Seattle Mariners

Several jokes were flying yesterday about Cleveland Indians closer Chris Perez after 170-pound Endy Chavez popped a ninth-inning, go-ahead homer off him. It was the first homer of the season by Chavez and the fact it came in a pinch-hit appearance was even more impressive. According to Mariners PR and history maven Jeff Evans, the last Mariners pinch-hit home run was by Franklin Gutierrez on June 20 of last year. It was the first pinch-hit home run to give the Mariners a lead by the seventh inning or later since Dan Wilson hit one on May 5, 2001. The last pinch-hit homer that gave the Mariners a lead in the ninth inning or later came when Ken Griffey Jr. hit one on Sept. 16, 1990. So, that was a pretty rare feat by Chavez Turns out, though, this isn't Chavez's first go-around with this late-homer stuff. "I never did it in the minor leagues but I did it in the majors once with the Mets,'' Chavez said. "It was the same situation. I was leading off an inning, the game was close and I hit a home run to keep the game going.'' Well, not exactly the same situation, but pretty close. I looked it up -- not tough to do when a guy has just 27 homers in 12 years -- and there it was, five years ago this month on May 28, 2008, with Chavez going deep off Kevin Gregg of the Florida Marlins at Shea Stadium. The Mets were down 5-4 and Chavez led off the bottom of the ninth with a line drive deep beyond the right field wall to tie it. Florida actually regained the lead in the 12th inning of that game, but the Marlins scored twice in the bottom of the frame to win it. No, not off Chris Perez. It was actually off former Mariners spring training hopeful Justin Miller, known as baseball's tattoo king. Anyhow, I digress. Chavez said there is no real secret to going deep in a situation like that. It's not like he's trying to hit a home run. "Oh, no, no,'' he said, laughing. "I was just trying to get on-base and put the ball in-play. I guess I hit it pretty good.'' He didn't think the ball had any hope of going out. "I was pretty sure that I'd hit some balls harder than that in that stadium and they stayed in,'' he said. "Plus, the wind was blowing in the whole series and keeping balls from going out.'' As for mental preparation, Chavez is used to the whole late-game sub routine by now. He also went to the plate with an idea of what Perez might show him, then unloaded on an 0-1 pitch. "He's very aggressive with the fastball and he likes to attack the strike zone,'' Chavez said. "I'd faced him before, so I knew what he might try to do, but I wanted to see how his fastball was running first, then after I took my swing.''  

I have never written a post on any internet site ever before in my life, but as a big fan of baseball and all things Mariners, I finally thought I'd take a stab at it. Bear with me please. It seems that the Mariners are in an envious position with all of the organizational depth at SS/2B from low-A all the way to AAA right now (Franklin, Romero, Triunfel, Miller, Taylor). In my opinion, Jack Z has really done a fantastic job with our minor league system. Unlike the NFL and the NBA, an MLB GM has a more difficult task at hand in terms of player development and preaching patience with a fanbase. The Seahawks drafted numerous players in 2012 who made significant contributions in their first season (namely Russell Wilson)! Whereas the Mariners six 1st round picks dating back to 2009 have only given us Dustin Ackley on the 25 man roster. Patience. With a franchise struggling as the Mariners have the past decade, patience is still the key. Ok, Brendan Ryan is like Gandolph the wizard with his glove. I imagine him actually saying as a ball is hit his way, "You shall not pass!" That would be awesome! But with a bat in his hands he has tortured us with strikeouts and weak double play grounders for the better part of two seasons. So we should bring up Nick Franklin then right? While I immediately admit to having no talent evaluation skills, everything I've heard and read about Franklin's defense is that he has no future as a SS in MLB. 2B is held by Ackley, and 3B is held by Seager. Another bat without a position. Too bad the Mariners have to play defense, because it seems we are hoarding poor fielding DHs (Montero, Morales, Morse, Ibanez, Bay). Here is my idea. Remember how excited the Yankees were to trade their hyped up prospect Montero to us, knowing he couldn't catch? Why can't we now do the same thing? Franklin is off to a torrid pace in AAA, his stock couldn't be any higher! He doesn't have a position to field on this club. But we sure could use an everyday CF like say Oscar Taveras! I won't get into stats and projections. Suffice it to say that Taveras is one of the best hitting prospects in baseball and he plays CF. I say we trade Franklin to STL for