Grand Salami Blog

Actually, as Jason points out, Boone needs 450 AB's this year for his option to vest, so there's one reason he doesn't want to go on the DL right there. But yeah, the M's will pick up the option even if it doesn't vest. The one thing I disagree with Jason on is that he says he doesn't want any of the M's free agents back, with the exception of Edgar. Edgar shouldn't have even been on the team this year -- if he'd retired the team would have been able to sign Rafael Palmeiro for less money (but of course they probably would have figured out a way to screw that up anyway...). Palmeiro signed for $4 mllion bucks this year with Baltimore. Edgar's got a base of $3 million with another $4 million in incentives based on him playing most of the time. Palmeiro will produce more than Edgar this year even if Edgar stays healthy and, unlike Edgar, he can actually run the bases and still plays the field when needed. I know, I know, it's close to blashpemy to question Edgar, but I'm not a Seattle native like Jason. I agree with Jason to a point -- Edgar can play here as long as he likes -- if he plays for free or close to it ($1 or $2 million). Unfortunately the M's may be paying $7 mil for Edgar to hit .265 with 10 homers and 59 RBI. That's not gonna cut it...

Excuses, excuses, excuses: I found this bit from the Mariners web site quite amusing. It discusses Randy Winn's weak arm and the fact that opposing teams have been taking extra bases on Winn all season. Winn says "
"People even run on Ichiro and he has one of the best arms in the game," Yeah Randy, guys run on Ichiro all the time. Nice defense, about as good as your defense in CF this year. The difference is that everybody runs on Winn and he throws nobody out (his only assist this year was on a throw that was cut off by an infielder) and Ichiro throws guys out when they run. When you throw like Randy Winn, guys will continue to run on your pathetic arm.

Apparently I'm not the only one admitting that it's over --- Steve Kelley has a piece, "Time to Mourn late, great M's" in Monday's Seattle Times that skewers the Mariners. The media is so tame in this town -- if this kind of piece were more prevalent, maybe the M's arrogant management would care. But they have so many sportswriters in this town in the back of their hand, that a column like this is rare indeed...

That old Yogi Berra saying goes "It Ain't Over Til It's Over". Well folks, not to be a quitter, but it's pretty clear that it's OVER.

Your Seattle Mariners blew a 6-0 lead today against New York and are now 9 1/2 games behind the Anaheim Angels and in last place in the American League West (they're also 7 games behind Texas, the leaders in the Wild Card race and 3 behind Oakland).

The Angels have Garret Anderson, Tim Salmon, Darin Erstad and Brendan Donnelly all on the disabled list and Jose Guillen went out today with a sprained knee and ankle and they continue to win. The Seattle Mariners, on the other hand, have no players of note on the DL, just Willie F Bloomquist, whose injury has improved the team as it's forced their pathetic manager Bob "Bo Mel" Melvin to play Jolbert Cabrera instead of Bloomquist.

Never mind that Melvin still hasn't had Cabrera (7 straight starts with a hit, 11 hits in those games) in the lineup as often as he should because of his ridiculous devotion to lefty/right nonsense. To illustrate this point, about ten days or so ago, Cabrera had some important hits in the M's series at Baltimore and threw out a runner at second base from center field, showing off an arm that Randy F Winn only dreams of having. After the final game vs. the Orioles, Melvin acknowledged Cabrera's performance but said "I don't think he'll be starting in the next series (at Detroit) because they're starting three right-handers." Since that time Cabrera has started twice vs. right-handers, both times when Bret Boone was forced out of the lineup with back spasms. Melvin probably didn't notice since he's so stuck on lefty/righty but Cabrera got four hits in the two games he started vs. righties, including Friday's win over the Yankees.

Perhaps the problem with the Mariners is they haven't had enough injuries! If only John Olerud and Randy Winn and Rich Aurilia could have gone out with injuries and been replaced by better players (oh wait, as usual we have very few positional prospects -- great scouting, great work by Gillick and Bavasi in identifying minor league hitters on other teams worthy of acquiring) we might have had a shot at getting out of this hole.

Olerud is done -- his hitting reminds me of Lou Gehrig early in the 1939 season (before he retired). Olerud's currently at .250 with a .350 slugging percentage. He made a great defensive play at first today to take away a base hit and is still a Gold Glover defensively, but it's time for him to retire. If not retire, he should at least have the decency to admit he's not earning his $7.7 million and offer to give the team 90% of it back. For $700,000, fine, why quibble, let him keep a million bucks, he'd be a mighty fine defensive replacement. Sorry, John, but this is the second year in a row when you're just out there stealing money. Teams just don't pay guys nearly $8 million to hit 10 home runs like Olerud did last year (this year he's on pace for roughly 5 home runs and 40 RBI)...

While the M's will be done with Olerud's insane contract at the end of the current season, they're stuck with Randy Winn's contract for two more seasons. Winn, who'll be paid $3.75 mil a year, is best cast as a fourth outfielder and should be making $1.5 million at most. Nobody but your Seattle Mariners would pay nearly $4 million for a guy who rarely hits home runs and has no power. Winn is currently hitting .233 with a ghastly slugging percentage of .311 and playing the worst defensive center field in baseball. But hey, I'm sure that Randy Winn is a great guy and I'm certain he's got some great recipes to contribute to the annual wives' cookbook...

