Bye Bye Matt, we hardly knew ya

Matt Lawton was released by the M's Saturday. Morse was brought up despite "hitting" 227/278/417 in T-town. Ostensibly, this is to give the M's more flexibility with Beltre and Bloomquist both hurting, as Morse could play third for AB and theoretically can cover all the infield and left field as well.

Of course, under Hargrove, the bench only matters when a guy gets hurt because, other than the Willie/Reed platoon/non-platoon, the starters play every day. Even when said starters are hitting .205.

Lawton never really got a chance here, but he didn't do much with the 27 at-bats he got. Most damning was his lack of extra-base hits, managing only 7 singles in his brief Mariner career. Of course those 27 ABs are a hell of a lot more than Borchard got, and quite a bit more than Petagine has gotten. Did I mention the Richie is hitting .205? No, he doesn't need a day off! He's our cleanup hitter!