Saturday, March 06, 2004

Joel Pineiro's unofficial outing today:

1 IP
8 H
7 ER
1 HR

Feel the excitement!

Friday, March 05, 2004

As an add-on to my previous post, it turns out that tonight's game set an NHL record for penalty minutes (419).

Who says the Sens aren't tough?
Well, that stunk.

Pretty exciting end to the game, though, particularly for you Old Tyme Hockey fans. This game was pretty much a live rendition of Slap Shot, right down to John LeClair playing the Ned Braden role, reluctant to involve himself in the mêlée. Here is your third period penalty breakdown:


3rd Period
Ottawa roughing - 2 min 9:03, D. Alfredsson
Philadelphia roughing - 2 min 9:03, A. Zhamnov
Ottawa roughing - 2 min 12:18, B. Smolinski
Philadelphia roughing - 2 min 12:18, P. Sharp
Ottawa slashing - 2 min 14:21, T. Simpson
Philadelphia too many men on the ice - 2 min 15:57, Bench served by P. Sharp
Philadelphia instigator - 2 min 18:15, D. Brashear
Philadelphia roughing - 2 min 18:15, D. Brashear
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 18:15, D. Brashear
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 18:15, D. Brashear
Philadelphia misconduct - 10 min 18:15, D. Brashear
Philadelphia game misconduct - 10 min 18:15, D. Brashear
Ottawa fighting - 5 min 18:15, R. Ray
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 18:15, B. Radivojevic
Philadelphia game misconduct - 10 min 18:15, B. Radivojevic
Philadelphia game misconduct - 10 min 18:15, B. Radivojevic
Ottawa fighting - 5 min 18:15, S. Van Allen
Ottawa game misconduct - 10 min 18:15, S. Van Allen
Ottawa game misconduct - 10 min 18:15, S. Van Allen
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 18:15, D. Markov
Philadelphia game misconduct - 10 min 18:15, D. Markov
Ottawa fighting - 5 min 18:15, T. Simpson
Ottawa game misconduct - 10 min 18:15, T. Simpson
Philadelphia goalie leaving crease - 2 min 18:15, R. Esche
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 18:15, R. Esche
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 18:15, R. Esche
Philadelphia game misconduct - 10 min 18:15, R. Esche
Philadelphia game misconduct - 10 min 18:15, R. Esche
Ottawa goalie leaving crease - 2 min 18:15, P. Lalime
Ottawa fighting - 5 min 18:15, P. Lalime
Ottawa game misconduct - 10 min 18:15, P. Lalime
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 18:18, R. Somik
Ottawa fighting - 5 min 18:18, C. Neil
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 18:18, M. Timander
Ottawa instigator - 2 min 18:18, Z. Chara served by M. Havlat
Ottawa fighting - 5 min 18:18, Z. Chara
Ottawa misconduct - 10 min 18:18, Z. Chara
Ottawa game misconduct - 10 min 18:18, Z. Chara
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 18:21, M. Handzus
Philadelphia misconduct - 10 min 18:21, M. Handzus
Philadelphia game misconduct - 10 min 18:21, M. Handzus
Ottawa fighting - 5 min 18:21, M. Fisher
Ottawa misconduct - 10 min 18:21, M. Fisher
Ottawa game misconduct - 10 min 18:21, M. Fisher
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 18:45, M. Recchi
Philadelphia game misconduct - 10 min 18:45, M. Recchi
Ottawa fighting - 5 min 18:45, B. Smolinski
Ottawa game misconduct - 10 min 18:45, B. Smolinski
Ottawa fighting - 5 min 18:45, W. Redden
Ottawa misconduct - 10 min 18:45, W. Redden
Ottawa game misconduct - 10 min 18:45, W. Redden
Philadelphia holding - 2 min 18:45, J. LeClair served by S. Gagne
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 18:45, J. LeClair
Philadelphia misconduct - 10 min 18:45, J. LeClair
Philadelphia game misconduct - 10 min 18:45, J. LeClair
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 18:47, P. Sharp
Philadelphia misconduct - 10 min 18:47, P. Sharp
Philadelphia game misconduct - 10 min 18:47, P. Sharp
Ottawa fighting - 5 min 18:47, J. Spezza
Ottawa misconduct - 10 min 18:47, J. Spezza
Ottawa game misconduct - 10 min 18:47, J. Spezza
Ottawa game misconduct - 10 min 18:47, J. Spezza

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

I was perusing this fluff piece on Joel Pineiro when I came to a little segment that I had to read twice:

"Obviously, to get the contract he did over there in San Diego and to make them feel comfortable enough to move Ben Davis (to Seattle before the 2002 season), he obviously has some potential."

