**2008 Seattle Mariners**

roar

big sexy with the power bat!

xavier mcdaniel

i tuned in at the right time, i love niehaus' home run calls.

roar

xavier mcdaniel wrote:

i tuned in at the right time, i love niehaus' home run calls.

me too. he's a future hall of famer!

AW YEAH, WLADIMIR!

xavier mcdaniel

nice job of bouncing back early so far for the mariners, good for balentien after really struggling on the trip.

South of Seattle

roar wrote:

me too. he's a future hall of famer!

AW YEAH, WLADIMIR!

Who's your Wladdy?

aNiMaL

Yeah! A few margaritas into Cinco de Mayo and I come in to see a team called the Mariners ahead 7-0!! Wow, who woulda thunk it?

aNiMaL

Good win tonight - even though it was against the hapless Rangers.

Lukin66

aNiMaL wrote:

Good win tonight - even though it was against the hapless Rangers.

hey, I'll take it! nice to see sexson hit something too...

aNiMaL

Dude!

This is painful to watch...

We're stinking up the joint and I don't like it one bit!

This isn't how I imagined it to be back in spring training.

roar

that was very, very bad.

aNiMaL

Bavasi era, five years in the making, looks like a failure

DAVE BOLING; THE NEWS TRIBUNE

Published: May 13th, 2008 01:00 AM | Updated: May 13th, 2008 11:46 AM

Bill Bavasi is in his fifth season as general manager of the Seattle Mariners. So he has been given sufficient time to produce a winner.

The Mariners’ $118 million payroll ranks in the top 10 in baseball. So he’s been given sufficient resources to produce a winner.

But the Mariners are once again last in their division, a spot they owned three of the past four seasons.

Almost by definition, considering those figures, Bavasi deserves to be fired.

I’m a softy when it comes time to write these columns. I like to remind the reader that everyone is human and capable of making mistakes (a point supported by the play of many of the players Bavasi has hired, with such names as Speizio, Aurilia, Everett, Weaver, Ramirez and many others).

And Bavasi isn’t alone in this, as the culpability for failure by a franchise usually should be widely shared.

Even as we remember that franchise executives have feelings and families and extenuating circumstances, there’s nonetheless a degree of public accountability that comes with the position.

And the 2008 Mariners aren’t just bad. They’re boringly bad. They’re lifelessly bad. It’s taken a lot of losing to do it, but they’ve eroded a huge and dedicated fan base.

Bavasi has had time to fix it and it’s only gotten worse.

There really should be a lot to like about this team, which makes the situation even more frustrating to fans.

There’s the incomparable Ichiro, of course, the young middle infielders, Adrian Beltre, a nice season going by Raul Ibañez, the promise of new right fielder Wladimir Balentien, a rotation that features Erik Bedard, Felix Hernandez and Carlos Silva, and some strong arms in the bullpen.

When you look at it that way, you have to wonder: How can this team be this bad?

For one thing, it just seems as if there’s so little spark out there. Remember those “Two outs – so what?” teams? These guys are “Two down – game over.”

Ibañez came up with big hit in a timely fashion in a win Sunday, but that was an exception.

Really, they’ve been doing nothing consistently well, ranking 10th or lower in all the major American League statistical categories except for stolen bases (sixth).

Before Monday night’s game, the Mariners were batting .247 collectively, a drop of .40 points from last year’s average, and a franchise low since 1983. And there were some monumentally dreadful teams during that span.

And all this is coming with the ninth-highest payroll in the big leagues.

Maybe it’s management’s fault for opening the vault. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

But Florida, with the game’s lowest payroll, had the best record in baseball as of Monday. Tampa is second cheapest and nonetheless leads the Yankees in the AL East. AL West-leading Oakland has the third-lowest salary expenses.

Look at Arizona, which is eighth from the bottom with a payroll of $66 million and leads the NL West Division. Who would have believed that the secret to success for the Mariners would have been to cut the payroll in half and never fire Bob Melvin?

Where’s manager John McLaren fit in this debate? There’s not much evidence that he has this team playing anywhere near its potential. But he’s had it less than a season and he was handed kind of a mess. I think he gets a pass for a while.

How much time do you give Bavasi? Is there a point in firing him now? After the trade deadline? Once the season is irreversibly wasted? At the end of the season?

If you do it now, it would seem to signal that you’ve thrown in the towel and the season is over.

Of course, it may be over soon anyway.

