Earlier this month Randy Messenger came on like gangbusters, but a couple bad outings in a row have dragged his numbers down to a more appropriate level for a guy like Randy Messenger, which should be enough to keep the coaching staff from thinking that he earned a roster spot. Mind you, I don't know how much the coaching staff liked Messenger in the first place or how much they care about ST performance, but as far as I'm concerned, anything that might help keep bad players away from the roster can only be good, and Randy Messenger is a bad player. This also leaves David Aardsma and maybe Shawn Kelley as the only bullpen standouts to date, which is both stupid and pretty cool. The longer we go without Mark Lowe doing something positive, the closer we become to an interesting experiment.

Incidentally, six Mariner pitchers have struck out at least twice as many hitters as they've walked so far in ST. Those pitchers have allowed 83 hits and 42 runs in 55.2 innings. Nice month for the defense.