Taveras tonight. If we have to add additional low level developmental depth to the deal...DO IT! NOW! The logic I use for this proposal goes something like this: 1. We have Brendan Ryan as a stop gap until Brad Miller is ready to take over SS. 2. I really don't like the platoon of Bay and Ibanez in LF. By acquiring Taveras, we can move Saunders to LF, put Taveras in CF and Morse stays in RF. 3. The Cardinals are desperate to get production at SS. They aren't quite as knowledgeable of Franklin's defensive liability as we are. 4. We don't have to keep hoping that Franklin Gutierez gets/stays healthy. If anyone has read this far, I apologize for rambling on as much as I have. I love our team and wanted to share my opinion. Regardless of what happens, just stay patient with our club. I truly believe that Z has put us in a good position for the future. Thanks for reading! I have never written a post on any internet site ever before in my life, but as a big fan of baseball and all things Mariners, I finally thought I'd take a stab at it. Bear with me please. It seems that the Mariners are in an envious position with all of the organizational depth at SS/2B from low-A all the way to AAA right now (Franklin, Romero, Triunfel, Miller, Taylor). In my opinion, Jack Z has really done a fantastic job with our minor league system. Unlike the NFL and the NBA, an MLB GM has a more difficult task at hand in terms of player development and preaching patience with a fanbase. The Seahawks drafted numerous players in 2012 who made significant contributions in their first season (namely Russell Wilson)! Whereas the Mariners six 1st round picks dating back to 2009 have only given us Dustin Ackley on the 25 man roster. Patience. With a franchi

The Indians thoroughly enjoyed the Mariners’ visit. David Richard-USA TODAY Sports Baseball, more than any other sport, is all about numbers. This was the case even before the sabermetric craze that divides analysts today and inspires numerous a JJ Keller column on this website. In this new segment, I take a look at the numbers that shaped a series, beginning with the disastrous sweep in Cleveland this past weekend. 75 – Percent of the games that ended in Cleveland walkoffs. Jason Kipnis, Carlos Santana and Yan Gomes all delivered game-ending hits against Mariner relievers in the series. This brutal stretch of three paintful defeats in four actually isn’t unprecedented for Seattle, who suffered a similar feat at the hands of the Orioles and Indians back in May of 2011. Avoid Cleveland in May is good advice for Seattlelites. Actually, just avoid Cleveland in general. 5 – Earned runs allowed by both Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma in their Sunday-Monday starts. Felix took his third loss of 2013 while the Mariners continued to hit for Iwakuma, and he earned a no decision. The Mariners cannot win wiht their one-two punch leaking runs like both did this weekend. 3 – Home runs Mariners hit off of Chris Perez in his two appearances in the series. When Perez came in with a two run lead and quickly retired the first two Mariners he faced, the game was assumed over. But back-to-back jacks from Raul Ibanez and Justin Smoak gave the Mariners new life (which they would soon extinguish). In Monday’s ninth inning, Perez served up a lead-off, pinch-hit homer to Endy Chavez of all people. 11 – Hits allowed in 5.1 innings by Joe Saunders Saturday in what Root Sports analysts were calling “a good start” from the veteran lefty. No! That was a terrible start! Are you crazy? The wind knocked down a home run and gifted him a double play and he still gave up a home run to the next batter he faced! No more road Joe please. 430 – Pitches thrown by Mariners starters, in appearances that ranged between five and six innings in length. Only Brandon Maurer produced a quality start of the four. All four threw over 100 pitches. 2 (but really 3) – Errors committed by pitchers in Monday morning’s horrendous 10-8 loss. Iwakuma made an early error and Charlie Furbush screwed up a late sacrifice bunt play but the error was charge to Smoak. But none was more glaring or costly than Tom Wilhelmsen’s clank job as he stepped on first for the game’s final out. That error marked Wilhelmsen’s first blown save of 2013 in 12 chances. 7 – Batters retired consecutively by Danny Farquhar in his first appearance with the Mariners. He struck out five of them, but his great performance will be lost in the shuffle of an overall terrible series. 1 – Home run on the season for Brendan Ryan, who turned the corner in Cleveland. He went 5-for-13 with his first two extra base hits of 2013. Will he go on a tear and fight his way over the Mendoza line now? Who knows? The Mariners play at 7:05 PT in Anaheim tonight and will try and snap the four-game skid this horrific series put them on.

