A Fork Please

I've been a Seattle Mariner fan for at least two decades since moving back to the area, and have enjoyed the team, especially when they were in the post-season and tied for the best record ever by a team (116 wins and 42 losses), but ever since that season, they've been terrible all but one year.

With the loss last night to Oakland (June 25th), they became the worst team in the American league with only three teams in the national league with worse records, tying one for the fourth worst team in the major leagues. Gee, what a team to cheer for. And every year the general manager has promised to field a better team, young players "with promise." The "We're building for the future mentality."

Except the young players never get better so the future never comes. then they keep trading the few good players for more young prospects and bring in former great who fail miserably in Seattle. Good money down the drain, and all the while they keep the same management while not improving the team. And then they blame the manager and coaches.

Get the clue here? It's not the players, they trying and playing their best. They're just not a good team. They don't have a player hitting near let alone over .300, including Ichiro this year. They don't have one pitcher with a winning record, not even Felix Hernandez. They are near or at the bottom in any number of offensive team statistics.

They have the old problem that the pitching is giving up more runs than their hitting. The only good point is the defense is one of the best in baseball but if you can't score runs, all the pitching in the world won't win games. Their defense keeps them in the game, but defense alone won't win game, it just won't lose them, which bad pitching and hitting will. That's the problem.

And just this last week and weekend they lost a 3 games series to the worst time in baseball after getting swept by the same team in Seattle earlier in June. Yes, one win and 5 losses against the worst team. That's how bad it's gotten with the Mariners and all the announcers, managers and team leadership can say is the same pseudo-positive talk, aka cow pasture material.

The theme seems to be if your team isn't doing well, play the Mariners. Your worst pitcher will have a good day against the Mariners. All the statistics doesn't change that reality, some of the worst pitchers have beaten the Mariners with average pitching because the Mariners just don't hit and score runs.

The announcers keep finding positive ways to say things. The manager and coaches keep finding ways to extoll the players. And the general manager keeps finding ways to talk about the youth and future of the team, but all that doesn't mean anything when the team still loses games they should win.

The truth is the Mariners were done by May 1st and by the All-Star break they'll be burnt, so you can stick a fork in them for the season. There aren't any miracle players on the team to make it better. They've already brought up players from their triple A team in Tacoma, and they're no better.

The experts predicted the team to finish last in the American League West when the season began and the Mariners are right on cue. It took them until June to get there but they succeeded in failing. Their own success to date, losing. The only thing missing now is when they say, "We're looking to build a better team for next season."

Yeah, the announcers and management can keep pitching the positive thoughts but they can't hide the truth of the failure of the team management to get and field a good team, at least one that contends than simply plays hard but still loses. The only real question is how close to losing 100 games can they come. Again.