#100 for Seattle

Remember the beginning of the season, when the Seattle Mariners were supposed to challenge the Angels for the AL West title?

Well, they lost 5-3 to the A's at SAFECO Field on Saturday, giving them a 61-100 record. Weren't they supposed to be the team to beat in the division? After all, they were talking about having their two aces, Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez, putting on pitching clinics every fifth day (as their promotional ads claimed). They just picked up Chone Figgins to join forces with Ichiro and Griffey. While Ichiro did his job by reaching 200+ hits for a major-league record 10th straight season, Figgins has been a bust with .259 average and lack of hustle. Griffey Jr. was a distraction from day one and decided to take a nap in the clubhouse, as a couple anonymous Mariners players told the media. He wisely retired soon after, but not before Mike Sweeney wanted to create a whole lot more drama by challenging the teammates that went to the media. Yawn.

Hernandez held up his end of the bargain and has an undeserving won-loss record (13-12, 2.27), but it's Doug Fister who's been screwed (6-14, 4.11) thanks to the poor run support he's gotten.

And Brandon League, brought to Seattle from Toronto in the Brandon Morrow deal, has been a disaster. It's funny hearing how the Blue Jays GM was saying on Fan 590 once that the Mariners got a good season out of League, probably because the reliever had a lot of wins. But if you actually listen to the Mariners' radio announcers, they don't like League because all he does is give up runs or let inherited runners score whenever he comes into a game. His record of 9-7 and a 3.46 ERA is totally misleading. (Shows how intelligent that Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos is by making that idiotic remark.)

Well, the M's have lost 100 games again, the second time in three years. Maybe Anthopoulos thinks League will help them be a better team next year. At least they don't have Griffey Jr. sucking out of the DH spot any more.