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Seattle Mariners manager Jack Zduriencik announced today that they are shutting down star pitcher Felix Hernandez for the rest of the season.

He’s only missing one start, but come on, Mariners—you can’t be serious.

I understand being cautious with your franchise cornerstone, but Hernandez is in the midst of a tight Cy Young race, and one more win could certainly push him into the lead.

In a season filled with such disappointment for the Mariners, you would think they would let Hernandez make one more statement to Cy Young voters, giving him a chance to finally give Mariners fans something to smile about.

Unfortunately, writers will have a lot of difficulty voting for a pitcher with a 13-12 record, regardless of the fact that he has pitched 30 quality starts out of a possible 34.

Hernandez also leads AL starters in innings pitched (249.2), strikeouts (232), ERA (2.27), and WHIP (1.06).

In past years, King Felix wouldn’t have a chance of capturing the award, but in today’s modern game, dominated by sabermetrics and analytical stats, all of which favor Hernandez, maybe he can pull it off.

I certainly think he deserves it.

One more start would certainly help his case, though.

What do you think, did the Mariners make the right decision, and will he win the Cy Young anyway?

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Felix Hernandez is your 2010 American League Cy Young Award winner…if only it were that easy.

In reality, it should be that easy.

After going eight innings, giving up one run on five hits and two walks while striking out five, Hernandez got the all-important erroneous stat. 

The stat that for some reason voters and baseball fans feel is nerdy to overlook.

Hernandez got the win and is now 13-12. Happy?

Oh, he also has the best ERA (2.27), most quality starts (30), most innings pitched (249.2), most strikeouts (232), and lowest batting average against (.212) in the American League. He is second in WHIP (1.06) to Cliff Lee, not CC Sabathia or David Price.

Sabathia and Price were also in action Tuesday.

Sabathia went 8.1 innings, giving up one earned run on three hits and two walks while striking out eight.

He too picked up another win, pushing his record to 21-7. Wins is the only category Sabathia leads the AL in.

Sabathia now has a 3.18 ERA with 26 quality starts, 237.2 innings pitched, 197 strikeouts, a 1.19 WHIP, and a .239 batting average against.

Impressive numbers, but they do not match Hernandez.

Price went eight shutout innings, giving up six hits, zero walks, and striking out eight, and picked up a win to move to 19-6. Price does not lead the AL in any pitching category. 

He has a 2.73 ERA, 25 quality starts, 207.2 innings pitched, 187 strikeouts, a 1.20 WHIP, and a .222 batting average against.

Also impressive, but they do not match Hernandez.

Baseball is a bunch of individuals playing a team sport. All you can control in the field, at the plate, or on the mound is what you do.

Luck occurs here and there, but after so many games and so many innings, luck tends to run out and at the very least things even out.

If your lineup is weak around you, then you will not score runs or have a high number of RBI, so we look at your on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS to see your value.

If your team does not score for you or play defense behind you while you’re on the mound, then we look at strikeouts to see how often you take your defense out of the equation and ERA and WHIP to see how often you put your weak offensive team in position to win.

One stat that is based on the sum of a team’s parts is wins, and that stat generally earns a World Series championship, but basing an individual award on it is completely and ridiculously unfair.

A Cy Young Award is not a Most Valuable Player Award where we can argue the definition of “value.” The Cy Young Award is simply for the best pitcher.

Voters got it correct last year, giving the Cy Young to Zack Greinke with an all-time AL Cy Young-low 16 wins, and in the National League Tim Lincecum won it with a 15-7 record.

Hernandez’s offense has supplied him with zero runs while he was on the mound in seven of his last 14 starts, and he has pitched into the seventh inning in a team-record 25 consecutive starts.

I think he has done all he can to win for the Seattle Mariners.

Anyone with eyes can see Hernandez has the best pitching numbers. Sabathia and Price have the better team stat, so they were awarded with the playoffs.

The Cy Young, however, should clearly be awarded to Hernandez.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The list of things that went right with the 2010 Seattle Mariners season starts and ends with Felix Hernandez.

King Felix should be the favorite for the Cy Young after a stellar season that includes a 2.31 ERA (second in baseball), a 1.06 WHIP (tied for fourth in baseball), and 227 strikeouts (second in baseball). 

Ichiro Suzuki is pretty good too, recording his 10th straight 200-hit season early last week.

