Weak Saturday Baseball: Mariners vs. Tigers

With the strangehold that FOX has on Saturday afternoon baseball (see my earlier rant on this), I get the distinct pleasure today of watching the 23-31 Tigers muddle around the diamond with the 20-35 Mariners, a matchup with all the excitement of watching two toddlers tussle in the sandbox over a broken Tonka truck. I'm sure this looked like a good game during the preseason FOX schedule-making, but now it's barely enough to hold my interest.

But Seattle's my team, and I've got a soft spot for Jim Leyland's Tigers, so I'll make do with what I'm given, and see what develops. For starters, Mariners manager John McLaren has seen the light as far as Richie Sexson goes, and the lanky righty power hitter is getting well-deserved splinters in his butt for the fourth straight day. Sexson is hitting a moribund .200/.277/.413 with 17 walks against 53 strikeouts, a number exceeding his total of hits (31) and RBIs (21) for the season. Those are awful numbers for any player, let alone your cleanup hitter, let alone the second-highest paid guy on your roster.

That Sexson makes $15.5M this year is a crime--at least fellow overpaid Beltre is at least bopping the ball with regularity (his 12 HRs lead AL 3Bers, and he's hitting a moderate .245/.325/.466, those walks largely coming courtesy of the lack of protection he gets from his teammates). But this price tag makes McLaren's move even gutsier; it's hard to bench a guy with such a big price tag. There's a kind of sadistic pleasure that some managers seem to take in running out a guy like this every day, making him at least earn his paycheck and hear the boos of disgruntled fans.

Not that current 1B Miguel Cairo is any more of a solution. It's got to be a double-slap to the face for Sexson to lose time to a career utility infielder. At first base. The Mariners simply don't have many other options: their attempt to bring Jeff Clement up to DH and possibly spell Sexson at first didn't work out (Clement is back in Tacoma) and recent callup Jeremy Reed has yet to prove himself at the plate, in spite of early promise in that department. Recent rumors that they're considering signing free agent Scott Hatteberg only shows how desperate they are.

Bryan LaHair is the next first baseman in line for Sexson's job and, while his AAA numbers aren't as gaudy as Clement's, he's exhibited good power numbers thus far this year (.262/.344/.471). LaHair's problem has always been hitting lefties and this season's not been any different: he's only .218/.259/.309 against southpaws. This makes him a possible platoon candidate for Sexson, who mashes lefties, but you'd just as soon not waste a roster spot on this kind of move. Better to give LaHair more seasoning in the minors, and see if perhaps Clement can get it back together again for another callup.

This notion that McLaren is taking a chance has been echoed in today's game: with Kenji Johjima on third and Cairo at the plate with one out, Seattle attempted a suicide squeeze (imagine him calling for this with Sexson at the plate). Cairo missed, but the ball was wide enough outside that it bounced and Ivan Rodriguez, trying to collect the ball and tag Johjima simultaneously, did neither and Johjima was safe. Good things can happen as a result: this led to a few more hits and another run scoring. That's what happens when you take chances.

Granted, it's only the fourth inning and a four-run lead, but King Felix is on the mound and it doesn't take much to hold the Tigers down this season. One of the great things about being a losing team is that you can try stuff like this. To paraphrase Janis Joplin, last place is another word for nothing left to lose.