For a no-hitter, the Mariners’ large group of pitchers had a fairly mangy pedigree, but that only enahances their place in baseball history.
Author: John Hickey
John Hickey
John is a longtime West Coast-based baseball writer who covered the Oakland As for two decades with The (Hayward) Daily Review and the Oakland Tribune. He headed north in 2000 to cover the Mariners for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, starting on the day Ken Griffey Jr. was traded to Cincinnati. After the print P-I closed in 2009, he joined the national sports staff of AOL FanHouse and contributes to Seattlepostglobe.org. He is a longtime baseball correspondent for the Tokyo Chunichi Press. A member of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) for two-plus decades, Hickey is a Hall of Fame voter. When hes not covering baseball, he has written about pro football, college sports, tennis, golf and winter sports. A University of California grad, Hickey is a fan of rock and jazz music, traveling, reading and cooking. He proved in high school that hes no athlete, but he does like to ski. Hickey and his wife live in Seattle in a house ruled by two magnanimous cats.
As much as other hitters have improved, Ichiro, returned to the top of the order, and Dustin Ackley, moved to No. 2, still aren’t igniting the offense.
The Mariners are averaging an MLB-worst .193 in their home park, easily the worst offense in the club’s 35 years, and no one seems to have an answer.
Finding quality baseball talent hasn’t been the Mariners’ problem. Keeping it, or getting value for it, were the problems. A series vs. the Yankees offers a view to a potential change.
There is talk of platooning John Jaso against righthanders and Montero vs. lefties. But no. It’s time to let the rookie catch the whole staff. Besides, he hits better when playing defense.
Mike Carp and Franklin Gutierrez were supposed to be in left and center, but injuries have helped create what might be fastest outfield in club history.
Japanese import is the only player on an MLB roster yet to play this season; Iwakuma has never pitched in long relief and Wedge says he is waiting for right time.
For Yu Darvish, Monday will go down as the night he won his Major League debut. For the Mariners (3-2), it will go down as the night they let Darvish and the Rangers get away. Seattle sent 11 men to the plate in the first inning against the Japanese pitcher, who was in danger of not
The best teams, says Brewers owner Mark Attanasio, pay their top five players 50-55 percent of payroll. The Mariners are paying their top five 70.8 percent. Bad sign.
Although the Mariners have a traveling party of 30 players for their trip to Japan, only 25 will be eligible to play when they open the season against the A’s.