Another 3 and 3 week, and we still have to be happy about it. In fact, of the three 3/3 weeks we've had, this one was the best. We had our three wins by Friday, so we at least had a shot at finishing above .500 for the week. Apparently Alfonso Soriano and the rest of the M's middle relievers relized that in time to throw the game away. We'll have the Twins and Yankees again this week - this time on the road - and Joel Pineiro gets the double duty - yikes.
In other news, we now have a third 40-year-old on the 25-man roster - Pat Borders. He's Dan Wilson's back up now because Ben Davis had to go to AAA Tacoma to learn how to hit. Why is it that the Mariners have never produced a great catcher (Wilson came from the Reds).
Edgar became the 39th player in baseball history to reach 500 doubles. Among active players, only Rafael Palmeiro, Barry Bonds, and Craig Biggio are ahead of him. Obviously Edgar is the Mariner's all-time leader in this category. As far as team records go, there's really only one more thing he's likely to do. He needs 8 home runs to tie and 9 to pass Jay Buhner for #2 on the team list. To clear that up, Edgar has 299, Buhner has 307, and Ken Griffey is #1 with 398. Edgar is already the team leader in career batting average, hits, runs, walks, games, at bats, and RBI's.
Mariner of the Week: Freddy pitched well again (and even got a win), but this week the MOW goes to Ichiro. Ichiromade a brilliant throw form the outfield to nail Corey Koskie of the Twins in the 9th inning of Tuesday's game, forcing extra innings in a game we eventually won. In addition, he's riding an eight-game hitting streak, raising his average 37 points from .258 to .295. For the week he's 11 for 28 (.393).
Posted by at May 10, 2004 09:58 AMI am pretty sure I mentioned this before, but I think it warrants repeating:
Since 1900, only five players have hit at least 300 home runs, 500 doubles, walked more than 1,000 times, have a .300 batting average and .400 on-base percentage: Stan Musial, Rogers Hornsby, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Ted Williams. Martinez went into Saturday night's game with 299 home runs, 500 doubles, .314 career batting average, 1,239 walks and a .442 on-base percentage.
The funny thing is that he's a big maybe to get into the Hall of Fame. I guess Musial, Hornsby, Ruth, Gehrig, and Williams got into the Hall because of their defensive skills.
Posted by: Deacon Blues at May 10, 2004 12:08 PMYou'va actually never mentioned that to me. That is quite remarkable.
Posted by: the booth at May 11, 2004 09:03 AMWere you meaning Rafeal Soriano, or did a big trade happen that no one in the Northwest heard about? That would be something because a position change would have occurred along with it.
Posted by: mike aman at May 11, 2004 04:57 PMYou are correct, Mike. Sorry for the mistake.
Posted by: the booth at May 11, 2004 05:57 PMI'll tell you Aaron, I was just happy to have noticed it. It doesn't give me any joy apart from that.
Posted by: mike aman at May 12, 2004 04:05 PM