We got a front runner!

Yes, we got us a front runner.  …but he stands on the brink as we write this.

It’s a week into the postseason, but it only took us a day to wonder just what the hell is going on. The box score of the Yankees-Red Sox wild card game contained exactly zero ex-Mariners on either squad. For a couple of teams that regularly feature former M’s like Varitek while we slobber over bums like Slocumb… wait, we digress.

The next night, the Dodgers-Cards matchup, was a different story, wasn’t it? Continue reading “We got a front runner!”

Mariner playoff rosters!

Here we go!

Twenty-five guys, a perfect postseason roster, fill the ranks of this year’s playoff teams’ 40-man rosters. Plus a former Mariner ace on IR, another who chose not to play under Rona Risk, and a couple honorable mentionables. Some of these guys are “who?” …and as of this writing, just 24 hours into the postseason, a few have already gone south on Elimination Street. But laugh as we may at them now, they each took their season farther than Jerry’s Boys from Dave Niehaus Avenue. Read ’em and wonder. Click the names for stats and such. Continue reading “Mariner playoff rosters!”

All those ex-Mariner starters!

Lookit ‘em all!

Well hey now, how about a little positivity after the downer of that last post.

Yesterday morning, mlb.com projected the starting lineups – without pitchers – for every single major league team. That’s thirty lineups. And let’s just say there’s a ton of ex-Mariners out there who are judged to be good enough to start for one of the 29 major league teams that aren’t Your Seattle Mariners. Fifteen position players, to be exact. Let’s say that again.

Fifteen ex-Mariners, not including pitchers, fifteen ex-Mariners will be on starting rosters for other teams come April this year.

Yeah, hard for us to look at too. But it’s all good! Read on!
(baseball-reference.com)

Continue reading “All those ex-Mariner starters!”

Abraham, Martín, and Juan

The fire sale on the Mariners roster takes no account of the feelings of the fans, the burning desire to grab that playoff spot with the men on the club right now, the love we feel as family for these devoted ballplayers who’ve given at least a piece of their lives, bitter as it may be with all the losing, to us. But it’s all business. Stiff upper lip, chaps. And what not.

Here at Playin’ in the Dirt, we had to blow off a little folk-song steam along with all the tears, so here, as our gift to you, our one or two verified readers out there… well, you know the tune…

Anybody here seen my old friend Abraham?
Continue reading “Abraham, Martín, and Juan”

First Pitch!

First loves and true loves, heroes and legends, green grass and clover… let’s get this season started!

Oh yeah. Blue skies on a spring day and the season begins with the Yankees on the road, set to pound the home team… but Logan Morrison grinds out three RBIs for the hosts, Brad Miller goes 2 for 5 with a run scored, Danny Farquhar looks sharp in relief… and Tampa Bay wins?

On the other side of the country, just like old times, 40-year-old Fernando Rodney comes on in the ninth inning, gives up the go-ahead run, but watches from the bench and picks up the win as the… D-Backs walk off?

Huh? Say what? Continue reading “First Pitch!”

Springtime Mariners nametags

Yeah, come on, it’s spring. All things are possible. This is the year, man, it’s gonna happen…

Twenty guys?

Exactly half the forty-man Spring Training roster has never dirtied their cleats in a Mariner big-league uniform. Here’s a list of every guy looking to make his future with your Seattle Mariners this year. Even some of our twenty returnees will have you (and their teammates) scratching your head going, “wait, who?” Continue reading “Springtime Mariners nametags”