Mariners Change Format from Oldies to Experimental

At the dawn of this baseball season, I assured you that the Mariners would suck less than they did last year. A couple of weeks ago, this prediction looked as ludicrous as my royal wedding hat, but a spurt of stellar play has brought the Mariners within spitting distance of first place.

This is not to say that the team has been suck-free. Indeed, some suckitude of Shop-Vac-esque proportions has been perpetrated by several players.

Two of these–former All-Star LF Milton Bradley and veteran CF Ryan Langerhans (aka two-thirds of the Mariners’ opening day outfield) have been canned. (Somewhat ruthlessly, as they get their pink slips just before that highlight of every major leaguer’s season, a road trip to Baltimore and Cleveland). Minor league outfielders Mike Wilson and Carlos Peguero have been promoted from AAA Tacoma to replace them.

Lots of times, baseball teams keep veteran players around because they “do the little things,” “know how to play the game,” and can “provide leadership in the clubhouse.” Bradley wasn’t doing any of this. He was instead missing cutoff men and getting ejected–he’s been booted twice this month. Bradley also embarrassed his employers when, over the offseason, he was accused of pegging his wife in the face with a wine glass. The look on manager Eric Wedge’s face in this Elaine Thompson photo pretty much sums up how the Mariners were feeling about Bradley. Don’t sob too much for Uncle Miltie–he’ll get his full $12 million salary this season.

You might say that Mariners are inching toward a youth movement. But that’s not really the case. New M’s outfielders Wilson and Peguero aren’t top prospects. At 27, Wilson isn’t a prospect at all–but he has been crushing the ball at AAA Tacoma. The 24-year-old Peguero was up with the Mariners briefly this season and looked completely overmatched at the plate–he struck out five times in eleven at bats.

Really, Bradley and Langerhans were just so bad, the Mariners figure they might as well try someone new. They don’t expect Wilson and Peguero to do much better–if they did, Bradley and Langerhans never would’ve made the team. The two will share time in LF to start (Wilson bats right-handed, Peguero lefty), and gradually encroach on Jack Cust’s playing time at DH if he too continues to struggle.

We’ll be rooting hard for Wilson, a six-foot-two, 245 lb. former football prospect who gets his first shot at the majors after eight-plus years in the Mariners’ minor league system. It may be the only shot he gets.

Either Wilson or Peguero (probably the latter) will start tonight against Baltimore righty Jake Arrieta. Fireballing Michael Pineda starts for the M’s, reason enough to watch the broadcast live from beautiful Camden Yards. Game starts at 4:05 p.m.