Gwreck

It will be Pelfrey v. Giese in the afternoon game and Martinez v. Ponson in the night game on Friday.

Charlie Reliford and Doug Eddings, umpires who should have ejected Clemens for his attacks on Piazza.

Mike Winters, was suspended last year for baiting Milton Bradley into a fight (Milton tore his ACL when restrained from attacking Winters). Rich Garcia, moron who screwed Tony Tarasco and all other right-thinking fans in the 1996 ALCS. Terry Cooney, umpire who ejected Clemens in second inning of a 1990 ALCS between Oakland and Boston.

Davidson also called the two balks on Armando Benitez in an early '07 game that put Delgado in a position to win on a walk-off HR (which he hit).

Tim McClelland, home plate umpire in the pine tar game and also home plate umpire when Sosa was caught with a corked bat. Edit: Whoops, didn't read the rules that carefully.

Tatis 1 Schneider 1

Beltran 2.5 Santana 1.5 Reyes 1 Heilman 1 Sanchez 1

Church = this weekend, maybe. Pagan = Don't count on it. I think he was going to need surgery on the shoulder. Alou = Maybe after El Duque.

Seattle Mariners Ichiro Suzuki RF Jose Lopez 2B Raul Ibanez LF Adrian Beltre 3B Richie Sexson 1B Yuniesky Betancourt SS Jeff Clement C Willie Bloomquist CF Felix Hernandez P New York Mets Jose Reyes SS Luis Castillo 2B David Wright 3B Carlos Beltran CF Carlos Delgado 1B Trot Nixon LF Ramon Castro C Endy Chavez RF Johan Santana P

Juan Alicea tonight. Seems a perfectly fine choice -- of course, time is starting to run out on the opportunity to have a sufficient number of former players...

Elster88 wrote: How to steal Ichiro off this team? No chance.

It's been decidedly convenient that Philly has decided to to lose 5 in a row.

This could use an update: vs. SEA Mon Jun 23 - Santana v. Felix Hernandez Tue Jun 24 - Perez v. Miguel Batista Wed Jun 25 - Maine v. R.A. Dickey vs./at NYY Fri Jun 27 - Pelfrey and Martinez v. Sidney Ponson and Dan Giese Sat Jun 28 - Santana v. Mike Mussina Sun Jun 29 - Perez v. Darrell Rasner at STL Mon Jun 30 - Maine v. Kyle Lohse Tue Jul 1 - Vargas (?) v. Todd Wellemeyer (?) Wed Jul 2 - Pelfrey v. Joel Pineiro Thu Jul 3 - Martinez v. Mitchell Boggs (??) The doubleheader on Friday will screw up our rotation vs. the Cardinals. We can safely assume that Pedro will get the extra day of rest; unclear who starts Tuesday although presumably it could be Vargas if he isn't needed that much during the weekend vs. the MFYs.

I was catching up on my Mets Weekly watching (btw. did anyone know that host Jocelyn Pierce is married to NY Giant Antonio Pierce?) and it was revealed that the private pitching lesson with Santana went for $20,000.

Rafael Chaves, who is now the AAA pitching coach for the MFYs.

Nobody. They fired McLaren, not the coaches.

Pelfrey 3 Beltran 2.5 Wright 1.5 Reyes 1 Sanchez 1 Wagner 1

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Managerial stints end bad. All the time and for everyone. Tom Kelly of the Twins?

Thanks. ESPN told me otherwise re: the tv schedule. That sucks.

