harmony

The MLS season overlaps with the MLB season. The atmosphere is incredible at the home games of the reigning MLS champion Portland Timbers. Soccer is the talk of the lunchroom at work in Portland. No one talks about baseball anymore.

I suspect the Padres would gladly take Melvin Upton out of the equation if the Red Sox would remove Rusney Castillo.

Perhaps you're underrating Melvin Upton, who has been valued at 2.6 fWAR ($20.3 million) in 142 games over the last two seasons. The Padres could be taking a significant step down to a disappointing Rusney Castillo, who over more years is owed more money as he approaches his 29th birthday next month. http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=5015&position=OF#value

To be precise, Rich Hill signed with Oakland on November 20, David Price signed with Boston on December 4 and the Red Sox traded Wade Miley on December 7. I don't doubt the Red Sox wanted to hold off until their pursuit of Price was completed. I'm still surprised that three days after the Price signing the Sox traded away their 2015 leader in starts, innings and wins.

Seattle is 8-3 in Wade Miley's 11 starts despite the lefthander's dismal 5.85 ERA. Whatever.

For what it's worth, last year the Seattle Sounders of Major League Soccer had an average attendance of 44,247 while the Seattle Mariners this year are averaging 26,637 per game. The Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps filled their stadiums last year with averages of 21,144 and 20,408, respectively. The New England Revolution averaged 16,681 last year.

After trailing 12-2 the Mariners scored five runs in the sixth inning and nine more with two outs in the seventh to take a 16-12 lead. The Padres narrowed the score to 16-13 in the bottom of the seventh.

"a player optioned to the minor leagues may not be recalled for at least 10 days, unless the club places a Major League player on the disabled list during the 10-day window," according to the Transactions Glossary at Baseball Prospectus/Cot's Baseball Contracts: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/transactions-glossary/ The Seattle Mariners recently faced the issue when shortstop Ketel Marte went on the disabled list. The Mariners could not recall from the minors shortstop Luis Sardinas, who had been on the M's Opening Day roster, because Sardinas had been optioned fewer than 10 days earlier. Seattle instead recalled promising shortstop Chris Taylor for one disastrous start before Sardinas was eligible to be called up again.

I'm coming up on the 50th anniversary of my first MLB games on August 28, 1966. My father and I rode the Greyhound bus from a neighboring state to Chicago to see a doubleheader between the White Sox and my Minnesota Twins at old Comiskey Park. We had lunch at a Trader Vic's in downtown Chicago before taking the L to the stadium on the South Side. As we took out seats I remember being in awe of the green expanses and the smells of the grass, hot dogs and pipe tobacco. The White Sox swept the Twins in a marathon, winning the first game 4-3 in 15 innings and the nightcap 7-6 in 11 innings: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA196608281.shtml http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA196608282.shtml ... although my childhood hero, Harmon Killebrew, homered in each game. In about the seventh inning of the second game my father said we needed to leave to catch the Greyhound bus home. Defiant six weeks shy of my 11th birthday, I told my father he was free to go and that I would find my way back to Iowa on my own. We ended up staying until the final out, catching a later bus home, arriving around 7 am when my father needed to report to work at 8 am. My father never complained, nor did my mother, who saw little of her husband on that memorable day, their 17th wedding anniversary.

Going into Tuesday's games, Red Sox pitchers had surrendered 84 more runs than the Cubs pitchers had (226 to 142). The Cubs' run differential of +133 was significantly better than the +76 of the Red Sox. The Sox are not in the Cubs' league in more than one way.

Hitting has not been a problem this year for the Red Sox, who lead the league in runs scored by a substantial margin: http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/2016.shtml Conversely, the Red Sox rank 10th in fewest runs allowed, yielding just above the league average. My Seattle club ranks second in runs scored and first in fewest runs allowed. The Red Sox and Mariners are the league's far-and-away leaders in run differential at +80 and +65, respectively. I can't explain how the 30-21 Mariners have been swept at home this season by the Athletics, Angels and Twins, three of the league's weakest teams. Still I like Cool Standings' current postseason odds for the Mariners (67.0%) and Red Sox (92.6%): http://www.fangraphs.com/coolstandings.aspx I am likely to make a rare trip to Boston the weekend of October 22-23 and would welcome an ALCS matchup between the Sox and the Mariners at Fenway Park. I hope we all experience enjoyable seasons.

