Our bad...

Hey everyone...

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past week. Unfortunately The Bush Leagues doesn't pay very well and some times our real jobs can get in the way. Obviously not a good excuse but Nick and I have been very busy none-the-less.

I do have one update, however. The winner of the Episode 4 Blogcast. We had asked all of our listeners to provide feedback about our blogcast and we'd enter them into a drawing for a special prize.

Well the prize was a 2007 Ichiro bobblehead doll, still in its original packaging (come on, we may be the Bush Leagues but we're not that bad). We received some great feedback from four commenters and you'll start to see some of that put to use in the next blogcast, which has a tentative recording date for this Saturday.

So, the process for picking a winner was that I asked a co-worker of mine to pick a number...which being a butt, she picked 79. So after counting 79 through the four commenters I landed on Tom Wiggin. So, congratulations Tom! You are now the proud owner of a 2007 Ichiro Bobblehead Doll, complete with 7 gold gloves!

So, I'll leave you with that and hopefully will be able to write a post this evening after playing 2 softball games and grabbing beers afterward...we'll see.

Thanks for the feedback...

Nick and I really do appreciate the feedback we're getting from everybody. By helping us out we can continue to inform you about the Mariners while trying to be "somewhat" entertaining. I'm already trying to set up a guest caller for the next blogcast so be on the lookout for that, should include some good stuff.

In lieu of the feedback I've gotten from some of you I wanted to share a rough draft of the next blogcasts' transcript. Remember, this is just a rough draft so bear with me as we continue to develop it into something more.

Noah: Welcome back, everyone! This is the Bush Leagues with Nick and Noah. I'm Noah Banning joined by my good friend Nick Garbareno, say hello Nick.

Nick: Hello.

Noah: This is episode 5 and I'd like to thank everyone who provided us with feedback for our blogcast. It really does help us tailor the show to the people who matter most, the listeners. From the comments, it seems a lot of you don't want to hear about Morrow, Griffey, Yuni or Branyan anymore. So we'll hold off on talking about them for a while.

Nick: So...yeah, that's our show for today, thanks for listening and we'll see you at the park.

Of course I'm joking, and we really do appreciate the feedback. We bring it up every show that some of the topics seem like we're beating a dead horse, but they are what we feel is impacting the M's at that point in time. But we are listening. Coming up in future shows we'll be sure to talk about the make-up of the Mariners bench including the role of Ronny Cedeno. We'll also look into how Wak utilizes his platoon players (mainly outfield, catcher and DH) and whether he's doing this successfully.

But...if Yuni gets traded in the next week or so...which there are a lot of rumors going around, I reserve the right to analyze and talk about Yuni for the entire show if I see fit. That's just the power that comes with being on a blogcast.

The Bush Leagues Blogcast, Episode 4

Check out the latest episode of the Bush Leagues! We dive into why the M's are losing lately, Russell Branyon's future with the club, and what to do with B-Mo. Check it out, and for the love of God, please let us know what you think!!!

Episode 4

Nick and Noah

Useless Statistics

Dear FSN,

Please stop showing the graphic of home runs that Griffey has hit on "This Date in History." There is absolutely no correlation between the date and how successful a batter has been.

Thank you,

The Bush Leagues

Looking at the young kids, and what to do with them

After Nick and I returned from Vegas to see Erik Bedard scratched from the Boston Red Sox series we both thought escaping this series with a win would be very difficult. I mean, the M's were sending three of their most inexperienced pitchers on the big league roster. But now that the series is all said and done, I can say the reason the M's were able to take 2-out-of-3 games was because of the pitching from Chris Jakubauskas, Garrett Olson and Jason Vargas. Granted, each of the pitchers made mistakes in their games, but they were able to pitch out of jams by generating double play balls, striking batters out and producing short pop ups.

Let's take a closer look at the youngsters.

Chris Jakubauskas: The elder statesman of the three struggled with his control early in the game. In the first three innings, Jakubauskas threw 33 strikes out of 62 pitches for a 53% strike rate. But that's not the reason he was roughed up so bad. The reason he was lit up for runs is that when you're struggling to find the plate, often times you'll leave pitches out in the middle of the plate thigh-to-belt high. This is what happened to Jakubauskas. If you were to look a plot of his pitches I guarantee you would see most of them down the middle of the plate with little to no strikes called on the corners. Sometimes you can get away with leaving pitches over the plate, but not against the Boston Red Sox, and we saw what happens when the Sox get pitches to hit. They lit Jakubauskas up for 4 runs in 3 innings.

