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felix vs. jered weaver
erasmo vs. cj wilson
paxton vs. hector santiago

since we never brought in kendrys (or anyone else) to nab that DH role, it's really hard to see anyone other than hart taking it now. no reason to risk his knees flaring up in the outfield. unless this spring has been one giant bluff and CF isn't almonte's domain, i guess that gives us a saunders/morrison platoon in RF. i think i'd give morrison the start tomorrow... he hit righties a little better than saunders last year, and whereas saunders struggled against lefties in general, morrison was about as ineffective as one can be. since wilson and santiago are both southpaws, might as well give morrison some ABs tomorrow against someone he might be able to hit (albeit that person being one jered weaver).

if i have to be a justin smoak believer, count me firmly in the camp that he needs to bat 5th. whatever success he's had here has always coincided with him batting 5th. he's a career .253/.327/.437 hitter in the 5 hole. it gets much, much worse anywhere else.

i've reeeeeeeaaaaaally soured on cory hart since we signed him. it's not necessarily his poor spring, because ST stats don't usually translate over to anything substantial. but digging into some of his history, nothing about him screams a good fit with safeco. i'd love to be wrong. but if we're anywhere near competitive once kuma and walker get back, and we're finding the hart/smoak monster train just isn't providing anything by way of protection for cano, i have a hard time seeing Z not giving boras a call and getting morales on board. i really, really wish we would have re-signed him and just given him the DH job. prove me wrong, cory hart!

i love seager in the 6-hole, assuming the guys above him don't crap out. he's so consistent i almost forget he's a top 10 3B in this league. in a perfect world hart and smoak perform just fine, and seager's able to do a lot of damage cleaning up.

i like ackley batting 9th. always been an advocate for having a table setter for the top of your order. hate NL ball with the pitcher batting 9th. rally-killers.

hoping for the best. a decade-plus of putrid mariner baseball has made me a pessimist. the seahawks winning the super bowl (let's all just sit back and remember that for a moment, shall we?) reeeeeeeeaaally makes me want to see a competitive mariner ballclub, because baseball has always been my first love and i was a mariner as a youngin' before really discovering the other teams in my sig later on as a youth.

I just want to care about baseball into June and July. The Mariners get me discouraged so easily with their HUGE losing streaks that always seem to follow a pretty good run. Lets be competitive for a while atleast.

Why haven't we signed Morales yet? Jesus. Come on now. We NEED another bat, so just give the man what he wants.

Let's go Felix! Excited for tonight!

Justin Smoak is batting 4th? I would just intentionally walk Cano everytime up regardless of situation. Free out behind him.

Why isnt Morrison 4th? Jesus.

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Ugh. Missed opportunity in the 1st, and then Trout goes deep.

It's not over, but not a good start.

And no (in spite of the double he just hit), Smoak in the 6 hole at best, not the 4 or 5 hole.

Nice defense, Ackley. *sigh*

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Ackley absolutely butchered that play in the outfield. My goodness.

BayAreaMadSkill wrote:Let's go Felix! Excited for tonight!

Hell of an inning for Felix...defense certainly didn't help him with Seager booting a ground ball and Ackley missing the ball with all the aplomb of me in a softball game, but he was playing a game of lawn darts with his change-up. Discouraging game so far.

Bulltalk wrote:And no (in spite of the double he just hit), Smoak in the 6 hole at best, not the 4 or 5 hole.

That first swing of his 2nd at bat is what kills me about Smoak: Unloading over the top at a breaking ball low. If he makes contact, he's dribbling it up the middle and it's a GIDP. He can't do anything with that pitch.

And that **** did it again on the third pitch for the strikeout. Goddammit. Weaver knew full well what he was doing.

I've got that same feeling tonight as I did so many nights the last few years. We're down 3-1, and I feel as if scoring 2 or 3 more runs is the equivalent of asking for a miracle to happen.

Smoak scores! And Morrison's out by a mile. I don't understand this stupid game.

Some little things:

--getting thrown out on that steal attempt in the 1st
--Ackley getting eaten up by that flyball (when was the last time we had a LFer who we could count on to make such a play?)
--Logan out by a country mile at the plate on that double off the wall

Felix is actually looking pretty good in spite of the score. And doesn't Zunino just look he's been a catcher forever behind the plate?

Bulltalk wrote:--Logan out by a country mile at the plate on that double off the wall

Drayer says he was sent by the 3rd base coach. Maybe the 3rd base coach was hoping for a bad transfer on the relay with 2 outs, but with Morrison's speed that seems like such a low percentage play. Weaver finally looked vulnerable...give Saunders a chance with a man on 3rd.

Bulltalk wrote:Felix is actually looking pretty good in spite of the score. And doesn't Zunino just look he's been a catcher forever behind the plate?

One shaky inning for Felix but he's rolling now. He and Weaver are both doing a good job of getting people swinging above their breaking stuff tonight.

Zunino looks good...he's had a couple balls spike off of him that he had to chase down, but those were breaking balls that bounced well in front of home plate. I like him as a signal caller and I hope he can hit breaking stuff well enough.

Sweezo wrote:

Bulltalk wrote:Felix is actually looking pretty good in spite of the score. And doesn't Zunino just look he's been a catcher forever behind the plate?

One shaky inning for Felix but he's rolling now. He and Weaver are both doing a good job of getting people swinging above their breaking stuff tonight.

Zunino looks good...he's had a couple balls spike off of him that he had to chase down, but those were breaking balls that bounced well in front of home plate. I like him as a signal caller and I hope he can hit breaking stuff well enough.

It's just the way he "looks" behind the plate, like he's in command, like he knows what he's doing. He's going to be our catcher for years to come, methinks.

Bulltalk wrote:It's just the way he "looks" behind the plate, like he's in command, like he knows what he's doing. He's going to be our catcher for years to come, methinks.

He just hit that curve! Game tying triple! Ahahahaha...

Sweezo wrote:

Bulltalk wrote:It's just the way he "looks" behind the plate, like he's in command, like he knows what he's doing. He's going to be our catcher for years to come, methinks.

He just hit that curve! Game tying triple! Ahahahaha...

He might end up being our cleanup hitter.

In my Gomer Pyle voice...Surprise, surprise, surprise! Good job M's.

Bulltalk wrote:He might end up being our cleanup hitter.

Fine, since Almonte's firmly entrenched as the leadoff hitter!

Can Smoak make them pay? Doubtful. We'll see.