Seattle Mariners Fire Manager Don Wakamatsu

The Seattle Mariners fired their manager Don Wakamatsu today (8-9-10), and frankly I'm surprised. The 2010 Seattle Mariners are a complete joke of a ball club. They can't hit, they can't field, they are just awful. They are dead last in the American League west with a 42-70 record, 22.5 games behind the Texas Rangers.

I see a lot of Mariners games living up here in the Pacific Northwest and let me tell you this, they are the most boring team in Major League baseball to watch play. They don't have any power and their overall batting average is the worst in baseball. Yeah, they do have Ichiro Suzuki but even he is having a "down" year for his standards. Ichiro seems to be striking out more this season more than he has in any other year.

The Mariners entered this 2010 baseball season with so much hope and promise as they attempted to overtake the Los Angels Angels of Anaheim. M's General Manager Jack Zduriencik made a lot of moves in the off season as he brought in Chone Figgins, Casey Kotchman and Cliff Lee. He also traded pitcher Brandon Morrow to the Toronto Blue Jays for reliever Brandon League and a good looking hitting prospect in Johermyn Chavez.

But all of the above trades except Lee have blown up in the Mariners' face, big time. Cliff Lee pitched well for the Mariners but he is now gone as he was traded to the Texas Rangers for Justin Smoak and some pitching prospects right before the All-Star break. Second baseman Chone Figgins has been a complete bust this year for the Mariners. He has been hitting in the .230 range all year. He is hitting a little better as of late but he is still only hitting .254 at the time of this writing. Figgins was a .300 hitter when he was with the Angels.

First baseman Casey Kotchman has been horrible all year. He is hitting a miserable .215 at the time of this writing with 7 home runs and 36 RBI. I was pretty excited when the M's acquired Kotchman in the off season because I thought that he was always a pretty good hitter. Well, that hasn't been the case this season.

The Mariners let Adrian Beltre go and he signed with the Boston Red Sox. And of course, Beltre is now hitting again. Must be a contract year for Beltre. He was a fat, lazy slob when he played with the Mariners and he was not hitting a wink. Now in Boston he is hitting .336 with 20 home runs and 75 RBI.

When Beltre left for Boston, the Mariners moved second baseman Jose Lopez over to play third base. He has done okay at third but he has made some big errors too. But the most disappointing thing about Lopez in 2010 is that he is not hitting. Jose Lopez is batting .239 with only 6 home runs and 44 RBI. In 2009 Lopez hit 25 homers and drove in 96 runs while hitting a respectable .272.

But the biggest mistake that the Mariners made in the off season was trading for Milton Bradley. They traded the fat man Carlos Silva to the Chicago Cubs for Bradley. Yeah, I was glad to see Silva go, but Bradley has been a huge disappointment. The Mariners are paying Milton Bradley $11 Million this season! And here is what they are getting for their money. Bradley is batting a microscopic .205 with 8 home runs and 28 RBI. Simply horrible!

The only real "power" that the Mariners have in their lineup is Russell Branyon. Branyon has 14 homers and 35 RBI at the time of this writing. But he is only batting .242 and he strikes out too much.

So you see this whole season has been a complete nightmare for the Seattle Mariners. I don't know how anyone can blame this awful offense on Don Wakamatsu but he is now gone. Who is going to be the M's manager now? Some Minor League guy from Tacoma named Daren Brown. This is how low it has gotten for the M's in 2010. Until GM Jack Z goes out and gets some big bats, this trend will continue and Seattle fans will remain frustrated.

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