In one of my first posts, I thought that Derek Jeter should step aside and let the backups get some time and see how they improve. Jeter went on the DL and his backups got their playing time. They've actually been getting time between giving Jeter, Rodriguez, and Cano breaks. They aren't doing as well as The Captain.
Yes, Jeter is still performing at lower than Jeter numbers, but maybe this is because early Jeter numbers were spoiling Yankees fans. He is still productive in the Yankee lineup. He has started to even show some more range in the outfield. The pride of the Yankees has long been that there is no one that you want to pitch to. You don't walk one guy to get to the next one, because that can hurt you just as badly. In this lineup, Jeter is tied for 4th in hits. The three people ahead of him, Cano, Granderson, and Texiera, have played 21, 20, and 21 more games respectively, than Jeter. They have 59, 39, and 47 more at bats, respectively. Jeter is hanging with his teammates in doubles. He is last out of regular starters in strikeouts. Homerun/extra base machine, Curtis Granderson has Jeter more than doubled up on SO's with 115.
He is still the face of the franchise and has kept a squeaky clean rep. Fans love him and he is a great leader for the team. There is still a strong argument for The Captain to keep playing. I'll go with it for now.
On to the Mariners. Who have apparently written off this season after their record setting 17 game losing streak. At the trade deadline, the Mariners have gutted their starting rotation in exchange for prospects (minor leaguers). Their pitching was what had them in contention in the first place before the losing streak! Their pitching is what kept most of those games at least close! They have gutted their staff for more pitchers. What they needed was offense. Ichiro is having a season akin to Jeter's. He has lost a step. He is no longer getting the in-field hits because he can't outrun the throws anymore. The problem is that for years, Ichiro drove the offense. Now, the Mariners have no offense. They weren't getting any run support for the pitchers they just sent to other teams. How did these conversations go down?
"Hey, great job at the beginning of the year, Bedard. You've really pitched well. It's a shame you didn't get the run support you needed to get more wins. There's good news though with the trades we've made."
"You've traded for some offensive players who have a batting average higher than their shoe size?" (Seriously, why the hell is Figgins still starting? And have you seen Olivo's batting average?...Has anyone seen Olivo's batting average?)
"No, we're sending you to the Red Sox. We're saving ourselves money on the rest of the season by getting minor leaguers for you."
"But you're not improving the team this season, nor are you even getting solutions for the problems you're having."
"We know, but hey, between trading you and Fister, look how much money we saved."
Look at the empty seats. You are out of contention. This has continued since the early 2000s. The Mariners celebrated the 10 year anniversary of their record setting 116 wins. It was the last time the Mariners were relevant. Since then they have traded any good player not named "Ichiro" away. They had a great rotation this year. It was a rotation that they could build on. Pitchers don't have many dominant years, but the Mariners' pitching staff were young and showed signs of melding into a great staff that probably could give the vaunted Phillies a run for their money in the future. All they needed was an offense. Now, they need pitching, too. How in the world was trading Fister and Bedard a good idea? Thank God they didn't trade Hernandez, too!
Scrolling through stats of the Mariners and now former Mariners and looking at the earned runs by their pitching staff, it is a killer to see so many 1s in games that were losses. Your starting pitcher gives you 6-7 innings of 1 run ball and you lose? Consistently?? AND NOW YOU TRADE SAID PITCHERS?
This is what I don't get about teams. "We wanted to trade him to a contender." BOTH TEAMS YOU MADE TRADES WITH, Boston and Detroit, ARE IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE. YOU MADE TWO RIVALS STRONGER!! IF YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE STUPID TRADES DO IT WITH THE LEAGUE YOU DON'T PLAY AGAINST! Why trade good players to a contender? So the contender can cut some dead wood and get better? Out of some loyalty to the player wanting to win? Be selfish bastards! You could both win in the end. We decided to keep him and not trade him to a contender so that next year we could be contenders ourselves and he could play for a contender here.
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