Terrace Club Blues

Category: Post-Game Analysis

After the game news

  • Small Sample, Large Take

    Small Sample, Large Take

    And Medium Sized Sunday Post (1-2)

    This afternoon I got a text from my dad that read “I have an early Mariner take”. 

    Alright, okay. Here we go!

    My dad, although getting older, (not yet grumpier which I’m grateful for) remains steadfast in his reliability for oracle like hot hitters. Which, mathematically, also come with occasional misses.

    So, when I told him I’d call in a sec to listen in, I wasn’t sure which direction we would land.

    Echos of the World Baseball Classic

    I was hoping to never write about it, and to never hear about it again, but here we are.

    Someone tweeted a few weeks back, sometime before the semi-finals, the real losers of the WBC were the Seattle Mariners. After all, Gabe Speier performed poorly for team USA, Josh Naylor provided sluggish production as captain of team Canada, and Geno Suarez, who we let walk in Free Agency became the eventual centerpiece to Venezuela’s well earned championship.

    But the real Mariners adjacent storyline of the WBC was the Cal & Randy handshake debacle which, as we’re well aware, was plastered all over national media. We’ll never know exactly what went down, how & why— but we do know it was made out to be a massive deal, whether it actually was or not.

    ~

    I gave my dad a ring.

    “Cal doesn’t look right” he said. Not just his timing in the box, but his body language overall.

    “And Randy… might be a problem”.

    Regarding Cal…

    Obviously this early in the season stats do not matter. Cal going 1 for 16 or whatever it may be is not concerning. When it comes to baseball statistics, Cal will be fine. The part I do agree with my dad on is that Cal’s (demeanor, body language, aura, whatever) does not look right. The inside joke in my household right now is that “Cal got the ick about himself” — surely this is slightly embellished, but our eyes do not deceive us.

    Regarding Randy…

    In Saturday’s early season game against the Guardians Arozarena had 2 noticeable teammate “red flags”. One of them came in the 7th inning when a fly ball hung up in the left center gap. Julio and Randy both drifted over into outfielder “grey-zone” and eventually collided as Julio made the catch to secure the out. Our two Latino kings briefly exchanged some words during the interaction and Randy appeared visibly annoyed at the supposed miscommunication. Annoyed at, from what we know, one of his closest friends on the team.

    Later in the game, during the bottom of the 10th inning, Randy was late to post on 2nd base as the assumed ghost runner— resulting in a pitch clock violation on lead-off batter Brenden Donovan, costing a strike before the first pitch was thrown.

    Okay… So What?

    What to make of this— I’m not sure. I hope it’s still a nothing burger. A 10-2 win tonight could be the start of putting it all to bed. Honestly, I think the guys will be fine. But I also resonate with my dad’s instincts a bit.

    If Cal really did tell Randy not to initiate a handshake in the USA vs. Mexico game, it’d be really lame of Randy to hold onto some kind of negative energy (and to say the things he said). On the other hand, I like Randy a lot and I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Cal should have handled things differently.

    Regardless, anytime we see negativity manifest on the field, even if it’s ridiculously early, or in the form of a large take with a small sample size, it’s certainly worth talking about. At the same time, I hope we won’t have to going forward.

    The time to be great is now.

    Let’s get after it,

    NJB

  • Three Losses to the Giants and One Giant Loss (3-7)

    Three Losses to the Giants and One Giant Loss (3-7)

    In Sunny San Francisco—

    The Ms drop their second consecutive series of the season Sunday despite a heroic catch by Victor Robles in the 9th. 

    Vic’s Webgem worthy display of athleticism promptly devolved into collective worry as his warped body awkwardly worked its way out of the webbing of the right field foul net. 

    Robles (27), who ~for the sake of theatrics~ routinely embellishes situations that may or may not have actually caused him serious physical harm immediately prompted those I was watching with, and perhaps others who are familiar with his shenanigans, to reactively gasp “he’s okay…” — After a beat, it was immediately evident that he was not.

    As play stopped tied 4-4 in the bottom of the 9th, his outfield office-mates rushed to check on him before he was ultimately carted off the diamond gingerly holding his left wrist and obviously in a lot of pain. After the game a nervously mumbling Dan Wilson mentioned that it may actually be his shoulder under concern and that we’d know more tomorrow after further imaging.

    The next pitch Wilmer Flores singled into shallow right field to walk-it-off for the Giants.

    In a game where it felt like we desperately needed a win— after an 11th inning heart breaker on Friday and a Robbie Ray revenge L Saturday, a game where Cal & Julio both went deep early to give Woo some rare room to work with against his childhood team— all we were left with was insult to injury.

    So what happens now?

    I’ll keep my thoughts fairly short tonight— partly because it’s hard to be motivated to write about this team right now, and partly because I want to save some bullets for a column in the works for next week. So, three things right now:

    1. I could be wrong, but it seems like Vic is going to be out for an extended period of time. All signs point to Dom Canzone taking his place in right field for the time being. I like Dom, I hope he can show some consistency while he gets another shot to shine. Against opposing lefty starters my guess would be that D-Mo gets the nod in the OF and we cross our fingers that Polanco’s arm doesn’t disintegrate.

    2. We come home tomorrow to play series against division rivals Houston and Texas. The old adage is that there aren’t any must win games/series in April but it sure does feel like if we can’t scrape at least one series win and avoid a sweep in the other, then I’ll be eating my bat tape as mentioned in Thursday’s post.

    3. Okay, bear with me. I have an overwhelmingly emotional take right now and it’s about Dan Wilson. Personally, I’ve never been one to point fingers at managers. It’s a tough job— they aren’t the ones swinging at balls in the dirt or deciding who gets paid or not paid in the offseason. But for the love of god, Dan, PLEASE get more angry.

    During Friday’s frustrating 11th inning loss, anyone who watched until the end noticed Carlos Vargas getting inexcusably squeezed on pivotal ball and strike calls when it mattered most. Vargas who was visibly fuming at home plate ump Sean Barber appeared to be on an island as Dan remained steadfast in his frustratingly unwavering calmness.

    Arguing balls and strikes is almost always going to get a manager tossed, but I think that is exactly what the team needed in that moment. We need some fire! Dan needs to be a part of that. Hell, let’s get another 2022 Winker-esque brawl going— it seemed to work last time.

    Cheers,

    Noah