When Jack Zduriencik rolled the roster over before the 2009 season, there was no reason to expect what happened – a rag-tag group of unproven players, over-the-hill veterans and independent league escapees would win 85 games.
The Seattle Mariners did.
When general manager Zduriencik turned that roster over again last winter, the national focus was on the acquisitions of Cliff Lee and Chone Figgins rather than how fragile that ’09 team had been.
Instead of the wonderful surprises of a year earlier – Franklin Gutierrez, David Aardsma and Russell Branyan – Seattle went into the 2010 season needing similar career turnarounds from Ian Snell, Casey Kotchman and Milton Bradley.
The Mariners needed better years from Ken Griffey Jr. and Jack Wilson, Ryan Rowland-Smith and Rob Johnson, Adam Moore and Michael Saunders.
And they needed a little Zduriencik magic from Eric Byrnes, Erik Bedard, Kanekoa Texeira, Jesus Colomé, Yusmeiro Petit, Corey Patterson …
Today, 31/2 months into the season, the Mariners have one of baseball’s worst records and are buried in the cellar of the American League West.
At the end of last season, Zduriencik was considered the executive of the year, rookie manager Don Wakamatsu was thought to be a clubhouse Zen master. A franchise in disrepair had been salvaged in just one season.
The 2010 Mariners expected to contend. What happened?
A lot – most of it bad.
A year after building on winning the close games – they were 35-20 in one-run decisions – the Mariners are 11-16 in them this season.
A bullpen that was the Mariners’ backbone a year ago has imploded, and Seattle has lost 19 games this season in the opposition’s final at-bat – nine times on the final swing.
The Mariners were last in scoring runs last season but are significantly worse in 2010. They’re on pace to score fewer runs per game (3.39) than in any season in franchise history – including 1983 (3.44), when a sweeping midseason change installed a new manager and installed a leadoff hitter who hit .196. In fact, they are on pace to score fewer runs (549) than the 1994 team (569) that played only 112 games because of a players strike.
Griffey retired. Bedard hasn’t been able to come back. Byrnes pulled his bat back on a squeeze bunt and was released two days later.
That starting rotation? Lee missed a month to injury and was traded last week. Snell never won a game, was designated for assignment and now pitches for Tacoma. Rowland-Smith has one win.
Three members of the opening day bullpen – Mark Lowe, Texeira and Colomé – are no longer with the team.
Bradley flipped off a fan in Texas, took a mental leave of absence and is batting .210. Figgins slumped horribly, but when Wakamatsu dropped him from second to ninth in the batting order in June, Figgins said he was offended. At the All-Star break, Figgins was back in the No. 2 spot, and batting .235.
The young catching tandem of Moore and Johnson has struggled all season. Moore batted .193 in 19 games and was hurt. Johnson regressed defensively and is batting .205.
Lee, who led the team with eight wins when traded, missed five April starts on the disabled list.
The club batting average (.238) is the worst in the league. It was .225 on May 9, when the team fired hitting coach Alan Cockrell and replaced him with Tacoma’s Alonzo Powell.
Ichiro Suzuki is batting .326. No one else on the team is hitting higher than .265.
One of the largest questions about the season is whether Zduriencik put too much faith in the upside of the team given the pieces he put together.
He acquired Figgins to help jump-start the offense – but asking Wakamatsu to field a regular lineup featuring Bradley, Kotchman, Griffey, Wilson, Johnson and Saunders?
A year ago, the Mariners were outscored and still won more games than they lost. This team is being outscored, too, and losing well-pitched games with regularity.
The staff earned run average is 3.89, among the best in the league. The ERA of all teams pitching against Seattle, however, is 3.19.
There is a price to be paid for all of this, and the Mariners are paying it. They’ve had one sellout all season at Safeco Field – opening night. Wakamatsu has been the subject of so much job-security speculation that Zduriencik felt obliged to give him the public show of support most managers get just before being fired.
Did Wakamatsu suddenly lose the ability to manage in 31/2 months?
The responsibility probably rests more with the front office than the field staff. The roster was never quite functional, and this season, unlike 2009, the surprises were rarely pleasant.
Finding a heart of the batting order has proven to be nearly impossible, with Jose Lopez, Bradley, Kotchman, Griffey, Mike Sweeney, Gutierrez – even Josh Wilson – getting tryouts in the 3-4-5 spots in the Seattle lineup.
No member of the Mariners has as many as 38 RBI.
Without the ability to drive in runs, the Mariners have lost even the strength of their lineup, Ichiro. Last year, for the first time in his major league career, Ichiro failed to score 100 runs, finishing with 88.
This season?
Ichiro is on pace to score 64 runs. Oddly enough, that’s the number of games the Mariners are on pace to win.
larry.larue@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners/
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