Well, after sweeping the Royals and opening a 4 game lead over the A's, the M's head to Minneapolis to take on the Red-Hot Twins.

Old Man Jamie Moyer got his 8th! win last night.

For all of you fans in the Twin Cities, Gil Meche is sceduled to pitch tonight. Go & see this hot Cajun' stud! A Meche/Radke match-up for game 1...yummm.

The M's keep rolling along. They have taken the first two games from the Angels with two more to go. The M's finally broke out of their scoring slump by scoring 8 runs last night. Two home runs for Ichiro and a grand salami for Boonie, who's RBI total is now 59. I'm glad that Bionic Booty Boonie has rebounded from last year.

It's still early, but this team is really fun to watch. Awesome pitching, superb defense and watching Boone, Gar & Ichiro plays always makes me

Oakland is hanging in there at 7-1/2 games back but they still scare me and they have the ability to close the gap in the coming months.

Texas is a mess.

I still follow the Mariners regularly despite living in North Carolina now. Of course, there's really no one to root for here except Atlanta...so it was kind of nice to be able to rub it in some faces (even if it's just for now) that the M's took 2 of 3 from Atlanta in the recent interleague play.

Although, the M's really haven't busted through in terms of post-season success, I still feel they are improving every year. Who knows, maybe this year can be their year--and maybe an M's-Braves World Series. wink

Gil "The Thrill" Meche is a hottie. I love to watch him pitch.

Even though this isn't the Hot Jock Talk forum, I'll second that about Gil Meche being quite a hottie -- he's definitely a stud on the mound (in more ways than one). wink

Looks like Freddy Garcia has got his act together after a rocky start as he went 4-0 in the month of June. Last night, he was in control, except for that wobbly 7th inning. Bullpen has been lights out these past few weeks. Moyer goes this afternoon as the Mariners try to sweep the Halo's.

Oakland also won and is hanging in there. :mad:

After the Toronto/Boston collapse, the M's finally got their act together with a win last night. This suspense is killing me. I was really hoping for an A's lost, but damn it, they pulled out a win in the 12th. :mad:

This makes for good baseball, but white hairs & an upset stomach for the Duckboy.

Even after the A's loss of Mulder for the season, I still like their chances of outlasting Seattle, who will be playing last-man-standing with the Bosox ... I didn't realize til this week what a subpar season Olerud is having for the M's. (Not Pat Burrell Subpar, but still.)

Yes, it's a relief to see the M's win (even if it was only over the Devil Rays) after their longest losing streak of the season. Looks like they have a fairly soft schedule for the next few weeks, with series against Baltimore, Anaheim and Texas. But then six games against Oakland in late Sept.

All I can say is thank god August ends in 4 days. I think we "mariners" have been cursed during this month.... :mad:

I may need to fly down to New Orleans to get that SODO MOJO going again!!!!

Thank god the schedule lightens up a bit...

I heard that Lou Piniella just went off on his starting pitcher Victor Zambrano, who gave up the homerun to Carlos Guillen in the 5th inning of last nights game in Seattle. Is it true that he went out to the mound, got up in his face, and just started yelling at him like that. I feel bad for the guy, he had to be totally humiliated out there. I like Lou, but he could have handled it differently and shown a little more class!

Anaheim Angels, RIP.

I mean, sure, last year was a dream. But this year has been worse than most expected. Now, it's a question of "Will they finish in the cellar?". Big season-ending series with Texas at home to decide that thrilling question! Two things that really helped them last year--the starting pitching being solid and being injury-free with key players--have not been there this year. Erstad and Glaus were hurt most of the season; Eckstein, when not hurt, has been abysmal at the top of the order; Appier, Sele and Ortiz have been poor; Washburn might be toast due to hip injuries and so on.

Oh, well, we'll always have 2002.

And Jeff Davanon is way cute.

Mike T wrote:

Unlike Bob Melvin, I don't think Piniella knows the meaning of the word 'class'. But his Devil Rays beat the Mariners tonight, and now for the first time since mid-April, Seattle has dropped out of first place. Why now?! Let's hope this isn't going to be a replay of 2002.

Does anyone know what's up with Jeff Cirillo? He seems to have been in and out of the Mariners' line-up all season. I think he was injured at some point, then played in the recent series against Toronto, but now it looks like Carlos Guillen is back and has taken Cirillo's spot at third base. Only a handful of Mariners' games get televised here, despite Seattle being the nearest MLB city; it's always the Blue Jays and Expos that get the most media attention, so can someone fill me in?

[quote]Marc:
Mike T wrote:

[QUOTE] Does anyone know what's up with Jeff Cirillo? He seems to have been in and out of the Mariners' line-up all season. [/quote]He's been "injured" so he's been shipped around doing rehab. But considering his batting average, he's pretty much a non-entity even when he's in the line-up.

