post about baseball.
it's been difficult to discern what the best story of the baseball season has been, but i settled on this: the seattle mariners.
for starters, the mariners are in the wild card lead against the yankees, which is remarkable in and of itself. who knows whether it will last: the yankees still have the proverbial "murderers' row," which, in case anyone is checking, is alive and well. abreu is hitting well, matsui is dangerous, and the left side of the infield is scary good. a-rod is the clear mvp: it's not even close. for argument's sake, you might have ichiro, which is part of the reason why the mariners are the best story, but it's really so much more than that.
for many, the story starts with hargrove and jose vidro, but for me, the story starts with adrian beltre, a man renewed. consider his 2005 and 2006 campaigns- each year found adrian starting horribly, and heating up toward the end of the year to make his seasons only considered disappointing, rather than abominations. you have to understand this from seattle's persepctive: beltre was their ticket to the top, the power hitter that would give them the kwan. that's why he got over $1o mil. a year, and that's why they struggled.
but this year has been a little different. for one, beltre has exceeded his 2005 power numbers already, and is on target to have the most RBI's that he has ever had in seattle. that's a start. he's 10th in the AL in extra base hits and 8th in doubles, which is some indication that his power is back. and he's not alone in his resurgence. there's a wonderful article on espn.com about the resurgence of vidro, and when you throw in jose guillen's return to his "renaissance man" form that he demonstrated with both the reds and the angels, it's little wonder that the m's have legitimate hitting, which was their first step back to prominence.
of course, we thought king felix would do roughly what he has done, but nobody knew that miguel batista had this kind of year left, and we certainly didn't know that putz was the best closer in the AL.
now, what makes the mariners the best story of the year is the fact that all the pieces seem to have actually fit together. let's be realistic: this was quite unexpected. jose guillen at $5.5 mil seemed to be a ridiculous move pre-season. so did the trade for vidro. and we all thought beltre was done.
what has been difficult to watch, to be sure, is the deterioration of richie sexson. we never probably realized how all-or-nothing he was until this year, but he is who he is, and that's not necessarily a bad thing for the mariners, like it might be for some other teams. i say this for two reasons: one is that sexson is a decent clubhouse guy, which helps when you have volatile commodities (like guillen) and players who don't speak english (johjima/ichiro), and the other is that his random outbursts of power are actually useful for a team that has difficulty scoring runs. plus, it could be that this year is an outlier.
but i didn't come here to give you a biography of the team.
the mariners are a perfect example of a few successful things, which i think are vital to the revitalization of baseball. so i'll use this as a way to describe those things, and hopefully we'll be able to unpack (together) why the mariners are the best story of the year.
first, we must start with the finding that signing mid-level free agents can work. this is important because it suddenly puts all the mid-market teams back into play. you don't have to sign curt schilling: jarrod washburn might be ok. you can fill a hole with jose guillen, and signing beltre over a-rod might work alright in some sense. and this is critical, because it keeps the world series from being the boston/new york invitational.
another finding is that patience with the youngsters might work. and it's also ok to have a few yuck years. i say that with the knowledge that mariner fans didn't arbitrarily ditch the club; that putz (and, to some extent, king felix) took time to develop, as did "token all-star" jose lopez. and betancourt and balentein are coming, which is why it is so fortunate that the mariners did not sell the farm, as the yankees have done so many times in the past.
back to the mid-level free agents idea: note that this worked last year for the cardinals with juan encarnacion and ronnie belliard, that it worked reasonably well for the white sox in '05 with carl everett, and that it is also working with the padres AS WE SPEAK.
now to the link: why does this revitalize baseball? i already described the postseason ramifications, but the upshot really is that almost all 30 teams could compete, which is something that hasn't been the case in many years. and that's worth crowing about. that's why the astros fired phil garner, which is something i've been screaming about for years, as seen here. they realized that, hey, they can get to the postseason, and once they get there, anything can happen, as evidenced by most of our ws champs over the past decade. and that's reality.
for starters, the mariners are in the wild card lead against the yankees, which is remarkable in and of itself. who knows whether it will last: the yankees still have the proverbial "murderers' row," which, in case anyone is checking, is alive and well. abreu is hitting well, matsui is dangerous, and the left side of the infield is scary good. a-rod is the clear mvp: it's not even close. for argument's sake, you might have ichiro, which is part of the reason why the mariners are the best story, but it's really so much more than that.
for many, the story starts with hargrove and jose vidro, but for me, the story starts with adrian beltre, a man renewed. consider his 2005 and 2006 campaigns- each year found adrian starting horribly, and heating up toward the end of the year to make his seasons only considered disappointing, rather than abominations. you have to understand this from seattle's persepctive: beltre was their ticket to the top, the power hitter that would give them the kwan. that's why he got over $1o mil. a year, and that's why they struggled.
