Mariners Insider - Archives for: June 2007

Monday, June 25th, 2007

Posted by Larry LaRue @ 10:55:31 pm

A word about judging major league players too quickly.

Don’t. It almost never works out.

Reggie Jackson didn’t hit a home run in April, 1982, and was all but booed out of the park in Anaheim – then helped lead the team to the post-season and shared the American League home run lead.

Countless veterans comeback from the brink of disaster, in part because they have a reserve of confidence that younger players lack. And sometimes, they’re just streaky.

Maybe Jeff Weaver is streaky.

Certainly, when he was 0-6 and his earned run average was over 18.00, it seemed to everyone that he was of no use to the Seattle Mariners. Last week, he shutout the Pittsburgh Pirates.

And Monday he beat the Boston Red Sox by allowing them one earned run on a night when Seattle scored nine.

Weaver’s ERA is now 7.71, and he’s no one’s idea of an ace. He was never intended to be. What Weaver was signed to give the Mariners was innings and 10-12 wins, more if all went his way.

So far, all hasn’t. But Weaver wasn’t as bad as his first six starts. He may still give the Mariners a solid presence at the end of their rotation – especially considering their rotation is still a work in progress.

Categories: General • 6 comments

Sunday, June 24th, 2007

Ah, Those Were the Glory Years

Posted by Larry LaRue @ 05:42:20 pm

Ken Griffey Jr. didn’t beat the Seattle Mariners this weekend, although he depressed a few of their fans.

What Junior did for three days was remind everyone of what it was like to have a Hall of Fame personality around, never mind a Hall of Fame player. When Griffey was here, he reigned over a golden era of loons – Jay Buhner, Norm Charlton, Randy Johnson, Lou Piniella ...

No one ever had to wonder if there was a team identity then. There was.

Junior was the ring leader, Buhner the clown, Johnson the crazed loner, Charlton the man who got your respect or hit you in the neck with a fastball.

Few teams have colorful personalities now, and the Mariners haven’t had one since Bret Boone departed. And that’s a shame.

Part of it is the language barrier. With the media, Ichiro Suzuki, Kenji Johjima and Yuniesky Betancourt – three marvelous players – don’t speak English. A fourth, Adrian Beltre, does but often won’t.
Richie Sexson dislikes the media and Raul Ibanez may be the nicest fellow in the game, but he’d rather workout than talk about himself.

Junior was in a class of his own in the ‘90s, a star player with presence on and off the field, who would crack jokes in the clubhouse, pull pranks on writers or his manager with equal pleasure.

The Mariners never really made it to their glory days on the field in those years, but no one around the club ever doubted how much fun the game was when Junior was involved in it.

Categories: General • 6 comments

Friday, June 22nd, 2007

A Moment Of Spendor In the House That Junior Built

Posted by Larry LaRue @ 07:23:26 pm

The Northwest finally got to say ‘goodbye’ to Ken Griffey Jr.

Whatever animosity followed his departure after the 1999 season seemed relegated to the bin of history when the Seattle Mariners through a Welcome Back Junior Night at the favorite son of a franchise.

Touched, Griffey admitted “I didn’t realize how much I missed Seattle,” and a warm reception turned hot.

Griffey began producing memories the day he stepped on the field in 1989, from a first-at-bat double in Oakland to a first-at-bat home run in the Kingdome that same season.

As talented as any player had any right to be, Griffey was always more than that. What made people love him wasn’t merely that ability, but the personality that accompanied it.

Junior was the Mariners Everyman. When he lost, his frustration showed. And when he was happy, well, everyone was happy.

Take the clutch double by Edgar Martinez in the ’95 American League Division Series, and the speed with which Griffey went from first base to the plate to score the winning run. Wonderful.

Then remember for a moment the smile that beamed from the bottom of the dogpile of humanity at home plate afterward – that was the joy of baseball that Griffey rekindled in folks who’d never seen a winner in Seattle.

Griffey was humble in saying his teammates and fans had made him who he was today. Seattle fans were all too happy to remember that he’d made the future of this franchise what is has become.

Categories: General • 5 comments

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

To Deal Or Not To Deal

Posted by Larry LaRue @ 12:32:27 pm

The question keeps coming up: If the Seattle Mariners stay within range first place in the American League West, will they trade to improve their club?

They will try, but that’s not as easy as it seems.

For one thing, who could they acquire that would seriously improve the every day lineup?

