Kuzul

The Tigers rode their starting rotation to a Central Division title and an appearance in the World Series. The Tigers have insured they will have the same rotation (more or less) that pitched a great postseason for Detroit.

They do have several questions facing them for the 2013 season, can they stay healthy, can Porcello or Smyly take a hold of the fifth job, and can recently re-signed Anibal Sanchez pitch as well as he did down the stretch and in the playoffs.

Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer finished 2012 leading all of baseball in strikeouts. What can we expect from them and the other Tigers starters in 2013?

Lets take a look and see.

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It took better than one-third of the season and two stints on the disabled list, but the Tigers‘ Doug Fister finally broke into the win column with an outstanding performance after his first game back in 19 days.

Fister has battled through a pulled stomach muscle which occurred in his first start of the season and has hampered his efforts to continue the hot stretch he finished with in 2011.

Fister (3-1) was razor-sharp, giving the Rockies all they could handle through six-innings, allowing just three hits while striking out six and walking one. His swing-back fastball and two-seamer were money and allowed Fister to take early control of the game, sitting down the first 11 Colorado hitters he faced. 

Phil Coke provided strong relief in the seventh and eighth while earning his 11th hold of the season for the Tigers. Joaquin Benoit allowed the only Colorado run via a Michael Cuddyer ground-out which scored Carlos Gonzalez from third. Gonzalez ripped a double to lead off the ninth.

An outfield throwing error by Don Kelly allowed him to advance to third.

Benoit was called upon to finish the game for Detroit in lieu of  Tigers’ closer Jose Valverde who wasn’t an option today after getting smoked for seven runs in Detroit’s 10th-inning loss on Friday night.

The Tigers offense was led by slugger Miguel Cabrera‘s two-out solo home run in the first inning of Colorado starter Christian Friedrich giving Detroit an early 1-0 lead. 

Cabrera got Detroit on the board again in the fifth when he rounded all bases on a ball that didn’t make it past the infield grass.

Cabrera hit a sharp liner back at Friedrich whose glove got a piece of the ball, but a throwing error on the play at first allowed Cabrera to move all the way to third. Things didn’t get better for Colorado when catcher Wilin Rosario committed the second throwing error of the play attempting to pin Cabrera out at third. Instead, he allowed him to trot home and score—better known in the baseball world as a “Little League Home Run.”

Albeit with errors and not counting as a stat-line homer, Cabrera hit two of the most opposing home runs possible and scored twice for the Tigers.

Austin Jackson also contributed to Detroit’s opportunities on the basepaths, working Colorado pitching for four walks on the day and an RBI. Ramon Santiago also chipped in with two hits on the day to equaling Cabrera as the only Tigers with two hits on the day. 

Detroit, 6-4 in their last 10 games, is inching back toward the top of the AL standings, and now, sit only three games under .500 and 3.5 games back of divisional leader Chicago. Chicago is 3-7 in their last 10 having lost three straight after entering June as the hottest team in baseball.

The Tigers will close their three-game series with Colorado tomorrow. The rubber match will pit Colorado’s Jeremy Guthrie (3-5) against Detroit’s Max Scherzer (5-4) who hasn’t lost a game in his last three starts and will look to lower his 5.76 ERA en route to a third straight series victory for the Tigers.

Detroit will finish out interleague play with a three-game set against the defending World Champion St. Louis Cardinals before hitting the road to face the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Box score stats provided by mlb.com.

Bleacher Report Featured Columnist J. Cook is a member of B/R’s MLB Coverage Team and contributes to B/R’s MLB content and Detroit Tigers page. He also covers key sport interest stories for all of Detroit’s major sports teams.

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Even though the Tigers‘ early struggles have been well documented throughout the past month, there are still signs of life from various points of this truly deep roster.  

One of those bright spots is Doug Fister.

After boasting an 8-1 record, as well as a 1.79 ERA and 0.84 WHIP, expectations were high coming into the 2012 season for Fister.

While no one expected Fister to perform as well as he did after the trade that undoubtedly helped send Detroit deep into the postseason, he has performed exceedingly well thus far. 

He has yet to disappoint, and all signs point to another great year from one of the Tigers’ biggest pitching acquisitions in recent memory. 

Here are five reasons why Fister’s stellar 2011 performance was not a fluke.

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Texas felt comfortable with Nelson Cruz and a 3-1 series lead on Detroit. If C.J Wilson didn’t come through, surely Derek Holland would.