OK, I need to get this out:

Frickin' Frackin' Damnnit F***kin 2nd place. Frack! ACK! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr :mad: :mad: :mad:
Damn It Mariners. Get your heads out of your collective asses and start winning. This is Tampa Bay for chirssakes. Aaaaaaaaaargh. Only four days left in their dreadful month of August.

And to M's management for not doing anything to help the team. Repeat above rant. I mean, San Diego even made a deal. SAN DIEGO...and they're not even a contender. It's obvious that they need another bat. They had numerous opportunities last night, but left men stranded in scoring position. Must. Remain. Calm. Must. Remain. Calm. Bastards.

OK, I feel better now.

Maybe the M & M boys with flight privileges need to make that trip to New Orleans Pronto, and hit the voodoo shops, and get the Sodo Mojo back!

I was so upset last night from screaming at the TV I could hardly speak this morning. :mad:

Only 3 more days in August. Only 3 more days in August. Only 3 more days in August. My new mantra for the day!

M-Duck Boy- I do understand your anger. The Mariners are collapsing before our very eyes! eek!
Maybe I should go to the Coliseum and watch the A's play, because most games that I go to, the home team usually loses. and Oakland is overdue for a losing streak.
One good thing for the M's though, is that Mark Mulder maybe out for the season, and Halama could be the replacement starter. Not exactly comparable in my opinion. wink

Damn Damn Damn. Will the A's ever lose another game? Last year it was 20 in a row, this year, 10 and counting. The M's pull one out in the 11th to keep pace while the A's need 12 innings to get by the Orioles. Damn Damn Damn :mad:

Looks like it's a must win situation for the M's today! The D'Rays rookie pitcher shut down the M's offense yesterday by throwing a complete game 2 hitter.

If they lose today, I doubt they'll make it to the playoffs. A team that can't even win a series against the Rays, has no business being in the playoffs anyway.

Hey, the M's finally found a way to gain on the A's & BoSox...not play! Maybe if they take the next week off, they can back their way back into first!

This is getting serious. Maybe they need to get some kind of karma voodoo ritual thing going to get the hitting mojo back. Heck, I'd settle on just a mo! This hitting slump has been going on three weeks. If things go the way they have been going, tonight's game spells bad news for the Mighty Mariners...the guy thats on the mound tonight has an astronomical era...that means the M's will have trouble hitting him. Sheesh.

It seems that for the past couple of weeks when the A's win the M's win and when the A's lose the M's lose. Seems like it may happen again tonight. A's and M's both up 4-0. Still early though.

I am really having a difficult time keeping the faith on this team. They finally score some runs, and then their bullpen blows the lead. They are really testing me this year. :mad:

Someone please help me! Otherwise you may see me walking the plank along with the Survivor - Pearl Islands contestants!

All is calm. All is good. Everything will work out. There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place....

Once again, Franklin pitches a great game for the M's, only to have the bullpen lose a 4-1 lead in the 8th inning! Same old story, either the team can't score any runs, or the lead is given up in the late innings.

If Management continues to acquire below-average players, they'll never make it to a World Series. A's GM-Billy Beane works on a very small budget, and still puts together an excellent team by getting the right players who focus on winning! Greed is what keeps Gillick and the rest of Mariners' Management from making important trades. As long as Safeco has near sellout crowds every game, they probably don't even care if the team wins or loses, as long as the money keeps rolling in.

MDB, the M's are like The Gays on TAR4: bumble and stumble most of the way, but they'll let out the orgasmic screams of joy in the end. Though, of course, we might not see any M's tongue-wrestle like The Gays did on The Bathmat (but which CBS cut).

And, barring a major collapse--always a possibility with this team--the Angels will NOT do a penthouse-to-pavement thing this year. They've been playing OK with what is essentially a AAA team.

A season of lowered expectations for this Angels fan, that's for sure.

Everyone please remain calm. There are enough life jackets and life boats for everyone. We're going to ask women and children to board the boats first. Women and children first. We have it on good authority that the Goodship Seahawks will be sailing by and they will be able to accomodate everyone. There is no need to panic. I repeat, thre is no need to panic. Please remain calm. We will be back to you shortly.

As an extremely loyal fan I will go down with the ship, pointing my fingers at the M's management who once agai failed to make any decent trades back in July. I will wave at everyone on the Seahawks ship that picks everyone else up.

I am thinking it may come down to the games between the M's and the A's....

