June 14, 2008 7:06 PM

Posted by Danny O'Neil

Jeremy Reed worked out at first base on Saturday afternoon before batting practice, something manager John McLaren said was done with an eye toward inter-league play in a National League park when the Mariners will be without a designated hitter.

Yeah! Never mind the fact that Ibanez already knows how to play 1B. Never mind that fact that putting Ibanez at 1B would get his carcase out of LF, and save us oh so many runs. Never mind the fact that Reed is already good at one possition has no needs learn another one. Never mind common sense.

Mariners Foibles By David Cameron

[I will not copy-paste other authors' content in its entirety. I will not tell Graham to chill out before he's had his morning caffeine when he gives me a warning. I will not whine and bitch at Graham when he moderates my post. I will not edit the mod tags back and and act smug about it. Because that means I will get banned.]

From:  http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2008/06/mariners_foible.php

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Its so painfuly true. I don't even know what to say, other than I really wish some one in the Mariners front office will read this some day soon.

The Average fan looking at Beltre's year is probably only paying attention to one thing. The ugly little .244 under the Batting Average stat.

It not really fair how luck as treated Beltre this year, but even in one of the unluckiest seasons Beltre is probably ever going to see, Beltre is tearing it up.

via seattletimes.nwsource.com

Beltre leads all 3rd basemen (AL and NL) in HR's with 13, and 3rd in the AL.

Add onto that Beltre leads the Mariners in walks, Adjusted OPS, Total Bases, Batting Wins, and LD%

And you can guess that the best is yet to come. In Beltre's monstrous 2004 season Beltre entered the second half of the season with only 16 HR's. Beltre is on pace to hit more than that before the All Star Break this year. Do I expect him to repeat '04. No. But I do expect him to put in one of his best seasons he's had in a Mariner uniform.

Beltre's year is very decieving and i hope the Fans realize actually how good a fyear he is actually having (I men the average fan, not you guys). Here's hoping his luck turns around and some hits fall in for him.

That is the question. He discusses whether we should blow up the team or just add big bats at the ASB to fix everything. Here is what I had to say to him.

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In a Recent Billy Beane Interview he said you either think the current team you have can contend or you blow the whole thing up. Our Team is NOT a few good bats away from contention. So in my opinion it is time to start from scratch. We shouldn't have to of course, the Bedard trade should have never gone down. Any fan with a pea sized brain could have seen the the Seattle Mariners allowed more runs than they scored last year. Thus they overachieved massively and were not a 88 win team. But the blundering front office couldn't get past the notion of 88 wins + Bedard = Playoffs. Never mind Pythagoreans says we were actually a 72 win team. Never mind Raul's horrid outfield defense. Nevermind Vidro being absolutely done as a major league hitter. Nevermind Sexon's depleting bat speed.

The answer to this team should have been "Stay the Course". But now that we are "surprisingly" a loosing team ( I say it like that because any Saber Head in the world could have told you the season was going to be like this) it is more than time to rebuild that farm.

I don't suggest letting Bavasi even touch the job either. Once the draft is over, he need to be out of a job. Howard Lincoln and Check Armstrong also need to go. They have no buisness running this team, and have corrupted this organization within for years.

Hire Antonelli of the Indians organization to be the GM. Thats right, hire a GM that knows what the word "sabermetrics" means and knows how to evaluate talent .

Draft a Cooper, Homser or Alonso in the 2008 draft. We have no first basemen in the system. LaHair, doesn't count.

Ask Beltre if he is willing to sign a extension. If not, deal him. No sense letting him walk when you could get a very nice haul for him in the trade market.

Ichiro and Felix are obvious mainstays.

Deal Bedard at the ASB to a pitcher hungry playoff contender and HOPE you get what you gave away for him. Thats a big hope...

Part ways with Vidro, Sexson, Burke, Washburn, Rhodes, Batista, Cairo and Bloomquist.

Deal Putz. As said, he was at the top of his game last year. Get something for him while you can.

Sign Inoa. If nothing more than you humiliate the Yankees

Deal Lopez and Yuni. Or Don't deal them. They are both very impatient at the plate and play horrible defense. "Oh, but Yuni is one of the best at SS"...No he isn't, too many mental errors and bad throws, he is not as good as advertised. On the other hand both are young and cheap and good stop gaps while you wait for your prospects to be ready for the MLB.

Keep Silva simply as a innings eater.

Keep Lowe and Green

Deal Ibanez, he still has enough trade value to get us an impact piece. Although it seems we are the only team in the AL who doesn't realize how bad his defense is. So deal him to a team that needs a DH.

Tell Johjima he is moving to DH, and Clement is catching. Let Joh go at the end of his contract or If Johjima can get us some good stuff, deal him.

For gods sake let Morrow start!

So now we have a young core and some left over guys to help.

-->Core

* Ichiro
* Felix
* Morrow
* Clement
* Balentien

--> Spare Sparts

* Rowland-Smith
* Morse
* Reed
* Silva
* Green
* Lowe
* Lopez
* Betancourt

You now have players to build your team around along with plenty of "stop gaps". You also have some talent already in the minors that could become impact players (plus what you get in trades).

Our 2008 Top Draft Pick
Adam Moore
Michael Saunders
Carlos Triunfel
Phillippe Aumont
Juan Ramirez
Greg Halman

Along with...

Ryan Feierabend
Alex Liddi
Austin Bibens-Dirkx
Matt Mangini

Add onto all of this all the high draft picks you'll get throughout the rebuild process and you should have a championship team around 2012-2015.

Now you have the proper solution to fixing this team. None of this should have had to happen, but now that we are here, its time we right the ship.

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I was subtly bashing Baker cause he was one of the idiots who saw, 88 wins + Bedard = Playoffs.

Its almost a definite.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2004444796_marinotes29.html

Well he fits the Mariners organizational requirements.

1.) Old? Check

2.) Washed up veteran? Check

3.) Pointless and unexplainable sign? Check

4.) Better options within? Check

Sexson is playing better ball than this guy...scary huh? The Mariners seem to believe moving this guy into a everyday role with fix all his problems. Huzzah. Well whats the worst that can happen right? We get deeper into the hole than we already are? We pay Sexson millions to watch from home and we pay Hatteberg money to play like Sexson. Yay!