How did this thread get to 9 pages, anyway? Paul Siebert Mardie Cornejo

Think the Mets have had a rough 2008? It could be a lot worse. Meet your 2008 Seattle Mariners... Recently: On June 16, the Mariners fired General Manager Bill Bavasi. Bavasi replaced Pat Gillick, who was the GM during Seattle's big years in the late 90s and early 00s. Bavasi proceeded to oversee 4 crappy and 1 encouraging seasons (last year, when the Mariners went 88-74 and finished second in the AL west to the Angels). Bavasi's unfortunate moves include the 4 year, $50 million deal to Richie Sexson; 5 year, $64 million deal to Adrian Beltre, and trading for Jose Vidro from the Nationals. Bavasi also traded key prospect Adam Jones in the offseason to the Orioles for the underperforming and already-once-DLed Erik Bedard. Bavasi has been replaced by interim GM Lee Pelekoudas. Three days later, on June 19, the Mariners fired manager John McLaren. McLaren took over in July 2007 when Mike Hargrove abruptly resigned in the middle of the season. Apparently one of the reasons that Bavasi was fired as a reluctance to let McLaren go, and a reluctance to trade Erik Bedard, who may well now be on the market. McLaren was replaced by Jim Riggleman, who had managed the Padres for two years, during their great firesale of the early 90s. Riggleman also managed the Cubs from 95-99, when he had only 1 winning season, when the Cubs took the Wildcard in '98. A couple of juicy quotes from anonymous Mariners coaches tells more of the story about the problems with the Mariners: ]Coach A: �You�ve got players in that clubhouse who should be team leaders � guys like Richie Sexson, Adrian Beltre, Erik Bedard, even Ichiro � who care only about themselves,� one coach said. �When your best players are hitting 50-60 points below their career averages and won�t take extra batting practice, what message does that send? �You had kids at the park six hours before a game to work with (former hitting coach) Jeff Pentland one-on-one in the cage, and you had Beltre, who�d never do it. Pretty soon, the younger guys weren�t doing it, either.� �You had pitchers complaining about having to throw to (catcher) Kenji Johjima all spring, then saw him get a three-year contract extension in April,� the coach said. �You had guys watch Felix (Hernandez) work his (butt) off in camp and watched Bedard do the minimum � and Bedard was the opening-day starter.� Coach B: �Arthur Rhodes started sitting on the bench when players were taking extra hitting, extra infield drills, and shouting, �Where�s Richie? Anyone seen Richie Sexson?� because Sexson was never there,� he said. �Then Bedard started setting his own pitch counts, and sitting in the clubhouse during games he didn�t start. Mac tried dealing with that � we all did. How do you make the highest-paid players on your team work harder if they decide they�re not going to?� This Season: The Mariners have a 26-49 record, worst in the majors, and are 19.5 games out of first place. The season is clearly over for them and with plenty of expiring contracts (Sexson, Vidro, Willie Blomquist, Raul Ibanez) their best hope is for a better 2009. Recent Games: The Mariners are wrapping up their interleague tour against the NL East, getting swept by the Nationals and losing 2 of 3 to the Marlins at home, and then losing 2 of 3 in Atlanta. All-Time: The Mets are 1-5 against the Mariners all-time, their worst record against any opponent. They lost 2 of 3 to the Mariners at Shea in 2003 and were swept by the Mariners at Safeco Field in 2005. The highlight of that series for the Mets was a spectacular catch by David Wright (link is here, scroll down to June 18), one that is terribly overlooked, especially given the underserving pub that a catch by a certain shortstop also playing in New York gets. Just remember: Wright had to dive into the stands to catch the ball; the other guy caught the ball first, then (unnecessarily?) dove into the stands. Pitching Matchups: Monday: Felix Hernandez ® vs. Johan Santana. Hernandez (6-5, 2.87, 91Ks in 103 1/3 innings) has won his last 4 starts. The Mets should stack their lineup with lefties on Monday, as Hernandez has a .357 BAA for lefties but only .270 for righties. This is Hernandez' fourth big-league season and he's still only 22 years old. This marquee pitching matchup is an ESPN game for the out-of-towners. Tuesday: Miguel Batista ® vs. Oliver Perez. Batista ® was starting games but then got pushed into the closer role temporarily. Batista is 3-9, 6.26 ERA (13 starts, 6 relief apperances). He blew 2 saves and is now back in the rotation with Brandon Morrow taking back the job as fill-in for the disabled JJ Putz. Batista is also a noted author. Wednesday: R.A. Dickey ® vs. John Maine. Erik Bedard's spot in the rotation but it's expected that Dickey will make the start instaed. Dickey is a knuckleballer who was a former 1st round draft pick of the Rangers. It was discovered early in his career that he is missing a key ligament in his elbow, and to keep his career going, Charlie Hough (the Rangers pitching coach at the time) tought Dickey the knuckleball. Dickey perfected the knuckleball in the minors and was the 2007 Pacific Coast League pitcher of the year. He has been up and down between AAA and the majors so far this year. Dickey's numbers: 1-3, 5.77 ERA in 34 1/3 innings. (8 relief apperances and 3 starts). 