Thought about using just one thread for the rest of time like Dawk with his Phillies, but where's the fun in that? One yearly thread, it's not like anyone will complain. Opening day is tomorrow and seems like the M's are once again flying under the radar. Some folks at ESPN are about to get their pants blown off...they ranked the starting rotation as 18th (EIGHTEENTH!!!!!) which only proves they're either not paying attention or just don't care. One former Cy Young and three guys who might win it in the next 5 years, but ok. The bullpen remains the top strength of the team. Andrés Muñoz (the one pitcher team Mexico needed in the WBC to close out the game against Japan) has the filthiest stuff I've seen in a while, and as a Mexican, he's already my second favorite player in the team. The first one, of course, is JULIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. No sophomore slump here, no sir!! The offense was upgraded a lot, improving the two positions that were the weakest last year. I totally expect a bounce back year from Jarred Kelenic, who at this point might never live up to the hype, but that could be a good thing. If he can become an average hitter it will be enough. My prediction is 90 wins for the third year in a row, and a wild card again. Houston still seems out of reach, but we're getting there. One playoff series win, and then see what happens. A trip to the ALCS would be awesome. Enjoy the season, everybody!!
7 scoreless innings, 0 for 9 with RISP, pitcher dominating, 0-0 game into the 8th inning. God, I missed Mariners baseball!!! Luis Castillo is THAT DUDE.
Mariners just blew a 7-run lead and it's not even the 4th inning yet. I'm starting to think we suck again. Back to NFL Draft watch. I'm half kidding, of course...
Jarred Kelenic hit a 483-feet HR today at Wrigley Field. Cubs announcer says he's been going to Wrigley since 1967 and never saw a ball land there. I'm so happy for the kid. He had a very rough first 2 years after being a top 3 prospect and some fans were using the B word on him. You win a fan in me when you silence the haters.
There's a Mariners vs. Phillies series opening tomorrow. I wish we still had the old reputation system in which we could make bets and stuff XD. We both are 11-12 after a slow start, and I'm just glad we're sending our best pitchers not named Castillo. Let the best (or less worse) team win, Dawk.
Looking at the pitching matchups, at least how they have fared so far this season, it looks like decent matchups in each game. Should be fun.
Awesome article today in The Athletic on how Jarred Kelenic managed to turn it around and start living up to the hype from 2 years ago. He went 3 for 4 yesterday falling a triple short of the cycle and I really think that amazing catch by the tastefully named Christian Pache took it away. Shows how even the worst pitchers in MLB can turn the best hitters in the minors into spagetti. Kelenic literally had to hit rock bottom ("I've dominated in every single level I've been in...why can't I hit anything here?"), realize it was not working, and ask for the help he needed...it was mostly mental, the tools have always been there. Kelenic is going to hit 80 homers this year. Ok, maybe not...but man, I'm so glad he turned it around.
I only watched an inning of yesterday's game and it happened to be when Kelenic hit the HR. I didn't know much about his backstory but the Mariners announcers talked about it. They talked about his frustrations and how he was always a hard worker. I'm glad someone was able to help him out. He seems like a good dude. Hopefully he'll save the rest of his HRs for after this series.
He was a "can't miss prospect" in 2018. Mariners scouts fell in love with him but the Mets drafted him in front of us. There's an awesome story later that winter on how the GM (Jerry DiPoto) managed to convince the Mets GM to trade him to us. It took Canó (and we kept most of the insane salary), Edwin Diaz and a lot of prospects, but we got him. He made his debut in 2021 after an intense hype campaign. He was the savior of the franchise. He'd return us to the playoffs. He started strong and then fell off a cliff so hard he was back in AAA in less than two months. For all of 21 and 22 he was back and forth between MLB and the minors. Before this year he had a .150 avg and people were starting to call him maybe the biggest bust ever. I never lost hope. When Julio came out last year and became the best rookie since Griffey I kept hoping...if Jarred could just figure it out, these two will be the backbone of the team. This is an exciting time to be an M's fan and will get better when two or three of the other guys start hitting XD.
Good win by the Phils, but Walker leaving injured after only 68 pitches is not good. This bullpen really needs the starters to help them out. Rubber game tomorrow afternoon.
I miss those good old days when the bullpen took over a game with a lead (ANY lead) and it felt like the game was over. This is like the 4th or 5th blown lead this year and it's not even May yet. I knew that success was not sustainable, but come on... Very early game today. I like watching Kirby pitch. One of the best young pitchers in the AL.
We've got long haired hippie Matt Strahm pitching today. He's really a middle reliever but due to injuries to our starters this will be his 5th start of the season. He started off great but was a little shaky the last two starts. Hopefully he can give 5 solid innings. Less than that will sting with this exhausted pen.
And he did. Kirby is getting Felix'd. He threw a gem, gave up only one run and is about to lose the game. The term Felix'd refers to Mariners Legend Felix Hernandez who won the Cy Young award with an 11-1o record but 250ks and less than 2 ERA. He lost lots of games in which he only gave up one run. Putrid offenses are part of our history.
I was surprised to hear that this was the first game in his career that Kirby has gone 8 innings. I would think with his control that he would have done it a bunch of times.
He's in his second year and he was on a very strict pitch count last year, when he was a rookie. Good to see they're letting him go longer this year...now if we could get some hits...
Not Mariners related (2-4 in their latest road trip and took a miracle HR from Raleigh to win the last one and not be 1-5), but on saturday, me, my dad and my brother went to the MLB Mexico City series between the Padres and Giants. My first MLB game since I was a toddler. It was a slugfest which the Padres won something like 16-12...I literally lost count. There were 11 HRs due to the alttitude and the wind that was hitting us on the face (from home to left-center), it felt like half of those were routine flyouts that the wind just carried. It was a fun afternoon. Here are a couple pics...
Yesterday Bryce Miller became the first pitcher to strike out 10 and have one walk or less in his MLB DEBUT and NOT get a winning decision IN MLB HISTORY. He was also perfect for the first six innings. Somewhere Felix Hernandez did the Leo Dicaprio pointing at the screen meme. Also, the only AAA team in the majors, the Oakland A's were no-hitting us through the eighth inning (That's right...no hit from either team until the seventh inning). We still won the game. Baseball is so chaotic...
