[David¹]

2-3 with an RBI - not bad. You can't really complain about Boone. He was never an All-Star before he came to Seattle and he has preformed better than they could ever have hoped. He reverted to his old self last year and this year he's somewhat below average - but there's still 2/3 of the season to go so it's too early to write him off completely. Worst case scenario he blows chunks all year & his contract is over. This isn't like Giambi where he's still owed 80 million to be half of a mediocre DH platoon.

[Lead Dog]

Yea 2-3 last night with a RBI wooooohoooo. But before that 4-34 or something like that. Lets see what happens tonite.

[Trevor]

I think we should continue to push boone further down the batting order until he shows consistent signs of improvement, perhaps that would humble him a bit more and give him an incentive to strive harder. I think the new catcher they called up, rivera, was a good move, he seems to have more immediate potential than olivo. Also, bringing in the veteran borders will help the team chemisty. I am still questioning calling up morse, he is skillful defensively, but was only hitting .250 at Tacoma, I approve giving the more trained bloomquist time at ss. And maybe continuing to switch up the batting order will help, seeing as ibanez and reed are hitting well recently, an order of 3. Ibanez, 4. Sexson, 5. Reed, 6.Beltre, 7. Boone, might be more effective for the time being.

[Lead Dog]

Maybe we should give him (Boone) some of Borders chaw?

[Backpacker Joe]

90 million plus pay role and this kind of record!!!! Heads will role.

[Sore Feet]

[David¹]

[borank]

[Eric]

It's all about the future. Certain guys on this team are important and some guys are irrelevant. Boone's performance and where he hits in the lineup fits into the irrelevant category in the big picture. Players like Boone, Wilson, Winn, Borders, Hansen, Valdez, Spezio, Nelson, Hasagawa, Sele, Moyer etc are all going to be gone in 2-3 years when, hopefully, this team may be a contender. It's frustrating to watch them play sometimes but they're not part of the future and their success or lack thereof is more or less irrelevent except for the aggravation it brings us in the interim. Looking at proven commodities among the potential pieces for the future: Ichiro - We know what we get. Not on last years pace but still Ichiro. Sexson - On pace for 30 Doubles, 35-40 HRs. In line with expectations. Wouldn't mind seeing him hit for 25 points higher but not a big deal. OBP is still higher than Ichiro's. Ibanez - Pretty much looks like a perenniel 20 HR .300 guy which at 3.x million is a solid value. Hope they resign him after 06 as he is one of the few guys with pop in the bat and the only other guy with an OPS above 800. Guardado - Solid closer but he's gonna be 35 this year. Not sure if he will still be worth much when the time comes to resign him. Or if he wants to be here. I suspect the answer is no to one of the two questions. Mateo - Seems to be settled in as a solid middle reliever. I believe he came up after the season started in 02 so he would have next year and then two more arbitartion years before his FA. Villone - Solid bullpen lefty but he's 35 and an interchangeable part type guy. Franklin - Eats innings, is not atrocious but not good and gets no run support and loses. Poor guy. But he's a #5 starter and pretty replaceable. Winn - Worst OPS of any AL LF since he became a Mariner. He has no pop which is completely unacceptable from a LF especially with two other OF who also have no pop on the team. Doesn't hit like a LF, but can't play CF defensively at Safeco. The guy should be a $1 million per year 4th outfield not a starter. Fans have given him a pass that he doesn't deserve just because his average is consistently .300 but the Ms just can't continue to pay 4 million for a guy at a premium offensive position who hits for zero power especially given Reed and Ichiro already on the team. Unproven guys: Reed - Hitting better in May. But still has a ways to go to be at the level he needs to be. Be nice to see him develop gap power to use his speed and Safeco to rack up a ton of doubles. Beltre - I'm an avowed Beltre skeptic. Last year had fluke written all over it and he has done nothing to disprove that. He's getting allstar pay to hit like a scrub. The least he could do would be to at least go back to his pre-2004 form and hit .265 with 18 homers. He better get his game together or he will become the magnet for fans anger ala Cirillo. Bloomquist - He'll always be a Jose Oquendo type. Hasnt gotten to play much, hasn't shown he deserves to with what time he has had. They probably keep him around long term just for his versatility as a bench guy. Olivo - Unmitigated implosion. What a disaster. Putz - Too early to tell. I have biases here since I went to school with him. Meche - You keep hoping that he will be consistently good and he continues to be either very good or damn mediocre depending on the start. He's got about a hunder MLB starts and he still has a career ERA playing in Safeco mind you of 4.57. Im about ready to give up hope of him ever being better than a fourth starter. Piniero - See Meche, Gil. All over the map although he started out quite good and has gotten worse ever year. Two years ago I thought he could be a long term #2 starter but no way to have faith in that anymore. Thornton - Too early to tell. I dunno. I look down the list and I think that Reed is improving and Ibanez and Sexson have confirmed themselves to be the players that we thought they would be and other than that I don't really see much positive. We knew we had a RF, 1B, and DH. SS we knew would be a black hole till all the SS prospects they have in the minors mature and sort themselves out. LF we knew we would be stuck with Winn for at least one more year unfortunately. The 2B transition wasnt going to happen this year anyway. Beltre, well, enough said already on him solving the 3B issues. C looks like even more of a long term problem than it did before the season. Starting pitching looks less promising as Piniero and Meche continue to be inconsistent and frequently bad. CF looks like the one spot maybe progressing towards what you will see in the future but Reed hasnt surprised with a great rookie season or anything either. Looking at it overall I was hoping for more especially out of Olivo and at least one of Piniero/Meche but I dont see many of the problems with solutions or even guys who are potentially solutions in most cases.

