Hot, Hot, Hot!
I dunno about your house, but it's really hot in mine! I just walked past the thermostat, and the temp inside my house is 92 degrees. It's at least that hot outside, but there's somewhat of a breeze going. Even though the ratio's pretty much the same, I'll have to start opening the windows pretty darn soon. As soon as that gaseous orb that we never get to see in Western Washington hides behind the row of cedar trees along my back fence, those windows are flyin' open!
After a pretty intense game of back-and-forth, the M's ultimately won the battle. The curse of the Slocumb trade still haunts us, but that curse was neutralized by another reliever the M's sacrificed a bit of the future for. Since the only bullpen arm I would've considered trading for just landed in San Diego, I don't really want to see the M's go after another one. Ridding ourselves of Julio Mateo when Sean Green decides that he's healthy would be just fine by me. Man, wouldn't it be nice if we could sucker some team out of their Varitek/Lowe for our Slocumb! Hello Jim Bowden -- er, wait. He already made one of those deals, and, well, let's just say he wasn't on the receiving end of the Slocumb this time.
On that note, the M's are hot, hot, hot!!! They took a series from the AL-East leading Red Sox. They were a Mike Reilly blown call away from taking one from the second-place Yankees. They hung in there vs. the Blue Jays. With barely a week to go before the first trading deadline, the M's are still in the race. Yes, they have to leapfrog 3 other teams. But, really, none of those teams has decided to go for the gusto yet. The Angels are probably the most primed -- with the best set of pitchers, arguably, and some decent offensive reinforcements thrown in with the deepest pool of talent in their farm system, should they decide to make a run on one of the more available bats. But they lost two out of four (almost a third) to Kansas City. Yes. Kansas City.
It's nice to have some more momentum, going into another series with the Blue Jays. Park Factors should control Glaus. The inside-the-park HR should pump up Beltre's confidence. It'll be an interesting pitching matchup, with Halliday vs. Meche. The Baseball gods owe Meche for the debacle last week in Yankee Stadium. That it'll probably land on Pineiro's shoulders shouldn't surprise us, but still.
Let's hope the weather cools off 'round here, but that the M's don't. It's time to take the division! The M's can do it, and they should focus on doing it. Rebuild, schmeebuild. I'm sick of losing! Let's leave these foes in the dust!!!!
posted by PositivePaul @ 6:59 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I have to join in with the positivity here. Today's news about Carl being DFAed is mildly sad but largely a good thing IMHO. Sad that he is an older player winding down his career, and that he came to Seattle and participated in what was apparently a pretty good frame of mind, that is, no explosions, a minimum of distractions. But now... maybe Snelling can have a lengthy-enough audition for the organization to determine whether he is someone who can be useful in future successes!
Here in La Grande, OR it has been around 100 for the last five days, and our lawn is turning a nice shade of crispy. That's what it usually does here about this time of year, so we just stay indoors. At least it's a dry kind of heat...
I continue to hope the Mariners will make moves of the kind they made today with Everett. If there was a way we could somehow snooker another team into giving us an effective starting pitcher without us having to get rid of too much of our future talent, I would go for that. But from what I see of the future... Lowe, Fruto, Woods, Green, Soriano, Putz, Betancourt, Lopez, Jones, Felix... I love it!!!
I wasn't surprised by Carl's performance on the field -- I thought he had a pretty good shot at hitting 20-25 HRs, and that would be about it. Maybe .250 if we were lucky.
Nor was I surprised that Carl Everett wasn't a distraction in the clubhouse (save, perhaps, for the one event behind Hargrove's closed office door). He's actually been a decent teammate, and from everything I've heard, people liked him. I actually think he's a pretty funny guy.
I'm sure he'll catch on somewhere -- he just wasn't working out in Seattle. His career may very well be over, but he'll probably latch on as a bench bat somewhere (like he was in Chicago last season -- people tend to forget this).
Yeah, there's more moves coming. The M's are not done. They've got a good core to build on, really, and I think they've got a legitimate shot at taking the division title. I'm really glad they seem to think so, too.
I mostly trust Bavasi not to sell the farm to make a run at rent-a-players. He's very much thinking along the mid-term success mindframe.
It's a fun time to be an M's fan!
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