One Positive Step At A Time

I know I've been less than kind to the Mariners organization this year - and I did say they'd lose a bunch of games (though not this many) - but I'll give credit where credit is due. In the last week the team has (1) traded an old free-agent reliever for a young pitching prospect, (2) sent Brandon Marrow (who had been used out of the pen) down to the minors to begin his conversion to starting pitcher (finally), (3) moved Miguel Batista (6.80 ERA) to the pen and called up Ryan Rowland-Smith to take his spot in the rotation, (4) released designated "hitter" Jose Vidro (he of the .234/.274/.338 line), and (5) brought slugging OF Wladimir Balentin up. Now if they would just take Raul Ibanez's glove away and make him the DH (with Wlad taking his spot in left) then the team will have improved itself. They still aren't very good, but one has to start somewhere.

While I'm on the M's, I just want to note that Willie Bloomquist has an OBP almost 100 points above his SLG (.382 to .288). He has 44 singles and 1 double on the year. Also, the top two hitters by BA for Seattle are pitcher Felix Hernandez (1.000 with a grand slam in his only at bat) and pitcher Erik Bedard (.500 - two singles in four at bats). The guy with the second best WHIP (behind Marrow's 0.90) is catcher Jamie Burke (1.00 in his one inning of work). At least they're amusing.