ED

The Mariners offense reminds me of those Viagra commercials. They have ED, and every once in a while they pop a viagra and go crazy, but otherwise we are limp. Now if we could be like Levitra and have a window where we could choose when to blow up, that would be nice. But sadly this is real life baseball and there is no pill that can help us. (Well there is an experimental pill called AdamJonesavitra that Bill Bavasi is utterly afraid of). When talk of what could help us arises, there a couple schools of thought:

• The Mariners need a right handed power arm to help us get to Putz. FALSE
• The Mariners need to add a Starting Pitcher. FALSE

The bullpen argument is the most laughable. If people weren't so enamored with the radar guns, they would notice that Sean Green is doing a tremendous job. Toss in Sherrill as the lefty option and we are set there. If you need a fireballer, we have Morrow and Reitsma (neither of which I would trust in the 8th inning), and if your worried about using our lefty specialist in the 8th, we still have O'flaherty who has done well. If we are really that worried about our bullpen, we should instead look within the Org. Mark Lowe will be back soon, and if one is worried about the long relief we still have Julio Mateo doing well in AAA. There is absolutely NO need to trade for bullpen help.

Now when I said false to the second school, the one saying we need a starting pitcher, I am not saying that we couldn't use a better starter or two. I am merely saying there is no pitcher available that will improve us THAT much, and to mortgage the future for someone like Dontrelle Willis would be foolish. Now this one could change, and if a better option becomes available for the right price, by all means we should go for it. But I do not want to see us send off some good prospects for some rent a pitcher. Thankfully there has been so little SP available that Bavasi hasn't overpayed for it.

Now what needs to be done is a revamping of our offense, and it is something that theoretically could all come without need for a trade. Raul and Richie are KILLING the team, Richie to the tune of 4-27 (.148) since the break and one rbi in all of July. Raul is a double edged sword as he is murdering us in the lineup (batting third!!) AND in the feild. So what to do? Glad you asked. As I (and everyone else) have been saying for some time, bring up Adam Jones. But thats just beating a dead horse, so a few other things could be done. I love Jason Ellison and his heart, but hes just not cutting it. His job is to play D and run the bases, and he only does one of those well. Bring up Jeremy Reed to be our fourth OF (we know he can play D with the best of em, and honestly I trust his bat more then Ellison's). Broussard should start somewhere (LF, DH, 1B) everyday against righties. This would give us more pop in the lineup, better D and hitting on the bench, as Raul, Vidro, or Sexson would be available off the bench depending on lineups. If we want to get drastic, we could even bring up Wlad to do some DH, which would give us some more power. Most of all though, I just want to see SOMEBODY in the middle of the line-up not named Sexson or Ibanez. The ball is in Bill Bavasi's court, and I don't know bout the rest of you but that worries me....