24-33: Mariners Walloped By Twins 10-0

In the Seattle area we are, right now as I type this, experiencing the best weather we have had some 200+ days. I hope that you've had a chance to enjoy it. I hope life afforded you the opportunity to experience at least a few of the things that make sunny weekends so wonderful. Maybe you went for a run, or a hike, or kayaked. Maybe you sat inside and played video games. Maybe you sat your ass in the lawn and drank beer til you passed out. All of those are better experiences than the one the Mariners provided today.

The team seems beaten down. At a point having your failure juxtaposed against the opposing teams victorious celebration right in front of you over and over has to sap morale. The Mariners very easily could have been riding a 4-0 road trip coming into today. They played well enough to be ahead after 8 innings all four games. But Tom Wilhelmsen's fastball is currently exploring all the things to do and see outside the strike zone. So, instead of 4-0 they were 2-2 and each loss exacting a greater emotional toll than your average loss.

So today it seemed the whole team took a day off. The roster, however high it's potential ceiling with all the pieces in place, looks like Astapor in Daenerys Targaryen's rear view mirror. Injuries and disappointing prospects and injured disappointing prospects have gutted any semblance of what we thought this team would like at the beginning of the season, for better or worse. Today Eric Wedge said screw it. He sat Nick Franklin, the only position player currently providing us any hope, he put Alex Liddi at 1st, and he put 75 years of outfielder on either side of Michael Saunders while Jeremy Bonderman tried to rejuvenate a career that was never all that juvenated to begin with.

The Mariners, I'm sure, try to win every game. But today from the fan's perspective it didn't feel like it and when combined with the weather and the 10-0 score it's just kinda, who gives a flip? Well they do. But with no work and so much sun do we? Should we?

The Mariners come home and play the White Sox tomorrow. It's another day and another chance for us to care, and for them to give us reason to.

• It's hard not to feel for Jeremy Bonderman. While the sympathy is tempered with the knowledge that he has made 40-50 million dollars in his career today was a day he had been pointing to for the last two years. Every day spent scuffling in the minors, of working through surgery and rehab, drifting around without a team was endured with the dream of making it back to the major leagues.
  
  Well today he joined a major league team, sort of. And he pitched against a major league team, sort of. It unequivocally sucked. Allowing 3 home runs, a triple and 3 doubles in 4 2/3 innings Bonderman sat 90-93 with his fastball, showed a below average change up and used a low 80's slider that looked a lot like that previously mentioned changeup. The arsenal isn't overwhelming and without good command in the zone he was pounded early and often. After the game Eric Wedge made it clear up front that Bonderman will make his next start, which, fine I understand. While there is often a disparity in player evaluation between fans and front office I find it hard to believe that Bonderman is doing more than holding a place until Erasmo Ramirez or Brandon Maurer are ready to rejoin the team. Their struggles at least are bound to the comforting trappings of youth and presumed improvement.
  
  Jeremy Bonderman's efforts to comeback are admirable and I salute his hard work and dedication. But it looks like he's still bad and I have nightmares of his glare. At least you got out of Pasco brother. Don't look back.
• This is a bulletpoint where I highlight something of note that a position player did. But that didn't really happen so sub-bullet points for all of their trivial nonsense:
  • Jason Bay hit the ball hard twice and made a defensive play that is a postcard for white guy athlete stereotypes.
  • Michael Saunders is starting to look more like Michael Saunders d'awwwwww and less like Michael Saunders :(
  • Carlos Triunfel has range at second base in that the space from his torso to wherever he can reach his hands is considered range. If it involves moving his feet laterally then to my eye Carlos cannot help you. Anytime one of these international signings wants to pan out. Annnnnnnnnytime.
• When your team is bad and the games start to pile up meaninglessly it helps to find something to hold onto, a sort of emotional totem in which to pour all of your affection and attachment that the team as whole makes impossible by being bad. I would like to submit that, for however brief it may be that right now this very second Danny Farquhar is my Mariners Totem. He has a K/9 of 15.58. His average fastball velocity is 94.5 MPH. He is amusingly short and shares the last name of a character from Shrek known for also being amusingly short. He can dance. He, amazingly, was part of the Ichiro to the Yankees trade where everyone agreed the Mariners got nothing of interest in return. He isn't arbitration eligible til 2016. He's fun. More Danny Farquhar please.