but this year has been a little different. for one, beltre has exceeded his 2005 power numbers already, and is on target to have the most RBI's that he has ever had in seattle. that's a start. he's 10th in the AL in extra base hits and 8th in doubles, which is some indication that his power is back. and he's not alone in his resurgence. there's a wonderful article on espn.com about the resurgence of vidro, and when you throw in jose guillen's return to his "renaissance man" form that he demonstrated with both the reds and the angels, it's little wonder that the m's have legitimate hitting, which was their first step back to prominence.
of course, we thought king felix would do roughly what he has done, but nobody knew that miguel batista had this kind of year left, and we certainly didn't know that putz was the best closer in the AL.
now, what makes the mariners the best story of the year is the fact that all the pieces seem to have actually fit together. let's be realistic: this was quite unexpected. jose guillen at $5.5 mil seemed to be a ridiculous move pre-season. so did the trade for vidro. and we all thought beltre was done.
what has been difficult to watch, to be sure, is the deterioration of richie sexson. we never probably realized how all-or-nothing he was until this year, but he is who he is, and that's not necessarily a bad thing for the mariners, like it might be for some other teams. i say this for two reasons: one is that sexson is a decent clubhouse guy, which helps when you have volatile commodities (like guillen) and players who don't speak english (johjima/ichiro), and the other is that his random outbursts of power are actually useful for a team that has difficulty scoring runs. plus, it could be that this year is an outlier.
but i didn't come here to give you a biography of the team.
the mariners are a perfect example of a few successful things, which i think are vital to the revitalization of baseball. so i'll use this as a way to describe those things, and hopefully we'll be able to unpack (together) why the mariners are the best story of the year.
first, we must start with the finding that signing mid-level free agents can work. this is important because it suddenly puts all the mid-market teams back into play. you don't have to sign curt schilling: jarrod washburn might be ok. you can fill a hole with jose guillen, and signing beltre over a-rod might work alright in some sense. and this is critical, because it keeps the world series from being the boston/new york invitational.
another finding is that patience with the youngsters might work. and it's also ok to have a few yuck years. i say that with the knowledge that mariner fans didn't arbitrarily ditch the club; that putz (and, to some extent, king felix) took time to develop, as did "token all-star" jose lopez. and betancourt and balentein are coming, which is why it is so fortunate that the mariners did not sell the farm, as the yankees have done so many times in the past.
back to the mid-level free agents idea: note that this worked last year for the cardinals with juan encarnacion and ronnie belliard, that it worked reasonably well for the white sox in '05 with carl everett, and that it is also working with the padres AS WE SPEAK.
now to the link: why does this revitalize baseball? i already described the postseason ramifications, but the upshot really is that almost all 30 teams could compete, which is something that hasn't been the case in many years. and that's worth crowing about. that's why the astros fired phil garner, which is something i've been screaming about for years, as seen here. they realized that, hey, they can get to the postseason, and once they get there, anything can happen, as evidenced by most of our ws champs over the past decade. and that's reality.
posted by mike at 12:41 PM
5 Comments:
"a-rod is the clear mvp: it's not even close"
I disagree. Magglio Ordonez is batting .359 to A-rod's .305, has driven in just 7 fewer runs, has just 2 fewer extra base hits, and has a higher on base %. Ordonez has hit .404 with 9 homers and 28 rbi in the month of August (August and Sept. production are supposedly more weighted in MVP voting right?) in comparison to A-rods .333, 8 and 20. It will probably come down to whose team makes the playoffs. If neither team does (which very well could be the case) then I think the edge should go to Mag's.
a-rod
mags
ichiro
If the Yankees and Tigers both miss the playoffs... A-rod. But it's kind of-ish close.
i gotta be honest, i didn't look at ordonez's stats at all when i wrote this, and i am amazed.
still, a-rod has the edge in rbi, ops, slugging, and is way ahead on hr's and runs. plus, i think he's got kind of a wave of public opinion on his side, which is why i had him as my "clear mvp."
but i will remove the "clear" from the phrase now, because i was unaware that ordonez was hitting .359. wow! i think i am too busy having a "man-crush" on that fabulous tigers cf, curtis granderson. his stats this year are ridiculous.
now, here is an interesting thought: why is a-rod not being intentionally walked more?
That is an interesting thought. I don't really have an answer for that one other than with the Yankees you gotta pitch to somebody.
My case for Mag's focuses mainly on his production in the month of August, which has been unreal. If he manages to end the season batting over .350 and drives in 140+ runs like he is on pace to then I don't see how he isn't right there with A-rod. It probably does come down to which team makes the playoffs. Personally, I'm rooting for Ordonez because I'm not much of an A-rod fan.
Granderson has been tremendous. He hit his 18th homer today to go along with his 34 doubles and 21 triples. Granderson, Grady Sizemore and Ichiro are probably my favorite players to watch in MLB.
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