You just opened up the flood gates for people to either complain about tax payer dollars going into Safe-Co or the people who say that the team will never be good no matter what. Don't say you weren't warned.

Jim, Although I always enjoy your journalism, I think you are missing the essence of the Mariners problem. It starts with ownership and management. Let's go ahead and accept the fact that Jack Z. is given few $ by ownership to acquire successful veterans, which might be debatable since the few he has landed are total busts. Unless the organization goes out and puts together a mix of proven hitters and complement that with competent young hitters, I say COMPETENT- meaning young hitters like Trout, McCutcheon, Hamilton - top calibre- making an impact right away, then there will be a continuous stream of articles like yours by you and your journalist counterparts. It takes MONEY, unfortunately, and the Mariners ownership has sent a very clear message to the fans and media that they are unwilling to be competitive. Isn't it that simple?

Does anyone remember when Griffey was in his prime here? I heard someone on the radio say the other day when they were covering the Mariners back in the 90's they didn't particularly care for Griffey but they liked the way he handled the media. If he had a bad day he would be in the lockeroom fielding questions. If the team was struggling he would be in their fielding questions, taking the heat for the younger more fragile players who can’t take it. He was the TEAM caption and embraced the role fairly well. That's what future hall of fame guys do. Ichiro.... We have heard from him once this year. After he got his 2500 hit and the day after he was benched which he said through his long time (11 years) interpreter was "very regrettable" whatever that means. He is currently getting paid .23%ish of our salary this year. Including what we are paying Milton Bradley and the other guy who is no longer on the team but still under contract. If you take those guys out he is getting like 35% of our payroll. But puts up nothing close to that in production. He is not a team leader. He is selfish. He only cares about his numbers and the volume of his play. We came into this season with commercials from Eric Wedge and Jackie Z about how these guys need to hold themselves accountable. And we need to work harder, make better decisions.. blah blah blah. Coming from a guy who played D1 ball myself who do you think these young players feel when the coach himself isn’t doing that? Wedge isn't accountable when he runs a soon to be 38 year old out to RF every single day who has nothing to do with the future of this team. He needs to stand up to Ichiro and bench him. Ichiro should not play 1 more game this season that a lefty starts. Period. When Carp comes back in a month Ichiro should split every other start with Carp. Basically playing about 2-3 times a week. We need to figure out what we have in Saunders, Wells, Carp and Guti. We have made trades for three of these guys and taken a lot of time in developing Saunders. They should get the opportunity to play. And play almost every day. We have seen what Ichiro can do. And it hasn't led to much. We will end up being in the bottom three again this year. It is just a matter of time.

Soon to be 39 year old RF out there everyday. And the guy also said Griffey was there to take the heat but when he hit 3 jacks or made a big catch bouncing off the wall he was no where to be found. Classy

In my opinion Ichiro still playing everyday is not Wedge's decision.

I remember when the Kid was here, thrilling us all. The problem with Griffey was that Seattle fans seemed to take him for granted while at the same time worshiping the ground A-Rod walked. Griffey was a phenom, a Jordan. Alex to me was more like Kobe; a taleted little crybaby who had to be the center of the Universe. Safeco was called the house the Griffey built, yet everyone was more concerned about trying to Alex to stay. Alex didn't even want to be drafted by Seattle, never heard that from Griffey. I fully agree with you about Ichiro, and to an extent about Wedge. Wedge probably has managemnet on him to keep Ichi in there trying to boost sales. Thankfully this is his last year under contract, we'll see what management does then.

you did not bring up Matt

...is they cannot hit. Since the current hitting coach can't seem to get through to them or diagnose the issues properly, they should hire me. After all, it can only get better with a new voice. Here's some tips for the hitting coach and players... 1. Do not swing at two strike garbage out of the strike zone. 2. The other teams are throwing you all off speed stuff because you cannot hit it. Learn to hit a change up or breaking ball. 3. Learn to find the hole in the defense and hit it there. You cannot simply "barrel up the ball" if you just hit it right to the defender anyways. 4. If your mental approach fails just go back to your little league coaching and simplify things. Who needs an inept, overpaid professional hitting coach anyways?

No matter how many times it's said or explained fans patience always runs out. Last year it seemed the theme was to rebuild because it has been a tried and true method of building a long term winning club by other clubs around the league, but the car has barely made it out of the driveway and the whining has commenced. I've stopped analyzing the Mariners and I'm focused on the behavior of the average Seattle sports fans. Starting to realize the majority are quite irrational. Need I mention attitude towards NBA, still??

Really dude? SHSP no idea what that means but I am sure it cracks you up. Excelious honestly man that is all you can do is barrel the ball up. Ball is a law of averages. If you hit the ball hard enoguh times it will start finding a hole. Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports. The only thing they can try and do is to stay inside the ball and hit it hard. I said this from day one about Dustin Ackley and I will say it again. I do think he will hit. But he needs to fix the "drifting" The baseball is already coming at him 93+ he doesnt need to be drifting into the baseball. He needs to keep his head still and stay back. Otherwise that fastball on the outside corner is going to chew him up. Coming from a former pitcher I would throw him that fastball outside and a breaking ball down when I got ahead over and over and over until he hit it.

Win or lose,they get paid. Why not cellar dwell?

I agree with your thoughts on how Ichiro should be used, what Ackley is doing wrong, and practically all that you had to say. However, I wouldn't necessarily blame Wedge. Do you KNOW if the handling of Ichiro is Wedge's call? I certainly don't. And I think there are very few people who truly do know. Wedge's hands may be tied. It is even possible he KNEW his hands would be tied the day he signed on as the manager.

wait till you see their finish. I got my Seachicken head bag. If one of you ticket holder need it. lol

And by then Francisco Martinez should be ready. With all of the young kids starting to hit stride. Everything down eventually comes up. Look at the lowly Pirates THIS YEAR.