I remember being in favor of the Mariners pursuing free agent Josh Hamilton. There was all that hot talk about the team being willing to spend more money and how the young guys were about to break out and the big three would soon be on their way and moved in fences for more dong jobs and hey look at this big awesome scoreboard the Mariners will be good in a couple of years or three we promise! The 2014 class of available hitters wasn't looking too hot and so it made sense to perhaps go big a year early and lock up a star caliber player for when all the goodness started to trickle in. The Mariners reportedly offered something a lot like 4 years/$100 million, with two vesting options. It certainly didn't strike one as unreasonable. Hamilton ended up going to the Angels for 5 years/$125 million plus all sorts of other small little perks. For some, this marked doom for the Mariners, proof that all good players hate Seattle and that the team would never be capable of landing a Run Producer in free agency, that ownership was still too cheap and all that and so on. You know where this is going. To date, Josh Hamilton has come to the plate 188 times. Here's what he's managed to accomplish: AVG: .216 OBP: .354 SLG: .351 wRC+: 69 WAR: -.03 Not, as they say, so hot. It turns out Hamilton's long successful approach of swinging at everything and relying on otherworldly coordination and talent to mask pitch recognition and strike zone awareness problems has begun to betray him as his body has grown a bit older. He's now just the smallest tick slower, unable to make contact and produce power the same as he once did, and it's been a disaster. Some players, like Hamilton, operate on the furthest brink that their talent provides, where a millisecond or millimeter could be the difference between glory and failure. Right now, those small fractions are catching up with the slugger, and he's only getting older. Every day. His mortality and inevitable demise growing ever more haunting and stark with each passing moment. So, hey, good thing the Mariners didn't sign him to that contract, right? Pitching: Aaron Harang vs. Jerome WilliamsTime: 7:05Location: Angel Stadium of AnaheimTelevision: ROOT Sports

Ms Minor League Catchers: Mike Zunino, John Hicks, Tyler Marlette, Marcus Littlewood. Zunino and Marlette have MLB All-Star potential. Hicks and Littlewood are progressing as solid organizational options. Ms Minor League Shortstops: Nick Franklin, Carlos Triunfel, Brad Miller, Chris Taylor. I think you'd have a hard time finding an organization with 4 better SS prospects in high A and above. Franklin has been killing it. Triunfel is still just 23 and putting up very solid numbers at AAA. Miller is regarded as a top prospect. And Taylor has done nothing but hit since he got into the org. Considering the state of the ML club at these spots, I thought it might brighten people's days to think about the future a bit. Ms Minor League Catchers: Mike Zunino, John Hicks, Tyler Marlette, Marcus Littlewood. Zunino and Marlette have MLB All-Star potential. Hicks and Littlewood are progressing as solid organizational options. Ms Minor League Shortstops: Nick Franklin, Carlos Triunfel, Brad Miller, Chris Taylor. I think you'd have a hard time finding an organization with 4 better SS prospects in high A and above. Franklin has been killing it. Triunfel is still just 23 and putting up very solid numbers at AAA. Miller is regarded as a top prospect. And Taylor has done nothing but hit since he got into the org. Considering the state of the ML club at these spots, I thought it might brighten people's days to think about the future a bit.