After that, however, the Mariners roster is a collection of misfits, underachievers, over-the-hill veterans, and colossal busts. 

Felix Hernandez is one of baseball’s best pitchers. But as that 12-12 record shows, he can’t do it alone.

Here are 10 offseason moves Seattle GM Jack Zduriencik should make to get Felix some help and put the Mariners back into the playoff race.

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Felix Hernandez is having a season to remember.

The Cy Young Award is hardly a gimme in Major League Baseball.

Reserved for what is supposed to be the best pitcher in his respective league that year, the pinnacle of a season’s pitching achievements sometimes is not given to truly the top thrower.

Though his record may not portray Hernandez’s position among the best, the Seattle Mariners unquestionably boast a top candidate for this year’s AL Cy Young.

Among the competition are Boston’s Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester, New York’s CC Sabathia, Tampa Bay’s David Price, Oakland’s Trevor Cahill, and LA’s Jared Weaver.

But none other than King Felix is the most deserving.

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In the past two entries in an attempt to repair a broken team, we looked at Chone Figgins and Dustin Ackley. The two make up a reasonably probable combination of second and third basemen for much of next season.

However, if the Mariners attempt to avoid paying Ackley another arbitration year, they’ll need someone to hold his place until he is ultimately called to the big club, likely in mid-June.

The problem is that with limited budget space, the Mariners will have to find a guy who can competently play both second and third base, and won’t embarrass the club at the plate. But what the last two offseasons have shown is that players with league average bats, and average-below average defense at multiple positions simply aren’t as marketable as they once were.

Felipe Lopez is one of those guys. After a 2008 season where he lost an arbitration case that gave him a $4.9 million salary, and Lopez coming of a 0.9 WAR season in 2008, Lopez signed a $3.5 million deal to play for Arizona for a year. He’d flourish in Arizona, and later Milwaukee after being traded in July, en route to a 3.9 WAR season.

According to Fangraphs, in 2009 Lopez was worth $17.5 million. He wouldn’t receive close to that in the offseason.

Also, in the face of a recession, teams have been less willing to sign Type A free agents. Teams don’t want to exchange a draft pick for a player who won’t make major contributions, or in the case of many utility players, won’t have a truly defined role on the team.

Having a league average bat that can be plugged into multiple positions holds some value with clubs, but that value appears to be trending down. Lopez was one of many who have been victimized by the recent emphasis on avoiding marginal Type A free agents.

It appears that won’t be the case for Lopez going into the 2010 offseason, as his 2010 performance appears to have dropped him to Type B status, which means that his signing team will not have to give up a draft pick, and that the team he comes from (St. Louis Cardinals) will be awarded a compensatory round pick.

The major downside, obviously, of sliding down to Type B status, is that it comes at the hands of a poor 2010 performance. So while teams may be more willing to discuss bringing Lopez in, the chances of him receiving a large raise on his $1 million 2010 salary are not very good.

So how can Lopez help the Mariners?

Well apart from a wRC+ of 96 for his career, Lopez has 5156 innings at shortstop, 2636.1 innings at second base, and 1231 innings at third base for his career. According to UZR, his defense gets closer to league average respectively. He’s a -10.8 UZR/150 for his career at short, -1.3 at second, and 3.4 at third. In terms of WAR, Lopez is only 1.9 behind Jack Wilson for his career, while amassing over 300 less plate appearances, though both of their careers began in 2010.

Utility is great, but there is a reason why teams have shied away from signing utility men to big dollars: because while they may act as insurance, limiting the deductible on the premium has become more important.

That stated, in the case of the Mariners, where Lopez’s successor is waiting in Tacoma, the same guy that plays second base for the first two months of the season will need to have a function on the roster after Ackley is brought up.

An interesting fact about Lopez, and a surprising amount of the league’s switch hitters, is that he actually hits better from the right side than the left. Logic would dictate that player who hits better right handed would be a poor switch hitter, as he’d see a disproportionate majority of right-handed pitchers, and thus deviate from his strong side of the plate on most at bats.

But since Ackley is left-handed and has performed poorly against lefties so far in the minors, Lopez could become a viable platoon partner. Also, while his defense is far from stellar at shortstop, he’d be an offensive upgrade over both Jack and Josh Wilson against even right-handed pitchers. Lopez’s 76 wRC+ tops Jack’s 64, and Josh’s 72.

