Mariners Social Media Night at Safeco

Tonight the Mariners Marketing Department hosted their first-ever Social Networking Happy Hour. Fans who signed up ahead of time were able to listen to a panel discussion from some of the area's leading Twitter users. Among the panelists were Mike Salk from ESPN Radio, Jenni Hogan from KIRO 7 and Mariners Twitter user Ryan Rowland-Smith. It was a really cool idea and it was a privelege for me to be there representing both The Bush Leagues and my company. I even got to bring home a Ryan Rowland-Smith "I follow hyphen18" t-shirt. Don't believe me? Look at the picture below.

With admission to the panel came a ticket to tonight's game. I was more than impressed with Doug Fister. He had his pitches working for him as he threw a 1-hit shutout with 4 Ks. Fister is the definition of a pitch-to-contact pitcher and he was able to locate his pitches very well. The trick here will be his next start when a team has a chance to look at tonight's game and do their homework.

Here are my thoughts from the game:

1) Miguel Batista is done. The guy threw twice as many balls as he did strikes and walked three batters. He was the beneficiary of a Jack Wilson double-play but without that he wouldn't have gotten a single batter out. The guy looks like he has no confidence on the mound to where he can throw a strike and I've lost all confidence in him to be able to hold a lead.

2) Jack Wilson has OCD. I noticed this during Friday's game and spent a good 20 minutes watching it. After ever pitch Jack Wilson walks behind the pitcher toward second base. Of course the meaning of this is for him to back up the throw in case it gets back to the pitcher but in addition Jack will take off his glove, hold it in his throwing hand and smooth out the dirt with his foot. He does it after every pitch, and he smooths out the same exact spot or at least very close to the same exact spot. Next time you go to a game look for it. I was pretty entertained and watched that more than I watched the action at the plate. If that's not enough for you, Garbs pointed out on Sunday that after the grounds crew drags the infield he'll walk over to the second dark green spot in the outfield and draw an "X" with his cleats. It's much like he just has a routine but comes off as OCD.

3) David Aardsma flirts with disaster nearly every game. I tell Garbs all the time that Aardsma is good for one walk, a LONG fly ball out and two strike outs in save situations. Tonight, unfortunately he didn't get some of the strike calls to get him the two strike outs needed after he gave up a deep fly ball to Konerko hauled in at the wall by Gutierrez. Unfortunately, this is Aardsma's make-up and as good as he's been this year he has benefitted tremendously from pitching in cavernous Safeco Field and having a great outfield defense behind him. If Aardsma is going to be a shut down closer he'll need to improve his command, limit the walks and keep the ball down.

Oh yeah...one more thing. Ozzie Guillen is full of s***. Over the weekend such a big deal was made about Guillen's comment that he'll bean an opposing batter for every time one of his are plunked. Well, tonight Gordon Beckham was hit by a pitch and there was nothing from the White Sox. Granted, it was Doug Fister's first start and that may have been cause for hitting Beckham. But I'd be lying if I didn't say I was expecting some fireworks at Safeco similar to the Red Sox/Tigers brawl.

Also, speaking of that brawl...did everybody see Rick Porcello pancake Kevin Youkilis? I haven't seen a throw like that since high school wrestling. Not to mention it was very fitting after Youkilis threw his helmet at Porcello. I remember last year when Richie Sexson took a lot of heat for doing the same thing against the Texas Rangers. Let's see if anyone says anything about Youkilis and whether he acted like a coward using the helmet as a weapon. But what do you guys think? Are you ok with hitters throwing helmets at pitchers after getting hit?