I really hope it comes down to the last series of the year. 3 games vs the A's at home, but it's going to take a lot before this can happen.
The way I see it, the M's must win at least two of the remaining three games against Texas and hopefully, the Angels can get off of their asses and beat the A's in the next two games. If this happens, the M's will be two - three back going into the weekend series against the A's. The M's really don't have much room for error. Boston has the easier schedule down the stretch since the M's are on the Road for 9 more games before finishing the year with three at home. This is an awesome time of year in baseball, but the losses just kill me!!! As much as it pains me, I am refusing to jump ship as a lot of my friends are doing.

I am with you I won't jump ship either. I am actually glad they are going on the road, they have a better record on the road than they do playing at Safeco....

I am just going to keep my :cool:

Hmmm...the phrase "with friends like these..." springs to mind, re: jumping ship. Of course, I'm overjoyed that all the bandwagon hoppers from last year are gone from The Ed; it's business as usual for getting tickets again. But the M's are in the thick of it, there's a lot of baseball to be played yet. That said, I sense that the M's are going to have to start thinking about rebuilding soon.

Obviously, the most important games left in the division are the 6 between the Angeles and Rangers, to determine who finishes in the cellar.

I hate to be a wet blanket (OK, I live for it), but Baseball Prospectus' daily Postseason Odds Report now puts Seattle's chances of making the p-s at a whopping 6.8%. (At least it dwarfs the Royals' 0.8%.) Start rebuilding now.

"A lot of baseball left" .. Jim, you make me larf!

[ September 17, 2003, 08:14 AM: Message edited by: Bill W ]

Ha! Well, having seen the Angels throw away an 11 game lead at the end of August in 1995, I think anything is possible. Not likely, just possible. Besides, the M's and A's have 6 games left together; to use another cliche, the M's destiny is in their own hands.

Seems the Angels are intent on signing Miguel Tjeda. Artie Moreno, the anti-Disney.

[ September 17, 2003, 07:30 PM: Message edited by: Jim Allen ]

Quote from Bill W

Well, I think the Mariners' chances of making the post-season have gone up a few percentage points with impressive back-to-back wins over Oakland. I wish I could have seen today's game; my guy Ichiro had three doubles and five RBIs. Also some drama at home plate when Ben Davis was given no room to slide and thus collided with Ramon Hernandez (in the photo I saw on the Mariners' page, it looked like Big Ben was beating the crap out of the A's catcher, although that wasn't the case).

I think there's hope yet for the Mariners, at least for a wild card spot, although they have their work cut out for them with four more games against Oakland.

Oakland leads 12-0 in the 7th, and Boston won. Doesn't look as promising as it did yesterday.

While half-watching the M's v. Angels game tonight, I noticed the M's third baseman scooping up a routine ground ball, then throwing the ball about 10 feet over Olerud's glove. The camera, of course, zoomed in on said third baseman and I was all "Woah!". Maybe he's a crap player, dunno, but Willie Bloomquist is gorgeous.

Easy win for the M's tonight, but time is running out for them.

The debate rages on whether Melvin should have pitched Moyer on Sunday against the A's on 4 days rest.

M's need to pick up at least one game on the A's by Thurday in order for them to have a chance at catching the A's. And I'm not sure if Boston is going to lose enough for the M's to make up 2-1/2 games. The goodship Mairner is still afloat, the band is still playing, but it's still taking on water.

Oakland clinched the AL West. Seattle's virtually eliminated in the wild card as well.

Yes, the end is near, unless Boston absolutely chokes. Interesting that all 3 teams came from behind to send their respective games into extra innings. The teams that "wanted" it pulled it out in the 10th. The other, didn't. That's been the M's story since August. :mad:

This is even more frustrating than last year because the M's could have made the playoffs, but Ownership chose to do nothing at the trading deadline. The players wanted it, the fans wanted it, but nothing happened...except trading away one of their leaders and spark plugs. Well, Nelly is going back to the playoff while the M's sit at home.

Next year should be very interesting. Stand Pat is probably gone as his contract expires this year. The M's have a lot of free agents so it should be a very interesting off season for them. They do ahve a good core of young pitchers, along with stud Jamie so the starting pitching staff should be in great shape.

Put a fork in the M's. Angels, behind John Lackey's complete-game shutout, won 4-0.

Now, on to more important matters: I'm going to assume the Rangers are going to lose today (they're trailing the A's in the 9th, 5-3) so, the Angels are guaranteed to NOT finish in last place.

Whew!

Let the bitter M's post-mortems begin!

I also saw this in today's paper; beware of the evil voice mail! Idiot! But, at least he's not whining about it.

[ September 24, 2003, 03:27 PM: Message edited by: Jim Allen ]

Both the AL West and Wild Card have been decided, and unfortunately the M's aren't part of the picture. Hopefully they'll rebuild their offense for next year with some homerun-power (something they've lacked throughout most of this season) and focus on acquiring only quality pitching, and maybe they'll make the playoffs in '04. (who knows?)