[David¹]

The FUTURE of the Mariners - 'King' Felix Hernandez - the best pitching prospect in baseball since Doc Gooden...has an injured shoulder They are calling it 'Bursitis' right now - but its too early to tell exactly what it is and if it will derail his once promising career

[Snowshoe Hare]

Someone should REALLY check into the M's minor league organization and find out why so many can't miss pitching prospects seem to always miss! It's the curse of death being a pitcher in their system! But that's minor news compared to hearing that Boone has been benched.

[marcoramius]

Mike Morse has been a recent bright spot in the Mariners lineup in a very disappointing season so far. He seems to handle the bat pretty well and his glove is average (kind of reminds me on another SS that we used to have). Right now it is nice seeing somebody in the bottom half of the order that can get hits, although I expect him to be moved up in the lineup pretty soon, especially if he keeps up his .400 avg. It was nice to see Ichiro get a few hits lately...I was starting to doubt even him. He was making too many first pitch outs (usually fly balls or ground balls to 2nd base)...not making the opposing pitcher work much at all and not getting deep into the count. This is still a big problem with him. He has gotten so good at hitting bad pitches with a good deal of success that he never walks. If he could just take a few of those bad pitches and get a few walks, he could add another 15-20 points to his batting average and get onto the bases where he can get the pitcher focused on him instead of whoever is at the plate...Beltre and Sexson. Bret Boone...take a seat. Time to make a trade and get what we can for this extremely overrated 2nd baseman. The guys got a good glove, but his 2001 season was a fluke...the last 4 years have proved that out. Anybody know anything or heard anything about Pokey Reese? I don't know anything about the guy except that he played for Boston last year. We are a third of the way through the season and this guy has yet to start a game. Seems like another deal gone sour...

[Snowshoe Hare]

Reese is good glove no bat and is getting up there in age. He's not any kind of answer. Play the young ones. Go to any online sports page like ESPN or CBSportsline and you can look up any player's stats and bio - past present and future. Or the Mariner's website for info on their players. BTW, if you were referring to SS Carlos Guillen I'd take him and Freddie Garcia back in a heartbeat. Guillen finally put it together and has had outstanding 1.5 years in Detroit. Think he might have been hurt for a time this year. Jeez complaining about Ichiro falls on deaf ears here!