So, perhaps Milton Bradley’s tendency to get in trouble with the law is contagious, as MLB has suspended Mariners’ starter Cliff Lee for the first five games of the season for supposedly throwing at Chris Snyder’s head the other day.

This is, in a word, bullshit.

Spring training games are meaningless: no one throws at someone on purpose, even if they had a home plate collision beforehand. Lee needed to work on his control inside, and a ball got away from him. It happens. For the last ten or twelve years, the powers-that-be (ie, Selig and his Mopes) have changed what used to be a key part of the game, players policing dirty play, and turned it over to umpires and league disciplinarians. This has made the pitcher who throws inside a rarity, and Hall of Famers like Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale would spend most of the year suspended if they played under this regime. Nonstop Sports Talk Assholes fuel this fire, by making every bit of chin music into grand opera, which is one thing that makes Slog sports coverage seem such a fine oasis of reasonable conversation.

For the M’s It might not mean much in the big picture. Lee might be able to make up the missed start later, but it also means that in the race for the AL Cy Young, Felix Hernandez might have two wins before Lee has a chance for his first. This one-two combo of stud starters makes the Mariners a force to be cliched with this season.

Meanwhile, erstwhile Mariners’ starter Carlos Silva has had two no-run outings after a horrific first start. Theoretically, Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild has changed his motion, and now his Mom has a 10 year visa to come to the US from Venezuela, so he can stop pining for home cooking and fill out that skinny-ass frame of his. And JJ Putz is putting up good numbers for the White Sox as well.

Less than three weeks till Opening Day, when stats will count and arguments can begin in force. . . Oh, and Milton Bradley’s most vocal supporter, Texas Rangers Manager Ron Washington, tested positive for cocaine use. I suspected he might be on drugs whenever he talked about how great Milton was, but who knew they tested coaches?

15 replies on “Mariners, Current and Former”

  1. Lee is appealing the suspension, so it could well be reduced (or overturned I guess, though that seems less likely).

    Wow, Silva has completely changed his pitching from bad to good!!1!1 Man, I wish we’d kept him.

  2. This one-two combo of stud starters makes the Mariners a force to be cliched with this season.”

    “Cliched?” Is this your attempt at wry commentary on an oft-repeated observation about a team with one Cy Young Award winner and one runner-up? If so, you haven’t succeeded.

    As for one of the points of your post… I guess you missed where Tim Lincecum already threw a pitch at someone in revenge for something that happened last season. I forget who it was, but apparently the players think that Spring Training is just as good a time to play this part of the game as the regular season. So, unless you’ve seen film of the the incident and can point out where we can find it, I’d say you’re leaping to conclusions as to what Cliff Lee was up to.

  3. Barry Zito HIT Prince Fielder the other day and there hasn’t been a whisper of suspension for actual contact. WTF? This should get overturned…

  5. C’mon, Chicago, you’re slipping. How can you write a post like this without mentioning that Bradley got himself ejected for supposedly arguing Strike Three yesterday?

    Lee’s not dumb enough to throw at Snyder deliberately. Snyder’s a big martial arts fighter, MMA and a bunch of other stuff. He’s also a hit-by-pitch magnet who crowds the plate.

    None of this shit matters, though. The real games matter. Coming soon.

  6. Ha ha ha, I cracked up reading that article in the Sunday Times, with the quote from poor ol’ Lou in praise of Silva’s two great outings, something like (I’m slightly paraphrasing), “Carlos is all better now, and everything is wonderful, forever…”

    I immediately flash-forwarded to Lou chain-smoking his way through some epic pitching mound-shitting inning later this season. Man, I used to love Lou losing his mind around Jose Mesa’s efforts as a closer.

  7. Ha! With momma up here and cooking for him, Silva will be up to 500 lbs. by the All-Star break. Best of luck to him and all that.

  8. Hey, CF – I fully expected a commentary on Milton Bradley’s ejection for dropping his bat on a called strike-three. Where’s the hate?

    I’m still rooting for Silva. I felt pretty bad for him last year, what with all the work he had put in (and all the weight he’d lost) in that off-season. It’s not like he doesn’t care, after all. I’d be happy to see him have a good year, even if that makes the trade seem worse.

    On Cliff Lee – here’s the video of that pitch. His “you want a piece of me?” reaction to being charged by the batter certainly doesn’t help his case any. Still, USSMariner estimates each Lee start to be worth $700,000. So yes, they should fight it.

  11. Hey y’all

    I’m not getting into Milton’s ejections till they count. If his preseason batting/obp etc. don’t really count, then neither do his other characteristic behaviors.

  15. Hey CF – Don’t always agree with you (OPS is indeed key), but really glad you are here feeding the fire. Ever see “It Happens Every Spring”? – great corny baseball flick. Getting that distracted feeling washing over me these days… Might be from the tix to Cubs-Ms in Pheonix a week from Sunday! First time to the Cactus League – can’t wait. Hoping for a Bradley Bruhaha~ And one last great year for Jr.

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