I'm tired of talking about Jesus Montero. One of the most infuriating things as a fan is when you watch a player day after day make mistakes that can be avoided. Mistakes that, with basic mental preparation, should never happen. When Raul Ibanez doesn't get to a ball in left field and boots it, it isn't about a lack of effort or that his head wasn't in the game, he's simply not talented enough as a defender to make that play. The things Jesus Montero does behind the plate don't fall under that definition. I'll choose my words carefully, because it would be presumptuous (and ill-advised) to insinuate that Montero is lazy or anything like that. I don't know a single thing about Jesus Montero as a person. I don't know how he has received his instruction, I don't know what his preperation method is. What I do know is that major, avoidable, fundamental mistakes continue to happen. One thing I will presume is that Jesus Montero, "catcher" by trade, has been taught the correct way to position himself at home when there's a play at the plate. When you are setting up to get a force out at home, you place your right foot on the plate, so that your glove can extend out as far away from the plate as possible to receive the throw before the runner steps on home. Below are several examples of how this has been done by other catchers around the league. This is how Jesus Montero decided to field Brendan Ryan's fantastic attempt at saving the game on Saturday. Left foot planted firmly on home plate, as if he's about to rotate and block the plate from a slide. Glove side towards the plate, not the field. It's not to say that if Montero was positioned correctly, he makes the play. And the Mariners most likely still would have lost, even if that play becomes an out. But it's an avoidable mistake, and an inexcusable mental error. If Montero has his right foot on the plate, he can stretch further and his glove is closer to the play. Montero couldn't keep his left foot on the bag, but the throw seemed to beat the runner. I refuse to believe Montero hasn't been instructed the right way to position himself for a play like this. On the other hand, I do believe that Montero probably wasn't thinking about the ways he would need to move before the pitch was thrown, or this wouldn't have happened. This is the same game that Montero got picked off as the lead runner on 2nd base with nobody out. These mistakes keep piling up, and it isn't just behind the plate, although that has gotten the most attention. Jesus Montero ranks dead last at pitch framing this season. He's thrown out one batter in 24 stolen base attempts. His bat has been terrible, even though it's dragged down by a low BABIP. It's enough on it's own to damn his performance. But what really raises an eyebrow are games like Saturday's. I just don't think Jesus Montero gets it. I don't think he gets that he has to prepare hard, think about every play before it happens, and know what he has to do and what he absolutely cannot do. There's been no progress in that aspect of his game, or any progress in his defense in general. You could even argue there's been regression. I could absolutely be wrong, and wouldn't dare present this opinion as fact. The results speak for themselves either way. The Future of Jesus Montero Taking a look at Jesus Montero's struggles and where he fits in this organization in the upcoming months, by Scott Weber A popular idea is to send Jesus Montero a message, whatever that means, and send him to the minors - but the Mariners really can't afford to do so. Zunino is obviously getting all the time in AAA, and Hicks is the primary guy in AA (though he's really scuffling). To send Montero down would basically be an admission that he's done as a catcher (this is most likely inevitable), but they would have to bring up somebody like Jesus Sucre, who's not on the 40 man roster - and with Gutierrez and Kinney returning from injury soon, the team is a

