Can the Seattle Mariners win the

American League West ?

The answer is: yes, if the

following …

By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

Seattle, WA,

Click Below for Amaury’s Analysis!

1-Freddy Garcia, the #1 pitcher here

continues to pitch like he did during

a recent 11-1 roadtrip(best in

Mariners history). Last year the

M’S had a 10-1 roadtrip.

Moyer is having a great first

half.Pineiro, Franklin and

Gil Meche continue to be

solid starters. Nobody has

three better starters than

the Oakland Athletics

Zito-Mulder-Hudson, but,

the M’S might be much

deeper with these 5 starters

all with a potential of

winning between 15 to 20

games apiece. Of course

the M’S are not going to

have five 20-game winners

but Moyer and Garcia could

be around 20 and the other

3 around 15 each and that

might be just enough…

2-Edgar Martinez hamstrings

stay healthy. There should be

no doubt he is the best DH in

history and currently with

over 2,000 hits has most of

the offensive record for this

franchise. Edgar still one

of the great cluth hitters

in baseball, his batting

is as consistent as anybody

in a lineup as a DH.

3-Kazuhiro Sasaki, the closer

who just went on the DL again

for a muscle strain in his

chest after lifting a suitcase

and falling in his home outside

Seattle comes back and is

the same as always.

4-Jeff Cirillo must come back

to his form prior to last

season when he hit

only .249 with the M’s.

Cirillo is a .304 lifetime

hitter but this season

his struggles at the plate

continue and manager

Bob Melvin has no choice

but continue to use

veteran utility Mark McLemore

at third base.

5-The outfield must continue

to perform as well as they

have been with Randy Winn

in left field(the Mariners have

used 20 leftfielders in their

26 year history),Mark Cameron

continues to be one of the

best in center field and at

the plate. Ichiro with best

arm from rightfield in baseball

should continue to hit around

.320 or so and “rebound”

from a .321 average

at the plate last season

(just kidding). I have seen

Ichiro enough this year to

tell everybody that he might

be the fastest guy ever from

home to first and I have seen

his defensive skills enough

to tell you he just might be

the best defensive rightfielder

in all of basebal today(Larry Walker

and Raul Mondesi included).

This M’S team is a veteran

bunch, there is no “rookie

experiment”going on here.

Willie Bloomquist is the

rookie, a local favorite,

born in Bremerton is the

only rookie. He gets playing

time once in a while, as a

pinchhitter or pinchrunner

or maybe starting a game

to give somebody else

a rest. Bloomquist can play

the outfield and infield also,

playing shortstop early in

the season when Carlos

Guillen was hurt.

At the time of this article

the Mariners just won

a 1-0 gem against a very

good Montreal Expos

team that won

the series taking the

two first games

(on the way to Oakland

for this weekend)while the

Braves are in town to

face the Mariners at

SAFECO for a 3 game weekend

Father’s Day which all seats

have been sold for the whole

series. Mariners expect

around 125,000 people

for the series against

the Braves. Could this

be a 2003 World Series

preview ? ESPN is

carryng the game

nationally this Sunday

at 5:05 and they’re

going to talk about

that.

The Braves and Mariners

have the best records

in baseball and they will

collide at SAFECO for the

first time in history this

weekend. Then next

monday the Anaheim Angels

will bring their World Series

rings for the second time this

year to Seattle. That

series could ‘make or break’

the Angels for this season.

As good as the Mariners are

this season, they are not

going to win 20 in a row,

they are not that type of

team. With the exception

of Ichiro and Winn they

do not have a lot of speed

but this lineup here is a

better lineup that the A’S

of Oakland, there is no

comparison if you go

position by position. If

everybody was playing to

their potential between

A’S and Mariners, the only

two positions in which

the A’S would be a better

team is at shortstop and

thirdbase with Tejada and

Chavez.

Who is the better player?

-First base: Olerud

-Second base: Boone

-Short stop: Tejada

-Third base: Chavez

-Left field: Winn

-Center field: Cameron

-Right field: Ichiro

-Catcher: Wilson

(pitching staff: Zito-Mulder-Hudson

the best 3 going but after that

the Mariners are deeper with

five starters.ll that can win

consistenly)

Finally. A word should be said

about rookie manager

Bob Melvin. His easy going

style has fitted perfectly

in a nice quite town with

very nice people, specially

after Lou Piniella left the

Mariners -after doing

a very good job- I might add.

————————————————————

Amaury Pi-Gonzalez is broadcasting

the Mariners 81 home games this

season for the new Mariners Spanish

Radio Network in Washington and

Oregon and weekend home games

for the SF Giants. Amaury on his ninth

season over KZSF 1370 AM in

the Bay Area. During this

homestand Fox Sports Northwest

asked Amaury to conduct an

interview with Mariner’s number

one started Freddy Garcia.

For more information on the

Seattle Mariners Spanish Radio

Network please visit:

www.spanishmariners.net

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