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Jamie Moyer: Mind Over Matter
The Colorado Rockies are expected to announce within the next few days that Jamie Moyer will be named to the team’s starting roster. The left-hander will take a shot at history, pitching in the first weekend of the baseball season at age 49, and if he wins, he’ll be the oldest pitcher ever to win an MLB game.
The old man on the pitcher’s mound is a freak, and he’s a freak because of what he isn’t. He isn’t big or tall or strong or fast or intimidating or exciting or radiant or any of the freak touchstones. He is slight and normal and weedy and slow and calming and lackluster and gray. None of these things makes an athlete, and all of them make Jamie Moyer, 49 years old, pitcher for the Colorado Rockies. Read More >>
MLB Teams Visit One Of Japan’s Recovering Tsunami Towns En Route To Opening Day
Members of the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners got a firsthand look at the devastation from the earthquake and tsunami when they visited one of the towns hit hardest by 2011′s disaster in Japan.
Eight players and coaches from the Mariners and Athletics went to Ishinomaki on Japan’s northeast coast and later put on a baseball clinic for students affected by the March 11 disaster. Read More >>
Uno, Dos, Tres… Ichiro
The lineup change Seattle Mariners manager Eric Wedge hinted at during the offseason is going to become permanent.
It won’t be Ichiro Suzuki at the top of the Mariners batting order to begin the 2012 season.
Wedge announced Tuesday that he will move Suzuki from his traditional leadoff spot down to No. 3 in the Mariners batting order. It’s not a simple spring training experiment — Wedge is set to make Suzuki’s move permanent and he will figure out who is Seattle’s best option to take over in the leadoff role.
“I’ve done a lot of thinking about it this winter. … Bottom line, it’s for us to have the best lineup 1 through 9 out there,” Wedge said. “I want our lineup to be extended. I think our best opportunity is for Ichiro to be hitting third for us.” Read More >>
Opening the MLB Season, Japanese-Style
This Saturday, MLB spring training officially kick’s off when pitchers and catchers report to Peoria, AR training camp for the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners are starting off spring training particularly early this year, because of a two-game MLB season-opening series with the Oakland A’s, March 28-29, in Japan. As Japan continues to struggle rebuilding from a 9.0 magnitute earthquake, and a subsuming tsunami / near nuclear meltdown, proceeds from the two-game series will go to the benefit of Japan’s tsunami victims.
This will be Ichiro’s first time playing an MLB game in his native Japan, where he played the first eight seasons of his professional career with the Orix BlueWave baseball club. Since entering the MLB, Ichiro became the first, and has become the longest tenured, Japanese player in MLB history. When the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami hit, Ichiro donated 1.2 million of his personal income to funding relief causes. Ichiro is such a celebrity in Japan that his agent, Tony Attanasio, has been quoted as saying “When you mail Ichiro something from the States, you only have to use that name on the address and he gets it (in Japan). He’s that big.”. You can even get to his Wikipedia page just by keying in the searchterm “Ichiro“. Read More >>
2012 Seattle Mariners Outlook: Get ready for the season and customize your gear at Onthefield.com
Coming out of the Fourth of July weekend, it looked like the Mariners would be one of the MLB‘s surprise teams in 2011. Boasting a .500 record less than a week before the MLB All-Star break, the overachieving M’s proceeded to embark on a 17-game losing binge that instantly turned 2011 into another lost season.
The Mariners made some moves last season to expedite the rebuilding process, such as trading Doug Fister and Erik Bedard in deals that brought back several prospects and replacing Chone Figgins at third base with Kyle Seager.
However, the biggest change came this MLB offseason, when Seattle dealt emerging star SP Michael Pineda and pitching prospect Jose Campos to the Yankees for C/DH Jesus Montero and SP Hector Noesi. The move signaled that the Mariners are getting serious about upgrading their offense, and it also acknowledged that some of their prized pitching prospects are close to major-league ready, which made Pineda expendable. For now, Montero is the sole addition to a Mariners lineup that scored the fewest runs in the majors last season. However, Dustin Ackley, Justin Smoak, Kyle Seager and Mike Carp are all pre-peak players who could take a step forward.
Not only will the Mariners count on their younger players to improve the team’s offensive output, but they will also look for a bounce-back season from Ichiro Suzuki, who is coming off the worst year of his MLB career. Two straight years of decreases in his ground ball batting average suggest that a comeback may be no minor feat for the 38-year-old Suzuki. 