What the Mariners will likely need is what everyone wants – starting pitching – but the price is always high, both financially and in terms of what talent you have to give up. In truth, there’s not much Seattle is willing to move that anyone is dying to get.

The team could trade Adam Jones, for instance, but beyond that the farm system doesn’t have a lot that looks better to other teams than what they have in theirs.

Ichiro isn’t likely to be traded, in part because the Mariners top brass – at a level above GM Bill Bavasi – continue to talk to his agent about an extension beyond this season. And Japanese ownership may make the final call on that issue.

So who do they move and what do they go after?

They aren’t likely to move their best prospect for a two-month rent-a-player, and remember, their payroll is already the highest in club history - $111 million – so the Mariners are unlikely to bring in another big contract.

If you’ve got ideas, let’s hear them.

Categories: General • 31 comments

Friday, June 15th, 2007

Undaunted Courage On the Mound

Posted by Larry LaRue @ 01:38:07 pm

The term ‘courage’ is probably over-used in professional sports, where players are well compensated to do what they do.

Seattle closer J.J. Putz, however, may have exemplified bravery on the diamond this week, and it had nothing to do with facing down a tough hitter or the pressure of a save situation.

It had everything to do with controlling his bowels in front of 40,000 fans and a televison audience.

Putz was battling a stomach ailment in Chicago that kept him either in the training room or the bathroom – and he was rarely comfortable in either. When the Mariners got to the ninth inning on Tuesday and needed Putz, he was there for them.

Cautiously.

Putz pitched with a weak stomach, aware that with every maximum-effort fastball he risked the kind of release no one ever wants to have in public. He got through it cleanly, earned the save and this week’s award for ‘courage’ on the field.

Categories: General • 3 comments

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

A Loss That Comes With Perspective

Posted by Larry LaRue @ 08:43:44 pm

A lost game didn’t mean as much to the Seattle Mariners as it might have 24 hours earlier – before they learned Wednesday that second base Jose Lopez’s 28-year-old brother was killed.

He wasn’t a ballplayer, and none of the Mariners had met him.

Their grief, however, was genuine, and they shared it with Lopez, who decided to stay with the team in lieu of flying home to Venezuela to be with family.

“If I left tonight, I wouldn’t get there in time for the funeral,” he said. “My father told me to stay and play for Gabriel. I’m staying.”

It is the kind of thing professional players face over a season. A year ago, Miguel Batista pitched on the day his grandmother died.

“A year ago, I had to pitch on the day my grandmother died,” Batista said. “When you’re a professional, you can’t always go home. You can’t always do what you want to do. There’s an obligation there.”

That doesn’t mean a players grief is any less than anyone else’s.

Often, it means that a team he spends eight months a year with is a family, too, and that signing a major league contract isn’t just a license to make millions. For those who wonder where responsibility has gone in professional sports, take a moment today to think of Lopez.

He will play the rest of the season for his brother, for his teammates and for the Seattle Mariners.

Categories: General • 2 comments

It's June, And We Still Have Baseball

Posted by Larry LaRue @ 01:30:50 pm

The winning streak is five now, the deficit in the American League West down to three games – and the Seattle Mariners bullpen is exhausted.

Kind of fun, isn’t it?

Somewhere in the next week or so, they’re going to lose a game because the Seattle starting pitcher is going to leave after six and no one is going to be able to throw a strike.

That’s how tired Mariners relievers are.

Now Adrian Beltre is down again with a bad left thumb, and after the game Tuesday was even hinting at the disabled list. Richie Sexson still isn’t hitting .200.

And the Mariners are hot. Hot as in 9-2 in June.

No, it doesn’t look particularly good with the bullpen toasted and Miguel Batista and Jeff Weaver starting the next two games, but right now – do you care? Did you think the Mariners would have a two-game lead over Oakland in June?

Of course not.

Mike Hargrove may not be your favorite manager, Bill Bavasi may be your least favorite general manager and yes, lots of off-season moves made you angry.

Tell the truth, though. It’s mid-June and the Mariners are on a roll, beating good teams and bad. Did you expect that?

Welcome baseball back to summer in Seattle.

Categories: General • 1 comment

Monday, June 11th, 2007

Another Day, Another Change In The Bullpen

Posted by Larry LaRue @ 12:36:21 pm

On their way from city to city to city, the Seattle Mariners flew in pitching reinforcements Monday – something they’ve had to do with alarming frequency this season.

