Cust traded, Laffey demoted, Cortes recalled as M’s lose big; trade possibilities all over the map for Seattle.
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.
Another bumbling day of offense Sunday (0-for-13 with runners in scoring position) means it’s time to turn over the season to Carp, Halman, Ackley and the rest of the youngsters.
The Mariners’ body language is every bit a bad as their record heading into a tough nine days road.
After averaging .186 for July, and scoring two runs in four losses to the Rangers, the nearly vacant post-game clubhouse says it all.
With a second straight shutout loss, the Mariners are quickly moving out of contention in the AL West.
Seattle’s pitching is starting to sag a little, but the Mariner hitters are stuck in the same old funk in a loss to Texas.
Losing the final five games of the first half made the brutal point that a bad offense is actually getting worse.
The Mariners are entering the toughest part of their schedule with a new addition at third base, rookie Kyle Seager. Will he provide a boost similar to Dustin Ackley?
A curious set of circumstances may keep the Mariners from having anyone actually participate in the All-Star Game, even though Felix Hernandez and Brandon League have been picked for the team.
At least competitive in the first half at 39-42, the Mariners are best served long-term by doing the best they can with what they have.