# Wednesday, October 04, 2006
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I haven’t nitpicked any articles in a long time, but Larry LaRue’s piece titled "Are M's close to contention?" in yesterday’s News Tribune left a bad taste in my mouth. It doesn’t take a genius to say that Joel Pineiro sucks or that Oakland killed us this year and when LaRue strays from the obvious – he strikes out. Here are the parts that bothered me…

A year ago, the Seattle Mariners won 69 games, and only four teams in major league baseball won fewer. This season, they won 78 times, a higher total than 10 other teams.

How is it relevant that 8 teams in the National League played worse than the Mariners this year? How does that have anything to do with whether or not they’ll contend in 2007?

The heart of the lineup failed to hit early, and when Richie Sexson (.213), Adrian Beltre (.189) and Carl Everett (.220) failed to produce in April, the Mariners went 11-15. They didn’t get back to .500 until June 27.

San Diego and Minnesota went 9-15 this April. Oakland was 12-12, the Dodgers went 12-13, and the Yankees were just 13-10. Teams can have a bad month (especially April) and still be fine.

Injuries. All teams have them, but the final two months of their season the Mariners lost the strongest part of their team – the bullpen. Rafael Soriano, Julio Mateo, rookie Derek Lowe, all late-inning right-handers, were lost. Leads were lost and close games got away between the sixth and eighth innings.

Where do I start with this one? Saying “the final two months” isn’t accurate. MARK Lowe went on the DL on August 20th (42 days before the end of the season), Mateo’s season ended on August 28th (34 days before the season ended) & Rafael Soriano was struck by Vlad’s comebacker on August 29th (33 days before the season ended) – so that’s not exactly two months. Furthermore, losing Mateo was addition by subtraction and they still had the most important piece, J.J. Putz, a solid lefty in George Sherrill and a few youngsters that came up and pitched out of the ‘pen admirably. Relief pitchers are the most easily-replaceable parts of a Major League team.

Really, in the grand scheme of things - injuries didn't hurt us that much at all. 3 bullpen arms go out in late August and we can blame injuries for the reason we didn't contend this year? Really? Look at the teams in the playoffs...just off the top of my head: The Yankees lost Matsui and Sheffield, the A's lost Eric Chavez, Bobby Crosby & Rich Harden, the Twins lost Liriano & Kubel, the Padres lost Khalil Greene, Pedro and Cliff Floyd weren't healthy for the Mets....honestly, I'd be willing to bet that the M's were one of the *healthiest* teams this season!

Hargrove and his staff need a leaner, meaner approach to winning, one that demands aggressiveness and the willingness to make outs to score runs.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yuniesky Betancourt, Jose Lopez and players like Chris Snelling, Mike Morse and Bloomquist can be factors in that kind of game.

Larry, this is a warning: Don’t you dare lump Snelling in with Bloomquist and Morse ever again! Sometimes I wonder why I even bother reading the fishwrap…
Wednesday, October 04, 2006 8:40:25 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  |