Archive: August, 2020
Trade deadline recap and the new state of the M's
The wild and wacky 2020 mini-season, with its expanded playoff structure and small-sample-sized skewing of performances, made for some interesting wheeling and dealing over the last few days. With 2020's oddly timed August 31st trading deadline now behind us, what interesting conclusions can we make?
See full post: "Trade deadline recap and the new state of the M's"...

Another trade, plus COVID hits the West and postpones next games
Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto swung one last trade as this afternoon's MLB trading deadline hit, sending reliever Taylor Williams to San Diego in exchange for a player to be named later.
See full post: "Another trade, plus COVID hits the West and postpones next games"...

Trade winds blowing
Having already made one deal ahead of tomorrow afternoon's trading deadline—Taijuan Walker to the Blue Jays for a player to be named after the season ends—the Mariners find themselves fielding calls from contenders desiring other Seattle valuables.

Game notes—8/29/20
Well, I'm a little late to the party tonight, but here we go with the M's and Angels on about an hour's delay. Justus Sheffield going for Seattle against Dylan Bundy, who pitched a complete-game 2-1 victory against hte M's earlier in the year.

Doubleheader game notes—8/27/20
With yesterday's game against the Padres called off due to righteous social outrage, today we have a doubleheader. It's a 2020-style doubleheader, which kind of blows—each game will be only seven innings long—but, in the vernacular of the day, it is what it is.

Walker traded
The Mariners have agreed to a trade that will send starting pitcher Taijuan Walker to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for a player to be named later.

No game tonight
Tonight's game between the Mariners and the San Diego Padres has been postponed.

Game notes—8/25/20
Let's try another live-ish blog of a game. These haven't been as interesting as I'd hoped when I've done them for prior contests, and I'm not sure what the best format for such things is, but what the hey, one more shot at it here.

Halfway through
Believe it or not, we are now halfway through the season. With a miniaturized 60-game schedule, 2020 was always going to feel weird, and it's been interesting to notice how both expectations and attitudes about the campaign have evolved as that weirdness settled in.

Better late than never: Fraley promoted
It took them until the season was half over, but the Mariners have finally promoted outfielder Jake Fraley to the team. He is slated to start tonight in right field in Seattle's game against the Texas Rangers.

More roster moves
The Mariners made another pair of roster moves today, placing relievers Erik Swanson and Taylor Guilbeau on the injured list with muscle strains. To fill their spots, the club has activated veteran reliever Yoshihisa Hirano from the COVID-19 injured list and recalled left-handed pitcher Aaron Fletcher from the satellite camp.

Vogey DFA'd, Mallex to taxi squad
The Mariners made a series of roster moves upon their return home from their 1-7 road trip, giving them a slightly different look as they prepare to take the field at TMP tonight against the Dodgers.

Back to normal
So, yesterday's aberration was apparently just a one-time deal. In this afternoon's game between Your Seattle Mariners and the Los Angeles Dodgers, formula returned:

Virtual Season: Still going
The GSAU virtual season that did its best to substitute for the real deal while everything was shut down due to the pandemic hasn't been updated here since shortly after the real season began, but that doesn't mean it's done with. There hasn't been time to keep up the almost-daily game stories and such since real baseball returned, but we will be updating the virtual season in chunks as we press on.

Nancy and the Heart Attacks
There's a lot that's different about this Mariners season from last year. A lot. From leaguewide (and nationwide) changes related to the pandemic to the Mariner-centric issues with young players getting big-league playing time. But one thing that is thud far exactly the same is the revolving door in and out of the Seattle bullpen.

Game notes—8/14/20
The Mariners are back in Houston already. Weren't they just there? Well, this sort of thing happens even in in standard-type seasons, so with this year's wacky west-only schedule it's no surprise that such things happen. At least it was on the same trip as a stop in Dallas-Ft. Worth. Efficiency!