As far as this years playoffs, I'd like to see Oakland win it all. They have a lot of talent for such a low-budget team, and probably deserve a WS Championship more than anyone.

Bitter is an understatement. 2 years in a row. We have spent most of the season leading the AL west only to have no deals in July to bring fresh energy to the team to help us wrap up the season.

Maybe if we are lucky some season ticket holders wont renew and we (meaning my Mother inlaw) can get better seats....

I still love the team, it is just sad to see them fall apart so late in the season.

I will now get off my soapbox....

Mike

Hmmm. is Griffey coming back to Seattle?
There has been a murmur about this since around the trading deadline. Of course, nothing can be done until after the season, but it is still intriguing. Cameron is probably not coming back so the M's need a Center Fielder (unless Ichiro moves to Center).

Griffey left a voicemail to the Seattle Times regarding this rumor.
Seattle Times on Griffey.

[ October 02, 2003, 07:32 AM: Message edited by: Mariner Duck Boy ]

Hmmm...that is interesting. To say that Juniors time in Cinci has been a disaster is stating the obvious. He never should have left Seattle in the first place, really, but still. I hope he can get--and as the article points out--more importantly, stay healthy. Five years ago, I'd have said "He's the one with the best shot to break Hammerin' Hanks record". Now, no way.

But in any case, I want the teams in the Angels to get weaker, not stronger. I'd love it if the Halos got Miguel Tejeda.

No, they can't have him. I would love the M's to go after Tejeda...but then what would they do with Carlos Guillen? Move him to third?

Well, as the article linked above mentions, oh, about 30 times, there's tampering rules in place. So the Angels are being very cagey about Mr. Tejeda's future employment with them. But it seems that Miguel ran in to the Angels spiffy new owner, Artie Moreno, at some function and they couldn't just avoid talking to each other now, could they? I'm sure it was a discussion of the weather or something.

Other Angels needs:

* Health. They were f**ked this year by Glaus only playing 65 games, losing Sele for most of the year (he was a carryover from last year), Erstad's continuing trouble with hamstrings etc.

* A quality shortstop. See above.

* A quality stopper on the starting staff. Washburn, Ortiz and Lackey are good, solid 15 wins-a-year pitchers, but they need that Ace.

* A full-time first baseman. They're high on Robb Quinlan (cute) but he's struggled a bit and Brad Fulmer played well until he blew out his knee, but they seem to feel that a more permanent solution is needed.

* Figure out where to play everybody. Erstad is killing himself in center field, so they want to move him to first. Chone Figgins MUST play, but where? He's a 2B, but that position is filled by Adam Kennedy and David Eckstein has said he'd gladly accept a platoon position there if they get a quality SS. Figgins played CF most of the 2nd half and has said he'll play winter ball to further learn the position. Is Jeff Devanon good enough to replace Salmon in RF--he's certainly cute enough, but he faded badly towards the end of the season.

Questions, questions.

I'm listening to the A's/Sox game at the moment and right now it is 5-1 A's in the fourth.

Looks like Edgar signs a one year contract & will be back for another season with the M's!

Also, M's hire Paul Molitor, who has gorgeous eyes, as their hitting coach. Duckboy loves that hiring.

Cameron, Boone, Ichiro, Olerud all win Gold Glove awards. I doubt that Cameron will be back next year.

Also, King George denies the M's permission to speak with Brian Cashman. M's still looking for a replacement for Gillick.

Man, this is all getting me excited for next season!!!

You beat me to it!

I was stuck in a meeting, and couldn't post the fantastic news. I truly believe Edgar is the heart and soul of this team!

It definitely made my day!

Great to see that Edgar will be back for another year, I just hope that he makes it through the season without injuries.

Also, Molitor should be a nice addition to the coaching staff.

Oh dear. Talking about yourself in the third person? Jim Allen thinks that's a sign of craziness.

Um, so could we call the decision by King George to not let the M's talk to cutie Brian Cashman The Madness of King George? He's probably going to fire him anyway--someone has to take a hit for the last two seasons--so why wouldn't he?

There's been whispers that Griffey might go back to the M's. So, is this

1. Mere Internet rumor mongering and
2. Do they want him back (see: injuries)

[quote]Jim Allen
[QB] [QUOTE]Duckboy loves that hiring[/quote]Oh dear. Talking about yourself in the third person? Jim Allen thinks that's a sign of craziness.

I had a Seinfeld moment! Jimmy likes Elaine...

As for Griffey, I really don't want him back. We need someone who can play the entire season, not just one or two months.

Edgar is amazing. He called a press conference yesterday to announce his signing, and according to reports, he was late because, like typical Edgar, he was working out at the park! He then stayed and answered everyone's questions. I Love this guy!

M's have a new GM!

Mariners name Bavasi to replace Gillick as GM