Felix Hernandez, Jason Vargas and offseason signee Hisashi Iwakuma will anchor the rotation, but the final two spots will be up for grabs. Danny Hultzen, the second overall pick in the 2011 MLB amateur draft, will have a chance to start his career at the major league level, but he will have to contend with a large slate of competitors, including Noesi, Blake Beavan, Charlie Furbush, Kevin Millwood and fellow prospects James Paxton and Erasmo Ramirez. Brandon League will return to pitch the ninth inning, though the bullpen lacks depth in the set-up and middle relief roles. Read More >>
Mariners Can’t Catch A Break: Young rising star-Greg Halman-stabbed to death in the Netherlands
Seattle Mariners MLB outfielder Greg Halman was stabbed to death early Monday and his brother was arrested as a suspect, Dutch police said.
Rotterdam Police spokeswoman Patricia Wessels said police were called to a home in the port city in the early hours of the morning and found the 24-year-old Dutch player bleeding from a stab wound.
Greg Halman played a total of 44 MLB games. (AP Photo)
The officers and ambulance paramedics were unable to resuscitate Halman.
Wessels said the officers arrested Halman’s 22-year-old brother. She declined to give his name, in line with Dutch privacy rules.
“He is under arrest and right now he is being questioned,” Wessels told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “It will take some time to figure out what exactly happened.”
No charges have been filed in the case.
Halman hit .230 in 35 games and made starts at all three outfield positions for the Mariners in 2011 before being optioned to Triple-A Tacoma.
Because he played professionally in the United States, Halman was not part of the Netherlands team that won the Baseball World Cup in Panama last month. The Dutch beat Cuba 2-1 in the final to become the first European team to win the title.
Born in the city of Haarlem, Halman played in the Dutch Pro League and was part of the gold-medal winning Dutch squad at the 2007 European Championship.
The Inspiring Story of Alex James: the Mariners’ real life Angel in the Outfield!
On August 3rd, 2011 the Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 7 – 4 when Charlie Furbush was perfect into the fifth inning of his first start in a Seattle uniform, and Casper Wells, Josh Bard and Mike Carp each delivered two RBIs as the Mariners swept the Athletics. This MLB game was not won by the box score though…some say Angels in the Outfield really do exist…and on August 3rd Alex James was the Angel that the Mariners needed to pull off the sweep!
After catching a fly ball in the stands, Alex started the wave (only miles from where the original wave happened) in the stands at Safeco Field…the crowd started to join in…electrifying everyone in the entire stadium and maybe the whole city of Seattle…the home team started to feel the emotion of the fans run off their fingers as each wave came around and into the heart of every Mariner in the game…Alex James’ formation of the wave and his devotion to his favorite team earned the M’s a win that warm August night in Seattle.
Alex James you are real Angel in the Outfield…
At least the Mariners are doing something productive…
Seattle Mariners MLB reliever Chris Ray reached into the storage area above his locker, pulled out a bat, removed it from a thin plastic wrapping and handed it to me. I placed my nose to the barrel and instantly my nostrils filled with the deliciously familiar aroma of freshly brewed hops. As the great philosopher Homer Simpson would say, Mmmmm … beer.
I wish the Internet was capable of transmitting smells because baseball bats probably haven’t smelled quite like this since Babe Ruth cleaned out his locker for the final time. And the aroma is because Ray used a dozen maple bats as part of the aging process of Homefront IPA, a beer he created with the Fremont Brewing Co. that was released in Seattle last weekend.
The bats soaked in the beer for three weeks. (Ichiro would be appalled.) The result is a good, solid and hoppy IPA with perhaps a faint hint of a hard-hit grounder up the middle.
“I’m not sure if it adds a ton of flavor but it ties it into baseball and gives it a unique twist,” Ray said. “It might add a little bit of flavor but maple is a hard wood — that’s why they use it for bats — so there’s not a whole lot of absorbing going on. There are a lot of beers that age on oak chips and toasted oak chips so we just thought if it added a little flavor, great. If not, it’s a nice story.”
It would be an even better story if Ray had further replicated the wood chips by using bats that had been personally splintered by his fastballs. Even so, Louisville Slugger flavoring is certainly more appetizing than say, Rosin Bag IPA, Pine Tar Porter or Stirrup Sock Hefeweizen.
Plus, it’s the most productive use of Mariners bats in at least two seasons.
Ray has been brewing his own beer for several years — “I like brewing it more than drinking it” — and plans to open a brewery with his older brother, Phil. They already have a name, COTU (Center of the Universe) Brewing, a website (cotubrewing.com) and a signature brewing style.
The American League Awards So Far…
Almost 60 games into the MLB season, no more than 2.5 games separate first from second place in all three American League divisions. Races for the individual awards are just as tight.
MVP: Jose Bautista, Blue Jays
You know you’re having an MVP season when going a mere seven games without a homer is considered worthy of the crawl on one of the sports networks. But that’s the expectation Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista has established. Even after his “drought” reached a season-high nine games, Bautista remained on pace for another 50-plus homer season.
He not only leads the majors in homers and runs, though. Bautista also is tops in average (.348), OBP (.500) and slugging (.727) — the slash Triple Crown. If that’s not impressive enough, the slugger has walked a majors-high 55 times and has only 31 strikeouts.
