Musings From the Bleachers 06.19.08: The Carnage Begins

Posted by Frank Fedele on 06.19.2008

We are now 60 games into the season and the surprises and disappointments have come more into the focus. The Mariners team that thought that an offseason trade for Erik Bedard would be enough to push them over the top is presently the worst team in baseball. This has cost the hitting coach and the general manager their jobs. A Mets team that stumbled down the stretch last season, but made a big pitching acquisition of their own in Johan Santana have struggled to stay about the .500 mark. It cost Willie Randolph his job as well as the job of his pitching coach. Who else is on the bubble? Read further and find out.

The Carnage Begins

All teams enter the season with expectations on how they should perform and whether they should be in contention for a playoff spot. Some teams realize they are in a rebuilding mode and just look to get young players playing time and winning is a happy bonus. Others load up in the offseason and look to content for a playoff and maybe a World Series berth. Two supposed contenders made moves this week to shake up their club and hopefully push them back into contention.

The Seattle Mariners

The Mariners were competitive in 2007, but looked at their pitching staff and saw that as a weakness that needed to be fixed so they could challenge the Angels in the American League West. In the offseason, the Mariners picked up Carlos Silva off the free agent pile and traded four young prospects for Erik Bedard to shore up this weakness. Thus far it has not worked as expected.


Erik Bedard, courtesy of CBS News


Carlos Silva, courtesy of SeattlePI.com

The team is currently sporting an ERA of 4.64, not what the team had hoped with their new rotation. Bedard has been decent thus far with an ERA of 4.14 and 4 wins. Young Felix Hernandez has been outstanding with an ERA of 2.87. Carlos Silva, however, has been putrid and Jarrod Washburn hasn't been much better.

The hitting has also been a problem with even Ichiro hitting below .300 and only Adrian Beltre in double digits in homers with 14. Parts have grown older quickly, like Sexton and Vidro, and short term fixes have not helped, like Brad Wilkerson.

The farm system offers little help, so Bill Bavasi, the General Manager paid with his job. The rebuilding job is daunting as the only piece that the Mariners have and are willing to trade (the assumption is Ichiro and Felix Hernandez are off limits) is the recently acquired Bedard. Hard times await the Mariners it seems.

The New York Mets

The Mets manager Willie Randolph had been under fire all year for the team's slow start and the collapse of 2007. Names were brought up as possible new managers in the New York papers almost daily and the rumblings at Shea had become audible, with chants of "Fire Willie" being heard at each home game. Even with all of this, the way the Mets chose to fire Willie Randolph is not defendable.


Willie Randolph, courtesy of SI.com

Randolph was fired at 11 pm after a road game his team won in Anaheim, California. The news didn't hit the east coast until 3:15 in the morning, but the response was quick and severe.

Shaun Powell of Newsday called for more dignity in the firing.

Here in the wake of a hideously handled firing of a good man, job performance aside, what happened to Randolph can be described, strictly in sports terms, as a local baseball tragedy. A poor kid from the projects in Brownsville, who grew up rooting for the Mets, who starred with the Yankees, who waited years to land a job, who became the first black man to manage a New York baseball team and who came a Carlos Beltran called third strike away from reaching the World Series in 2006 was cut loose, like he was another Art Howe.

Others expressed their displeasure with the move and how it was handled, turning Randolph into a martyr of sorts. The Mets have underperformed thus far, barely seeing the .500 mark and with the big acquisition of Johan Santana in the offseason, this cannot happen.

Randolph is not to blame for all that has gone wrong with the Mets, but is the only move that can happen as you cannot reshape the roster in mid-season. Jerry Manuel will guide the Mets into the season and he will need luck and his players to begin playing like it was thought they could.


Other Candidates
Eric Wedge of the Indians is probably not resting easy right now, as his team has vastly underperformed what is expected. The Indians were thought to be contenders in the American League Central, but are 33-38 at this time and 6 ½ games behind the Chicago White Sox.


Eric Wedge, courtesy of MLB.com

John Gibbons of Blue Jays is also worrying as his team begins to fall out of the American League East race. John McLaren of the Mariners must look at Bavasi's firing and worry about his own job.

Baseball expectations can weigh heavy on a team and manager and the manager is normally the only in season alternative to shake up the team. Expect more moves as we close in on the trading deadline.

Others

Apparently Miguel Cabrera has some fervent backers and some wrote to support the Tigers slugger. Cabrera is a solid young hitter, but you must worry as he move defensively away from the harder positions to fill like 3rd base and left field toward the easiest, 1st base. The only other position for him to move to will be DH if this does not work. He will hit, but I still wonder if he is worth the money he earns and the prospects he cost.

Until next week, that is my thoughts from my bleacher seat.