Mariners Morsels - aka "Free Adam Moore and Rich Poythress! (George Sherrill is FREE!)"

Hyphen.
So it appears Hyphen & Snell are pretty much going to swap roles. I think we've seen enough of Snell to know that he's not going to do much better than Hyphen. I'm with Jason - replace Snell with either French or Olson. Just do SOMETHING! It took two RRS turns in the rotation too many to do the right thing. I'm probably Hyphen's biggest fanboy on the planet (I dubbed him "Hyphen" ya know...) but even I recognize that he's killing this team in the rotation.

There's patience and then there's insanity. I expected this from a Bavasi-built club (and a Mclaren/Hargrove-managed club), not from what Wak & Zduriencik showed last year. I don't know why they seem to be much slower with the trigger this year compared to last. I remember specifically Wak talking about having 162 different lineups last year, yet this year the same crappy hitters are there...

Griffey.

I'm kinda with Edman here. Griffey's an easy target because (as the arguments state) he's too old and past his prime to be likely to improve. But he's hardly the biggest problem. Cutting him does NOT improve this team much if at all.

Let's not forget that his role on the team was SUPPOSED to be as a pinch-hitter, very-part-time DH, when he was initially signed. Even he admitted that was likely his role on the team. But due to failings from others -- failings from Zduriencik to really find a full-time LF'er (even though he took several reasonable risks to attempt to do so), and initial failing from Saunders to take the job out of ST. That forced Milton Bradley into LF much more than he should've been, and away from DH, which is a role he's ideally suited for on this team.

But, hey - Milton melted down himself, and Jack's backup plan for him was the Griffey-Sweeney platoon. How many games did Sweeney get in the first month? Not very many - 9 games, 6 starts & 28 PAs. Yes, Sweeney's got health issues. He's unreliable (as the last few games on the bench with back issues have shown). You can argue all you want about having TWO bench spots taken up with DH's and I'll probably agree that it's less-than-smart.

If Milton hadn't melted down, and if Saunders or Byrnes or Langerhans had stepped up enough to show that they could handle left field full time, Griffey wouldn't be the starting DH. That he HAS been isn't so much a reflection on Griffey as it is on Wakamatsu and Zduriencik.

Griffey's about halfway down on my list of the M's problems and the reasons why this team is so frustrating to watch, and why they're losing so many close games. When HALF OF THE FREAKING LINEUP is batting UNDER the Mendoza line, that's a huuuuge problem.

Yes, the M's need to find a starting DH. They can cut Griffey and/or Sweeney to do so. But even if they can talk Griffey into mid-season retirement, is there an easily-gettable replacement for him? Who knows -- actually Milton Bradley probably will be the starting DH once he gets his stuff together since Saunders seems to be finding himself finally capable of starting in LF for the Mariners.

But the bigger problem is -- the M's lineup needs to effing hit the baseball. And the bullpen needs to stop melting down. And Wakamatsu needs to manage better. And Zduriencik needs to improve the roster.

Labels: Griffey, Hyphen, roster building, this team sucks