Tim,<br><br>That call was terrible. I agree with you.<br><br>As far as Hargrove goes, he has made terrible decisions. Sure he's been to the World Series, but any idiot could have managed a team like that to the World Series. Here's a few reasons why I think Hargrove ought to be canned:
<br>
<br>
- When he first came on as manager, Ichiro was just coming off of his
262 hit season. So what does Hargrove do? He asks Ichiro to take a few
more pitches, not swing as much on the first pitch, and try to walk
more. What the heck? Ichiro did what he was told, and it screwed his
timing up for half the season. Hargrove nearly broke Ichiro! What sane
person would come into a new clubhouse and tell the best hitter in the
league how to hit?<br><br>- For the first two months of the season, Jose Lopez was the best hitter on the team, often leading the team in RBI and HR. However, he also led the majors in sacrifice bunts. He was asked to sac bunt more than a pitcher. There was even one game in which he was asked to sac bunt in 4 ABs.
<br><br>- Aggressive base running can be a good thing, but aggressively running into outs isn't.<br><br>- In the two extra inning games in Toronto this last weekend, there were 15 innings of relief pitching by the Mariners. Rafael Soriano and
J.J. Putz, the two best pitchers on the team, combined for 1 inning pitched. If it's the bottom of the 11th, bases loaded, no outs, who do you want pitching: the guy who loaded the bases or the best pitcher on you team?<br>
<br>- Carl Everett is still in the lineup. This to me is the biggest defense. He's batting .228 on the year, but since the beginning of June, he's batting .175, yet he still continues to play. Sure he'll hit a homerun now and again (he's got 11 on the year); after all, he's swinging for the fences on every
pitch.Yes, he's a switch hitter, but hitting badly from both sides of the plate isn't an advantage. The fact that he's still being trotted out there every day has got to be a league-wide joke.<br><br>- The Mariners are a mediocre team in a mediocre division. Often when a manager is replaced, the team will go on a little winning spurt. That alone could be enough to give the M's the AL West. (A lousy reason, but true nonetheless.)
<br><br>Take care,<br><br>Deacon<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 7/20/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Tim Lohrmann</b> <<a href="mailto:timlohr@yahoo.com" title="mailto:timlohr@yahoo.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
timlohr@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div><div>Deacon,</div> <div>But there's a big but you neglected to mention, dude.</div> <div>What about the blown call at first? Even the AP stories said the call was wrong. The game should have been over before the tying run was scored.
</div> <div>What counted as a sac fly to score the tying run should have been the third out. You're right that Putz wasn't as sharp as he has been, but he can't be held responsible for blown calls. </div> <div> </div>
<div> I'm not so sure you're right about Hargrove, either. </div> <div> I don't think he's Mr. Wonderful or anything necessarily, but he does have the experience of having been to a world series at least. </div> <div>And don't you think that firing him would pretty much disrupt the clubhouse for a while when the M's are still definitely in a division championship race?
</div> <div>The time to make a change like that, if there even is a better
option, is when the season's over, don'tcha think?</div> <div> TL</div></div><div><span> <div> <br><br><b><i>Deacon James <<a href="mailto:deaconblues42@gmail.com" title="mailto:deaconblues42@gmail.com (mailto:deaconblues42@gmail.com)" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
deaconblues42@gmail.com</a>></i></b> wrote:</div> </span></div><div><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px;"></blockquote></div><div><span>
Visionatics,<br><br>Last night, J.J. Putz blew a save against the Yankees that led to a Mariner loss in 11 innings.<br><br>This was the first save situation in which Putz allowed a run since taking over as the closer in early May, and it was the first save situation in which he allowed a hit since June 6. Plus, he was pitching in what turned out to become a virtual tornado.
<br><br>Somehow, this is more evidence that Mike Hargrove should be fired, but I haven't yet found a way to twist it. Any help here would be appreciated.<br><br>Take
care,<br><br>Deacon<br></span></div><div>=====================================================<br>List services made available by First Step Internet, <br>serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br><a href="http://www.fsr.net" title="http://www.fsr.net (http://www.fsr.net)" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
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