(Here is today's Mariners minor-league report). It's long fascinated me to watch the difference in how performance-enhancing drugs in baseball and football are viewed by fans. In baseball, of course, it came to define a whole era -- the steroids era. It was a crisis that shook the sport to its core, led to scorn from fans, took the luster away from vaunted records, tainted almost everyone who played in that era, either by innuendo or guilt by association, led to sweeping changes in policy, kept superstars out of the Hall of Fame, and continues to haunt the game to this day. Football, by comparison, seems to have gotten a relatively free ride, though my gut, and common sense, tells me that the NFL had, and has, just as big a PED problem as MLB. We're always hearing about the super-human feats of football players -- huge men running amazing speeds and combining that with mind-boggling strength. And returning from major injuries with seemingly superhuman recuperative powers, and then performing better than ever. When baseball players appeared to be superhuman, the media and league were (rightly) lambasted for being either naive or complicit in looking the other way. This comes to mind, of course, because of the current focus on the Seahawks for their rash of PED violations, most recently the suspension of defensive end Bruce Irvin. The Hawks are suffering some embarrassment and scrutiny, but to me -- and I might be wrong - it doesn't seem to even be as much of a backlash as when the Mariners, in 2005, had eight minor-league players test positive for PEDs. The majority of the fan response I've been hearing and reading seems to be along the line of, that was really stupid of Irvin to jeopardize the Seahawks chances of winning the Super Bowl by getting caught; not that the Seahawks have a culture of cheating that needs to be eradicated -- as I'm certain would be the case if one MLB team had five players suspended in such a short period of time. There is some of that, but I just don't get the same sense of moral outrage that comes with baseball violations. Maybe it's the difference between Adderall, an amphetamine, and steroids. But not even getting into the question of steroid or HGH use in the NFL, I think it must be reiterated that Adderall is indisputably a performance-enhancing drug, contrary to what some people seem to think. I wrote about this last year when the news broke about Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner of the Seahawks facing suspension for allegedly using Adderall (remember, the NFL does not comment on suspensions; any leak of the drug for which a player has been busted comes from elsewhere; for the record, Sherman was cleared on appeal because of a chain of custody error). Dr. Gary Wadler, past chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency's Prohibited List Committee, called Adderall "one of the quintessential performance-enhancing drugs. There's no question it's a performance-enhancing drug." When I talked to Wadler on the phone, he listed off the benefits of Adderall to an athlete. "It masks fatigue, masks pain, increases arousal — like being in The Zone," begins Wadler, currently an associate professor of medicine at Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. "It increases alertness, aggressiveness, attention and concentration. It improves reaction time, especially when fatigued. Some think it enhances hand-eye coordination. Some believe it increases the mental aspects of performance." So why does the NFL not have the same PED stigma as MLB? I have a couple of theories: One is that MLB is a sport built around statistics, and the continuity of those statistics from generation to generation. Every player -- pitcher or hitter -- has a set of numbers associated with him that resonates with meaning, both in the context of the modern game, and in a historical context. The rise of steroids was perceived to have played havoc with that inter-generational connectedness, to th

