SECTION 331

Pushing a Giant Baseball Up a Hill and Watching It Roll Back Down Since 2008

News of moves and today’s game

So information is coming in a little fast for me today: it was a long night last night, and I didn’t really get up until around the 2nd inning of today’s game. Last night’s game I didn’t watch all of due to socializing at our get-together, but I did catch the end of it and some bits in the middle. I was a little stunned by the win, frankly, but I’m also completely ok with that.

So as much as I wanted him to succeed here, it appears that Mike Morse has been sent to Washington DC. I’m glad I got to see him play one last time, even if it was at short, and even if it was awkward to watch. I don’t think that’s unjustified Morse love, I just liked the guy for reasons unknown. I haven’t read the article mentioned on Langerhans, but will try and get around to it eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later. All signs point to this move being more to our advantage than it was the Nationals, so that’ll work. I wish Morse a lot of luck in his new home; maybe he’ll pull a Bloomquist-Ibanez and start something crazy good, after he’s out of the SeaTac area.

Adrian Beltre has finally opted for the surgery he desperately needs. While it looks like it won’t be a season-ender for him, it’s still difficult to accept the fact that he’s going to be out for that long, especially given what I’ve seen him do so far in today’s game. It’s been amazing. Still no definitives on who’s going to wind up at third or what other shifts might be made. Looks like we’ll see come Tuesday, if not sooner. Morrow is going up against Chamblerlain at the new Yankee Stadium, so that should be interesting. Brad Adam interviewed Beltre after the game, and he’s understandably not pleased about having to leave. He’ll be away from the team for a week or two, and then should be back up and running in no time.

Also of some possible interest and curiosity, is the fact that Ryan Rowland-Smith was suspended for 5 games, and will pitch in Tacoma on Thursday. What for, I have no idea. I can’t find any information in the usual places, and the Rainiers website is about as frequently updated as my wardrobe, so it may remain a mystery. Depending on the weather, it might be worth a nice drive to Tacoma on Thursday…

Today’s game was a nice surprise, in combination with last night’s win. Garrett Olson did well through five, and Batista helped protect our 2-run lead for the 6th and 7th. Don Wakamatsu seemed to be spending most of the game standing in the mister, an apparent comfort convenience Dodgers Stadium features in the dugouts. It was 89 degrees today at game time. Lowe took the hill in the 8th and kept the Dodgers scoreless, then Aardsma got up to shut it down, and WE TOOK TWO OUT OF THREE FROM THE DODGERS!!! Would things have been different if Manny Ramirez was there? Hard to say, since LA’s been doing so well without him; but the only thing that matters in the standings is what did happen, not what could have. Also, some interesting talk from the booth about the possibility of Aardsma being invited to the All-Stars. He reminds me of George Sherrill without the wacky hat; so very glad he’s ours. Game today ends 4-2, Mariners.

A day off, some roster juggling, and into that east coast mess known as the Yankees and Red Sox.

Now, to continue my recovery from last night’s shennanigans…

Advertisement

4 Responses to News of moves and today’s game

  1. Craig D June 29, 2009 at 12:13 am

    RRS– He hit a player on accident and the benches cleared and the ump tossed him

    http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/rainiers/story/788608.html

    And you are right!!!! Aardsma does remind me of George Sherrill!!! (well okay, a Right handed version of George)

    Ryan Langerhans–Nice pick up for cheap…..If Endy Chavez and Wlad had a baby, it would be Ryan.

    Mike Morse–I hope he does well….but I feel as though we shipped him to Siberia….He wont make the Majors as a backup left/right outfielder for the Nats (they have 400,000 backups…I mean they sent us Langerhans and he is like 7th on their depth chart and Morse would be below him)…..Like The Mariners, They dont really carry a backup 3B because they have Ryan Zimmerman (like we had Beltre)…..and Morse….well….the only chance he has to make the Majors is a Utility Guy.

    Hopefully if he does get a call up, he can hit like crazy when the Mariners called him up.

    My prediction is—— If Branyan connects with a Joba Chamberlain fastball….someone in the upper deck will catch a ball in their beer cup at Yankees Stadium.

  2. section331 June 29, 2009 at 12:51 am

    Well, yeah, I knew about the hitting thing, but it took them several days to hand down the suspension?! He didn’t even do it on purpose! Or did he? I’m confused. It seems like those things are taken care of in the majors a lot faster…

    Aardsma bears a lot of resemblance to Sherrill, both in appearance and presence, but I think it’s more the thing where he was a decent pitcher until he switched teams, and now he’s awesome and appreciated. I didn’t feel that Sherrill was very appreciated when he was here. I remember being disappointed that we lost him, but since I was late to the party in 2007, I guess I didn’t appreciate him as much as I probably should have tried to.

    Aardsma’s lean and wind up, however, far more closely resembles JJ’s. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I would mistake AArdsma for JJ at a distance. He’s just smaller and ,well, socks. :)

    I am really looking forward to the next 6 games. If we were going to come out of this trip 4-5, we are already halfway there, and I just can’t think we’re going to lose all 6 of these next games.

    As for Morse, yeah, what you said; I thought it was kind of mean to send him to the Nats. Outside of their upcoming meetup with Strassburg, they’re not a good team. Maybe Morse can help that a bit, but if they’re truly neck-deep in roster, then it doesn’t seem like he’ll ever see the majors again. That’s too bad. I keep on worrying that RRS might meet the same fate. I can’t imagine the team(s) without him, and it’s strange to think that he or possibly Corky might not be with us for much longer.

  3. Craig D June 29, 2009 at 5:54 am

    He didnt do it on purpose (as far as I know)…but sometimes they just suspend the pitcher if the benches clear.
    And a “5 game” suspension for a starting pitcher….isnt even really a suspension…..they usually pitch every 5th game…so he gets moved back to the 6th game.

    Yeah, George was awesome….he just got overshadowed while here by JJ…….Man Baltimore hit the Goldmine with the guys we sent them.

    RRS is in a weird position……I dont see them trading him (with bedard and washburn gone at the end of the year, they need him)….but the current starters havent done anything to get sent to AAA and RRS has pitched decent…but not “amazing” enough that says “to the Majors now”

    This season has been a weird rollercoaster ride……..

  4. section331 June 30, 2009 at 6:13 pm

    I just randomly saw his Twitter page yesterday, and the suspension was for the plonk – it’s weird that it took them so long to pass it down, but whatever.
    There is a small possibility that I might be going to see him on Thursday @ Cheney. Super small as of right now, but a possibility, nonetheless. Just trying to weigh my financial options.
    Sometimes, I just want to stay here full time, get a pay raise, and kiss the school idea goodbye. Money sucks. :p

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

Please log in to WordPress.com to post a comment to your blog.

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 553 other followers