Well, Kansas City might be a bottom-dwelling team, but even the worst teams in baseball win about 40 percent of the time, so tonight’s loss to the Royals isn’t the end of the world. Hmmm, note that Milton’s mysterious calf injury cleared up right after leaving the Chicago area. USS Mariner claims that “When Milton Bradley isn’t in the line-up, this offense stinks” but he was back tonight, so perhaps this offense just stinks. USS Mariner has some harsh words, so go there. I like to spread sweetness and light . . .

Meanwhile, Carlos Silva had a rough outing as he gives up 7 hits and 3 ER in 7 innings, getting a no-decision v. the Nationals. I was at the game, and a howling wind blowing in from the north/northeast (over the left field wall) made for a lot of interesting defense, as pop flies at the top of their arc just stopped dead and then sometimes went backwards. But the wind didn’t save Silva from the barrage of homers that Fnarf predicts for him, as only 5 of his 21 outs were fly balls to outfielders (though one or two caught by the shortstop might’ve been to left field were it not for the wind). In fact, had Geovany Soto not run into a 9-2 double play in the second, Silva mighta gotten the win. Woulda coulda shoulda mighta—didn’t.

Tomorrow, I hope to Liveslog the last few innings of the Mariners-Royals, depending on when I get out of a seminar at the Chicago History Museum. Meanwhile, on This Date in Baseball History:

1959 Yomiuri Giant Sadaharu Oh hits the first of his homers in Japan.

He would eventually hit 868, making him the true home run king of professional baseball. His autobiography, A Zen Way of Baseball, is a great baseball autobiography. Admittedly, that’s a shitty genre, but still. His achievements helped legitimize the Japanese professional game in the eyes of parochial Americans, eventually leading to more player exchange between the two great baseball nations, and I hope that the day Ichiro is inducted into Cooperstown, Oh is in the audience. Or already in the Hall himself.

14 replies on “M’s, current and former”

  1. I’m just glad Felix signed that contract extension. With a little bit of run support the guy could be 5-0 instead of 2-1. 15 win pitchers do not win Cy Young Awards.

  2. @ 1, how many wins did Greinke get last year?

    If a pitcher’s awesome but on a lousy team that gives him no run support, he can win a Cy Young.

  4. @2: Actually Tim Lincecum won it with 15 last year, so I’ve proven myself incorrect. Anyhow, it’s probably pretty frustrating to keep chalking up those no-decisions and 2 ER losses.

  5. Holy crap, I had forgotten that. I knew Greinke (16 W) was well below 20, but thought Lincecum was closer to it. (Nobody in either league won 20 games last year.)

  6. With each post I become more convinced that Chicago Fan is editor Dan Savage’s torturous pay back for some wrong done him by a Mariner’s fan or general sports lover in the far off past. And we all have to suffer for it.

  7. Amusing baseball trivia: The Taiwanese consider Sadaharu Oh a native son (the character for “Oh” is the most common Chinese surname, “Wang”). Oh was born in Japan but his Dad was Taiwanese, I think, or maybe he was just living in Taiwan during the Japanese occupation of the island. In any case, Oh speaks the Taiwanese dialect of Chinese.

  8. Yeah, not only are nerds coming up w/ all those goofy new advanced stats & non-win dependent metrics for evaluating pitchers, but the whole obsession w/ pitch counts is causing managers to pull them out of games earlier, and with way more no-decisions. I could see Grienke or someone else playing for a crappy team winning the Cy w/ 10 or 12 wins. Though your point about Felix’s likely frustrations are still entirely valid.

    And I’m still pretty annoyed by so many folks who are ready to panic barely 1/8 of the way through the season. Yeah, it’s a (very) weak hitting team, but come Friday that’s gonna be a pretty amazing 1-2 punch at the front of the rotation. And count me amongst the (delirious? irrational? insane? I’ll go with…) optimistic folks who think Bedard could still be an absolute force on a playoff competitor. If that guy (and Lee) were to really make good on all their potential, that could be among the great rotations in the modern era.

    Look fwd to the slog tomorrow….

  9. @8 – I agree. If Bedard can make it through a season without his arm falling off, he could be a #1 starter somewhere. Which potentially gives the M’s a lethal 1-2-3 punch.

    While the M’s aren’t a power hitting team, I don’t think they are a weak hitting team. The averages will come around. Figgins is hitting .179, Lopez .238, Bradley .174 … all well below their career averages. That will pick up, and they will start winning some 1-run games instead of losing them.

  11. One piece of history: Sadaharu Oh’s record would have been beaten by American players if Japanese pitchers had not deliberately walked them on THREE occasions: Randy Bass in 1985, “Tuffy” Rhodes in 2001 and Alex Cabrera in 2002.

    Part of the great tradition of racism in Japan where foreigners are never allowed to beat Japanese. Helps explain while Japan produces a few good individual players, their teams suck.

    Oh’s record on ESPN is listed as #2 on its list of “The Phoniest Records in Sports.”

    Suggested reading: “You’ve Gotta Have Wa”.

  14. Silva had a “rough outing?” Three earned runs in seven innings qualifies as a quality start, and he only walked one batter. Talk about spin…

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