Ok, while waiting for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament to actually begin, a few quick words about former Mariners now playing in/for Chicago:
Carlos Silva gets lit up like a fucking Christmas tree, proving all the Cubs haters right in perpetuity.
JJ Putz worried about bouncing back from his shitty year with the Mets.
And to all you Slog commenters hating on the Cubs and wishing for more of a local angle: for the record, I love Ichiro and have said so many times; he should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. But maybe Slog can find a sportswriter-du-jour like the Slog Suggests gimmick.
As for Bradley: no hits and two walks so far. OBP: .400. SLG and BA: 000. Just like his IQ. Meanwhile, Ichiro has an identically disgraceful OBP and BA of .286, but he’s scored two runs and driven one more in and is slugging .571. And stolen a base. But, whatever. Bradley must be having a better spring, since he’s been on base more.
And just to beat the commenters to it: yes, it’s only Spring Training, which lies like a rug. It’s not a statistically meaningful sample size. The games are meaningless exhibitions, just about getting your stroke and getting into the groove for the season. But even early numbers provide patterns, and if Milton’s trying to get into a groove, that groove is the one on his shoulder where he rests his bat.
Why is the Stranger’s only recurring sports blogger a Chicago Cubs fan who doesn’t know anything about how to evaluate players?
Wouldn’t it be great if the Ricketts’ tore down that code violation of a stadium and built a new one in, say, Schaumburg at the intersection of 290/90? I think it would be fantastic.
ICHIRO-SAN ICHIBAN!!!!!
@ 1 Nepotism. And I work cheap.
@2 Anyone who doesn’t like Wrigley Field is an asshole.
I know i’m supposed to hate here but keep it up! I love it…more sports on SLOG…Go M’s!
You mention Milton Bradley but don’t mention Silva’s start the other day? Looked familiar to us … 2 innings, 6 runs, 7 hits. I’m glad we got rid of him, even if his replacement has had trouble before. I have a feeling Seattle fans won’t provoke Bradley as much. The only problem with getting rid of Silva is that there will now probably be more leftover food in the clubhouse after the game.
@3 Wrigley Field is a temple. We should be thankful it’s still there. I’ve only stood outside it, and I was in awe. Can’t wait to be back in Chicago someday to see a game. Just as Steve Goodman intended, in the outfield bleachers.
@1 – I’m happy to have anyone interested in baseball on Slog, even if it’s a Cubs fan. (He lives there, so it’s okay.)
Now I just need to find a bar that will show Ms games in April/May/June rather than the endless NBA playoffs. Are there any dedicated baseball bars in Seattle?
Nice sample size you’ve got there. You’re one of those guys who thinks spring results have value in deciding who makes the team and who doesn’t.
Mike Sweeney is the early favorite for AL MVP.
“Spring stats don’t matter, but have you looked at these spring stats??”
“But even early numbers provide patterns, and if Milton’s trying to get into a groove, that groove is the one on his shoulder where he rests his bat.”
Based on 3 at-bats. This is pure idiocy.
Really? If not liking falling concrete, entire corridors that smell like pee, drunk buffoons, and racist fans that threw peanuts at my friend when he was working there to the refrain of “down in front, nigger”, then break out the cottonelle.
Here are some more stats from Spring training.
Mike Sweeney: .857 AVG, 1.429 SLG
Tim Lincecum: 1IP, 2H, 3R, 2ER, 18.0 ERA
and perhaps, the worst baseball player of all from 2009:
Yuniesky Betancourt: .400 AVG, 1.000 SLG
I forgot that Bradley had an 11 pitch at bat before taking a walk from Lincecum, which in a world where most pitchers only throw 100 pitches per start, is an awesome AB.
These #’s are after 2 goddamn games. You’re like the asshole announcer who after a player gets a hit in their first at-bat of the season says the player will hit 1000 (and yes, I know the proper use of decimals, but that’s what they say).
Listen, we know you hate all things Milton Bradley, and that’s cool, but there’s no pattern here after 7AB’s. If I want to hear morons talking out of their ass, I’ll watch ESPN. Stick to writing about Critical Mass or write this article later in the season or after MB does something stupid.
CF is carrying on the rich cub fan tradition of spinning any information to mean a championship season, which is right up there with getting wasted at the dump and waiting for Jim Belushi to sing in the 7th inning stretch. BTW, you will be real familiar with the bottom of the 7th, that’s when you usually will be seeing your 2nd bullpen guy (Silva?).
ICHIRO!!!!
Ichiro’s Spring Training stats are particularly non-predictive of his seasonal success — it seems like this is the time of year he tinkers with his hitting mechanics for shits and giggles…
@ 5 I did too point out Silva’s suck.
@ all the rest of you: when I acknowledge small sample size, lack of meaningfulness, etc. I do mean it. Going on to beat a dead horse is often a form of Satire.
@11 Did your friend call security and get people thrown out? If not, why not? I’ve seen people tossed from the bleachers to the box seats for this kind of thing. Can you get some stats to back up your anecdotes?
And only the men’s rooms smell like pee. If you’re in a corridor that smells like pee, you’re trying to cut through a men’s room.
@8 That’s no worse than fnarf thinking Bedard would win a Cy Young after watching him make two starts. A real evaluator of talent, that guy.
Stats for anecdotes? Like a police report? Let me file my FOI request. Look, if you want to defend that shithole of a stadium, feel free, but if I want to see news about this team and its dipshit fans, I could go to bleed cubbie blue or some such, but I don’t b/c I hate the cubs and I hate wrigley. If Slog could get someone to report things about the Mariners (besides lesbians getting kicked out of safeco and stripo clubs) then I would read that post as well as the parenthesized ones. Your “local” interest in the M’s just seems to be concentrated on bashing Bradley, and then just devolves into routine cub fan chumpiness. I sat again, I wish that the the editors woud QUIT POLLUTING SLOG WITH KUB PROPAGANDA. I get enough of that here in Chi, I don’t need to see it when I want to read about Seattle. Jebus, I’m gonna have to filter you like I do Mudede.
ICHIRO!!!!!
@19 Here’s a report from Safeco. It’s old but it says a lot. 2001 Playoffs. Yankees are in town and I got tickets to the game. I think it was the third inning and your beloved Mariners were losing (shocking). The mariners had a pair of runners on and I stood up to cheer, like a fan in a normal world is expected to do. I was asked to sit down by someone behind me and finally an usher. Great fans. Really supportive. I haven’t been to a game since. Except back in 2002 when the Cubs came to town and swept your ass. Dump on Cubs fans all you like, but look at the pile of shit around you next time you waddle into Safeco field and think you’re a “fan”.
@ Zoroastronomer
I’m mostly writing about the Mariners here, and, AGAIN: No one on this planet loves Ichiro more than I do. I flew to Seattle the year Safeco opened just to see Ichiro, and made my brother pay scalper’s prices for tickets for the game. One year when he scored great tickets, I had a prof here teach me how to say “thank you for your great play, Ichiro, and may I have a ball for my nephew who worships the ground you walk on.” in Japanese (forgot it all due to nerves of actually being within two feet of the man).
Hate on the Cubs all you want. And go down to Pike Place Market, where I believe they have a store that sells brain implants that lets one get a fucking joke. Stats for anecdotal evidence? Duh.
Hey CF, I don’t know if your article was satire or serious, but it fails miserably either way. For your article and follow up comments I award you Stupid Fucking Credulous Sports Hack of the Day.
There is already a slog for the Mariners. It’s called USS Mariner. CF, you should try it, maybe you’ll learn something about baseball.