39-year old lefty swinging DH/OF Ken Griffey Jr. appears to be running on fumes right now. He has played in 103 games for the Mariners this season and he is 76 for 347 (.219 avg, .723 OPS) with 38 runs scored, 15 homers and 46 RBIs. Griffey has 626 career homers and he wants to hit more of them as a Mariner next season. My advice to the Mariners is to just say no. I know it will be hard to do but Griffey doesn’t have much left.

Russell Branyan wants to return to the Mariners next season but also this season as he is recovering from a back injury. 33-year old lefty swinging 1B Russell Branyan has played in 116 games for the Mariners this season and he is 108 for 431 (.251 avg, .867 OPS) with 64 runs scored, 31 homers and 76 RBIs. His weakness is whiffing as he has K’d 149 times this season. But for the power he produces you can live with the strikeouts. The Mariners would be smart to bring back Branyan next season.

The Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki has now done something no other major league baseball player has ever accomplished.  On Sunday when Ichiro got his 200th hit of the 2009 season, it made it nine consecutive seasons for Ichiro with at least 200 hits, a feat no one else has reached.  Ichiro was tied with old time player Willie Keeler, who had eight consecutive 200 hit seasons from 1894-1901.  Ichiro now has 2,005 career hits in just nine seasons and it makes you wonder whether Ichiro would have threatened Pete Rose’s all-time hits mark of 4,256 had he came to MLB in the beginning of his career.  While playing in the Japanese baseball league from 1992-2000, Ichiro collected 1,278 hits.