The past few years the
Seattle Mariners organization
have kept a low profile and
basically the same talent
on the field. But that is
about to change very
soon here in the Emerald
City.

By Amaury Pi-González
SeattleOne of their worse start
in recent memory, aging
players and bad management
in recent years are the recipe
for the 2004 Seattle
Mariners.

They are still averaging
over 35,000 people at
Safeco Field, but fan
reaction in the talk shows
and all over this great city
has been overall very
negative for their
beloved Mariners.

Rich Aurilia still having
a tough start as of
this column(May 21, 2004)
still looking for his first
American League
home run and with
an average of .230
is rumored to be
traded to the Chicago
Cubs for a couple of
minor league prospect.
Dusty Baker is very much
interested in getting his
shortstop from the Giants
years in Chicago. With
the Cubs shortstop
Alex González out with
a fractured wrist this
deal could happen in
the very near future.
Mariners have a great
young shortstop by the
name of José López that
should be able to
take over that position
here very soon.

John Olerud with only
1 home run and 8 RBI
has gone back to watching
videos of his hitting in the
1993 season with the Blue
Jays when he won the A.L
batting crown with a .363
average. Olerud and GM
Bavasi had a nice long
talk and when he came
out he said to the local
media that “he would not
be surprised if there are
a lot of changes”. He is also
rumored to be moved.

Edgar Martínez told me this
is his last season with the
Mariners, so there is no
mystery there. The best
hitter so far into almost
one-quarter of the season
is veteran catcher Dan Wilson
over .300 and doing his
usually excellent job
defensively.

The main problem for the
Mariners is that although
they do have very good
young pitching prospects,
they lack position players
in the minors. Venezuelan
18-year old right handed
pitcher Félix Hernández
has a 97 mph fastball
and a very nasty sinker
but he is only 18 and he
is with the Inland Empire
Team in California. J.J Putz
has done a great job up
from Tripe A Tacoma
and is presently working
here out of the bullpen.

The Mariners at the time
of this column were dead
last in the West 11 1/2 games
out of Anaheim that is
still leading the way.

Last night the Mariners
scored 11 runs and 13
hits against the Orioles
beating them 11-0, Jaime
Moyer (7IP)and Ron Villone
(2 IP)combined for the
Mariners first shotout of
the season and the bats
finally came alive.

Today the Mariners open
a 3-game series against
the Detroit Tigers that
just came up from Oakland
after loosing 2 of 3 to
the Athletics. A couple of
weeks ago the Mariners
visited Comerica Park
in Detroit and won 2 of 3
there. Detroit hitters are
hitting only for a .193 average
against Mariners pitching.

The problem here is two
fold: How much longer is
management going to wait
to start “cleaning house’?
It is not too early to start
thinking about 2005, at the
same time with over
110 games left or so,
it is very tough for this
very conservative
organization to push
the panic button.
Do they want to “break
this team”? I think
they have little choice.

The next two weeks
during this month of
May are critical here.
Not the All Star Break,
Bavasi knows it and next
time I write from Seattle
we might have a
“different look team”.

Until then !
———————————————————–
Amaury Pi-González is on his second season
as Spanish Voice of the Seattle Mariners
Spanish Radio Network (see: www.spanishmariners.net)and on his 10th
season as Spanish Voice for the SF Giants
on weekend home games over KZSF 1370 AM
Radio-La Caliente-for the Bay Area.
Amaury was inducted into the
Cuban Sports Hall of Fame(CSHOF)
February 2004 and is the Vice President
of the Hispanic Heritgae Baseball
Museum, a non profit organization
founded in San Francisco in 1999.