However, Lopez’s ugly 2010 can’t go unanalyzed. Is Lopez really as bad as his 2010 season?

It’d be easy to look at Lopez’s career .316 BABIP, and his 2010 BABIP of .272, and dismiss 2010 as bad luck. Lopez had long been a guy with a ton of physical tools, but one who rarely put them all together for a full season.

But in most seasons, Lopez has done some things really well. That hasn’t been the case in 2010.

It’s interesting to examine Lopez’s peripheral stats from 2005, a year when he hit 23 home runs for Cincinnati, compared to his 2010 stats. Lopez line drive percentage in 2010 is 18 percent, the lowest output of his career, though his numbers have remained pretty steady between 19 and 20 percent for most of his career. 2005 however, was a season where Lopez hit a career-high 53.2 percent ground balls.

Why would a season where Lopez hit so many groundballs also yield his highest home run total?

Well, despite hitting a lower percentage of fly balls than he has in any other year, Lopez boasted an eye-popping 18.3 HR/FB percentage. It would be really easy to again dismiss the deviation in production as luck, as Lopez hasn’t topped 10.1 percent in any season apart from 2001, when he hit only 63 fly balls. However, one must wonder how much playing in Cincinnati helped Lopez that season.

According to Baseball Reference, Great American Ballpark had a park factor of 103 that season (anything over 100 favors hitters), while Busch Stadium III boasts a 98 park factor this year. However, the environment was different that year, as homeruns have decreased by about seven percent since then.

So in a hitter’s park and a more friendly home run environment (ahem, the tail end of the steroid era), Lopez hit more home runs.

But last year, fueled by an inflated BABIP, Lopez managed to produce in Arizona (110 park factor) and Milwaukee (95 park factor). So what gives?

Well, Lopez’s already inflated .348 BABIP in Arizona rose to .372 in Milwaukee.

So while his 86 wRC+ in 2010 comes in part as a result of bad luck, his great 2009 shouldn’t receive a disproportionate amount of credibility, as his luck was incredibly good that season.

Either way, if Lopez is willing to take a one year deal, or even a minor league deal with the opportunity to start for two months and play considerable time afterwards, he’d be a good fit for Seattle’s needs.

Other Fixing the 2011 Seattle Mariners profiles

Ted Lilly

Ramon Hernandez

Michael Saunders

Colby Rasmus

Adam Dunn

Chone Figgins

Dustin Ackley

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Mariners‘ biggest problem in recent years has been management’s inability to let the baseball people make the baseball decisions. The signing of Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre after the 2004 season for instance. Howard Lincoln and the other Mariners’ owners have sometimes shown the willingness to spend, but always at the wrong time. 

2000- Alex Rodriguez hits free agency. Management offers him $100 million to stay in an M’s uniform. He says he wants the richest contract in baseball history, and declines to sign with the Mariners unless they up their offer. Howard Lincoln, et al, refuse to do so, and A-Rod proceeds to sign with the Texas Rangers for 10 years, $254 million. 

I’m not saying that the owners should have opened their wallets that wide, but at the time, the largest contract in baseball history wasn’t really much more than the $100 million that they were offering. ($100 million over 8 years, roughly $12 million per year). At that time, the largest contract in baseball history belonged to Ken Griffey, Jr, coming in at $116 million over nine years. If management ups their offer to ten years, $130 million, Alex Rodriguez is a Mariner until 2011. Say what you want about him, but at the time, Rodriguez was the best player in baseball period. 

1998- Randy Johnson wants a contract extension and he wants the Mariners to show that they are willing to spend the money it takes to build a contender. Management offered Johnson a well below market offer, he tanked the season and was traded at the deadline to the Astros. If Johnson is given his extension, he finishes his career with the Mariners, acquiring win #300 along the way. 

1999- Ken Griffey, Jr. wants a large contract, wants the team to show they want to win, or he wants to be traded to his hometown Cincinnati Reds, (because of his full no trade protection, he has the ability to stop a trade to any team he doesn’t like, and with his contract expiring at the end of the 1999 season, he could walk, leaving the Mariners with nothing). Management is unwilling to spend the dough, and the House that Griffey Built would not see its namesake play within her walls for 9 years. 