Likewise, I'm sure Rich Aurilia is a great guy too, but he's been downright Cirilloesque this year. After hitting 4 doubles in the M's three-game opening series vs. Anaheim (all losses), Aurilia has had exactly TWO extra base hits (both doubles) in the last 28 games!!!! Also, Aurilia had nine RBI in the team's first four games of the season and has just three more RBI in the last 27 games!! I couldn't make these numbers up if I tried! Aurilia is currently hitting .217 with a slugging percentage below Olerud and Winn (.274). Believe it or not, as bad as he played for the Mariners, after Cirillo's first 31 games with the team (where the M's are right now), he was hitting .265 with a .425 slugging percentage, 5 HR's, 22 RBI and 5 stolen bases!! 2001 sure seems like a long time ago -- Auriia, who hit 37 homers that year, hasn't come close to hitting one yet for the M's (and he didn't even have one in spring training!).

Both Bob Melvin and the Mariners organization are oblivious to the struggles these players are having, as they keep insisting that these are good players and that they'll perform up to their capabilities any day now. Melvin in particular, came out with this gem recently, stating that if he shook things up it'd be a sign of panic. So Melvin is more concerned with what things look like to outsiders than actually recognizing that the team has problems that need to be addressed and trying to fix them.

Besides the Cabrera situation, here's another example that shows that Melvin and the Seattle organization are terrible at evaluating talent. JJ Putz came up from Triple-A in the middle of the year last year and was dominating in his one appearance for the M's, but he and his 95 MPH fastball were sent back down quickly when they needed a roster spot. He returned in September but wasn't giving any meaningful innings. 2004 comes around and the team re-signs Hasegawa to a two-year deal at $3 mil a year, they sign lefties Mike Myers, Terry Mulholland and Ron Villone (2 of which make the team) and they allow Kevin Jarvis to make the club out of spring training. Putz, despite a stellar spring, had no chance to make the team. He's up now for the second time this year and, pitching exclusively in blowouts, has pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowed no runs, one hit, one walk and struck out ten. Yet, when Willie Bloomquist is ready to come off the DL in a few days, who do you think will be sent down to Tacoma? None other than J.J. Putz, because that special something that Bloomquist brings to the ballclub (the stuff you don't see in the box score or on the stats page or at the stadium or on your TV set) is just what this team is missing to turn things around. The Mariners are 2-7 in games started by Willie Bloomquist this year...

Matt -- Nobody's harsher on Randy Winn's than me, but that throw was on the money and the runner was nailed. It doesn't matter where the runner was when Winn fielded the ball, if Winn makes his usual Randy F. Winn throw, it's way off line and the runner scores easily, regardless of where he was when Randy the Great released the ball. We've seen Winn throw the ball up both lines, we've seen him mishandle the ball when he had a great shot at a runner at home, but never this year before tonight did we see Randy Winn throw the ball well enough to get it to the base, home, third or second before a runner got there. While this is certainly a breakthrough --- adrenealine from the Yankees being here?, I don't expect to see it happen again (they can't coach him to throw better if he has a truly terrible arm, can they?)

Actually. Cabrera's three-hit effort tonight was the Mariners' fifeeenth three-hit game of the year (in 29 games). Ichiro leads the club with three and Dan Wilson (!), Bret Boone and Scott Spiezio each have two. Edgar, Olerud, Ibanez, Winn, Aurilia each have one apiece. As for two-hit games, Ichiro also leads there, with 8, with Boone and Ibanez tied for second with six two-hit games. Edgar, with his double and home run tonight, now has five, Winn and Olerud have four each, Spiezio, three, Cabrera and Aurilia, two and Dave Hansen and the dearly departed Ben Davis have one two-hit game each.

Jolbert Cabrera has now hit safely in his last six starts with ten hits in those six starts!

Sorry to say but I'm still in the "Bob Melvin is a Bumbing Idiot and should be fired"camp. Take tonight's game for example -- with better options in the pen (Mateo, Putz, Soriano if he's at least 90%) in a game this team desperately needed, Melvin used Shigetoshi Hasegawa with a 6-2 lead and two runners on in the 7th inning. Two of the first three hitters he faced, Kenny Lofton and Derek Jeter, had rocked him in the past, with Jeter 8-for-14 and Lofton 4-for-8 vs. him. And those numbers were compiled when Hasegawa was good! Hasegawa got 3 of 4 hitters out but in that situation and with those numbers I would have gone with one of the better options. Ron Villone would have been a better option there too...

I'm not sure about this, but it definitely seems like Jolbert Cabrera's three-hit game tonight was the first three-hit game for the M's this year. There have probably been others (I'll check), but I don't recall them. Cabrera should be used like Mark McLemore was in 2001 and 2002, starting 4 or so games a week, at a bunch of different positions. One or two games in CF a week, one or two games a week at 1B against lefthanders, a game a week at SS (more if Aurilia continues to struggle) and a game every now and again at 3B to give Spiezio a day off. With Cabrera around, Willie Bloomquist, when he returns from the DL, should NEVER see the starting lineup. Heck, maybe they'll finally decide that since Cabrera does Willie's job much better than Willie does, that Willie's job should be in Tacoma and they can acquire another bat for the bench to take Bloomquist's roster spot (or a slugging OF like Carlos Beltran, moving Randy Winn to the bench). As a bench player, Randy Winn would be one of the best in the league (and of course he'd also be one of the highest paid bench players ever at $3.75 million).

Speaking of Randy Winn, he made the throw of his life tonight against the Yankees. He had a runner thrown out at the plate but the ump called him safe. Sure the throw was from short CF, but Winn usually throws that ball way up the line. I didn't know he had it in him. Maybe Winn's feeling footsteps, with Cabrera showing he can play a better CF and hit with some pop...