In the middle of a three-day, three-city, three-game stretch, the team lost right-hander Chris Reitsma to elbow inflammation, and turned to Tacoma lefty Jake Woods, who joined the team in Cleveland.

It’s an issue that won’t go away, this burning of bullpen arms.

Starters rarely get to the seventh inning. Relievers rarely get days off. It’s a lovely problem to have when J.J. Putz has to keep closing games – it means the team is winning games.

But the Mariners have already used 11 relievers this season, and arms aren’t meant to be abused.

A winning record in June is admirable. If the Mariners keep having to eat more than three innings a game with relief pitching, there won’t be many arms left come August.

Categories: General • 5 comments

Friday, June 8th, 2007

The Return Of Mr. Weaver

Posted by Larry LaRue @ 03:35:46 pm

Felix Hernandez and Jarrod Washburn were humbled in their last starts, and now the Seattle Mariners are set to unveil their well-rested weapon – Jeff Weaver – against the San Diego Padres on Saturday.

No one, from the Mariners to the Padres to Weaver, knows quite what to expect.

Best case scenario is he pitches well into the seventh inning and becomes what the team hoped he’d be when it signed him in January – a dependable inning-eater who keeps you in a game.

Worst case scenario? A mediocre start that is neither good enough to win nor bad enough to take him out of the rotation.

Weaver is confident, and has reason to be. He’ll be paid a lot of money whether he pitches well or not, and if he’s released by Seattle, another team will likely take a chance of taking him for the major league minimum, pro-rated.

The Mariners are more curious than confident.

Unless Weaver shuts out San Diego, it’s unlikely he’s going to win back many Mariners fans.

Categories: General

Saturday, June 2nd, 2007

Everywhere Alex Goes, There He Is

Posted by Larry LaRue @ 03:34:14 pm

It’s been a tough season for the New York Yankees, and an even tougher week for former Mariner Alex Rodriguez.

As he marches toward an inevitable Hall of Fame inclusion, A-Rod continues to create his own potholes along the way. Getting photographed with a stripper entering his hotel last week?

That might actually help his street cred.

There was that almost effeminate slap at the ball as he ran to first base and tried to knock the ball out of a pitchers glove. Any time anyone wants to make fun of Mr. Rodriguez, that clip will show up.

Just last month, he slid hard into second base to break up a double play – the kind of stuff hard-nosed players do – then unfortunately through a late and flagrant elbow. That’s the kind of thing dirty players do, and Rodriguez knew it.

And just this past week, Alex shouted at a rookie infielder camped under a pop fly. Toronto insists he shouted ‘mine.’ A-Rod said he shouted ‘Haaa!’

Either way, the rookie backed away and the ball dropped.

The saddest aspect of all this is that Rodriguez, who insists he respects the game and its players, has insisted upon defending himself in each case. And doing so with, shall we say, little white lies.

Slapping at the ball? That, he said, was well within the rules.

The elbow to the groin during a slide? Used to happen to him all the time?

The shout at a man under a fly? Happens to him, he said, several times a week.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

What A-Rod has lacked throughout his career, in Seattle, Texas and now New York, is respect for his game beyond the obvious talents. He has frustrated and angered more teammates than he’s befriended.

It’s possible all these things have been misguided efforts to prove to his team how he can do the subtle things that win games – but no one has laughed harder at these antics than current and former teammates.

All Alex has ever needed to do on or off the field is be himself, but he’s never been comfortable with that. By trying to be all things to all people, he’s disappeared into a muddied self-image no one completely understands.

Small wonder one of the greatest talents of his generation will join his fourth team next season. The betting line has him in Anaheim.

The trouble for Alex reminds me of something pitcher Andy Hassler once told me.

“Where ever you go, there you are.”

Alex has spent a lot of time leaving tough situations, and never seems to concede much of the problem was Alex Rodriguez.

Categories: General • 10 comments

Mariners Insider

Ryan Divish has been with The News Tribune since 2006, covering the Tacoma Rainiers and high school sports. Divish played baseball at Dickinson State University and also earned a journalism degree from the University of Montana. You will find news, observations, anecdotes, analysis and photographs on this blog. The purpose is to keep readers informed, but also give them a feel for the team and its players, and a place to go to read about baseball.
E-mail Ryan.

Larry LaRue, who has covered the Seattle Mariners and Major League Baseball for The News Tribune since 1988, is taking some time off for personal reasons.