Checking in on the M’s

As you may have noticed, the blog has switched to football mode in the last couple weeks.  This was a combination of the Mariners sucking and football being a breath of fresh air.  There hasn’t been anything really exciting as far as the Mariners go lately but here’s what little news there is:

• After Tacoma won the PCL Championship several players were called up.  These players were Justin Smoak, Dan Cortes, Matt Mangini, Greg Halman, and Anthony Varvaro.  Cortes has been by far the  most impressive so far.  He hasn’t allowed a base-runner in two innings of work and has struck out 4 of 6 hitters faced.  He’ll be in the bullpen next year all season, barring injury, and could take on the 8th inning role (which is basically what he’s doing now).  Mangini has hit pretty well since coming up to the bigs.  No one has questioned his hitting, it’s his defense that stops him from being a top prospect.  More on him below.  Smoak has gotten hot the last two days, with 4 hits including a home run.  He’s starting to look like the top prospect we traded for.  Halman and Varvaro haven’t seen a ton of action but Halman notched his first hit tonight and Varvaro is pitching as I type this.  All of them have been decent, if not more.  It’s a shame they weren’t up here sooner.  Update: Varvaro didn’t do so well tonight, but he still has a bright future as a lefty reliever.
• The two big names not to get called up are Dustin Ackley and Josh Lueke.  Ackley just needed a break before he starts fall league.  Enough has been written about Lueke, so I won’t add anything.  I’m cheering for the guy but I have my doubts that he’ll ever be in a Mariner uniform despite his unquestionable talent.
• The Mariners will score over 500 runs this year.  With 6 runs so far tonight, they are up to 497 runs.  That’s kind of too bad.  On the other hand, do you realize how pathetic it is that we can even talk about this.
• Speaking of Mangini, with a little more success we could see him having a role on the team next year.  Jose Lopez will be gone, thank goodness, and if the opportunity comes to trade Chone Figgins the M’s might take it.  That would leave a hole at third base and why not give Mangini the opportunity?  Seattle won’t be good next year so I’d like to see as many young players as possible.  They may platoon him or he could be a good lefty bat off the bench, at least.
• Speaking of Chone Figgins, he’s hitting .360 in September.  That is good news concerning next year.  He can still be a valuable player despite his big contract and down year.  He has more stolen bases than B.J. Upton.  That is weird to me for some reason.  I can’t even remember him being on base too many times.
• Ichiro got over 200 hits, again.  This is because Ichiro is awesome.  He is worth his big contract, regardless of what other people say.  If you think he’s overrated please talk to me, I would love to have this argument.
• The M’s need to go 4-3 the rest of the way to avoid 100 losses.  They are ahead by one right now in the 8th.  Needless to say, it feels a lot better to lose 99 games than it does 100.  Do we know why?  No.  Mainly just because the human race is weird.

That’s about all I can think of.  If you have any Mariner questions let me know in the comments and I’ll try to address them.

Andrew