The 2020 M's: Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, one pitching change at a time
If last night's series finale with the Texas Rangers gave you a feeling of déjà vu, well, it's probably because you've seen this before. The 7-4 loss to the Rangers pretty much followed what we can now call a template for your 2020 Seattle Mariners. It hasn't played out like this in every game, but since leaving Houston after the opening series of the season, the formula goes like this:

COVID updates and miscellany
Will the St. Louis Cardinals play baseball again in 2020? Since a COVID-19 outbreak among their squad became known, the Cards have been in limbo, with all of their games since July 29th postponed. Though no new cases of the virus have cropped up in the last couple of days, they remain quarantined for now. Major League Baseball currently plans on the Cardinals taking the field again starting this Friday against the White Sox in Chicago and potentially playing a makeup doubleheader tomorrow against the Detroit Tigers. We'll see.

Game Notes—8/11/20
The Rangers are not tempting fate again with their roof, it's closed tonight. No heat-carried homers for you!

Game Notes—8/10/20
Not-quite-live from the brand-new ballpark in the DFW Metroplex, the Mariners are taking on the Texas Rangers for the first time in 2020. Rookie Justin Dunn on the mound against veteran Kyle Gibson. Both teams with struggling offenses and iffy bullpens. Only one will win! Let's see how things unfold.

M's make minor moves
The Mariners made a couple of minor transactions today ahead of their game tonight in Arlington, Texas. They are:

8/9/20 Notes after the fact—M's upset Colorado
It was a beautiful day in Seattle and, harkening back to the days of the Kingdome, the Mariners played under a roof. Because of a ridiculous protocol that says closing the roof on lovely days is preferable to installing some sort of shade canopy over the seats behind the dugout for the benefit of players seated there for social distancing purposes. Why? I'm going with laziness. You may have other theories.
See full post: "8/9/20 Notes after the fact—M's upset Colorado"...

Game notes—8/8/20
I'm a little bit behind schedule today, so this is not a live-blog. Not that it matters as y'all tend to see these well after the fact anyway. Can the M's rebound against the super-tough Rockies? Two untried young pitchers starting us off, so who knows what to expect. Here we go:

Game notes—8/7/20
Back to watching live, some notes and observations from tonight's Mariner game against Colorado, as it happens (though you're likely reading this after the fact)! Yusei Kikuchi on the mound for Seattle, looking for his first win in start number three. Looks like Crawford and White both getting the night off, at least to start off.

Game notes—8/6/20
Again not watching this one live; it's getaway day for the Angels and I had stuff to do this afternoon. But, since we live in the future, I can watch it now and do my notes and observations after the fact. Onward!

Game notes—8/5/20
I missed last night's game (gee, too bad), but tonight is a Marco Gonzales night, so even though I cannot watch live, I will take in the entire thing on DVR-delay and do a not-really-live-but-same-basic-result blogging of the action. Let's snap this four-game losing skid, OK? Onward—DVR: Engage!

Game notes—8/3/20
Just when it looked like things might start going the Mariners' way, the Oakland A's come to town and take three of four, with the last one being both the most and the least irritating. Quite the simultaneous feat!

Cardinals' COVID outbreak grows
The St. Louis Cardinals are the new Miami Marlins. Today's coronavirus test reporting, from tests performed over the weekend, bring the Cardinals' total number of infections up to 13 (seven players, six coaches and/or support staff among the traveling party).

Game notes - 8/2/20
Some thoughts as I watch Sunday's game between the Mariners and the Oakland Athletics:

Game notes - 8/1/20
Observations and brain droppings as I watch Saturday evening's tilt against the Oakland A's:

COVID updates, etc.
Another day, another postponement in Major League Baseball. As was the case yesterday, tonight's game in Milwaukee between the hometown Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals has been bumped due to more positive test results for COVID-19. One St. Louis player, two coaches, and a staff member traveling with the team tested as infected, in addition to the two Cardinal pitchers that we learned yesterday had tested positive. None of the six Cardinals consented to make his identity known.

Game notes: 7/31/20
Musings and observations on tonight's home opener, a 5-3 win over the Oakland A's: