4-6

posted by Jon

Some notes from the Tampa Bay series:

• Edwin Jackson is absolutely filthy. He has struggled in recent years, but has always had plus stuff and has been great in his first two starts this season. He's still very young and I wouldn't have minded seeing him in a Mariner uniform. This offseason there were rumors that he could be Seattle bound in exchange for Ben Broussard and more recently there were rumors that Seattle could snag him for Jeremy Reed. While there isn't any room for him in the current rotation, he is definitely the type of arm your organization should try and stockpile. I doubt Tampa Bay would be willing to part with him sine the injuries to Scott Kazmir and Matt Garza, but I wonder if talks could spark up again later in the season.
• I haven't been much of a Jose Lopez fan since he first came up a few years ago, I even wanted Seattle to start Willie Bloomquist over him coming into the 2006 season, but I have to say I'm really liking the way he's playing the game so far this season. Many, myself included, were giving up on Lopez coming into the season, but he's suddenly looking like a prototypical number-2 hitter. He's sticking to the job description and it's resulting in a very nice start for him. I'm not quite on the Jose Lopez bandwagon yet, but I'm standing near the boxoffice thinking about purchases my ticket.
• I still don't believe that Mike Morse has any business patrolling the outfield.
• I'm really liking the new patient Richie Sexson. He's still not hitting well, but this can only help him (and the team) in the longrun. If he continues working counts like this, pitchers are going to take notice and may start giving him some better pitches to hit. besides, it's never a bad idea to make the opposing pitcher work a little bit. Sexson's offensive regression would be a little more tolerable if he could manage to draw 100 walks this year, something he has never done (98 in 2003).
• It's nice to see the pitchers attempting to go deeper in the ballgames. Erik Bedard stuck it out for 6 innings despite not having his good stuff, Jarrod Washburn cruised through 7, and Miguel Batista managed to get through 6+ despite picking up the loss. You'd always like to see your pitchers go 7, but it would have been easy to pull Bedard and Batista after 5, so it's nice to see them stretch out a bit.
• B.J. Upton reminds me of Alfonso Soriano with the way he swings.

What were your thoughts on the series? Overall it was a nice bounce back for Seattle.