And if not, surely Colby Lewis would finish.

Now, that comfort is gone. Detroit has Delmon Young, who has matched Nelson Cruz, and they have power with Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez, as well as Ryan Raburn and Brandon Inge, who are both surging.

Detroit hasn’t gotten much from Justin Verlander, who has given up 12 runs in 20 and one-third innings. Although Young and the Tigers have supported him (Verlander is 2-1 in October), he will need to step up if the Tigers are to advance.

Still, Detroit is in the thick of this race. Max Scherzer has been impressive this postseason, giving up 4 runs in 13 and one-third innings. Scherzer didn’t give up a run in Game 2 and has a win and a hold this postseason.

Add in Doug Fister, and you have a stellar pitching rotation that can match the Rangers with ease. Texas has won their last three home games, but they are not a great home team, especially in October.

Right now, Game 6 is cracked up to be a great battle, but if the Tigers (who had the ball bounce their way in Game 5) can pull it out, they have the definite edge.

Fister ended the regular season with seven straight wins, and he has won his last nine starts (where he had a decision) including the deciding game in the ALDS. In Seattle, Fister had a 3.33 ERA, but only went 3-12, including a loss in New York.

His next outing in New York wasn’t great (four and two-thirds innings of relief), but he followed that by pitching five strong innings, giving up just one run in the Tigers’ 3-2 clincher.

Colby Lewis is a good pitcher, but nobody in Texas wants the ball in the hands of Doug Fister for Game 7. He already beat the Rangers, diving into the 8th and giving up just two runs.

He was strong in the ALDS, and finished the year strong, but Lewis is 0-2 against Detroit this year, giving up 17 earned runs in 13 innings. Derek Holland has been strong recently, but struggled against Detroit and their hot bats.

So while Game 6 looks even, with Delmon Young and Miguel Cabrera against Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz. But if Detroit pulls it out, watch out for Game 7.

Fister is lights out. Lewis; not so much.

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Brett Lawrie, 2B Toronto Blue Jays (23 percent owned in Yahoo, 22.7 percent in ESPN)

Current Stat Line: 2/4, 1 RBI

Brett Lawrie has finally arrived! He tore up AAA pitching this season going .353/64/18/61/13. In my opinion, the call-up should have happened much earlier—but it didn’t. Then Lawrie suffered a hand injury on May 31st which kept him out of the game for a while. Now that it is completely healed, expect him to rake for the Blue jays.

Projection (rest of season): .280 AVG / 23 R / 6 HR / 26 RBI / 4 SB

Hideki Matsui, OF Oakland Athletics (32 percent owned in Yahoo, 70.6 percent in ESPN)

Current Stat Line: .268 AVG / 39 R / 10 HR / 54 RBI / 1 SB

I try not to mention players two weeks in a row, but I need to make an exception here. It seems like ESPN has caught on to Matsui but Yahoo leaguers haven’t. In the past six games he has gone .524/4/1/3. In Yahoo, some of the players owned ahead of him are Alex Rios, Jason Kubel, Juan Pierre and Delmon Young.

Projection (rest of season): .279 AVG / 22 R / 6 HR / 23 RBI / 0 SB

Josh Willingham, OF Oakland Athletics (23 percent owned in Yahoo, 39.1 percent in ESPN)

Current Stat Line: .245 AVG / 41 R / 16 HR / 61 RBI / 4 SB

Willingham has been a streaky hitter all season, but he had a monster month of July, going .324/.429/.618. His HR/RBI numbers are actually pretty impressive considering he only has registered 314 AB. If you extrapolate his power numbers over 600 AB you get 30/116. He is batting cleanup for the Athletics so the RBI opportunities should continue.

Projection (rest of season): .240 AVG / 21 R / 7 HR / 29 RBI / 2 SB

Rick Porcello, SP Detroit Tigers (21 percent owned in Yahoo, 29.6 percent in ESPN)

Current Stat Line: 11 W / 6 L / 73 K / 4.49 ERA / 1.36 WHIP

Now that August is upon us, it’s time to start looking at matchups for fantasy baseball playoffs. From September fifth through the 25th the Tigers face: @CLE, MIN, @CHI, @OAK, @KC and BAL. They have a pretty good schedule leading up to September fifth, too: @CLE, @BAL, MIN, CLE, @TB, @MIN, KC and CHI. Porcello’s BB/9 of 2.21 and 49.1 percent of groundballs will keep him out of serious trouble going forward.

