Back to Reality and the Mariners Inability to Win Much

Life and the Mariners not winning have kept me away from this blog for a while now, and after their win last night, I feel inspired! Okay, not really, by the win, but probably more so by Ichiro's Griffey-like catch the other night.

Last night's victory snapped a losing streak of a number not worth thinking about. Jose Lopez has to be the Mariners most underrated player so far this season, although he has struggled at times, in terms of clutch performance. A crucial base hit to end the game ninth and give JJ the win was his accomplishment for last night. Manny Ramirez and his long (can you call it hair?) dreadlocks hit number 499. The M's are up 1-0 on the Red Sox right now, so no number 500 for Manny, yet.

I'm going to wait a little while longer to make a mid season report card for the Mariners, but as of right now, I don't see many getting too many votes for the trip to the Big Apple for the last All-Star game at Yankee Stadium.

In other news, Cha Seung Baek is now out of the Mariners organization after, well, what did he do here again? He was shipped off to San Diego for right hander Jared Wells. Not sure of any relation to David Wells.

Maybe Bavasi's job is still pretty secure. According to president Chuck Armstrong, Bavasi will not be let go of any time soon. It's not like he's done anything to get fired, but how much has he done right?

Joh's Extension Influeneced?

Geoff Baker comes in with this line from his latest post.

Why did the team extend Kenji Johjima for three years? Beats me. Either it has absolutely zero clue about timing, or, as has been suggested to me repeatedly this week, this was a call made by the ownership in Japan.

That made me think too. Bill Bavasi probably has enough brains in him to realize that Jeff Clement is ready to hit at the major league level. But with one year left on his contract, wouldn't he want to make a good impression on his bosses, who are Japanese? This one will be up for debate. Of course Bavasi won't come out and say that he didn't want Joh for the reason mentioned. This will just have to be one of those things that may not get solved anytime soon.