Dave Boling: 253-597-8440

Dave.boling@thenewstribune.com

xavier mcdaniel

aNiMaL wrote:

Bavasi era, five years in the making, looks like a failure

DAVE BOLING; THE NEWS TRIBUNE

Published: May 13th, 2008 01:00 AM | Updated: May 13th, 2008 11:46 AM

Bill Bavasi is in his fifth season as general manager of the Seattle Mariners. So he has been given sufficient time to produce a winner.

The Mariners’ $118 million payroll ranks in the top 10 in baseball. So he’s been given sufficient resources to produce a winner.

But the Mariners are once again last in their division, a spot they owned three of the past four seasons.

Almost by definition, considering those figures, Bavasi deserves to be fired.

I’m a softy when it comes time to write these columns. I like to remind the reader that everyone is human and capable of making mistakes (a point supported by the play of many of the players Bavasi has hired, with such names as Speizio, Aurilia, Everett, Weaver, Ramirez and many others).

And Bavasi isn’t alone in this, as the culpability for failure by a franchise usually should be widely shared.

Even as we remember that franchise executives have feelings and families and extenuating circumstances, there’s nonetheless a degree of public accountability that comes with the position.

And the 2008 Mariners aren’t just bad. They’re boringly bad. They’re lifelessly bad. It’s taken a lot of losing to do it, but they’ve eroded a huge and dedicated fan base.

Bavasi has had time to fix it and it’s only gotten worse.

There really should be a lot to like about this team, which makes the situation even more frustrating to fans.

There’s the incomparable Ichiro, of course, the young middle infielders, Adrian Beltre, a nice season going by Raul Ibañez, the promise of new right fielder Wladimir Balentien, a rotation that features Erik Bedard, Felix Hernandez and Carlos Silva, and some strong arms in the bullpen.

When you look at it that way, you have to wonder: How can this team be this bad?

For one thing, it just seems as if there’s so little spark out there. Remember those “Two outs – so what?” teams? These guys are “Two down – game over.”

Ibañez came up with big hit in a timely fashion in a win Sunday, but that was an exception.

Really, they’ve been doing nothing consistently well, ranking 10th or lower in all the major American League statistical categories except for stolen bases (sixth).

Before Monday night’s game, the Mariners were batting .247 collectively, a drop of .40 points from last year’s average, and a franchise low since 1983. And there were some monumentally dreadful teams during that span.

And all this is coming with the ninth-highest payroll in the big leagues.

Maybe it’s management’s fault for opening the vault. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

But Florida, with the game’s lowest payroll, had the best record in baseball as of Monday. Tampa is second cheapest and nonetheless leads the Yankees in the AL East. AL West-leading Oakland has the third-lowest salary expenses.

Look at Arizona, which is eighth from the bottom with a payroll of $66 million and leads the NL West Division. Who would have believed that the secret to success for the Mariners would have been to cut the payroll in half and never fire Bob Melvin?

Where’s manager John McLaren fit in this debate? There’s not much evidence that he has this team playing anywhere near its potential. But he’s had it less than a season and he was handed kind of a mess. I think he gets a pass for a while.

How much time do you give Bavasi? Is there a point in firing him now? After the trade deadline? Once the season is irreversibly wasted? At the end of the season?

If you do it now, it would seem to signal that you’ve thrown in the towel and the season is over.

Of course, it may be over soon anyway.

Dave Boling: 253-597-8440

Dave.boling@thenewstribune.com

my sympathies, i've endured the same thing to a greater extent with isiah thomas' reign of error..

roar

freaking win this one!

that is all.

sennin

roar wrote:

freaking win this one!

that is all.

..and the next 12 to 14.

sennin

holy crap! The M's scored!

Now lets see if we they can hold off the Ranger's in the bottom of the 12th!

Lukin66

sennin wrote:

holy crap! The M's scored!

Now lets see if we they can hold off the Ranger's in the bottom of the 12th!

holy crap! The M's won!

Hawkshore

Lukin66 wrote:

holy crap! The M's won!

To quote DN Myyyy Ohhhhh Myyyy!

aNiMaL

Wow, so that's what it is like to win a ballgame. Huh.

Lukin66

aNiMaL wrote:

Wow, so that's what it is like to win a ballgame. Huh.

it's a strange feeling, huh?

roar

tomorrow is going to be an AMAZING evening at the ballpark.
85 degree day...against our "rival" Padres. we just might win!
buy your tix.

go m's.