MARINERS (20-25) ΔMs ANGELS (17-27) EDGE HITTING (wOBA*) -5.6 (19th) 1.4 4.4 (14th) Angels FIELDING (RBBIP) 2.3 (16th) -5.6 -17.1 (27th) Mariners ROTATION (xRA) 11.0 (7th) -2.6 -24.4 (29th) Mariners BULLPEN (xRA) 5.6 (8th) 1.2 -7.5 (28th) Mariners OVERALL (RAA) 13.3 (14th) -5.7 -44.5 (27th) MARINERS Heartbreaking. It’s the word easily at hand for such a series as the one the Mariners just experienced. It’s hyperbolic, of course. Nobody’s heart was literally broken, I hope. Figuratively? I don’t know. Those weren’t the results that most of us were daring to think of after the Mariners seemed on the verge of .500 and had just reached second place in the division. One thing I wonder is how it might feel to be an Indians fan right now and gone through that series. Have the Mariners had such a series go in their way? They must have, at some point, but if so it’s faded from my memory. This will fade too. Baseball is a long haul and in a sport where they say that failing 7 times out of 10 is a success, at the end of the year there aren’t a whole lot of people celebrating. So go find your light where you can. I’m sad the Mariners were swept. But I’m sad because I cared, so that’s something. Batter PA P/PA Slash line nBB K (sw) 1B/2B/3B/HR Sw- Ct+ Qual+ K Seager* 53 4.1 .227/.340/.409 8 9 (8) 6 / 2 / 0 / 2 91 104 115 M Saunders* 50 3.7 .178/.280/.222 5 16 (14) 6 / 2 / 0 / 0 101 92 80 K Morales^ 48 3.9 .295/.354/.523 4 9 (7) 7 / 4 / 0 / 2 91 98 140 M Morse 41 3.8 .289/.357/.421 3 11 (8) 8 / 2 / 0 / 1 104 87 90 J Smoak^ 40 4.5 .303/.425/.545 7 11 (10) 6 / 2 / 0 / 2 93 101 84 D Ackley* 40 4.1 .171/.275/.200 5 10 (4) 5 / 1 / 0 / 0 75 108 110 B Ryan 38 3.3 .250/.289/.361 2 8 (7) 7 / 1 / 0 / 1 124 94 108 R Ibanez* 33 3.1 .333/.333/.909 0 5 (5) 4 / 1 / 0 / 6 120 92 126 J Montero 30 3.5 .222/.300/.333 3 5 (4) 5 / 0 / 0 / 1 103 93 119 J Bay 27 4.4 .182/.333/.364 5 7 (7) 2 / 1 / 0 / 1 86 78 123 It’s hard for me to write about the Mariners’ offense and not go down roads that come off as overly negative. Part of it is because the offense, as a whole, is not very good. Part of it is because most of the bits and pieces that have had positive story lines this year aren’t the bits and pieces that I care about when it comes to the future of this team. I believe that I will take a middling team over an absolute train wreck like 2008 or 2010,  but I was really hoping that this season wouldn’t be kept afloat by the performances of Jason Bay, Kendrys Morales, Michael Morse and Raul Ibanez. I have nothing against those four, but they aren’t among the four that I wanted to see success from this year. Batter PA P/PA Slash line nBB SO (sw) 1B/2B/3B/HR Sw- Ct+ Qual+ M Trout 57 4.3 .289/.439/.556 11 11 (6) 7 / 3 / 0 / 3 72 107 99 A Pujols 56 4.0 .250/.339/.442 4 9 (5) 7 / 4 / 0 / 2 104 105 77 M Trumbo 56 3.7 .216/.304/.431 5 16 (13) 4 / 5 / 0 / 2 107 91 99 A Callaspo^ 53 3.6 .256/.302/.419 5 3 (1) 8 / 1 / 0 / 2 85 118 100 H Kendrick 52 4.0 .340/.396/.520 2 12 (12) 12 / 3 / 0 / 2 122 96 111 J Hamilton* 50 3.9 .239/.333/.500 4 10 (8) 5 / 3 / 0 / 3 116 90 97 E Aybar^ 38 3.1 .167/.184/.222 1 3 (1) 4 / 2 / 0 / 0 116 116 101 C Iannetta 38 4.7 .208/.526/.208 14 7 (5) 5 / 0 / 0 / 0 67 89 82 J Shuck* 38 3.4 .273/.342/.364 4 3 (2) 6 / 3 / 0 / 0 83 116 88 B Harris 20 4.2 .263/.300/.579 1 7 (5) 3 / 0 / 0 / 2 95 102 71 It’s easy to point to the Angels’ disappointing record and focus about Pujols and Hamilton. I’m content to do that. Not even counting the rest of this season, the Angels owe $106 million over the next four seasons to Josh Hamilton. Hamilton has played 2013 below replacement level so far. Not counting the rest of this season, the Angels owe $212 million over the next eight seasons to Albert Pujols. Pujols has not been as bad as Hamilton though. He’s been one run better accordin