Projection (rest of season): 4 W / 3 L / 34 K / 3.65 ERA / 1.24 WHIP

Doug Fister, SP Detroit Tigers (15 percent owned in Yahoo, five percent in ESPN)

Current Stat Line: 4 W / 12 L / 89 K / 3.29 ERA / 1.17 WHIP

I know it’s a bit unorthodox to suggest two starting pitchers from the Tigers on the same waiver wire article, but you can’t argue with the schedule and I actually like Fister more. Fister’s K/9 is only slightly worse at 5.24 and he is a control freak (1.88 BB/9, 64.3 first pitch strike percentage). For what it’s worth, I picked him up in our league.

Projection (rest of season): 4 W / 4 L / 32 K / 3.40 ERA / 1.10 WHIP

For other entries in our waiver-wire gems series, click here!

Brian “Killboy” Kilpatrick is a Senior Writer for 4thandHome.com, where this, and other work, can be found. Additionally, he is co-host of The 4th and Home Show on Blog Talk Radio.

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Coming off a franchise-record 17-game losing streak that has essentially torpedoed the season, it was only a matter of time before the Seattle Mariners started trading from their position of strength:  starting pitching. 

We know they are not dealing Michael Pineda or Felix Hernandez (which I have been saying for awhile now), but the rest of their deep rotation is up for auction.

It appears that the Mariners have finally made a move, as SI’s Jon Heyman reported that the Mariners had traded Doug Fister and reliever David Pauley to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for outfielder Casper Wells and lefty Charlie Furbush.

I’ve felt bad for Fister this season, as the tall righty has pitched much better than his won-loss record would indicate. Fister has gone six or more innings in 18 of his 21 starts, ranking seventh in the AL in walk rate (1.97) and taking advantage of spacious Safeco Field to rank fourth in HR rate (0.43). He doesn’t strike out many hitters (just 89 Ks in 146 innings), so he needs a quality defense behind him in order to be an effective innings-eater.

Pauley has been Seattle’s most consistent reliever this season, but the converted starter is hardly a power arm coming out of the bullpen (5.63 K rate). Still, he has stranded runners at a very solid 81.5 percent rate thus far, which instantly puts him ahead of anybody in the Tigers’ bullpen.

Wells looks like the key to this trade for the Mariners. A righty hitter who has spent most of the year in rightfield, Wells has put up a .323/.451 line as a part-time player but has struggled to stay in the lineup on the veteran-laden Tigers. 

He immediately becomes a middle-of-the-order bat for the Mariners, though it is likely that his numbers will take a slight dip while playing at Safeco.  That said, he still has better hitting numbers this season than anybody in the Mariners’ lineup and should step in immediately in left.

Furbush is a hard-throwing lefty with control problems who should fit nicely into the Mariner bullpen.

This is a trade that can only help the Mariners in the future. Fister was a reliable but expendable back-end starter (which are not hard to develop at Safeco), and Wells is a serious upgrade to the Mariner lineup. Then again, the Mariners probably could have pulled somebody out of little league and had an upgrade to their lineup. But with that said, this looks like a win for Seattle.

UPDATE:  Larry Stone is reporting that third base prospect Francisco Martinez could also be a part of this deal. I don’t know much about Martinez, but he is a five-tool third baseman who rated fairly highly on Detroit’s prospect list.

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Even after extending Felix Hernandez, the Mariners were faced with speculation that they’d trade their ace at the beginning of 2011. In the past couple days there has been a ton of speculation in the media about the team trading Erik Bedard, Jason Vargas or Doug Fister.

The Mariners should trade one of these guys, if the package they get in return is right.

There are a ton of components that go into a decision to trade a starting pitcher, not the least of which is that starter’s talent. We talk a lot about years of team control, which is certainly important, but are years of team control as valuable for a pitcher, presumed to be a back-of-the-rotation starter, as perhaps a mid-to-upper-rotation starter?

Certainly not.

And in Bedard, Vargas and Fister, the team has guys who can easily be perceived by some teams as fits in any of their rotations slots.