Perhaps it's just a poor choice of words, but this statements suggests that Melvin has no idea about Wiki's statistical background.
I certainly hope nothing tragic happened to Sabermariners...
We're all well aware of the organization's preference for signing good community guys; at this point, it's pretty much taken for granted that anyone the Mariners bring in has an extensive history of volunteering. So how much community involvement is there on this team, anyway? Well, thanks to the helpful links on Yahoo! player profiles, the following is a list including our projected 25-man roster and the number of charities or good causes for which they provide funding/services:

10 - Edgar Martinez
10 - Jamie Moyer
9 - Dan Wilson
8 - John Olerud
8 - Rich Aurilia
8 - Eddie Guardado
5 - Ichiro
5 - Ryan Franklin
4 - Bret Boone
3 - Freddy Garcia
2 - Dave Hansen
1 - Scott Spiezio
1 - Raul Ibanez
1 - Kevin Jarvis
0 - Joel Pineiro
0 - Gil Meche (although he gives a lot of money to medical professionals)
0 - Rafael Soriano
0 - Julio Mateo
0 - Shigetoshi Hasegawa
0 - Ron Villone
0 - Ben Davis
0 - Willie Bloomquist
0 - Ramon Santiago
0 - Randy Winn
0 - Quinton McCracken

For the sake of making things easier, we'll call the quantitative measure of each player's community involvement Bona-fide Examples of Noble Integrity and General Niceness. Your 2004 Seattle Mariners have an average of 3.0 BENIGNs per player, which blows Oakland's 1.28 out of the water (although Tim Hudson posted an astounding BENIGN rating of 11.0 last year). I'm sure that, given enough time, I could peruse each ML roster and calculate team-specific totals, but I think the results we already have are telling enough: when the Mariners target nice guys, they only go after the nicest. In recent years, we've pursued a single type of player, and it's nice to see the collection putting up such impressive results.

But wait! Is something amiss in the new front office? The nine players BB has brought in this past winter account for only 28% of the team's BENIGN rating, despite comprising 36% of the roster. Upon closer inspection, we realize that BB's nine have an average of 2.33 BENIGN points per player, whereas holdovers from the previous roster were a full 1.05 points better. Could BB be leading a stealth operation to gradually rid the team of its traditional Nice Guys? Keep an eye on this, as Spiezio and Ibanez, both with BENIGN ratings well below team average, have two of the three longest contracts on the roster.

When, five years down the road, Seattle's BENIGN rating is down to 0.7 and half our infield has been indicted for spousal abuse, don't say I didn't warn you.
Texas' starting rotation preview is up.

Get your Seattle preview here, Anaheim here, and Oakland here.

Monday, March 01, 2004

The second part of the Bavasi interview is up, too. Highlights from this edition include:

-Bavasi didn't consider non-tendering Garcia and going after Vlad, because "we'd already signed Raul and Scott..." (even though the Angels wound up signing Guerrero despite having brought in Guillen earlier)

-Ramon Santiago is considered a quality backup

-There was "good rationale" behind pursuing Omar Vizquel

-Bavasi strongly believes that closers need the right mentality to deal with "all the pressures"

-And, my favorite quote in the article: "In general, statistical analysis plays a tremendous role at the major league level."

Subscribe to Premium and read Bavasi's words; I don't do them justice. Can you believe that the guy doesn't think we have enough experience yet?
From Howard Lincoln's Q&A on MLB.com:

MLB.com: Would you vote to put Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame?

Lincoln: Well, I don't have a vote. Let's just say that I don't like people that lie, and leave it at that.


Hmm.
Let us never again claim that Safeco Field scares away the best hitters in the majors.

Sunday, February 29, 2004

All right, I've read the interview and I'm not quite as bent out of shape by it as DMZ. I mean, at least ol' BB acknowledges the high risk inherent in drafting high schoolers, and that the team should be open to scouting and signing different types of players, rather than going all-out for, say, finesse pitchers (I'm looking at you, Dan O'Dowd). And hey, he also instituted a moderately successful system designed to keep young pitchers healthy in LA.

But you really have to hate a guy who uses "secret sauce" in a sentence. And the second half of the interview really is pretty bad. Jonah Keri makes a point of discussing Raul Ibanez, and BB hardly comes out of it alive. One particular Q&A caught my eye:

BP: What type of production are you expecting from Ibanez in 2004? In other words, what's the minimum level of production you'd expect for the money spent?

Bavasi: As with any player, it is fair to expect Raul to perform to the level he has in the recent past.


This is a shining example of the Wheelhouse's basic bad assumption. In the question immediately prior, BB explains that he doesn't think Ibanez will decline because certain people within the organization have "intimate knowledge" of the player in question, and are under the impression that Ibanez' career path will deviate from the overwhelming historical norm. This...this isn't particularly encouraging.

BB also prattles on about how he doesn't think we're worse defensively, and closes with a remark concerning Mike Cameron's proneness to strikeouts. Not really the kind of stuff I'd like to hear from someone who should theoretically be one of the 30 smartest baseball men in the world, but nothing he said took me by surprise, either.

Hellooooooooooo, comfort zone.
Wheelhouse put up the Seattle starting rotation preview today. Bonus points for reading all of it in one sitting.