2004- Management is desperate for sluggers. The best sluggers available are Richie Sexson (right-handed) and Adrian Beltre (also right-handed). Unfortunately, right handed sluggers never fare well within the friendly (or hostile, depending on the perspective) confines of SafeCo Field. As many fans predicted, Beltre and Sexson both disappointed at the plate. That’s not to say that Beltre wasn’t worth every penny. His defense brought his value sky high, but if he had been able to live up to expectations at the plate, he would have been a bargain. 

2007- Management signs Ichiro to a $90 million extension, and then keeps him, instead of trading him for a boatload of prospects, saving cash in the process. I’m not saying that I don’t like Ichiro. On the contrary he happens to be one of my favorite players ever. However, the first mistake that the Mariners made was not trading Ichiro immediately after the 2004 season, when he broke George Sisler’s single-season hits record. At that point, his value was higher than it has been at any point since. The prospects the Mariners could have gotten from trading Ichiro alone would have been enough to jump start the rebuilding process that it took until the end of 2008 for the owners to realize was necessary.

All of the examples above are used to highlight the recent times when the owners opened (or shut) their wallets at a bad time. Unfortunately, most of the times that management was willing to spend money was for one reason and one reason alone: to make more.

Take the Ichiro extension for instance: the revenue that the Mariners earn from Ichiro’s celebrity status in Japan alone pays for his contract and then some.

The Beltre/Sexson signings were intended to boost attendance, and they did, for a while, until fans were once again sent home shaking their heads in disgust.

All of the problems that the Mariners are facing right now (having to try to lure players up to the Northwest, but being unable to compete with the Yankees and other teams as far as money/respectability is concerned) could be wiped away with one simple, logical move: Paul Allen must successfully make a bid to purchase the team from the current owners.

If you haven’t heard of Paul Allen, you might want to get your head examined, or crawl out of the box you’ve been living in for the last 25 years.

Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, Inc., is the 37th richest man in the world, with a net worth of around $14 billion (personal net worth, his companies are worth much, much more).

To the average person, looking at a 37th wealthiest ranking isn’t that impressive, especially when you take into consideration that Bill Gates also lives in Seattle, and is always ranked in the top 5.

What IS impressive, however, is the fact that Allen is the #1 wealthiest sports franchise owner in the U.S.

His personal wealth makes Hank Steinbrenner look like a pauper. He could, with no assistance from any other investors, buy the New York Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, and L.A. Lakers (three most valuable franchises in their respective sports) three times each and still have a couple billion left over. 

The Seattle Mariners are valued at around $439 million. Paul Allen probably has that much tucked underneath the mattress in the master bedroom aboard his $250 million yacht, Octopus. 

If he were to make an offer of around $500 million to purchase the team, Howard Lincoln and the other owners would be hard pressed to turn the offer down, as it would be a 500% profit from what they spent when they purchased the team in 1992. 

Allen could then buy any player he wanted, turning the Mariners into the Yankees. I’m not saying that he should do that, just that he could. What I actually think he should do is open the wallet to keep the talent we have, and open it as wide as is necessary to bring in the best players available via free agency. 

Imagine A-Rod, Teixera, and Beltre in the infield and Ichiro, Holliday, and Guttierrez in the outfield. 

How about Felix Hernandez, Cliff Lee, C.C. Sabathia, and John Lackey taking up the top 4 slots in the M’s rotation? 

The days of being bargain shoppers would be over. Jack Zduriencek would be able to pick which players he thought would best serve the team’s needs and go after them. Gone would be the days of picking players up off the scrap heap and hoping they would be able to resurrect their careers in the spacious confines of SafeCo Field. Instead, the M’s would be able to choose the cream of the crop, leaving the hated Yankees with whatever is left. 

Sure, there would be some bad contracts, some bad trades, and some bad seasons. But that’s baseball. In the end, Paul Allen has shown he’ll spend whatever money it takes to keep the teams he owns competitive. Look at the Seattle Seahawks. Look at the Seattle Sounders. Look at the Portland Trail Blazers. In the end, Mr. Allen would spend whatever money was necessary and he wouldn’t stop until he was holding the World Series Trophy in his hands. 

Credit to Casey McClain for the inspiration for this story, as well as the headline. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

When the Seattle Mariners signed Chone Figgins they expected that he’d be an offensive upgrade over Adrian Beltre. Little did the fans know that he’d play second base instead of third base, where he’d made a home in the past two seasons with the Angels.