Bautista is not alone in exceeding lofty expectations. Red Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez has given the Red Sox all they could have hoped for and then some with a .340/.389/.575 stat line and a majors-best 51 RBIs.
Indians shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera and Yankees center fielder Curtis Granderson deserve to be in the conversation, too. Cabrera has been the most consistent performer for the surprising Indians; Granderson ditto for the Yankees. Granderson also owns one of the season’s most stunning stats: Of the lefty hitter’s 17 homers, a majors-high nine have come against left-handers.
If Josh Hamilton could stay on the field, he would have a chance to repeat as AL MVP. Limited to 25 games, he has only one number that’s special: 18-7, the Rangers record with him in the lineup. Without him, they’re 16-21.
Rookie of the Year: Michael Pineda, Mariners
Armed with the best fastball in the game, Michael Pineda has not allowed more than four runs in the first 11 starts of his career. The 22-year-old righty leads rookies with a 2.33 ERA, .197 average against, 76 strikeouts and 77 1/3 innings.
The only notable category Pineda doesn’t lead is wins, and he is just one behind the Rays’ Jeremy Hellickson, 7-3. Hellickson, however, is a close second in ERA (2.64), average against (.200) and innings (71 2/3).
Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer, hitting .310 with five homers in 30 games, is the only position player who seems to have a shot at preventing a pitcher from the top rookie award.
Cy Young: CC Sabathia, Yankees
More evidence that this is another Year of the Pitcher is provided in the number of Cy Young candidates. Eleven pitchers have sub-3.00 ERAs after making at least 11 starts. At roughly the same point last season, only six AL starters were sub-3.00.
The main reason Sabathia deserves a slight nod: He works in the AL East. If you don’t think pitching in the East is different, ask the A’s. Their staff ERA has risen from 2.87 to 3.23 in two weeks of facing the Yankees, Red Sox and Orioles.
More: Witrado picks National League winners
Sabathia once again is delivering on his workhorse reputation. He is averaging more than seven innings a start and has put up a 2.80 ERA to go with a 7-3 record.
No fewer than six others are building worthy resumes:
• Converted reliever Alexi Ogando is 6-0 after 11 starts for the Rangers, with a 2.20 ERA and league-best .187 batting average against.
• Red Sox right-hander Josh Beckett has bounced back in a big way with a league-best 2.01 ERA and impressive .189 average against.
• Angels right-handers Jered Weaver and Dan Haren are top five in ERA and innings.
• Tigers ace Justin Verlander is top five in innings and strikeouts, and pitched the second no-hitter of his career.
• 2010 Cy Young winner Felix Hernandez leads in innings and strikeouts, but might not have been his team’s best pitcher so far (see just above).
Slow Start? What Slow Start?
OK, time to stop the MLB nonsense about whether the Indians are for real.
They’re as real as Justin Masterson’s sinker, Shin-Soo Choo’s right arm, Carlos Santana’s batting eye, Orlando Cabrera’s experience and Asdrubal Cabrera’s talent.
Try this for real: The Indians own a majors-best 66 run differential and an MLB best 18-4 home record. They’ve scored the second-most runs in the A.L. and have the fourth-best ERA. They’re 7-2 against the A.L. East with the revived Red Sox returning to Cleveland looking for revenge after that three-game sweep they absorbed in the season’s first week.
Ron Washington knows they’re for real. Asked if he knew the Indians would be in first place when in spring training he asked Manny Acta to be an MLB All-Star coach, the Rangers managed replied, “I knew the Indians would be tough. They have some talent.”
Washington might have been one of the few to believe that two months ago. But he’s no longer alone. The Indians sit atop the MLB Power Poll for the fourth consecutive week. The Poll is convinced.
1. Indians (1). You can ask the Reds if the Tribe is for real. The Indians’ weekend sweep was first over Reds since 2004.
2. Cardinals (14). When talking about N.L. MVP candidates, Matt Holliday would be the place to start. Unless you started with Lance Berkman.
3. Red Sox (13). About that 2-10 start, perhaps the Red Sox just wanted to play fair and give the rest of the league a head start.
Adrian Gonzalez has provided the offensive punch the Red Sox were hoping for when they traded for him this offseason. (AP Photo)
4. Giants (6). Latest wrist injury to Mark DeRosa could be the end, making his the saddest in a season that has seen more than its share of injuries.
5. Phillies (4). Chase Utley is back in time for rematch of last year’s divisional series against the Reds. Time for the rest of the Phillies’ offense to return, too.
6. Yankees (15). What a debut: Right-hander Hector Noesi gives Yankees four scoreless innings to win 15-inning marathon in Baltimore, providing the difference between a so-so and a good week for the club.
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