Dec 29 2008
Offseason Preview - Seattle Mariners (Part One)
The loss of Raul Ibanez is a significant one for a team that will likely spend 2009 being an insignificant one. Just a year ago it looked like Seattle was ready to take the next step into becoming an elite franchise. They had JJ Putz, coming off a fantastic season, they had Raul Ibanez, a 100 rbi rock, they had Adam Jones, one of the games very best athletes and a top prospect.
Now all three are gone and the Mariners are coming off a terrible season that saw the players that they traded prosper. George Sherrill made the all star team and Jones became a major league regular for Baltimore. Richie Sexson and Kenji Johjima were so bad that Sexson is still searching for a team and Johjima lost his job. It wasn’t to last however as his replacement Jeff Clement showed that he also was not up to the task.
While Felix Hernandez and Erik Bedard have the talent to be two of the best pitchers in baseball, this is still a team going nowhere until they can cleanse their big league roster of dead weight like Jose Vidro and Carlos Silva.
