Might as well kill two birds with one stone. For one thing, the trade deadline's tomorrow at 1pm PDT, and the Mariners are currently calling everyone about everyone, with Wlad being the most desirable and available bartering chip. In my grossly underinformed opinion, odds are about 60% we do nothing, 25% we get a reliever, 10% we get a position player, and 5% we get a starter. And in the event that Bavasi does pull the trigger, odds are about 80% that we won't like what he did. And while we're speaking in terms of probability, odds are 100% that at least one person calls him the worst GM of all time, regardless of what he does or doesn't do before the deadline officially hits.
As for the second thing, we get this quote from John McLaren prior to tonight's game:
"When you're a professional and you're not having a great year and you're still going out there and giving it your all, and not hanging your head and battling, that means something to your teammates, and that's important to me," McLaren said.
Raul Ibanez: .255/.307/.394, .511 OPS in July, horrible defense.
Richie Sexson: .204/.304/.404, .619 OPS in July, horrible defense.
When you're not having a great year, and you're still going out there every day and giving it your all, what that means to your teammates is that your all isn't good enough. I'm sure the clubhouse would respond more positively to winning than they do to fruitless effort, so it's high time that somebody cut through the chemistry bullshit and get Adam Jones and Ben Broussard into the lineup. Quit dicking around and make this team better. You'll be glad you did. I promise.