Fister is a prime example of where years of team control hold less value. Fister is a guy who has ridden a low HR/FB ratio and lackluster peripherals to solid results. On talent alone, Fister is a pretty generic option in trade. He’s a poor man’s Kevin Millwood or Livan Hernandez. Sure, if a team traded for him, they’d have him under team control for four more years after 2012, but he’s a huge regression candidate, especially in a different home ballpark (4.16 FIP career on the road, compared to 3.81 at Safeco).

Even in Safeco, the chances of Fister’s high wire act continuing is pretty slim and could be pushed out of the rotation by present farmhands in the next couple years. If the Mariners can get something of greater value for Fister, they should jump at the opportunity. I’d look for someone like Seth Smith from Colorado or Drew Sutton from Boston.

The other two pitchers, Bedard and Vargas, probably haven’t reached the potential peak of their value yet. If either of them (or both!) keep pitching the way they are right now, a Cliff Lee-like package isn’t completely out of the question.

Bedard is probably the more talented pitcher. He has a viable breaking ball and a better fastball. His problems, obviously, center on his health. This may lead the team, or fans, to want to trade Bedard as soon as possible, since he’s a high injury risk, and an injury would destroy his value. However, because they’ve bought so low on the new version of Bedard, he seems like a solid value to keep around until at least the beginning of July. If he gets hurt the sunk costs are minimal, and if he’s healthy, his value is likely to be at its peak by then.

Besides health, Bedard’s limiting factor is his pending free agency. After missing all of last year, it’s unlikely that Bedard is a Type A or B free agent after this season, and there is no guarantee that he remains the kind of bargain he has been for the Mariners so far this season (obviously not in the past).

Vargas is perhaps the most volatile. Just two days ago I proposed that the Mariners should either attempt to extend Vargas now, or this upcoming offseason, or never.

Just like the Mariners are at a critical point for Vargas’ future with the team, they may be at a critical point for his future with another team. It makes sense for the team to explore a trade for him, but having a low-cost, under-30, effective pitcher in the rotation, makes a hell of a lot of sense too.

There isn’t a ton of precedent for trading a guy with two years of team control, who is recently effective after a career full of struggles. Maybe the best comparable is Bronson Arroyo, who after two solid-ish years in Boston, was traded to Cincinnati for Wily Mo Pena about two weeks before the 2006 season. Pena’s name may not inspire excitement, but he was a top hitting prospect, which is a pretty big return for a guy of that type.

Arroyo was a well-known member of the 2004 World Series champion Red Sox, an intangible asset (undoubtedly an overvalued one) that Vargas doesn’t have. However, Vargas has posted better season prior to that.

The Mariners should trade one of these guys if it can improve the offense. But, they shouldn’t trade Bedard or Vargas for anything but top prospects. While the market for starting pitchers is developing, it certainly isn’t fully developed, and the Mariners should wait to trade either of the latter, or they’ll be getting less than full value for the pitchers.

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North and South of Royal Brougham offers articles like this, as well as articles about things like:

Michael Pineda’s need for a nickname

The Seattle Sounders

The Seattle Seahawks Quarterback situation

Gary Payton’s Love for Seattle

and last but not least

Nate Robinson’s tweets, and how Seattle fans should receive them

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After a season that disappointed most Mariners fans, it seems as if more disappointment is coming.

Yesterday during the game against the Boston Red Sox, Mike Cameron hit a line-drive against the left field wall. Michael Saunders picked it up threw it in to second where second baseman Chone Figgins didn’t even attempt to pick it up and let it roll by, having Cameron make the double into a triple.

The play seemed like a lackadaisical attempt at anything baseball, so when Figgins came into the dugout manager Don Wakamatsu had a word with him.

Figgins did not take too kindly to it and things got physical.

Third baseman Jose Lopez had to keep Wakamatsu and Figgins apart, then first baseman Russell Branyan got into it. It seemed as if he was angry with Figgins, too and was yelling at him, and then Lopez started yelling back.

Everyone was separated with even starting pitcher Jason Vargas helping, which is never a good thing. It seemed as if this frustration had been building since the beginning of the season and finally exploded.

After a offseason that was filled with great trades and signings, it seemed as if the Mariners might have a chance to win the AL West this season, especially after a surprise season in 2009 where they finished eight games above .500.

Cliff Lee came in as the second man in the rotation behind Felix Hernandez who was Cy Young-worthy last year so the Mariners looked stacked at pitching, but, of course, that didn’t work out very well.

The pitching worked well most of the time but our offense came in struggling more than anything.