39 H, 14 BB, 24 Ks. An interesting article by Alan Schwartz of the NY Times on Dickey is here. Mariners Lineup: C Jeff Clement (L) / C Kenji Johjima ® Johjima (2-17-.218, .259 OBP) was the starter (and got a 3 year contract extension in April) but has been terrible. Clement was called up a week ago (after spending 2 weeks in May before getting sent back down) and will apparently be getting most of the starts with Johjima relegated to a backup and DH role. Clement's AAA stats this year: 14 homers-43 RBIs-.337. 1B Richie Sexson ®] Sexson (9-23-.213, .298 OBP.) has been so bad that the Mariners have apparently considered cutting him but that hasn't happened. Recently, he's lost some time to Miguel Cairo (!). Sexson hasn't had an extra base hit since May 24. 2B Jose Lopez ® 5-39-.290, .304 OBP. 3B Adrian Beltre ® Beltre has been somewhat of a disappointment since he signed with the Mariners, unable to duplicate the numbers he had with the Dodgers. 14-33-.340, .314 OBP. SS Yuniesky Betancourt ® 3-25-.285, .293 OBP. Yes, that OBP is right. He has 4 walks this season in 264 plate appearances. LF Raul Ibanez (L) Their best position player not named Ichiro. Slightly better average and OBP hitting against lefties but all the power comes hitting against righties. 8-44-.279, .344 OBP. CF Jeremy Reed (L) Reed (2-6-.295, .362 OBP) was called up a month ago and was only playing part-time; he recently moved to CF in a position switch with Ichiro and is now playing full-time. RF Ichiro Suzuki (L) Ichiro recently moved back to right field after playing a year and a half in center. His numbers (3-19-.288, .350 OBP) are slightly down this year. 32 for 34 in steals. Wlademir Balentin (sent back to AAA) and Brad Wilkerson (cut in May) had played RF for most of the season. Mariners Bench: Jose Vidro IF (S) Vidro (5-34-.216, .264 OBP) is the usual DH. Miguel Cairo IF ® Cairo (0-7-.182, .276 OBP in 66 ABs) was filling in at third for Beltre recently and got some starts at first as well. Willie Bloomquist IF/OF ® 0-4-.258, .364 OBP. Bloomquist has some speed (8 for 10 in steals). Jaime Burke C ® Burke (1-3-.213, .288 OBP) was the backup to Johjima before Clement was called up and is now being carried as a useless third catcher. (Where have we seen that before?) Mariners Bullpen: The 'pen is possibly the only bright spot for the team. JJ Putz was the best closer in baseball in 2007 but is currently on the DL for the second time this year. Brandon Morrow ®, filling in as closer while Putz was/is out, and doing a great job to boot. 0-1, 0.90 ERA in 20 IP. 12 H, 7 BB, 30 Ks. 2 saves in 2 opportunities. Rest of the pen: Roy Corcoran ®: 0-0, 3.68 ERA in 14 2/3 innings. 16 H, 8 BB, 10 K. Sean Green ®: 1-2, 3.24 ERA in 41 2/3 innings. 37 H, 18 BB, 41 K. Arthur Rhodes (L): 2-0, 4.50 ERA in 12 Innings. 13 H, 8 BB, 14 K. Ryan Rowland-Smith (L): 1-1, 2.95 ERA in 36 2/3 Innings. 30 H, 17 BB, 29 K. Mark Lowe ®: 1-3, 4.83 ERA in 31 2/3 innings. 36 H, 19 BB 29 K. Who's Hurt: Adrian Beltre has a brusied left index finger but will probably be back for this series. Closer JJ Putz is out with an injured elbow. He was on the DL at the start of the season with a rib injury and apparently came back too soon and was overcompensating. Replacement closer Brandon Morrow has been having back spasms but is expected to return for this series. Erik Bedard was removed from Friday's start in Atlanta during the fourth inning with back spasms and will possibly miss his scheduled start on Wednesday. Ex-Mets: Miguel Cairo Sam Perlozzo (3B) and Mel Stottelmyre (Pitching) are both on the Mariners coaching staff. Ex-Mariners: None Essential Mariners Blog: http://ussmariner.com/ Mariner Moose: Quite possibly the best mascot in the majors not named Mr. Met, the Mariner Moose is also one of my favorites. Remember the "Griffey in '96" presidential campaign? The was his running mate. The Moose also is well-known for running over Coco Crisp with an ATV.

Hardly. Don't know what game you saw but 2 hours to get out of the lot is abnormally high.

Or Soylent Tan = Leroy Stanton

Generic Rounds = Eric Gunderson

Man Cried Repent = Prentice Redman