Kuzul

Yes, I know, the World Series isn't even half-way over, so the term "offseason" is a bit premature. That said, a lot has happened in the Charm City since the season ended. Let's start at the top.   Buck Showalter and the Coaching Carousel At one time, it looked like the Orioles might retain all the coaches that finished the season with Showalter. That clearly isn't the case anymore. The first domino to fall was former hitting coach Terry Crowley, who was moved to another position within the organization. Then the news broke a few days ago that the O's were looking at Jim Presley, a former infielder with the Mariners, Braves and Padres. "Hound Dog" Presley served as hitting coach for the Marlins for the past five years before being ousted along with manager Fredi Gonzalez. Hitters who blossomed under Presley's tutelage include Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, and Jorge Cantu. The Mark Connor emerged as ...

Yesterday the Seattle Mariner front office garnered similar fan enthusiasm for their latest choice to manage the team, as one might find at an exciting university lecture on Wave Particle Duality and how that relates to quantum physics. Lots of snoring, cat-calling, muttering, outright grumbling amidst the masses, scattered with skeptical “who the crap is that??!? That’s right Seattle sports fans!  Your stellar ownership group has once again opted to rebuff your wants for proven winner Bobby Valentine and his four decades of baseball success, in favor of Cleveland’s cast-off manager and far more dubious Eric Wedge. Yet another in a series of brilliant public relation moves by your pals Chuck Armstrong and Howard Lincoln! You would think at this point, given the track record of the past three years, that if Seattle fans wanted Snookie Polizzi and her Jersey Shore cast collegues to manage the team, Mariner management would have ...

The title of this article could have been “With the Mariners Ship Sinking,” but the Seattle’s ship sunk about five months ago after they started the season 2-6 and looked hideous in doing so. Not only did the Mariners lose a lot during the first week of the season, but they have lost a lot all year and now, their losing has cost their manager his job. The Mariners fired manager Don Wakamatsu on Monday as well as pitching coach Rick Adair and bench coach Ty Van Burkleo. Wakamatsu went 127-147 since getting Seattle’s job in November 2008. Daren Brown, the Mariners’ Triple-A manager, will take over for Wakamatsu on an interim basis.   There were two main reasons for Wakamatsu’s firing.   1. He lost the clubhouse. When a manager doesn’t make it through the next year after going 85-77 the previous season, that tells me the players were just tired of his act. Ken Griffey Jr. retired ...

After weeks of rumors, Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu has been fired. This comes as no surprise to anyone, due to Seattle's constant struggles; this season the Mariners are 42-70. The Mariners had high expectations this season. They acquired many good players last offseason: Milton Bradley, Chone Figgins, Brandon League, and Casey Kotchman. But of course, those players have not performed at all. Bradley is now a full-time bench warmer, batting barely over .200 without any power or run production.  Figgins has been another big disappointment. He is hitting around .250 right now, but a few weeks ago he was hitting around .230. He is not showing the patience that he had last season, and the only thing he is good for is stealing bases. League has had an up and down season. He is either striking out everyone, or he is giving up three runs. He has great stuff, but he has not ...

The Mariners are just coming off one of the worst months in team history. In July they had a 6-22 record and couldn't do anything right. When they had good pitching games, they couldn't score. When they had good hitting games (which were rare), their pitching struggled.  The Mariners need someone to blame for all of their troubles last month and this year, and the person to blame is Don Wakamatsu. He has made many bad decisions as manager. For example, he kept on starting Ryan Rowland-Smith every fifth day and after seeing him struggle every game didn't do anything about it. Another bad thing Wakamatsu did was use the same pitchers in his bullpen way too often. He pitches Brandon League in almost any situation. He pitches him in the eighth, ninth, or extra innings. The Mariners have a pretty good bullpen and do not need to use League as much ...

Earlier in the weekend Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times wrote an article outlining the idea that Upper Management might not be backing Don Wakamatsu completely, and possibly planning to fire Wak. Since taking over the Seattle Mariners Wak took a bad team and made them Semi-relevant in 2009. Well he has now took a semi-relevant team and made them completely bad. Say what you will about his Management Style, or that he was given a bad team to begin with and did what he could with them, all because Z didn't go out and get the big bat they needed. Now I admit this team was very badly built from the very beginning and Z should have put more thought into the offense, but you cannot put the entire blame on him. While no manager would be winning the pennant with this club, I don't think any manager should be ...

After a season that disappointed most Mariners fans, it seems as if more disappointment is coming. Yesterday during the game against the Boston Red Sox, Mike Cameron hit a line-drive against the left field wall. Michael Saunders picked it up threw it in to second where second baseman Chone Figgins didn't even attempt to pick it up and let it roll by, having Cameron make the double into a triple. The play seemed like a lackadaisical attempt at anything baseball, so when Figgins came into the dugout manager Don Wakamatsu had a word with him. Figgins did not take too kindly to it and things got physical. Third baseman Jose Lopez had to keep Wakamatsu and Figgins apart, then first baseman Russell Branyan got into it. It seemed as if he was angry with Figgins, too and was yelling at him, and then Lopez started yelling back. Everyone was separated with even starting pitcher Jason ...

Forget the Chinese Zodiac. 2010 was supposed to be the Year of the Mariner.  As a result of a promising 2009 season and the acquisition of many talented players, there were extremely high expectations for the Seattle Mariners to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2001. But through the first two and a half months of the season, the Mariners stand 28-41 and 13 games behind division-leading Texas Rangers. When things go wrong, the logical approach is to figure out the root of the problem. Unfortunately for the Mariners, it's nearly impossible to pinpoint the mechanism for this disastrous season. However, it needs to be done. So who's to blame? Blame Milton Bradley for creating distractions and tensing up the formerly light-hearted clubhouse. Blame Ryan Garko and Eric Byrnes, two veterans with upside that never panned out as Mariners. Blame Jose Lopez, the second-longest standing Mariner, for his slow start. Blame Ian Snell and Ryan Rowland-Smith, ...

Seattle Mariners’ manager Don Wakamatsu made a very odd decision at the end of the Mariners’ game on Sunday against the San Diego Padres. With two outs in the ninth, and with the Mariners leading 4-2, Wakamatsu removed starting pitcher Felix Hernandez to bring in David Aardsma to record a one-out save.   Despite the move working out, I didn’t understand the move then, and I don’t understand it now. King Felix entered the ninth inning with 109 pitches under his belt. The Padres hadn’t really hit Hernandez all day and he retired six consecutive batters. I applaud Wakamatsu for leaving Hernandez in the game to start the ninth, but don’t you have to figure that Hernandez is going to throw between 15-20 pitches to complete the game? Why take him out after 128 pitches? What is the difference between 128 pitches or 132 or 135 pitches? The answer is none. Chase Headley grounded weakly to ...

Ken Griffey, Jr. is a first ballot Hall Of Famer. That is obvious. Those Hall Of Fame skills are long gone, though. He was bad enough last year. Here are Griffey's 2009 stats: .214/.324/.411. That isn't good. Today, though, he flat out stinks. Check out his 2010 line: .191/.252/.213. Ouch! This isn't new, either. Ken Griffey has been a below average player for years. With all of that said, he is still very popular in Seattle. Griffey gets a big cheer when the lineup is called out over the PA system before the game. When he comes to the plate, people get off their butts to cheer for him. It is not Griffey's responsibility to bow out gracefully. The Mariners must take the bold step of cutting him. Here is why.Begin Slideshow