Wednesday, April 24, 2013

A Long Season Ahead

Well, it was a good spring training when the Mariners were 21 wins and 11 losses, but the season it's off to an early start of a long dreadful season of a lackluster team, again.

They are 8 wins and 15 losses after being swept by the Texas Rangers in 3 games and 5 of 6 games this year. They were beaten by the Houston Astros in 2 of 3 games early in the season after a 2 and 2 start and beaten in 2 of 3 games again by Houston for the second time.

The team is near the bottom of almost all the offsensive statistics except one, strikeouts where they near the top for the most by any team in Major League Baseball (MLB).

And their defensive is worse than last year when they finished second after leading the MLB most of the year, losing first by using some minor league players during September.

So that's the season so far and will be from now until the last game where they'll fight it out with the Houston Astros for the worst record in the American League West division and maybe the American League itself.

And in the end, everyone will blame the players who play their hearts out, but really aren't the caliber of MLB players. The real blame belongs with the President and General Manager who failed to get a team for Eric Wedge to manage and win.

He and the coaches can only do so much. The players can only do their best, although some are clearly not MLB quality, just look at their batting average (eg. Justin Smoak, Dustin Ackley, etc.). But the President and GM can do more and they haven't.

The brought in experienced players, Mike Morse, Raul Ibanez, Jason Bay and Kendry Morales, only one of whom is hitting over .250 so far. The team is near the bottom in pitching and their only saving grace is their defense, but it's worse than last year.

This has been the same recipe management used in the past, with "experienced" players who failed and young prospects who only succeeded to be traded leaving the team worse off. It's clear the management doesn't want to field a good team, but just hope it's good and sell the image of that hope.

And they've failed as have many of the players. The fans who paid for the ballpark (remember the taxpayers) deserve a winning team and the ownership doesn't care about winning, it's why attendence has fallen the last few years including this year again. Only the faithful still go and/or watch on TV.

There are 139 games to go. Any bets they'll struggle to match last year's record and be out of contention by the All-Star break if not sooner?

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