Speed

What do you do to tweak a team that has poor-to-middling power (.425 slugging percentage in 2007, .383 so far in 2008), sub-par fielding (.979, 13th in the A.L.), mediocre pitching (4.21 ERA) and few prospects for immediate improvement in any of these areas - all leading to a disappointing 14-19 record out of the gate?

Speed.

Let's look at some facts.

In 2007, the top half of the American League in steals had a cumulative +38 win/loss record. Amongst those teams were three of the four playoff participants. So far in 2008, the top seven A.L. teams are a combined +11.

It may seem obvious even without the math, but there is a provable correlation between putting the game in motion and results on the diamond.

Speed is maybe the easiest "commodity" to acquire in baseball. Willie F'in Bloomquist has it, for God's sake. As of this writing, 17 American League players are on pace for 25 steals or more, including just one Mariner (Ichiro!). If you aren't a team that has it, then you'd better be a slugging club like last year's Cleveland Indians. The Mariners aren't even remotely close to that sort of team.

Ichiro should swipe 40+ bags. The M's next best base stealer is their freakin' cleanup hitter.

Do the M's have the ideal personnel to successfully put the game in motion? No, probably not. However, for all of John McLaren's preseason posturing about Ichiro stealing 80 bases, they've only tried 33 times in the first 33 games. That's not all that bad (only four A.L. teams exceeded 1.0 attempts/game last year), but they need to be one of those upper-end clubs in successful steals to compensate for their slugging deficiencies. As of this writing, the Mariners were 7th in steals in the A.L.

Get this team in motion, McLaren. You're 14-19 and on the verge of being out of the race already. The Mariners aren't going to morph into a good defensive club, or a power hitting team, and your bullpen has gone from shutdown to meltdown. What do you have to lose?

Back to the Future

Flipping aimlessly through the channels, I saw that Back to the Future, Part II was being replayed for the one millionth time on HBO tonight. Seemingly for the first time in the Bavasi era, a version of that theme is being played in Mariner-land as we speak.

The Mariners have finally taken a step toward a significant youth infusion on the big club level. Seemingly every previous effort to squeeze the final vestiges of talent from aging, barely ever has-beens (as the Goose/Slider exchange from Top Gun goes: "The list is long, but distinguished - yeah, well so's my Johnson": Scott Spezio, Rich Aurilia, Carl Everett, Matt Lawton, Jeff Weaver, to name a few) has roundly failed. The worst part about it was that the team refused to recognize the inevitability of the failures until far too late to salvage anything. At least the latest dumpster dives - Wilkerson and Norton, to be specific - were cut loose early.

This small dust up covers two issues I addressed in recent posts: age and suckitude. I labeled both Wilkerson and Norton as "crap" in my last post and had a discussion as to how old the Mariners were for a rebuilding team in my A Rented Mule piece. Therefore, I feel especially pleased that both issues were addressed quickly by the previously slow-witted Mariners front office.

I don't care if Balentien and/or Clement may take time to produce at this level. They are replacing or augmenting positions that aren't producing as it is in right field and at DH. Moreover, it's exciting to see top young players break in and kick start their careers. Watching a team of mostly mediocre 30+ veterans go through the motions just isn't that enthralling. Plus, one can only hope that the youth movement might serve as a Vitamin B-12 injection to the veterans, not to mention the team's chances as this season unfolds.

I'm going to the May 9th game against the White Sox. Row 10, directly behind home plate, pretty close to the best seats in the house. All of a sudden there's a new sense of energy around watching this team play. Let's hope it translates into results on the field.

Welcome Wlad the Destroyer

Bam!

Winnin' yoo-glee

I went to my first M's game last night, and although I sat in the third deck overlooking left field, enjoyed watching Bedard pitch. He wasn't overpowering (the gun showed his fastball to be in the 89-92 range), but he seemed to keep the A's hitters off-balance all night long. His line was good: 6 2/3 IP, 2 hits, 0 runs, 4 K's, 4 BB's, albeit against a lineup that features a hell of a lot of Triple A hitters. It was the perfect opponent to tune up against.

The lineup was painful to witness, even if the results were what we wanted. After the average-to-above-average top four of Ichiro, Lopez, Ibanez and Beltre, McLaren trotted out the following: Norton, Sexson, Wilkerson, Burke, Betancourt. Crap, crap, crap, crap and decent. Three games behind first notwithstanding, the M's are not going to be able to keep up with the lack of overall talent they have offensively. There are just too many holes in the lineup, even when regulars Johjima (.194) and Vidro (.195) are in it. Maybe especially when they are in it, at least at this point. If Greg Norton is batting fifth in your lineup (even though he did go 3-for-4 with 3 RBI's last night), you know you have issues.

And then there's the bullpen. I admit that I still believe this is an area of strength for this ball club. Corcoran, Green and Morrow have been pretty solid, with opponents hitting .211, .213 and .083 against them, respectively. Green's 10 BB's in 12 2/3 IP are a large blemish, though, portending bigger problems for him. Speaking of problems, JJ Putz was just awful last night. I know he is rusty, but it was painful to watch him walk three and give up two hits in his one inning of work, turning a 5-1 game into a nail-biter. I was annoyed that Morrow wasn't left in the game - partly because he only threw 11 pitches in the 8th, mostly because he was in line for a cheap save for my fantasy team - and my annoyance grew as Putz struggled. Had the M's faced a team with a real lineup, this could have been a devastating loss.

I was grateful to see the Mariners hold on for the win and Bedard was a treat to watch, but with the offense Seattle has and the over-compartmentalization McLaren performs as manager, it's going to take divine intervention for this team to stay in the race all season long. Or a real GM.

Snow!

In April. What the hell?

I am a huge fan of DirecTV. Way better than cable. Unless it snows.

Then you miss a tremendously exciting early season game with first place on the line.

Grrrrr!