Joel Pineiro was demoted to the bullpen yesterday---about five or six weeks too late, if you ask me. Who's going to take his next start (never mind the ones after that)? A left handed middle reliever by the name of Jake Woods. Who is he starting against? His former team, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Azusa, Cucamonga and All Points East; for whom he pitched a grand total of 27 innings last year and not as a starter (OK, so he has pitched 57 innings this year, again not as a starter).
Will Gil Meche be the next one to receive this treatment? He has been woefully inconsistent this year (and last year, and part of the year before that). If so, who will take HIS place? Jamie Moyer needs to retire and Jarod Washburn needs some run support. Other than that, our pitching rotation is just fine thank you very much(sarcasm alert), If it sounds like four out of the five designated starters are in trouble, you are getting the picture quite clearly.
Then there is the offense (and offensive it is, too). Ichiro is in an awful slump (well, for him, that is), and everyone else is not far behind. In the past ten days or so, it has gotten even worse. There has been enough swinging and missing at pitches to provide air conditioning for the fans who are present to watch the games. As for the season series with the Oakland Athletics.......no, wait, we are not going to go there, we just aren't.
After two horrendous seasons (2004, 2005), this one has been better, but only marginally. This is not, however, to say that there are not rays of hope on the horizon. Yuniesky Betancourt and Jose Lopez look to be turning themselves into a middle infield with quite a bit of promise. Felix Hernandez (always assuming that they don't allow his arm to fall off from overwork--and that may be a BIG assumption given the Mariners' history with young pitchers) is the ace of the future. The aforementioned Messrs. Meche and Pineiro are both in their walk years, and it is reasonably doubtful that either one or both of them will be back. Mark Lowe has been nothing short of phenomenal since his call up from AA San Antonio, but he has already had elbow pain and been unavailable for a short period in the past few weeks.
What will it take to completely turn the team around? (I will avoid the obvious--get rid of most everybody who is here currently and start over, primarily because that could turn out with even more disastrous results). Ownership's publicly stated goal (like that of the vast majority of sports franchises nowadays) is the bottom line. They have promised, repeatedly I might add, to field a "competitive" team. They never promised us a winning team, though even I am intelligent enough to know that winning teams bring in more revenue than losing ones, but that is another issue entirely (and one I addressed in my early days here....see "What Howard Lincoln Could Learn From George Steinbrenner" ).
If they want the fans to start coming back to Safeco Field (and we/they have been staying away in droves this year (either that or they have been cleverly disguised as empty seats)) rather than staying home to support the team by watching on television, where it doesn't cost upwards of $200 per game to watch them lose, there needs to be a change of attitude in the upper management arena. Promise us a winning team, and mean it, and then PROVE that you mean it.
Non-tender or don't resign free agents to be that haven't been productive this year (and before, as indicated). Don't start a Florida Marlins type fire-sale in the offseason and cut payroll to Devil Rays levels. Convince Jamie Moyer that he either retires to run his foundation and/or becomes a pitching coach somewhere in the organization, but don't sign him to another one year contract. He just isn't the pitcher that he used to be, and it is hurting the team (and him). Protect the arms of the young pitchers. And get a good sports psychologist in to help out those who are left and yet to come, ,a la what the Seahawks did last year in their Super Bowl season.
Oh, yes, probably most importantly.....send Howard and Chuck packing and replace them with some real baseball men, and maybe we need a new GM, too (I am reserving judgement on that one, because no one knows for sure what Bill Bavasi could really do if he had free reign to make deals rather than having to live up to the higher ups expectations of a bolstered bottom line before baseball needs).
Does this mean that I am jumping off the Mariners bandwagon? No, not at all. I will continue to watch or listen to every game. I will just be doing it from home for the time being, because I have a lot of better uses for my ticket money while they are in this losing frame of mind.
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