Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Mariners back over .500

Despite losing 6 games in a row last week, and being swept in two series, and despite Jeff Weaver being the worst pitcher alive, the M's are now above .500 with a record of 11-10.
It's pretty clear that anyone from AAA, whether is Jorge Campillo, Jake Woods, Ryan Feierabend, or even Brandon Morrow or Sean Green, we'd do better than having Weaver start. He has no stuff, his attitude sucks, and he sucks the life out of the team by giving up so many runs so early. He's also killing the bullpen by not making it out of the 3rd inning ever.
Bad news though, we don't play a sub .500 team (except for the Yanks) until the 22nd, so this stretch of games could very well determine our season and the fate of Ichiro perhaps.
Unexpected surprises so far? Vidro is leading the team in BA with a .315, Jose Lopez has the highest OPS with .780 (Johjima's .933 doesn't have enough at-bats to qualify), Beltre leads the team with 2 stolen bases, Raul Ibanez has the least hrs for a regular on the team with 1, Jamie Burks has a line of .375/.474/.625, and our starting pitching is actually starting to look decent.
For Youngsters, Brandon Morrow has had some great relief appearances, just blowing by his 99 mph fastball to get guys to strike out when he needs to. Matt Tuiasosopo, whom everyone stupidly called a bust last year, is tearing up AA with lines of .371/.478/.506. He's starting to hit doubles too, so I can only expect the HRs to come. Wlad Balentien is equally impressive with .371/.436/.640 with 6 HRs. Wlad is still just 22, and Tui is just turning 21, so needless to say both these guys could be studs, and if not great trade bait.

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