You knew that David Huff was coming up to start tonight, right? This isn’t really news. We knew this yesterday, and we all but certainly knew that Darwin Barney would be optioned down to make room. That’s what happened. Huff up, Barney down.
Mariners
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Dodgers
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7:10 p.m.
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Los Angeles, Ca.
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LF
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Weeks
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SS
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Rollins
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CF
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Jackson
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LF
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Crawford
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2B
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Cano
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1B
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Gonzalez
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RF
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Cruz
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2B
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Kendrick
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3B
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Seager
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C
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Grandal
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C
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Zunino
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RF
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Ethier
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SS
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Miller
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3B
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Uribe
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1B
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Bloomquist
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CF
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Pederson
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P
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Iwakuma (R)
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P
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Huff (L)
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Dustin went over who Huff is a few weeks back, trying his best to come up with complimentary things to say, but ultimately it doesn’t really matter. Set those expectations properly. If you’re expecting Huff to go out and throw six innings, you’re doing it wrong. He won’t, nor should he be expected to. He’s simply the long man who happens to be starting a bullpen game, and if he works into the fourth inning without getting killed, I think I’ll be blown away.
But listen, no one cares that much about David Huff. (Sorry!) The news today is partially that Yasiel Puig is sitting to rest a sore left hamstring, and mostly that the uptight old guard of the game have succeeded in pounding the fun out of him:
Puig said recently he intends to cut down on his trademark bat flips, if only because he is sensitive to how they might be perceived.
Though acknowledging that some fans are entertained by his theatrics, Puig said in Spanish, “I want to show American baseball that I’m not disrespecting the game.
NO. No! Yasiel, no! Don’t listen to them. We love the bat flips. Love ’em. Maybe even more so when you do it on balls that don’t actually go out of the park. Because hey, why would a sport that’s constantly trying to deal with accusations that it’s having difficulty connecting with younger viewers want to showcase a superstar doing incredible things?
I wish that instead of Yasiel Puig respecting the game, the game would respect Yasiel Puig
— Patrick Dubuque (@euqubud) April 14, 2015
Damn straight.
Oh, and Juan Uribe is back in the lineup tonight, because despite the reaction of some fans that Alex Guerrero is suddenly somehow an irreplaceable must-start demigod, Don Mattingly isn’t completely out of his mind. On this topic, anyway.
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