Mariners Correspondent Report: «§ea‡‡£e®Mariner§» 05/26 - 06/03

«§ea‡‡£e®Mariner§» 05/26 - 06/03

June 18, 2002

Correspondent Report

Sun, May 26 Baltimore W 8-1 -- Tue, May 28 at Tampa Bay L 1-5 -- Wed, May 29 at Tampa Bay W 5-2 -- Thu, May 30 at Baltimore W 5-4 -- Fri, May 31 at Baltimore L 7-8 -- Sat, Jun 1 at Baltimore L 3-4 -- Sun, Jun 2 at Baltimore W 11-8 -- Mon, Jun 3 at Oakland W 4-1 --

LATEST TEAM INFO:

• The mariners Have Been Winning BaseBall Games With a Starting Staff Of Garcia, Moyer, Soriano, a Struggling James Baldwin, and an Eratic Joel Pineiro. The bullPen Has Held the Team Together and has Picked up 2 of the Teams 5 Wins over the Last Eight.

• Kazuhiro Sasaki Had Pitched 20 2/3 Innings Without Allowing an Earned Run. Sasaki had Given up a 2 Unearned Runs But Had gone onto win Both Games in which he did not get the Save. June 1st Sasaki Gave up 2 Earned Runs to Blow the Win for Baldy and Stain an ERA that had Remained at 0.00 for the 1st 2 months of the season. The Baltimore Orioles Won the First 2 Games of the Series Before losing to Rhodes and Garcia to Finish the 4 Game Set at the Safe.

• The Mariners Are Among the Elite in Stolen Bases and Have Used their Good Bench Speed to Manufacture Runs Late in the Game when Luis Ugueto and Desi Relaford have been able to Set the Offense in Motion With Run and Hit and Straight Steals. Ichiro Suzuki Has Rounded into form after a Slow Start on the Base Paths and Managed 10 Stolen Bases on 13 Attempts, with the Majority Coming in the First Half of May, and a Stretch of 6 Straight Games With No Attempts to Close out the Month. Mark Mclemore Has Also Been More Aggressive on the Base Paths Stealing 5 Bases on 7 Attempts in May.

• Joel Pineiro is 0-3 Career Against Tampa Bay, and 3 of his 5 Losses have come at the Bats of the Devil Rays. I would Tell you to sit him his Next Start Against Tampa, But Then I’d have to Take Some Serious Heat When He Shuts them Down With Double Digit StrikeOuts. All those Tony Armas Jr. Owners Know What I’m Talking About. Armas Jr. Had Seen His Record Fall to 0-7 Against the Florida Marlins With An Opening Season Loss to the Fish. Armas Jr. Then Pitched A Gem Allowing Only 4 Hits In 8 1/3 Innings, Striking out 7. Of Course He Was on My Bench, And of Course He Rewarded My Confidence With an Amazing Performance. That is Fantasy BaseBall, and That’s Why Most Fantasy Veterans Have Developed a Very Interesting Sense of Humor to Combat the Insanity that Plagues an OtherWise Entertaining Past Time.

LOCAL PERSPECTIVE:

• Lou Piniella has Seen about enough of the New Wide Strike Zone and On ? Day he Stormed out on the Field and Let Home Plate Umpire John Shulock Know that 4 Inches off the Plate Is In The Book as a Ball. And all those Pitches Right Down Main Street Right Above the Belt are Text Book Strikes. Lou Covered the Plate with Dirt to Make his Point that You Umpires can Either Call the Zone or Do away with the Plate Alltogether http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recaps/20020528/seatam.html . This Game Quickening Nonsense Has Seen a Number of GentleMen of the Game Tossed For Arguing Balls and Strikes and has Become a bit of an Infamous Point of Contention with True Major League BaseBall Fans. Any Plan to Intentionally Deceive the Hitter by Expanding the Zone in an Attemp to Speed up the Game and Thus Increase Perceptive Desireability Among Advertisers -- With the Hope of Increasing Television Revenues -- Has to Be seen as Word Wrestling Type NonSense. Umpires Are essentially Taking the Base On Ball Out of Play. If the Hitter Were allowed to Take one Weapon Away from the Pitcher: “Hey Ump, this guy has a Big Slow Hook. Can you Tell him to just throw his Fastball So we Can Speed this Whole Process Up?’ I think the Average Fan Might Begin to See the Transparent Absurdity in the Entire Situation.

RUMOR MILL:

Injuries:

• Chris Snelling Hurt His Knee Stepping on the 3rd Base Coaches Foot Trying to Put the Brakes on After Receiveing the Hold Sign While Turning Toward Home Plate. Initial Reports Speculate that Snelling has Torn His Right ACL, an Injury That will Keep him out of Action for The Rest of the Season.

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