Bill and the Beanstalk

OK, this is getting ridiculous. Sure, the AL Worst is ripe for the picking, but how on Earth can THIS Mariners team, with THIS pitching staff, possibly be as close as 2 games out of the division lead nearly halfway through the season??? Congrats, fellas.

Sure, I love it. But I'm oh-so-skeptical that we can keep it up. We don't get to feast on the NL Worst all season long...there are those pesky AL teams to play, and they will be a tougher test (apparently...how is it that we're about 2.8 light years above .500 facing the NL this season?).

Well, let's enjoy the ride. But the franchise is in a very dangerous place. After all, Bavasi's job (and Hargrove's job) is on the line, so these clowns have nothing to lose by swapping the team's future for some shot at passing Oakland and Texas, a.k.a. "magic beans." Compounding the personal temptation to make later-for-now moves, the organization surely is sensitive to the fans' collective yearning for any sort of meaningful run at a title...I have no delusions that the Powers-That-Be(TM) will do anything other than enthusiastically endorse dealing the M's meager prospects for other teams' meager major league bench players.

Look, with a longer perspective on the Mariners' history, you can't help but be skeptical of dangerous moments like the next full month holds. Once the trading deadline hits, I'll feel a little better, but July could be pretty deadly. I'm all for deals in which we give up nothing of consequence, but those trades tend to bring back bad contracts and/or nothing of consequence in return. We must be patient. The astonishing Tigers are built mostly from within, and the Mariners need to do the same, since the men pulling the levers are incapable of doing so through free agency (despite a money advantage over both Oakland AND Texas).