As A Mariner Fan, I'm Pretty Much Done

                The Mariners entered this 2015 season with such high expectations.  Some dreamed of a World Series berth, even.  Most predicted us to make the playoffs.  But the Mariners sit at 42-50, and most Mariners fans would admit this season is probably over.  Is it mathematically and logically possible the Mariners could make a run at a playoff spot?  Sure.  But this team has been fiddled and farted with so much, there is absolutely NOTHING to give us any reason to expect a turnaround.  I for one am very disappointed in this team, and it's an all too familiar feeling I get with this ball club. 
                Four years ago, I said that if the Mariners didn't make the playoffs or LOOK like they'd make the playoffs by 2015, I'd give up on them.  Well, it's 2015 and the playoffs seem like a pipe dream.  I said I'd stop following them and stop buying merchandise and stop going to games and that's exactly what I'm going to do.  I'm slowly going to stop watching their games on TV, and from this point on I will not buy any Mariner merchandise or go to any games.  I refuse to support such a poorly run organization.  It's funny--all they have to do is look across the street to the Seahawks (and Sounders) to see how to run a successful sports franchise. 
                The Mariners are a joke.  Literally.  They've been made fun of on the TV show "How I Met Your Mother", they are constantly lauded and joked about by casual sports fans in Seattle.  You ask a person, any person who knows who the Mariners are and what they think of them, and (unless they've been under a rock the past 15 years) they'll say that they suck (or some variation).  This team has such a bad image problem I'm surprised they managed to lure high-priced free agents in Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz.  Oh that's right, they just threw enough money at them, anything to get someone to be a bobblehead on Bobblehead Night. 
                The amount of things wrong with this team and the reasons they lose more often than they win are too numerous for me to name.  Lloyd and Jack need to go.  In fact, ownership needs to go (but you can't "fire" ownership, sadly).  A lot of the players (while most of them not their fault) have under-performed and need to go.  This team is such a mess not even a GM with OCD would want to take this team on.  This organization had its "fifteen minutes of fame" from 1995-2001, but outside those years this baseball franchise is a complete and udder joke, failure, abomination, and travesty.  Those words may sound harsh, but it's the truth.  In the 32 years outside of 1995-2001, the Mariners have had just 7 WINNING SEASONS, eclipsing 90 wins just TWICE. 
                So I bid my farewell to the Mariners.  I hope your ticket and merchandise sales plummet.  If you're as fed up as I am, please join me in staying away from Safeco and refusing to buy merchandise.  You do one of those two things and all you're doing is encouraging them to continue to do what they're doing and that's building a LOSER.  There is something wrong with this organization, and it's not just the players.  In fact, it's BARELY them.  It's ownership and management.  Unless ownership changes or they take the necessary steps to "reboot" this franchise, I will not be following the Mariners.  I will be more than willing to come back and support this franchise once changes are made.  But until then, Mariners, I bid thee farewell.  

The Mariners Let Me Down... Again (And Z Should Be Fired)

If I were to die suddenly in the next few months, I'd want some of the Seattle Mariners to be my pallbearers, just so they could let me down one last time.  It's the 2014 season and once again, the Mariners let their fans down.  As I'm typing this, the Mariners only sit a 1/2 game out of a wild card spot, but have had a horrible start to the 2nd half.  They've lost 5 of their first 7 to start the 2nd half and lost their wild card spot.  Sure, they're not  far back, but we've seen this before so many times. 

This year felt different.  We had Cano, and Felix is having his best season.  Ever since the 8 game losing streak in late April, the Mariners had been playing really good baseball.  But there are just too many holes in the lineup and on this team to fix overnight.  Currently, there are roles to be filled at shortstop, DH, and ALL outfield positions.  You could almost say catcher as well, because Mike Zunino has struggled mightily at the plate to make contact. 

You would think almost 6 years into being a GM that over half of the team's lineup wouldn't need to be fixed or replaced, but it does.  Jack Zduriencik really has done a poor job of acquiring talent to fill needs.  James Jones is not the answer in centerfield.  He can get on base and wreck havoc, but he has zero power and doesn't play balls in the outfield too well.  He also needs to learn how to take a walk.  Ackley has really done nothing to live up to his #2 overall pick status, and Smoak and Montero continue to flop back and forth between the bigs and minors. 

The hitting on this team the past few seasons has been atrocious.  Since Jack arrived following the 2008 season, the team batting averages have been: .258, .236, .233, .234, .237, and .245 so far this season.  But, if you take out Robinson Cano, easily the team's best hitter and one of the very few competent hitters, the team batting average is just .233 for the year.  Other than Robinson Cano, why can't Jack Zduriencik recruit, find, sign, trade for, or acquire in any way some good hitting? 

Six years is long enough for a GM to put a team together, and the team Jack has put together is not good enough.  If the Mariners continue to slide and he cannot field us a winning (or even exciting) team, then he should be fired.  He has had long enough.  He has lost the faith of many Mariners fans, and he lost my faith long ago, when he signed a utility player to a $36 million contract. 

Hey, I may be wrong to give up on them at this point.  After all, they're only a 1/2 game out.  I could end up looking kinda silly for posting this when they play exciting baseball and maybe even make the playoffs.  But I know the Mariners.  I've watched them year in and year out since the late 90's.  This team is NOT built to win.  I cannot emphasize that enough.  Cano and Felix are elite players, but they are surrounded by cast-offs and minor league all-stars (which isn't a good thing).  Cano is just one man.  He alone cannot give us enough offensive support to stay competitive. 

Maybe help will get here someday with the last two first round picks in DJ Peterson and Alex Jackson.  But that won't be until 2016 at the earliest.  But this team right now is full of hitters who will NEVER be considered above average.  Let's count them, shall we?
Zunino, Sucre, Smoak, Hart, Morrison, Miller, Bloomquist, Romero, Jones, Ackley, Chavez.  That makes 11.  I almost counted Montero, and probably should have, but he's still young and needs to be given another shot.  But the players above are all poor hitters to varying degrees.  How bad, you ask?  Well let's look at their OPS.  A player's OPS is their on-base plus slugging percentage.  It is what I feel best determines a batter's worth to the lineup.  An OPS over .8 is above average, .7 to .8 is average, and under .7 is below average.  The players above have the following OPS's: .665, .364, .630, .626, .615, .599, .643, .557, .638, .653, and .618.  If that many guys are hitting below league average (most of them considerably below), then something is wrong in the front office.  You know what all of those players have in common?  They were all acquired by Jack Zduriencik. 

Unless the Mariners can miraculously start hitting and winning, it's time to fire Jack Zduriencik.  He may have saved our farm system, but he did not save the big league club.  Time for you to go, Jack. 


Update:

9/3/14: The Mariners still aren't out of it, being only 1 and 1/2 games out, but have given Jack Zduriencik a contract extension.  If this comes back to bite them in the bit, I refuse to be a fan of a team that hires boneheads like Z and Bavasi.  But, time will tell.  The Mariners still have issues, including hitting.  They gave Jack an extension just because he got lucky and the team is generating interest.  You wait until the season is over to assess.  If the Mariners slide in September, we'll all be thinking the same thing.  If they make the playoffs somehow, then call me wrong.  But this is not a playoff calibur team.