The pitching is ninth in the MLB with a 3.90 ERA and a MLB-high 10 complete games, but the offense is last in RBI’s and batting average. No other team in the MLB with a ERA lower than 3.90 has a record lower than .500 and even some teams with a higher ERA are above .500—such as the division-rival Los Angeles Angels with an ERA of 4.42.

So now that our season is over it seems like the worst is here.

Not true.

In the offseason general manager Jack Zduriencik will have a lot to decide with this team. Will Don Wakamatsu be the manager after a season that was full of high hopes, and especially after this later incident, can he control this team? What kind of moves will be made to better this team?

I know the Justin Smoak trade was made recently and will better this team in the future but it more than Smoak will be needed to improve this team.

Zduriencik needs to find bigger and better bats to compliment this pitching, such as maybe Prince Fielder as a DH.

The pitching looks fine with Jason Vargas having a career year and Doug Fister maturing. Of course something will have to be done with Ryan Rowland-Smith and the fifth pitcher of the rotation.

Maybe they can bring up Michael Pineda who has been having tremendous success in the minors. Also the bullpen needs some help but maybe putting Rowland-Smith in there would help.

Overall this team needs another makeover just after a makeover that was supposed to help last season. This team needs a lot of changes and a lot of decisions will be made in the offseason and hopefully these decisions actually work out this time.

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Erik Bedard is on his way back from labrum surgery. He has shown encouraging signs after his stint in the Arizona Rookie League, most recently last Saturday throwing 68 pitches and hitting 93 mph on the radar gun.

On Thursday, Bedard will kick off July with a Triple-A start in Tacoma, Wash., and could start for the Mariners on July 6th against the Kansas City Royals.

The biggest news in this chain of events is that Bedard’s apparent happiness. He’s as healthy and as happy as he has been in a long time. Remember his first two years in Seattle where it seemed he never cracked a smile?

The injuries and the pressure of performing up to expectations based on what Seattle gave up to acquire the left handed pitcher mounted up and sapped the life out of Bedard in his first stint with Seattle.

However, he was absolutely golden when he was healthy last year, so Seattle surprised many by signing him to a contract in the off-season with an option year for 2011.

If Bedard can stay healthy and happy, he could be a huge addition to the M’s for the rest of this year and next season.

He may find himself on the trading block if he performs well in the 4-6 starts he could get before the July 31st trade deadline. Lefty pitching is a valuable commodity these days and the Mariners already are dangling Cliff Lee in front of several teams.

Lee’s departure would mean the Mariners could rely on a healthy Bedard slipping into the rotation and keeping the pitching staff afloat. Somebody has to take the rotation spot vacated by Lee. Mariner fans dread the idea of Ian Snell coming back up from the minors to fill Lee’s spikes.

The timing of Bedard’s health seems perfect.

A rotation of Felix Hernandez, Erik Bedard, Jason Vargas, Doug Fister, and Ryan Rowland-Smith is still pretty solid. Without Bedard, the starting rotation would be very pedestrian outside of Felix Hernandez.

Baseball in the Emerald City is pretty much on life support for 2010 and the Mariners should be looking at what the team will look like next year.

Trading Lee for prospects will help replenish the farm system and could add a piece or two to the 2011 roster. A one-two combo of Hernandez and Bedard at the top of the rotation would be a nice start to making the M’s more competitive as well.

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There are only five teams in Major League Baseball with a worse record than the Seattle Mariners.

The M’s are 14 games behind the red-hot Texas Rangers in the division standings. They’re 13 games off the pace for the Wild Card.

The Seattle Mariners should be sellers at the trade deadline, right? Well, they just gave up two minor-league prospects to the Cleveland Indians for 34-year old Russell Branyan whom they declined to sign over the off-season.

Yes, we’re all trying to digest this one: An aging power hitter with a .233 career batting average who has had injury issues the last few years is what Seattle needs during this disappointing season?

Russell hit 31 homers for the Mariners last year and they wouldn’t even reward him with a contract because of injury concerns with a herniated disc that cut his 2009 season short.

Matter of fact, Branyan wasn’t getting interest from any teams and didn’t get a deal from the Indians until Feb. 20 this year. He started the year on the DL with a neck injury.

Now, the Mariners are giving up prospects to take on the free-agent contract he signed with Cleveland. Branyan does have 10 homers this season, which is three more than Seattle’s Milton Bradley, who hit his team-leading seventh home run last night.

