anything to be a leader. he just needs to be there as an example. ibanez is the perfect example of patience paying off. bucky should be a hero to all other young guys, if he gets his shot at his spot in the lineup. every lineup needs someone like him in the bottom half. some huge ass dude who can hit a pitch out of the entire stadium any where any time. you get lazy because you just had to deal with the top of the lineup, you wing a fastball in there that catches a little too much of the inside corner? gone. its on the parking garage across the street 550 feet from homeplate straightaway center. some scary hitter that strikes out, flies out, grounds out into double plays, but can hit it a freaking mile. jay buhner kind of guy. well, we've got bucky who's a bigger jay buhner with more power, more patience, and more pure hitting ability. he'll be 29, but thats 5 years at dh easy for very cheap. so what if he only hits .275. hell, so what if he only hits .260. as long as we get the talent in elsewhere, cough 1st and 3rd. more important, young talent. young hungry talent who can keep up with our other young hungry players.
who should we get you say? oh please do tell us your opinions on the matter!
first thing we should do out of the gate if we get the chance is talk to scott boras about overpaying for adrian beltre. we really really need a 3rd baseman. really really really. we have for a long long time. there are some veterans out there this season like always who i don't want to get. the only true talent is beltre. he had one of the greatest offensive years by a third baseman in history this last season. in a pitchers ballpark. injured. and he's 25. did i mention he's gifted defensively? i say we sign him with no expectations of a repeat performance, but every expectation of filling a glaring hole with a very talented young prodigy. how often do you get to do that? its going to cost a lot. we should take the risk though. 3rd base filled. but, we won't get him. the one thing we have going for us is that the yankees won't be going for him. or the cardinals. but the red sox probably will. a lot of teams probably will. none of them have the money to burn that we do though. we should go in hard and fast and get this one done early, it would leave us with a lot more leeway in how we tackle the rest of the offseason. but no, while everyone else is bidding hard and fast for beltre, we are going to go hard and fast after corey koskie, who is going to turn cirillo on us because he sucks, just like all our other third baseman.
first base, sexson. he's injured. he will have a bad season next year. he needs to do some major work on his swing so he doesn't hurt himself again. he's a former brewer, who better to help him than molitor? they probably already know eachother. he's another big risk considering the injury, but we may be able get him over here. all the first baseman out there are risks. Delgado. will cost a ton. but he's left handed. and he's really good. but he sucks defensively. dh? leaving bucky and ibanez platooning at first? hell all three of them splitting 2 positions so none of them get injured? i'd like sexson though, who is actually a good first baseman. i mean, i'd really like to steal texiera from texas for some young pitching, but they would have to be really really stupid to get rid of him. maybe they could get adrian gonzalez from the rangers or that howard guy from philly. more risks, more rookies who haven't proven themselves. we've got those... we need people to produce now. if we got sexson or delgado, i would almost be able to forgive not getting beltre iffffff.....
we got some help in the outfield to replace raul ibanez.
outfield:
no, randy winn is not the answer. to any question. if all else fails, our only hope is beltran. and we'll never get him. he's going to the yankees. they need a new centerfielder, he's going to get the millions we would never ever ever ever ever pony up. jd drew has had one year out a bunch of other ones with injury, but he's a really good player. is he out of his funk? if we got sexson or delgado and drew, i could almost forgive not getting beltre or beltran.
we won't get any of them though. watch, this season we'll pick up corey koskie and mike sweeney. it will be a repeat of this season, especially since spezio will be their backup, and probably outperform both of them. it will be disaster again.
mariners free agent hitlist
1. beltre 3b
2. beltran cf
3. delgado 1b
4. sexson 1b
5. drew lf
if we don't get one of these guys, then its going to take a miracle. they are the 5 best players in the free agent pool. we want to be a top 5 team. we have the revenue, which means we should have the payroll. we don't have the balls.
otherwise, its lowell, hidalgo, and a whole host of other players who we shouldn't see, but who we will all wish we saw because the alternative is even worse. ugh, i'm so tired of watching the mariners make no moves. step up and be a real team!!!!! you have to make some changes when you start LOSING HORRIBLY
Friday, October 01, 2004
what have i learned today?
my coworker chris dances like a monkey.
the new booze store doesn't want my id
there is construction on the 4 major roads closest to my store
people don't tip. secretaries tip the worst. stoners tip the best because they don't want to do math.
i'm tired, somehow i'm still scheduled for overtime.
our new driver is about to quit, which will leave us with 2 again. we need 3 most nights now. don't ask me how this is going to work out.
ahhhh, but i'm home now. if i need to quit, i need to quit. i can always get my CAD certificate, i know i always have a job once i do. my parents told me this last time i saw them. then i'm locked in until i own the company, i'm not sure if that is such a smart thing at this point. it is a very smart thing eventually. it would be even more hours. eventually a lot of travelling. i'd miss driving though. i could always get a job at as a courier. that isn't driving though, thats sitting on freeways.
i could always be a racecar driver... champion of the streets takes the pizzamobile to the track. somehow i don't think my car has what it takes.
i can always stay at my job now and dance like a monkey with my coworker.
it is too early to think about taking over for my dad. that is 20 years away. not now. i have too many bullshit plans that need to fail before i can write off my dreams and give control back to my dad. i probably will, but what if one of my plans works out and i end up happy owning and operating something i love?
right now i need to worry about waking up for work tomorrow. i'm not even asleep yet.
why do i spend so much time in the future. i'm losing the present. shit, i just lost it. i lost it again. there it goes again..... damn seconds.
my coworker chris dances like a monkey.
the new booze store doesn't want my id
there is construction on the 4 major roads closest to my store
people don't tip. secretaries tip the worst. stoners tip the best because they don't want to do math.
i'm tired, somehow i'm still scheduled for overtime.
our new driver is about to quit, which will leave us with 2 again. we need 3 most nights now. don't ask me how this is going to work out.
ahhhh, but i'm home now. if i need to quit, i need to quit. i can always get my CAD certificate, i know i always have a job once i do. my parents told me this last time i saw them. then i'm locked in until i own the company, i'm not sure if that is such a smart thing at this point. it is a very smart thing eventually. it would be even more hours. eventually a lot of travelling. i'd miss driving though. i could always get a job at as a courier. that isn't driving though, thats sitting on freeways.
i could always be a racecar driver... champion of the streets takes the pizzamobile to the track. somehow i don't think my car has what it takes.
i can always stay at my job now and dance like a monkey with my coworker.
it is too early to think about taking over for my dad. that is 20 years away. not now. i have too many bullshit plans that need to fail before i can write off my dreams and give control back to my dad. i probably will, but what if one of my plans works out and i end up happy owning and operating something i love?
right now i need to worry about waking up for work tomorrow. i'm not even asleep yet.
why do i spend so much time in the future. i'm losing the present. shit, i just lost it. i lost it again. there it goes again..... damn seconds.