Justin Smoak spent the spring convincing people that he's primed for a full-season breakout. Smoak has been known as a tease, and those who succumbed in the past tried valiantly to resist. It's just a mirage! But his swing is noticeably different! It's just a mirage! But he's hitting the ball the other way! It's just a mirage! Another double! Look at that dinger! It's just a mirage! But what if it isn't? I did my best to hold out, but a training camp's-worth of optimism began wearing me down. Maybe there is something different. Maybe Smoak will defy the odds and break through. Whether Smoak would actually get his career back on track, I was just happy to approach his at bats with a sense of curiosity rather than one of dread. It injected some intrigue into April baseball. Then Smoak started the season with just 5 singles through his first 37 plate appearances. He had a little more aesthetic appeal and his peripherals suggested that he might have deserved a few more hits, but all of that damned optimism quickly began to fade and I, once again, began kicking myself for being the slightest bit open to the idea that Smoak could turn a corner after nearly 1,500 trips to the plate. But just as everyone -- finally, everyone -- was about to write off Smoak for good, he does what he does. On April 21, through 74 plate appearances, he was hitting .200/.297/.215. On May 21, through 164 plate appearances, he's hitting .252/.366/.367. It's been interesting. Smoak has improved his plate discipline, tacked on a bunch of walks, and seems to be hitting the ball hard. But he wasn't hitting for the power his frame suggested he should have -- the power required to punch down a tree -- leaving us a way out. He didn't have the home runs but he also didn't have the oomph. He appeared weak. As Dave wrote a month ago: "This is, essentially, the inevitable conclusion that evidence forces us to draw: Justin Smoak is just not very strong. He’s never been very strong." Smoak may have made himself into a semi-interesting player. Maybe even a player that will stick in the big leagues. Maybe even a player that will start in the big leagues. But he isn't a player worth building around on a team desperate for players to build around. We could still be free. Oh... that tease. During the 10th inning Monday afternoon, Justin Smoak did this: According to ESPN Home Run Tracker, this ball's "true distance" was 422 feet, making it the fifth longest home run Smoak has hit at the big league level, and the longest home run he's hit outside of Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. As impressive, the speed off the bat was measured at 113 MPH, the fastest of his big league career, fastest among all Mariners this year, and 30th on the league-wide list so far this season. This ball was crushed. The swing had a ferocity we're not used to seeing from Smoak. We've seen Smoak in way over his head for most of the past three seasons. Right now it feels like we're seeing Smoak the prospect. We're seeing a kid with a big body, a sound approach at the plate, and -- on Monday -- the ability to "flash" 70 power. But this kid is 26, not 21, and odds are that he doesn't have another plateau leap in him. But baseball isn't baseball if we know. There is one side of me that would like Smoak to crash and burn so badly that the Mariners have no choice but to finally move on and try something different; change for the sake of change, but hopefully change for the better. But there is a small, teeny-tiny slice of me that cannot shake that stupid, unreasonable, nagging hope. Because baseball. Because Michael Saunders. Because Jose Bautista. Maybe Smoak is finding something. Maybe Smoak revamped his approach and is now getting comfortable enough to start swinging with intent. Maybe Smoak's story is an outlier. Or Smoak simply ran into a 92 MPH fastball just right. And we're just grasping at straws because it beats trying to convince ourselves t

Date Time Pitching Probables 5/21 7:05 pm PDT Jerome Williams vs. Aaron Harang 5/22 4:05 pm PDT C.J. Wilson vs. Brandon Maurer The Rally Monkey thing first popped up over a decade ago for reasons I cannot remember and has stuck around for reasons I cannot fathom. This series' Q&A is with primate gifs because two game series against the Angels. Jon: The Angels were considered World Series contenders by many coming into 2013. How are fans feeling about the season at this point? Rally Monkey: Jon: How did the Angels play during Mike Scoscia's more successful seasons? Rally Monkey: Jon: And this season? Rally Monkey: (Albert Pujols) Jon: So... now what? Rally Monkey: Jon: ...