Bullet Point Friday

• If you throw out the brutal 1-10 stretch from early May the M's are 27-26, one game over 500. The M's are pretty much a .500 team, but without the consistent hitting to sustain any long winning streaks, and bad enough pitching to throw up some bad losing streaks. They could not close out the Phillies last night and in fact have only swept one series all year (Kansas City).

• This little tidbit appeared at the bottom of Will Carroll's Baseball Prospectus (registration required) column yesterday: Scott Spiezio is listed as out "indefinitely" after a back injury during his rehab. Some think he'll never play for the M's again.

• Are the M's that down on Speez? Are you telling me he couldn't take Dobbs' roster spot? He couldn't do everything Dobbs is doing for 10 times the price? That was 9 million well spent. Gillick might have been better served buying J.Lo 9 engagement rings.

• Chris Snelling: 369/453/564. I'm just saying.

• I actually learned something from one of Jim Street's Mariner Mailbags! In responding to a why doesn't Ichiro play center qeustion, Street said: According to the Mariners' media guide, when Ichiro played for the Orix Blue Wave, he "won seven consecutive Gold Gloves for his solid defense and strong arm in right field." I have always heard that Ichiro played center in Japan. I checked a few different Japanese baseball sites and while I could not find hard games played by position data, all the anecdotal references pegged Ichiro as a rightfielder. Of course Street then closed with this ridiculous line: The subject of Ichiro playing center field for the Mariners never has seriously been considered, primarily because he is the best defensive right fielder in the American League. That's the Jim Street we know and love!