Innings 4-6 were a different story as Jakubauskas began throwing his fastball for strikes and could then rely on his curveball to keep the hitters off balance. He was able to throw 31-of-43 pitches for strikes for a 72% strike rate. When he was missing with his pitches they were closer to the zone. This allowed for him to collect some swinging and even some called strikes with pitches out of the strike zone. When Jakubauskas did throw a strike many of his pitches weren't in the middle of the plate like the first three innings of the game. He was able to hit the corners a lot more consistently. Overall, a decent job of being able to keep the Mariners in the ball game against a dangerous Boston lineup.

Garrett Olson: Garrett Olson struggled during his entire 6 innings to keep the ball in the zone. Of his 93 total pitches, only 50 were strikes for a 54% strike rate. Regardless of Olson's struggle with his command he only gave up 4 hits. Unfortuanately, he also issued 4 walks and served up 3 home runs. Two of those home runs came immediately following a walk. When you're pitching against a powerful offensive team like the Red Sox, you can't issue walks, or they will make you pay much like they made Olson pay. Regardless of the walks and the home runs, Olson still did his job and left the game after 6 innings only down by 2 runs. Overall, the outcome of the game was not how the M's would have liked, but given Olson was a stop-gap pitcher filling in for Erik Bedard who's out with a hamstring injury you couldn't have asked for much more.

Jason Vargas: Vargas' outing on Sunday was less than spectacular as he struggled through out the day giving up 7 hits and 3 walks and 2 runs (1 earned because of an error on Yuniesky Betancourt). He did, however, benefit from some stellar defense to get him out of some jams. Twice with the bases loaded, Vargas was able to serve up double play balls to escape the innings with minimal damage, if any at all. Vargas threw 57% strikes locating 54-of-94 in the zone often times working inside to lefties and outside to righties. As a pitcher that throws mostly fastballs he can benefit from throwing outside of the zone, but he needs to be able to prove that he can get his fastball over for strikes when needed to justify throwing out of the zone. Something that he just wasn't able to do consistently against the Red Sox. But when it was all said and done, Vargas kept us in it for five innings and received a no decision for his efforts.

All three of these young pitchers are not going to blow batters away with their electrifying stuff. They all throw their fastballs in the low-90s and rely on being able to throw their secondary pitches for strikes. Where they are going to be successful is being able to locate their fastball and throw the breaking balls in the zone.

Unfortunately, the Mariners' starting rotation is full, Rowland-Smith and Silva will be back soon and granted both of them are not guaranteed a spot on the roster, but my initial feeling is that they will be welcomed back into the rotation upon their return. So where does that leave Jakubauskas, Olson and Vargas? If you ask me, I think Jakubauskas finds himself back in the bullpen, Olson will be sent back down to Triple-A Tacoma and Vargas will probably find himself in a similar situation. However, the ability of these three young pitchers to keep the Mariners close in these games against the Red Sox have given General Manager Jack Zduriencik some options to pursue regarding trades regardless of where they lie in the standings. What does this mean? It means you can sure as hell guarantee come July, Jarrod Washburn will no longer be a member of the Seattle Mariners.

If Griffey wasn't Griffey...

If Griffey wasn't Griffey, how would we react to what he has done in the first 35 games? What we have, name or not, is a player who is hitting .212/.343/.365 with 3 hrs and 7 RBIs. To top it off, we are asking this player to be our DH against right handed pitchers. Take the name and fanfare out of this equation, and he isn't much different the Vidro at this point. Granted, he still has much more power potential then Vidro did, but if you look at what he has done so far, it seems to be his name that is bringing him along, not his bat.

Take for example the Texas game on Wednesday, when he was up with runners on third and first with one out, against a left handed pitcher. There is absolutely no reason why he should have had a bat in his hand with the right handed Mike Sweeney sitting on the bench. If Griffey wasn't Griffey, he would have been pinch hit for in that situation. What happened? Griffey ended up hitting into a rally killing 1-6-3 double play. I don't know if I can necessarily blame Wak, he didn't want to take out one of the best hitters of all time in a key RBI situation. Fair enough. But if Griffey wasn't Griffey, Wak pulls the trigger and puts in Sweeney.

I'm not here to smear the greatest Mariner of all time though. If Ichiro wasn't Ichiro, wouldn't he be hitting in the third hole instead of lead off? He doesn't walk (so he really shouldn't lead off), he gets hits consistently, and more often then not, hits well with runners in scoring position. The only problem is, he doesn't feel like he is anything but a leadoff hitter, and as a result, doesn't want to hit higher in the order. Apparently, what Ichiro wants, Ichiro gets. Just look how long he stayed in center field.

If Griffey wasn't Griffey, and Ichiro wasn't Ichiro, we could have a chance at having a much better, more sound line up. But instead we have a guy who gets 200 hits a year and doesn't walk, leading off, and a DH who hits third and probably won't get much higher then 20 hrs for the whole year. The fact is, they are who they are, and that alone puts butts in the seats. I think the main question is, if we keep free falling like we are, will that be enough come August?