Figgins’ fielding aside, he’s had a significant drop off in production since becoming a Mariner. And while expectations have been of high-level production have made Figgins a frequent scapegoat, he seems to have taken on some of the fan disappointment that should be aimed at Jose Lopez, who has taken Beltre’s place at the hot corner. The truth is that Figgins has been about equal to the 2009 version of Beltre with the bat, though his transition to second base hasn’t been one to be characterized as successful.

Figgins is a player that relies pretty heavily on balls in play turning into hits. He doesn’t frequently hit the ball with much authority, with only 32 home runs in almost 4,700 plate appearances, and only 220 doubles and triples, several of which were assuredly helped by his foot speed rather than his bat speed. While Figgins .305 BABIP comes in at an above-league-average mark in 2010, he’s actually taken a pretty significant hit on what may be considered his true talent, a career BABIP of .337.

What is Figgins doing wrong?

Analyzing Figgins BABIP goes beyond just the number. 2006 was the only other season in which Figgins posted a BABIP under .333, and unsurprisingly, that was also the only other year where he hit less than 22 percent line drives. Line drives rate is kind of a convoluted stat, as scorer bias could play a role in the rate, and it’s not always steady from year to year. However, a generally accepted truth is that while line drives may be subjective, what is considered a line drive by most score keepers is also very likely to be a hit.

Figgins career BABIP on line drives, which he hits at a 23.2 percent rate for his career, is .725. In 2010, Figgins has doubled down on decreased rate, reaching base on less line drives, while hitting them at a lower rate, with a BABIP on line drives of .695.

Figgins has hit 82 line drives this year. If he’d hit 23.2 percent line drives instead of 20, he’d have 95 line drives. If he’d performed up to his career BABIP average on line drives he’d have accrued 12 more hits this season. That’d equate to a .271 batting average, rather than the .249 he’s presently sporting.

As a guy without a lot of power and a propensity for contact, one may assume that Figgins reaches base on a lot of infield hits. The reality is that Figgins’ 18 infield hits this season mark his highest output since 2004. That said, his BABIP is only three points lower than his career average on ground balls. On fly balls however, his BABIP is about 20 points lower.

Teams could be playing Figgins differently in Safeco, where his already low-level threat of clearing the outfielders may be reduced by unfriendly hitting conditions, but more likely is that he’s simply been unlucky on fly balls this year.

So if we believe that Figgins is simply unlucky in 2010, something around a .270/.350/.330 line seem more realistic in 2011.

The most interesting part of Figgins’ offseason however, is whether or not he’ll ultimately make the switch back to third base. Jose Lopez appears likely to be non-tendered, and the Mariners have Dustin Ackley waiting to take over at second base. Ackley is a walk machine with great speed and developing power. His strikeout rates are incredible in the minors considering that he walks so frequently, and his .165 ISO in AAA is a promising power rate.

Figgins posted two straight 17+ UZR/150 seasons at third base. According to UZR, he was MLB’s second-best fielding third baseman, behind only Evan Longoria (and ahead of Beltre) from 2008-09. Presuming that he hasn’t forgotten how to play the position, a shift back to third may prove highly beneficial for the Mariners, where even half that defensive production would basically give Figgins an extra 2 WAR without including his batting numbers. If he regresses to the mean at the plate the team could easily be looking at a four win player where they’re presently boasting a replacement level player in Jose Lopez. If Ackley is worth a win (which is a modest, realistic expectation), it would be a total 5 WAR gain.

Figgins is set to make $26 million in the next three seasons, and could vest his $9 million option with 600 plate appearances in 2013. The Mariners may have had the opportunity to trade him at the deadline, but declined to. That opportunity likely won’t exist this offseason.

Lopez seems likely to be non-tendered in the offseason. While his transition to third base went very well defensively (6.4 UZR/150), his year at the plate has gone equally poorly. Lopez has been criticized for being a dead-pull hitter, impatient at the plate, and lacking the power that his weight gain should have fostered. His ISO is at an all-time low (.087), while his walk rate remains below four percent, and he’s seen less pitches per plate appearance than ever before (3.41). He’s shown little willingness to work on his game, and it’s possible that the book is finally out on Lopez. The pull hitter has seen more curveballs and changeups this season than any other, and is performing at the worst rate of his career on each pitch. He’s seeing more pitches outside the zone this season than ever before, but also swinging at the highest percentage of pitches outside the zone he ever has.