Knuckleballer Steven Wright garnered props at FanGraphs on Tuesday: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/its-time-to-buy-into-steven-wright/

The two teams I follow -- Seattle and Boston -- had widely contrasting offseason with the Mariners making frequent precision moves while the Red Sox dished out money and highly regarded prospects to rein in the big names and David Price and Craig Kimbrel (after spending big on Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval and Rick Porcello in the previous 12 months). Perhaps the moves have given the Red Sox an edge with the league's best record to date, a game and a half ahead of the Mariners (not dissimilar to the two-game margin the Sox held over the M's at the close of the 2015 season). Cool Standings give the Red Sox a league-best 91.7 percent chance of advancing to the postseason while the Mariners are a distant third at 65.0 percent. http://www.fangraphs.com/coolstandings.aspx The Mariners already had the hefty long-term contracts of Robinson Cano, Felix Hernandez, Kyle Seager and Nelson Cruz but shed the $9 million salary of Mark Trumbo while committing no more than $8 million each to new acquisitions Adam Lind, Wade Miley, Joaquin Benoit, Steve Cishek, Leonys Martin, Chris Iannetta, Nori Aoki and Dae Ho Lee. None of the new additions requires a long-term commitment but the flip side is that few remain under team control for more than a year or two. On some levels the Red Sox and Mariners are similar teams this season but the Sox have a far brighter long-term prognosis based on their youth and a healthy farm system, qualities that the aging Mariners sorely lack. Seattle must win now because the window is likely closing ... again.

Does anyone know of a forum that is limited to serious discussions about baseball?

Could you two take your spat outside? You're spoiling the party.

MLB umpires are no worse than they've been for more than a century. It's the new technology -- pitch tracking and video play reviews -- that has given fans more information than they've ever had before. Instead of moving on from questionable calls, fans now have new ammunition to stew in their frustration. Automated strike zones may offer one answer but I doubt baseball will ever eliminate the element of human error. And as one poster noted, fans rarely complain about umpiring following a win.

A Seattle blogger examines the lack of Tommy John surgeries for Mariner pitchers: http://www.lookoutlanding.com/2016/5/27/11798130/goodbye-tommy-john-my-old-friend

To elaborate: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/12/mariners-buchholz-miley-trade-redsox.html http://www.mlbdailydish.com/2015/12/7/9864594/mlb-trade-rumors-mariners-red-sox-buchholz-miley http://www.masslive.com/redsox/index.ssf/2015/12/boston_red_sox_trade_rumors_ma.html http://www.hngn.com/articles/157871/20151207/mlb-trade-rumors-boston-red-sox-seattle-mariners-work-out-deal-for-wade-miley-sox-garnering-interest-on-sps-clay-buchholz-joe-kelly-too.htm https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/12/08/red-sox-traded-away-wrong-guy-wade-miley/F29p2YXUJ8G8Mx3ijW0v0N/story.html https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2016/02/06/red-sox-took-gamble-keeping-clay-buchholz/InHoj4tDzfpPtNZa1BpHCK/story.html

I'm likely to make a rare trip to Boston the weekend of October 22-23 and would welcome an ALCS matchup between the Red Sox and my Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park.

And what team ranks second in the American League in runs scored despite playing home games in a pitcher-friendly venue?

Clay Buchholz is the Mercedes-Benz S-Class that is in the shop half the time while Wade Miley is a Toyota Camry that requires only routine maintenance. http://www.consumerreports.org/car-reliability/most-and-least-reliable-cars-by-class/ If given the choice, the Seattle Mariners chose the Camry.

I suspect Seattle preferred Wade Miley over Clay Buchholz because the lefthander is younger, more durable, less expensive and under team control for more years. For what it's worth, over the four seasons from 2012 to 2015 Miley posted 10.0 fWAR and 8.1 bWAR while Buchholz posted 8.3 fWAR and 6.3 bWAR. If the Mariners had a choice between Miley and Buchholz, the decision was a no-brainer.

Yes ... I have used harmony on most baseball forums over the past decade. Best regards.

That "losing" Seattle club currently sits in first place, a half game worse than the Red Sox with the same number of losses, after fading in the final 10 days of 2015 to finish two games behind the Red Sox. This year Wade Miley is precisely on pace for 200 innings with 50 innings recorded in eight starts. Miley's ERA of 4.32 and ERA+ of 89 are nothing great but the lefthander had an ERA of 9.44 in his first 16.2 innings this year and has an ERA of 1.90 in 33.1 innings since. This Seattle fan was worried after watching this video of Miley blowup's with John Farrell last season: ... but was pleased this week to read USA Today quoting the lefthander describing his Seattle experience thus far: “This is the most fun I’ve ever had.’’ http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/bob-nightengale/2016/05/16/mlb-mariners-jerry-dipoto-robinson-cano/84448414/ Winning and chemistry invite a chicken-or-egg analysis, but I enjoyed this recent column by a Seattle blogger: http://www.lookoutlanding.com/2016/5/10/11648102/pedagogy-of-the-depressed

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/12/mariners-buchholz-miley-trade-redsox.html