Jakubauskas

You know what I hate the most about a Jackabauskas start? Hearing Rick freaking Rizzs say his name so deliberately, every last irritating syllable, over and over and over and over and over. Why can't we just call him "CJ" like I'm sure every other level of baseball back to t-ball did...

JACK-uh-BOU-skus!

If I got paid to tell Rick Rizzs to shut up from my car seat, I'd be driving a really, really nice car.

.345, 27 HR, 106 RBI, 167 R, 16 SB

Adam Jones' pace. Reminds me of a commercial I once saw...

Lopez: Can't or Won't Bunt?

It is really amazing to watch a major league hitter try to bunt and fail EVERY TIME. Has Jose Lopez ever successfully bunted a runner over? (I'm sure he has, but he fails every time I'm watching.) The latest fiasco was in the 5th inning of today's game vs KC. 2 on, 0 out. Great speed on the basepaths so all he has to go is bunt the ball fair. Lopez bunts the first pitch, an easy one to handle, foul. Then he watched a few more go by before eventually grounding into a double play. It would be understandable, considering their considerable power at the plate, if Branyan, Beltre and Griffey can't bunt. But Lopez and his non-bunting buddy Yuniesky Betancourt have no excuse. They have limited power and don't get on base very often.

While 60% of the blame has to fall on the players, the other 40% sits squarely on the shoulders of the coaching staff. If you have hitters as bad as Yuni and Lopez you need to make sure they can bunt. If that means 30 minutes of bunting practice a day until they can do it, so be it.

In the case of Lopez it appears something else is going on. He doesn't seem interested in bunting. He quickly draws a strike or two in order to get the green light to swing away (and ground into a double play). That begs the question: Is Lopez refusing to bunt in a passive-aggressive way? Lopez is such a bad bunter that a Google search for "Jose Lopez Bunting" returns a picture of Jose Guillen bunting in a Mariner uniform. How about we send them both down to AAA until they are able to do what little leaguers across the country can do: Lay one down and move the runners over. We've been waiting for 3 years for the 3-run homer to save us. Enough is enough.

Rain On Yuni's Parade

Beltre was the only wet Mariner yesterday as he waited at home plate for the roof to close. Some people just don't have the sense to get out of the rain!

One guy that should have stayed home was Yuni. Another terrible game at the plate and in the field. Time to make a change before he costs the Mariners any more games.

The over on this game has to be about 17

VS

In MLB's version of "The Biggest Loser" - who will emerge the victor?

OP

Reading the news that Oliver Perez is headed to the bullpen for the Mets after signing his 3-year, $36 million dollar deal had me wondering just how desperate the Mets are for pitching coupled with just how frustrated they are by OP's performance.

Could they be frustrated and desperate enough to take Carlos Silva?

I haven't looked long and hard at the terms of the respective contracts, but the one Buffalo signed last year was 4 years, $48 mil - which means that both pitchers are owed virtually - or literally - the same number of dollars for the next two and 2/3 seasons.

I know I'm not a paid prognosticator, but Oliver Perez is twice the pitcher Silva is. Even if they both continued to stink - I'd much rather be paying OP to suck than paying Silva to suck.

So Omar, just how pissed off are you? We'll give you Carlos Silva, 180 lbs of food to feed him for the next month, and a bucket of piss for Oliver Perez, a wink, and a smile.

M's Overcome Hungry Buffalo

This game started out with Silva striking out two batters in the first inning, with some highly questionable calls - and I thought, "this just might be one of those magical, inexplicable nights where a worse-than-mediocre-pitcher pulls a masterpiece out of his ass." It kind of looked that way after two innings and then The Buffalo's water broke. For a guy who walked 9 batters in 188 innings pitched in 2005 (yes, NINE) - he certainly seemed like he didn't have a very good idea where the plate was despite the fact that Jim Joyce really didn't have an idea where the plate was either.

The hero was of course Lopez and the best at bat he's had in his professional career. 15 pitches and a line drive later, and Angie Mentink needed to change her drawers.

But to me, the MVP of the game was Kelley. He picked up the garbage left over by White and he suffered through some of the worst calls I've seen in recent memory to still blow away the Oakland hitters. Without Kelley in that situation, I really doubt the M's win this game.

Go to hell Silva. But Viva M's.