The Diamond Fan

With Memorial day fast approaching, it is not too early to begin considering which teams may have already played themselves into “wait ’til next year” mode.  This season one need look no further than the West Coast, home of what are easily the two most disappointing teams in baseball: The Mariners and the Padres.

The Mariners are 18-30 as of today; the worst record in the American League.  They are 5-15 in May: 2-1 against San Diego, 3-14 against everybody else.  They have scored more than four runs only four times all month, and two of those games were losses (by scores of 13-12 and 12-8).  The team OBP of .309 is the worst in the league, and the team ERA of 4.60 is third worst in the league.  36 year old Raul Ibanez and 34 year old Ichiro Suzuki are the only really effective hitters, and Fleix Hernandez and Eric Bedard the only two effective starters.  The bullpen has been decent, but JJ Putz does not get enough leads to protect to make much of a difference.

In short, the Mariners at this point are the very definition of hopeless, and quite a bit of work needs to be done to get them into rebuilding mode.  The trade of potential future star Adam Jones in the Bedard trade is looking like a bad deal.  Bedard is not enough to get this team into contention now or in the near future, and Jones will be producing somewhere long after Bedard is past his peak effectiveness.

Things are not much better in San Diego.  The team OBP is .304, worst in the majors.  The pitching is somewhat better at a 4.40 ERA, but then again Petco Park is known as a good ballpark for pitchers, so 10th in the league is not all that great.

The saving grace for the Padres as compared to Seattle is that there is some decent young talent on the team.  Adrian Gonzalez, Kevin Kouzmanoff and Khalil Greene are productive regulars under age 30, and starting pitchers Jake Peavy and Chris Young are 27 and 29 respectively.  But there is not a lot in the Minor League pipeline, so the team is not super-well positioned for the future.  This season is quite a fall from three years of playoff or near-playoff caliber teams.

For two franchises that came into the 2008 season expecting to complete for a pennant, these two teams are in sad shape.

There has been a great deal of speculation about where Barry Bonds might end up playing this season, if he ends up playing. Most recent speculation has centered around Tampa Bay, but the folks over at The Mariner Monitor are wondering if the Mariners are interested in Bonds. While I agree that Bonds could definitely help an American League team as a DH, and that the Mariners could use an upgrade over Jose Vidro there, I don’t think Barry in Seattle is likely to happen for a number of reasons. The Mariner Monitor says “if Seattle were able to add Bonds at a reasonable rate i.e., $3 million/year …” Sorry but there is no way Bonds is going to play for $3 million per. He has way too much pride for that, when a lesser light such as Vidro is getting $7.5 mil. I think it would take $10 million, minimum to get Barry to suit up, and I don’ think the Mariners are willing to pony up that amount.

Barry could help the team, but I don’t agree that “adding a presence like Barry Bonds to an already good offense would undoubtedly make the Mariners THE team to beat in the American League West.” It would, perhaps, put them in the same ballpark as the Angels, but I would still consider the Angels the favorite. The Barry Bonds of 1998, maybe. But the Barry Bonds of 2008 is NOT enough to make a team with as many holes as the Mariners have into a top title contender. The payoff to the Mariners in signing him is just not as great as what it would cost. It would make for an interesting summer in the Pacific Northwest, though.

This deal seems like it has been talked about forever, but today it finally became official: the Mariners traded Adam Jones, George Sherrill and three pitching prospects to Baltimore for Erik Bedard. This is a deal that makes sense for both teams. getting Bedard gives the Mariners a terrific one-two at the top of the rotation, and gives them a realistic shot at contending for a playoff berth this year.

Even though he’s only 1-2 lifetime in four starts at Safeco Field, Bedard should be a stellar pitcher in that ballpark. If King Felix finally blossoms into the ace everyone expects him to be and the rest of the rotation pitches decently (as it should with Carlos Silva, Jarrod Washburn and Miguel Batista rounding it out) this is a championship-caliber rotation. The AL West race just went from “ho-hum, Angels win again” to “this could be interesting.”

On the Orioles’ side of things, this also looks like a good deal. They weren’t going to contend against the Red Sox and Yankees this year anyway, and Adam Jones is a player with a lot of upside. George Sherrill is a decent bullpen arm, and if any of the three pitching prospects pan out at all this could end up looking like a great move in a few years.

It turns managers’ minds into mush. Tonight the Mariners were playing a crucial game against the team ahead of them in the standings, the Angels. Bottom of the eight, Angels up 7-6 with the bases loaded and two out. Vlad Guerrero at the plate. The Mariners have one of the game’s dominant pitchers in the bullpen in J.J. Putz, who has had three days rest. Perfect time to bring him in and keep the crucial game within reach. And John McLaren brings in … Rick White. Rick White! Say what??? He of the 7.00 plus ERA, who was not even good enough to stick with the woeful Astros, for crying out loud.

Why? Because it wasn’t a “save situation”. God, how stupid can a man be and still be able to put on a uniform. I don’t care what the rule book says, if that wasn’t the exact proper time to bring in your best reliever, I don’t know what is. Predictably, Vlad nailed the first pitch for a 2 rbi single. Game over (for all intents and purposes). Nice job, John. Enjoy putting Putz in to get a “save” in a meaningless game down the stretch after your team has been eliminated.

Last night I went to Safeco Field to see the Mariners take on the White Sox. It was an entertaining game, with the Mariners coming from behind to win 7-5. Some observations/comments:

• The starting pitchers, Jeff Weaver and John Danks, were a study in contrast. Weaver started out rather rocky, giving up single runs in the 1st, 2nd, and 4th innings, two of them on home runs. Danks was solid the first time through the lineup, but ran into increasing difficulty after that. I think this is a function of the veteran/rookie split. Weaver, the veteran, didn’t panic over his early difficulties, made the necessary adjustments, and hung on to pitch a very effective 7 2/3 innings. Danks, the rookie, was very sharp in the beginning, but the hitters adjusted to him after they had seen him one and he didn’t have the maturity to make the required counter-adjustments.
• Jim Thome is one strong dude. His first home run was prodigious, and he hit the ball hard every time up. He ended up with two homers, and would have had a third without a great play by Raul Ibanez, who climbed the wall in left field to rob Thome of another.
• The play by Ibanez in the top of the 6th was spectacular: a highlight reel catch in which he climbed the wall to catch a shot off Thome’s bat that would have broken a 3-3 tie.
• I was interested in seeing Josh Fields, the White Sox’ rookie third baseman. He didn’t have a good night, going 0-4 with two stikeouts, making a costly throwing error, and getting eaten up by a crucial ground ball off the bat of Jose Guillen in the 5th inning. To be fair, Guillen’s ground ball was a bad-hop single that probably no one would have handled, but still, Fields’ fielding looks to be below par, so his bat will have to carry him as a Major League player.

All-in-all, it was a good performance by the Mariners. They look to be legitimate contenders who are in the race for the duration. but with the Yankees playing great ball and the Angels continuing to be strong also, getting into the playoffs still appears to be a daunting challenge.