"They are who we thought they were"

The quote given by the coach of the Arizona Cardinals a few years ago has been memorialized in many different ways in the sports world, and now we seem to have found one more. After a month of good baseball, there was lingering suspicion of a team, as one of my friend's said, "playing over their heads." While I previously made a case as to why the Mariners' could potentially sustain a drive into the summer and be in contention for playoff baseball, the house made of cards has begun to crumble due to almost no offensive threat present in the lineup.

The question in Seattle seems to perpetually be "how are we going to score runs?" Ever since about 2002, I have identified this as the primary problem of the team and we have never been in a spot since that time where I could rest my head easily at night assured that the team will score enough to give the pitching a chance to win. Although poor offenses have especially plagued us in recent years, this team's performance is threatening to rank among the worst in our franchise history. The amount of games in which we are limited to three runs are less seems to be staggering and showing no signs of slowing. Adrian Beltre does not produce consistently enough to carry this team and has not showed in the past to be reliable. Even if he was, there is nothing around him. Endy Chavez essentially dropped off the table and the immaculate pitching performances our team was giving in April have come back down to earth in May.

Overall, the pitching remains the strength of the team, even with Morrow stuttering. I still believe in Morrow's stuff, unlike many in Seattle, and I think getting rid of him for having command issues at this point in his career could rank as one of the great mistakes of this franchise later on. Morrow still has time to develop a second pitch which is good enough to offset his fastball, and when his fastball is in the high 90s, that is all that is required.

Can we turn it around? Probably not. The Mariners will soon be labeled as "sellers" in the trade market, and for good reason. There is a strong potential for good trade packages with as many players on the block as we will have this season.

Build for the future. Think long-term.