Hmm...

What in the hell happened to Brandon Morrow?

Vargas impresses; Defense does not

Same shit story, different day, right? It's starting to become really frustrating to watch the 2009 Mariners turn close games into blow outs! It happened again last night with Jason Vargas pitching a solid 5 innings, giving up 5 hits, 1 run (on the Chris Davis homer), 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. Not too shabby for your first major league start in 2 years and frankly he exceeded all of my expectations against a dangerous Texas lineup.

I'm going to beat this defense topic into the ground yet again. Our outfield defense is amazing, our middle infield however, has become a liability. In the 7th inning of last night's game Yuni again botched another play up the middle on a ball hit by Andruw Jones. The play should have been made and the only reason he wasn't charged with an error on his off-target throw was the fact the Rangers were the home team and the bookkeeper wanted to boost Jones' average.

Let's take a look at the UZR of our two middle infielders Betancourt and Lopez courtesy of fangraphs.com. Remember, UZR is a way to measure how many runs a player contributes or gives up based on the balls they either reach or fail to get to compared to the rest of the players at that position.

Let's start with Yuni. Our shortstop has cost the Mariners -6.4 runs per game based on his defense. Shortstop, arguably the most important defensive position is not a place to be giving up 6.4 runs in 32 games. It may be time to see what Ronny Cedeno can do in the 6-hole.

Lopez, although playing not as poorly as Betancourt, has a UZR of -1.5 based on his defense. And the argument for Lopez was that he more than makes up for his lack of defense or focus with his bat. Well, looking at Jose's offensive stats you'll see he's hitting .248/.289/.360. That's a .248 average, .289 on-base percentage and a .360 slugging percentage. Not exactly setting the world on fire.

Back to defense, this means between our two starting middle infielders they have given up nearly 8 runs! It is absolutely inexcusable for a pair of professional middle infielders to give up a combined 8 runs. So, it's little wonder why when horrible defense up the middle is paired with a flailing offense we can't pull out wins in close games, or prevent close games to becoming blow-outs.

This problem has been occurring for the last three years and it's time to be addressed. How Zduriencik and Wakamatsu take care of this situation however is rather limited. You can't bench both players because the only utility infielder on the team is Cedeno. And you can't trade both of them, so the question remains, If you had to choose between keeping Yuni or Lopez, who would you keep?

Griffey should hit with the pink bat every day

Sorry I'm a little late on this one, had to catch up on some sleep yesterday. But, after a double, a two-run home run and a Mariners win, Griffey should swing the pink stick every game.

The Bush Leagues Blogcast, Episode 3

Hey Everyone, we threw together episode 3 just before we hop on a plane to Vegas!! Check it out and enjoy!!!

Episode 3

Lookin in the rear-view mirror

Don't look now, but at this time tomorrow the M's could be in second place in the AL West. After taking 2-of-3 from Oakland in what could be described as some of the best baseball this season, the M's faltered in the Texas series as they were swept. But trust me, it gets better! The Rangers are sitting half a game back from the M's in the AL West standings! Thank God this was only a two game series, I would hate to have to send Silva out there to face this Rangers lineup.

Even worse, the Angels are hanging around, sitting only 2 games back of the AL West leading M's. Let's look at the upcoming series for each teams.

The Mariners travel to Kansas City in a showdown of the AL Central leaders and AL West leaders. Ok, seriously...KC and Seattle are leading their divisions?!? Anyone out there who tells me they saw this coming back in February, I'll say you're full of shit. But still, the M's are playing against a hot KC team right now. And what does KC get? Silva and Washburn paired with a very dinged up bullpen and a lack of offense. I'm sorry M's fans, but I'll be happy coming away from this series with a split. What's even worse is I'm sure Willie Bloomquist will find some way to be productive. My [very optimistic] prediction: Split series.

Second place Texas battles the AL West cellar dwellers, the Oakland A's. Oakland just suffered a sweep of their own at the hands of the LA of A Angels while Texas comes to town boasting a 4-game winning streak. Texas absolutely smashes the ball and Oakland will be sending a couple youngsters to the mound in Dan Giese and Trevor Cahill. Oakland picked Giese up off waivers from the Yankees and he has had control problems in his previous starts. Cahill has looked impressive against the M's but has yet to record his first big league win. Texas will counter with Scott Feldman and Brandon McCarthy who, like every other Rangers pitcher, give up runs by the handful. But still, Oakland is in a rut and Texas swings the hot stick. My prediction: Texas sweeps Oakland 2-0.

