If you're wanting to vent about this ballclub being a mortal lock to lose 90 games, we won't try to talk you off the ledge.  Comments open. :- )

From where I sit:

1.  If either of the seeing-eye GB's in the 9th had been one yard left, we get a 4-3 putout, a Mariner win, and then the entire city is feeling good.   Lot of luck involved in this game, mateys.

2.  Alternatively, Putz healthy, the M's are 4-2 and we're all chattering excitedly.  I'm guessing that this has occurred to John MacLaren.

3.  Can't fault Mac for his pitching switches.   He's got O'Flaherty in there with 3-of-4 lefties coming up, and he's got Lowe behind him.  …

4.  In hindsight, 98 pitches and Felix shoulda stayed in, right?  Until he throws 119 wrapping the game up, and then we're all crying abuse …. as well, Felix had starting looking fatigued to me in the 6th.  

I'd have sent Felix out for the 9th, and said so … precisely because of the 1-in-6 chance of what did happen, and because I didn't think the club could afford it right now.

5.  If Felix, Bedard and Silva throw like this, and JLo hits like this, this team is going to contend.

6.  The fact that Texas and Balmer won't contend, does not mean that they didn't play well in a particular series.  As KC in Detroit.   If you haven't played much sports, here's a tip.  ;- )  Bad teams can play well at a given moment.  Texas and Balmer did.

As D-O-V'ites … don't buy into the "JLo looks fine, but:  Millwood, Padilla, Guthrie, Trachsel.  Just saying" kindergarten shtick.  Those guys threw the ball well this week. 

7.  So if I'm coaching the M's, I'm not at all worried about the talent on this club.  But I'm guessing that's not what the blog ether is radiating at the moment.

So, as we say, nobody can blame all y'all for trashing the hotel room, these six games prove this just isn't a good ballclub, yada yada.  That was quite a gutkick.

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=== STOPPER ===

Or he shoulda been.

…………………

Felix on Sunday threw precisely the game that D-O-V has been calling for.

Not a single "challenge" pitch all day — just a great pitch mix and, most delightfully, improved command in the zone from 2007.

All y'all been wondering, how does Felix win if he doesn't have the Boston swerveball?  Like that.  By throwing the FB to an area a foot square — which foot square never includes that foot right over the middle of the plate.

………………….

In 2007, Felix Hernandez threw a minus changeup — his change was actually a below-average major league pitch.  Average on some days, maybe.

Saturday, he threw a plus change, 84-86, turned over a little bit, with very good arm action.  

And the first 10-15 batters through, he used the FB-CH almost exclusively?!  The first time I have ever (e-v-e-r) seen the King use a Freddy Garcia pitch mix.  And you know what?  It kept the hitters off Felix' fastball better than I've ever seen.

Whipsawing the hitters between the 85 change and a 94 fastball, Felix had them so in-between that they were fouling changeups late on the pitch.  Did you see that?  Freddy would whip the arm through, the ball wouldn't be there, the lefty would freeze, then swing… and foul it over the 1B dugout.

………………….

I'll say it once again and then try to avoid it in the future:  analyzing a SP by counting the %'s on his FB-CV-CH has got to be the weirdest way to try to understand a pitcher.  Don't let the mainframe catch yer trying it.

What difference does it make whether Felix threw 60% FBs, 20% SLs and 20% CHs if the FB and the CH were both junk?   Felix could use precisely the same 60-20-20, with a plus change instead of a minus one, and you'd have a 2.00 ERA pitcher rather than a 5.00 guy.

When did we start just counting a pitcher's mix, as opposed to asking whether his offspeed stuff was GOOD or not?! 

That's got to be the ultimate in Strat-O-Matic remote viewing, thinking that we can just count the pitches by type and understand what the hitters were seeing.   Pitch mix stats are like #8 on the analyst's list, not #1 or #2. 

………………….. 

Only after Felix had the O's timing well-and-truly fouled up with the plus changeup, did he bust out the plus-plus-plus slider, and mix in several 76 overhand curves.

It was an overmatch.  Strikeouts, low pitch counts, easy two-hop GB's for DP's. 

Discretion is the better part of valor:  zero "challenge pitches" to home run hitters.  Get them in between, and use your attack weapons two strikes to miss the bats.

…………………….

THAT, my friends, was the cagy Schilling-Schmidt attack that we have been talking about for two years.  

The 2008 Felix may have arrived.  He is a serious threat to run a 2+ ERA and win 20 games.  Hey, a little first-week bad luck doesn't change the developments on the Felix-JLo-Bedard fronts.

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=== Trust Ol' Dr D Dept. ===

After two games, much handwringing over where this ballclub would get power.  If Sexson tanked again.

Not to worry, quoth we:  3-4 guys will hit 20-25, and the others (except Ichiro) will hit 15.

Last four games:  7 dongs.   That would be 285 a year.  Just reminding yer.

……………..

BABIP for the M's so far is at .236.    In the first six games, the Mariners should have had ten more hits given a normal .300 BABIP.

Ten hits, against four losses of 1, 1, 2, and 3 runs…. that's another way the M's coulda been 3-3 or 4-2, even without Putz.

……………..

Don't get me wrong; the M's lost four games.  But don't worry about the talent, or the strike zone approach.  Both look fine. 

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=== Stop Us If You've Heard This One ===

MOVE MIGUEL BATISTA TO THE BULLPEN RIGHT NOW.

This ballclub isn't reeling because it needs a #5 SP.  It is reeling because its bullpen is in chaos.  If the brass cannot put its finger on what matters here — stability in the bullpen — it deserves another 2-for-6 streak or three.

You don't, though.  You guys rock. 

Cheers,

Dr D