Okay, I have not been a big "Fire Mike Hargrove" guy. But it's now clear that a change is necessary, and Grover (and hopefully Badvasi) has to take the fall. It's pretty obvious this team has quit on him. This road trip has been brutally bad. Make a change now so you're ready to make a new hire as soon as the season is over.

A question for ya. What would Pinella think about going back to Seattle?

That's a terrific question, CCG. He would, of course, be welcomed back with a ticker-tape parade. My hunch, however, is that he was sincere when he left about wanting to be closer to home, and therefore I doubt he'd have strong interest. But I'd sure love it if they asked him.

Well Pinero is out of the starting lineup. With Eddie gone last month now they need to sit or get rid of Mateo and I will have a little confidence.

found this interesting:

Hargrove said there had been discussion within the organization for weeks about the move.

if they had made this move weeks ago, instead of talking about it, Pinero might have been able to fix his issue and become a productive starter - his best bet now is to pitch 2 innings of relief, and have a career has a middle reliever. Whoever made the decision to stick with Pinero is the problem with the organization and needs to go, if that was Hargrove or Bavasi.

Maybe some fresh blood will get the confidence going again for the M's.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/s ... iro17.html

We NEED an ace in this rotation. A #1 guy who can be counted on to get 16 wins and go deep into the majority of the games he pitches. Middle relief and closer are salty, and this team has an offense - inconsistent at times, yes - but still capable of scoring runs. Defense is pretty damn good as well.


Starters.

Barry Zito or the kid from Japan, Masatzuka or something, that would anchor the rotation, add in one of the AAA starters, and this team could have a pitching staff next year that would be similar to Minnesotas or Detroits this year.

The team still needs a run-producer, however. They don't need a guy that hits 40+ home runs a game (because he won't do that in wet, cold, large Safeco), but they do need a guy anchoring the middle of that line up that will hit .300 and drive in 125. They need....well... they need Edgar.

Matsuzaka.

He won the MVP of the World Baseball Classic. Filthy, nasty, evil pitcher. And I want him in a Marienr uniform in the worst way. He will probably be posted in this off season, similar to the way Ichiro was. His team either posts him and gets the big one time shot of $$ or he pitches one more year in Japan and then becomes free to leave in free agency. He is on record as saying that he wants to pitch in the states.

He's got a fastball that clocks in between 92-96 mph that he can throw into a tea cup and the sickest array of breaking pitches that I've ever seen.

This is a youtube video of a game earlier this year. 14 strikeout, 3 hit, 1 walk complete game shutout. Look at the breaking ball that he throws about 46 seconds into the video. It can't be hit by a left handed batter. It just can't. He strikes out another guy with the same pitch a while later. I don't even know what the pitch is - a forkball, maybe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAwmW2S-xX4



This is him against Cuba in the WBC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsptUfnhVcc






And no way in hell Pinella comes back to Seattle as long as the current ownership group is in place. He didn't leave to go back home - that was just good PR on his part. Remember, his first choice was to go to the Mets, not Tampa and he's now on the road for Fox Sports. Pinella left Seattle because he was sick of that bastard Howard Lincoln inserting himself into baseball decisions. The M's were one bat away from a W.S. title a couple of times and Lincoln refused to shell out the cash at the trade deadline to get one. Pinella complained about it very publically at the time. As long as Linclon is running the show, Pinella believes that the Mariners can't win a W.S. I tend to agree.