Ken Griffey Jr. is one of the best baseball players of all-time, and there are very few baseball fans who didn’t love seeing Junior’s sweet swing to go along with his highlight reel plays in center-field.  That Ken Griffey Jr. is long gone though, thanks to years of injuries and just natural aging.  Griffey, who is now 40-years-old, is the Seattle Mariners number one designated hitter.  It looked like time had finally caught up with Griffey last season, when he hit just .214.  He did provide the Mariners with 19 HRs and 57 RBIs in only 387 at bats, but his bat speed was no longer there.  It is still no longer there this season, with Griffey hitting .226 with 0 HRs and only 4 RBIs in 16 games played.  He seems to be more of a ticket attraction for the Mariners, as he has always been a fan-favorite in Seattle.  At least last season he was giving the Mariners a little bit of a power threat in the lineup, with a .411 SLG.  His SLG percentage is only at .245 so far this season.  It is still very early and he has not had very many at bats (53) so far, but Griffey just doesn’t have it anymore.  Hopefully he will start to get hot at the plate at some point in the season, but I wouldn’t expect him to continue as the number one DH for too much longer.  Who knows though, the guy has hit 630 HRs in his career, so maybe he will prove me wrong as the season progresses.  His struggles over recent years should not take anything away from his amazing career though, as he is a sure hall-of-famer and was one of the best overall players ever when he was healthy.

27-year old lefty swinging 1B Casey Kotchman is not the classic power hitting 1B as he has career highs of 65 runs scored, 14 homers and 74 RBIs. But he brings a solid glove and good plate discipline to the Mariners. He has played in 18 games this season for the Mariners and he is 17 of 61 (.279 avg, .905 OPS) with 9 runs scored, 3 homers and 14 RBIs. Against righty pitchers he is batting third and then down at the bottom of the lineup against lefties. Still I look for him to knock in his fair share of runs especially batting behind Ichiro and Figgins against righty starting pitchers. Kotchman works pitchers when at the plate which is another asset he brings to the Mariners as he has walked 7 times this season while only whiffing 6 times. Kotchman is a solid baseball player for the Mariners and he makes the rest of the infield better defensively.

Franklin Gutierrez has been one of the hottest hitters in all of baseball so far this season, having only one game without a hit through 15 games.  The 27-year-old Seattle Mariners’ center-fielder has a .421 BA (24/57), 4 2B, 1 3B, 10 RBIs, 6 Rs, .460 OBP, and .526 SLG.  He has also thrown the leather around nicely in center-field, where he has also shown he has very good speed.  Gutierrez is off to a great start and is one of the best hitters in baseball right now.  He is a great all-around talent who is coming off a breakout 2009 season, where he finished with a .283 BA, 18 HRs, 70 RBIs, 85 Rs, 24 2Bs, 16 SBs, and a .764 OPS.  Gutierrez did tweak his groin on Monday, but he will be playing through it.  Hopefully for the Mariners’ sake the groin injury does not cool off his hot bat, as they need all of the offense they can get and he is their best player thus far.

The Mariners have signed 33-year old shortstop Ramon Vazquez to a minor league deal. Vazquez played in 101 games for the Pirates last season and he was 47 of 204 (.230 avg, .614 OPS) with 17 runs scored, 1 homer and 16 RBIs. He has now played in 696 games in his major league career and he is 496 for 1,951 (.254 avg, .678 OPS) with 244 runs scored, 22 homers, 176 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. Look for him to get to Seattle soon if he gets off to a good start in the minors.

The Mariners are 6-7 on the season which has them tied for 2nd place in the A.L. West with the Angels, 2.5 games behind the A’s. The Mariners have been outscored 50-45 this season as they still aren’t hitting the ball which has caused them to waste some pretty good pitching. The Mariners play three games at home against the Orioles before traveling to Chicago this coming up weekend for a 3 game set against the White Sox. Those two teams have a combined record of 6-20 on the season so the Mariners appear to be catching both of them at the right time.