The Angels have suddenly found themselves back in the picture for leading the AL West. They are only two games behind division leader, Seattle. Not to mention they are doing it without the likes of John Lackey, Ervin Santana and Vladimir Guerrero, all of which are scheduled to return shortly. Unfortunately, for LA fans, the Angels run into the AL East leading Toronto Blue Jays and quite possibly the best pitcher in baseball, Roy Halladay. I can't bet against Roy Halladay, the guy can single handedly win games just by throwing the ball. But game 2 looks to be in the Angels' favor. My prediction: Split series

So if the games go the way I predict. Going into the weekend you will see the Texas Rangers leading the division with the Mariners .5 games behind and the Angels 2.5 games back of the Rangers. The M's had a fantastic start to the season, but they're losing their momentum and it may soon be too late for them to get it back. This is a very important week of baseball for M's fans.

5 hours later...

The Mariners just won another series today, but it took 5 hrs and 5 mins to wrap up the rubber match with the A's. Today was an amazing game, with the A's taking the lead, the Mariners tieing it up, and so on for 15 innings! A couple of things I want to address about today's win.

Testicular Fortitude.

This team continues to show the ability to come from behind, something we haven't seen in Seattle for a while. They were down by two in the bottom of the nineth today, and Kenji Johjima stepped up and hit his 1st HR of the year, tieing it up and sending the game into extra innings. In the top of the 13th, the A's took a 3 run lead after Batista faltered. But in the next half inning, the M's battled back to tie game, and eventually, won it in the bottom of the 15th.

Jose "Mr. Clutch" Lopez.

For the second time in three days, Jose Lopez ends up winning the game with a basehit. On Friday, it was a 15 pitch at bat that was one of the craziest things I have ever seen. Battling off questionable pitch after pitch, he literally just outlasted Oakland's Russ Springer, sending a liner into right field, and the M's to victory. Today, with the bases loaded, he parachuted one in front of the left fielder to lock up the win. Lopez is having a great season, leading the team in RBI's with 17, and proving he is a guy you want up in a clutch situation.

Bullpen comes through, one more time.

The bullpen really came through today, keeping the A's in check after Jak left after 4.1 innings, holding Oakland scoreless from the 6th on in to the 13th inning, before Batista gave up 3. Justin Vargas, who we got in the trade for JJ Putz during the winter, then came in and shut the A's down and ended up getting his first win as a Mariner. He looked extremely impressive with a low 90's fastball and a decent breaking ball. Just another example as to why I think this team is going to be dangerous if they get a shot at post season play down the road.

Wins like today and Friday are what we as M's fans have been waiting for. These are the games that we are talking about when we say, win or lose, this team will be exciting to watch. They have the talent and moxy to come from behind, and the more times they do it, the more confidence they will gain. Great to see us put some distance between us and AL West.

Go M's

Nick

Will baseball recover?

*Please note, I wrote this blog post on February 10th for a public relations blog about how baseball needs to improve its image following A-Rod's steroid scandal. The only reason I have not shared it with anyone was because it was outdated and irrelevant. Because of the news that Mr. Alex Rodriguez may have been taking steroids as early as high school, it makes this story relevant again.

Thank you for the relevance, A-Rod!

***

These are dark times for America's past time. Clouded by scandal, baseball has fought to clear its name of alleged steroid use by some of recent times' greatest players: Bonds, McGwire, Sosa and now...Alex Rodriguez. Once pegged as the savior for Major League Baseball, A-Rod was supposed to pull his sport back to prominence as the premiere "clean" player. He was supposed to break the all-time home run record currently held by Barry Bonds without the aid of performance enhancing drugs.

That hope is now gone. With Alex Rodriquez admitting yesterday that he used performance enhancing drugs from 2001 - 2003 while with the Texas Rangers. The Seattle sports fan in me instantly thought, "Phew, at least he was out of Seattle during those times." But really this issue is bigger than local sports. Major League Baseball has a huge mess on their hands. Athletes are paid hundreds of millions of dollars to put up huge power numbers and many believe steroids are the answer or quick fix to produce.

How can baseball fix this? There is little doubt the sport has damaged its image from the steroid era. Is there any way for MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to save his sport in the eyes of the public?

If you look back at history there have been scandals in major sports before: The 1919 Black Sox throwing the World Series, Pete Rose's gambling, NBA official Tim Donaghy's gambling and several Olympic and Tour de France dopers. In each instance, the respective sport had to make an example of those caught. The Black Sox and Pete Rose were banned from baseball for life, Tim Donaghy fired, and Olympic medalist's were stripped of their medals.

Why hasn't this happened during the steroids era?

Baseball needs to make a statement that cheating will not be tolerated. They need to make a sacrifice to save their sport. Granted, Alex Rodriguez used these steroids when there was no official policy on banned substances and I'm not saying an example needs to be made of him, but what he did was still cheating. Bud Selig needs to bite the bullet on this one. Records need to be pulled from any player involved in steroids and subsequently banned from the sport. Harsh...maybe, necessary...yes.