On Thursday night, the Seattle Mariners lost to the New York Yankees, 3-1. This is hardly newsworthy, as the Yankees are a far better team than the Mariners.

However, prior to the Mariners’ loss against the Yankees, they were swept, at home, by the…Kansas City Royals.

Currently, the Mariners sit 16 games out of first place in the AL West. Save for Ichiro, every single player on the Mariners is vastly underachieving.

Chone Figgins, .287 lifetime batting average, is hitting .235 on the year. David Aardsma, 38 saves and four blown saves last year, has only 16 saves this year and has blown four saves already. Jose Lopez, .272 batting average, 25 home runs, and 96 runs batted in last year, is hitting .242 with five home runs and 32 runs batted in this year. I could keep going and going with useless stats.

So, what do we do?

Well, we’ve got some options. Let’s start with the man most talked about, Cliff Lee.

When the Mariners do finally trade Cliff Lee, here is what I’d see in return: AAA players who are ripping the cover off the ball, or a young guy in his first or second year in the majors who has an unbelievably high ceiling. Maybe this is just me, but I don’t want any guys from Single-A or Double-A ball who are going to take three to four years to get to the Majors. I want guys who are going to contribute in 2011.

Bring up Michael Pineda. This kid has been lighting it up. His line for the year so far is a record of 10-1, 2.25 ERA, and 104 strikeouts in 96 innings, and batters are only hitting .216 against him. Let’s find out what he can do against MLB clubs. 

Trade Jose Lopez. He cannot play defense, and he has absolutely no strike zone. Case in point, on Thursday’s game, Lopez went 0-for-4 and saw SIX PITCHES! The Mariners have a guy named Dustin Ackley down in Double-A who they picked second in last’s year draft. I’m sure the Mariners can get something from him, although it doesn’t really need to be much.

Most importantly, tell Cliff Lee, Felix Hernandez, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Jason Vargas, and Doug Fister that the only way they are going to win is if they pitch a complete-game shutout, because this is the worst offense I have ever seen.

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