And it is very likely that if Chone Figgins were to hit the free agent market this season as a third baseman, he’d be the best third baseman on the market apart from the productive reincarnation of Adrian Beltre.

The Mariners may have bought high on a volatile asset in the soft-hitting Figgins, but if his luck returns in 2011, and he returns to third base, the Mariners should see a positive shift in total production.

Other Fixing the 2011 Mariners profiles

Ted Lilly

Ramon Hernandez

Michael Saunders

Colby Rasmus

Adam Dunn

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Mired in a hole of one poor transaction after another, the Seattle Mariners are nine years removed from their last playoff berth.

They have struggled with upper level management, found it difficult to find perennial stars in the lineup, and haven’t been able to solidify their rotation.

Much of these struggles can be amplified by a series of questionable moves that the franchise has made in recent memory, because there are quite a few of them.

For a team looking to ultimately contend in the AL West for the the first time in much too long, they must stray away from the bad moves of the past.

The team must not dwell on the struggles, but the Mariners organization must avoid making the same mistakes twice, again.

Here are the 10 worst moves made by the Seattle Mariners over the course of the last decade.

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There are many deserving pitchers for the Cy Young award in the American League this year, but there is one pitcher who has stood above the rest this season.

King Felix.

Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Felix Hernandez is the AL leader in innings pitched this season with 204.1 and strikeouts with 192. Felix has a 2.47 ERA this season, good for third in the AL and a WHIP of 1.11, tying him for third in the league.

Felix is the only pitcher in the league in the top five in all of these categories, and Felix has been absolutely outstanding as of late.

The hard-throwing Venezuelan has a minuscule ERA of 0.98 during the month of August as opponents have hit just .199 off of him.  The only problem Felix has had this month, is the same problem he’s had all season, he just hasn’t gotten the run support to win games.

Despite his dominance this month, Felix still managed to lose two of his five starts.

Felix has a marginal record of ten wins and ten losses this season thanks to the less-than-stellar run support the M’s offense has given him this year.

In the past, the three main pieces of criteria Cy Young voters used to determine who they would vote for was wins, ERA, and strikeouts.

Last season Kansas City Royals ace Zach Greinke may have set a new precedent when he won the award with only 16 wins, the fewest wins by an AL Cy Young winner since David Cone won while also a member of the Royals in 1994.

There are other good candidates for the award, such as Twins pitcher Francisco Liriano, Yankees starter C.C. Sabathia, Rangers Cliff Lee, and the Rays ace David Price. All of these guys pitch for contending teams, but none of them have been as effective as Felix this season.

Price is the closest to Felix in ERA, but he is still more than half a run back at 3.01, while Sabathia is the closest in innings pitched with 194.2, but he is still ten innings behind the King.

Liriano has 171 strikeouts this season, the closest of the other four contenders, but he is also still 21 Ks behind Hernandez.

Lee is the only one who is better than Felix in any major category besides wins and that is in WHIP. Lee has a very impressive WHIP of 1.00 on the season, due entirely to his remarkable control this season. Lee has thrown 179.2 innings this season and walked only 12 batters.

The 6’3″ lefthander was the Mariners best pitcher while he was on the team, better than even Felix, but the Cy Young race is a marathon and not a sprint.

Felix has been nearly untouchable since Lee was traded, while Lee has struggled to replicate the success he enjoyed in Seattle earlier in the season.

Felix has the numbers to prove that he is the American League’s best pitcher this season, and if he continues to pitch the way he has as of late he will end the season very close to Greinke’s 16 game win total from a season ago.

Wins are the only area that Hernandez is lacking when it comes to winning the award, but if the voters truly vote for the best pitcher, than King Felix has to be the choice.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Although cloudless days continue to appear in Seattle’s summer sky, locals are still advised to carry umbrellas… because Jack Zduriencik is quickly plummeting downwards.

Just months after being hailed as a hero in the Emerald City for his roster overhaul filled with top-flight players, the Mariners general manager is now being scrutinized for not meeting his team’s needs in the off-season. Much of the blame is being pointed towards Zduriencik for the lost 2010 season, which carried in high expectations but has completely faltered.

However, the atrocious 35-53 record should be linked to the under-performance of the players, especially those acquired last winter, not the man that signed them.

The All-Star Break is the perfect time to evaluate how the season has gone thus far. Similar to the end of first semester, it’s time to handout report cards and grade the newest Mariners based on their first-half play.

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