General Manager Jack Zduriencik won’t admit the Mariners are done for the year, but does believe winning some games the rest of the year is important to developing the young guys on the team.

“If you look at our team, as we move forward, just about every player who is here now will be here again next year,” he said. “We’re committed to the development of our players and that goal, that objective has never changed for us.

“But part of that development process is also winning games. We want our players to be able to experience winning games this year. And we’re trying to do what we can to give them what they need to get there.”

Since the Mariners’ offseason acquisitions have had abysmal outcomes, Seattle fans have been wondering what the team will do to right the ship for next year.

There are only seven games before the official halfway point of the season, and it seemed apparent the M’s would be finding a buyer for Cliff Lee and maybe unloading a couple of other players for prospects.

This move seems to dictate the Mariners are going to roll the dice and see what happens. Trader Jack is now becoming Gamblin’ Jack.

Zduriencik got a lot of credit for the moves the Mariners made and now he is getting some flak about how the new players have performed. Chone Figgins and Milton Bradley have been horrible. Ian Snell is in Triple-A.

Meanwhile, Carlos Silva has revived his career in Chicago and Brandon Morrow just pitched his fifth consecutive quality start.

Jack’s ego has taken a hit and he wants to prove this team capable of winning. If he can pull that off, he will be even more revered in Seattle.

If he can’t pull it off, he will have cost the Mariners a chance to gain valuable prospects from the trade of Cliff Lee as well as the prospects given up for Branyan and possibly another offensive piece coming soon.

Cliff Lee is a free agent at the end of the year, and though he is probably the most sought after and valuable trade option this year, teams aren’t ready to give up a bunch of top-level loot for a rental player.

The Mariners will still get compensatory draft picks for Lee if he signs elsewhere as a free agent in the off-season, so maybe Zduriencik believes it wise to keep Lee in the lineup for the year and see what happens if the Mariners can score a few more runs by adding some offense.

Maybe Jack’s idea is to right the ship for this year!

Seattle has a strong pitching rotation with Cliff Lee, Felix Hernandez, and Jason Vargas. They got Doug Fister back from the DL last night and Erik Bedard is due back, barring any setbacks, sometime in July. The Mariners rank ninth in the Majors in team ERA.

They are fifth in quality starts and third in complete games. They are only going to get better from this point going forward.

Adding Branyan is a good way to get some power in the lineup, but their offense is beyond pathetic, ranking 29th in runs scored, 29th in hits, 27th in batting average, and dead last (30th) in home runs.

Branyan is not going to correct those numbers by himself, so Gamblin’ Jack will need to get another bat in the lineup.

Rumors of players potentially becoming trade options before the deadline include Matt Kemp, Prince Fielder, and Lance Berkman.

None of them seem to make sense now that Branyan has been acquired and all of them would require several prospects and, in Kemp’s situation, Major League-ready starting pitchers.

It was rumored that Seattle was looking for a catcher in any deal with Cliff Lee. Could Zduriencik pull off a trade with Pittsburgh (they have trading history) for Moses Lake, Wash., product Ryan Doumit?

Doumit would bring a veteran presence and a bat with some pop in it. He is a three-hole type hitter and along with Branyan, would revamp the middle of the Seattle batting order at a reasonable cost.

Doumit has also had some issues with Pittsburgh management that has landed him in the doghouse in the past. He is signed through 2011 with club options for 2012 and 2013.

Would a lineup of Ichiro (RF), Figgins (2B), Doumit (C), Branyan (1B/DH), Franklin Gutierrez (CF), Mike Sweeney (1B/DH), Milton Bradley (LF/DH), Jose Lopez (3B), and Jack Wilson (SS) be enough?

The Mariners have won seven of their last nine games, including a six-game winning streak, but they lost a half game in the standings to the Texas Rangers.

Texas is on pace for 98 wins. The Mariners would have to go 67-21 the rest of the way to win 98 games. Can they win 76% of their remaining games? It is unlikely, so they would need both the Rangers and Angels to stumble along the way.

Gamblin’ Jack may be looking for the right piece of the puzzle to get his team back in the race, but at his point it seems too late in the game.

If not, Branyan is simply a morale booster to help build some confidence that Jack hopes will carry over to next season.

Giving up two prospects for a 34-year old morale booster seems too costly, so look for the Mariners and Gamblin’ Jack to make another move very soon.

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