33-year old righty swinging catcher Miguel Olivo has been a hacker at the plate in 2011, while helping out the young pitching staff. Olivo has played in 105 games for the Mariners so far this year and he is 85 for 386 (.220 avg, .633 OPS) with 43 runs scored, 16 homers, 53 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. He has only walked 19 times while whiffing 116 times this year, so he’s not very patient. That being said, he is still leading the Mariners in both homers and RBIs.

23-year old lefty swinging 3B Kyle Seager is really starting to catch fire for the Mariners. In his last three games (all against the Indians), Seager was 10 for 13 (.769 avg) with 5 runs scored, 5 doubles, 1 homer and 2 RBIs. He has now played in 23 games overall this year for the Mariners and he is 25 for 80 (.313 avg, .825 OPS) with 10 runs scored, 2 homers and 5 RBIs. Seager came into this season as the Mariners’ #9 prospect according to Baseball America and he has shown why this whole year. He has also played in 90 games in AA+AAA-ball so far this year and he was 124 for 372 (.333 avg, .894 OPS) with 57 runs scored, 7 homers, 54 RBIs and 11 stolen bases. He looks like he will have a bright future for the Mariners.

The Mariners have released 25-year old righty swinging 3B Matt Mangini. Mangini came into this season as the Mariners’ #18 prospect according to Baseball America. That being said, he has been away from his team in AAA since the end of July due to a personal issue. The Mariners didn’t want Mangini clogging up a roster spot anymore, so they cut him loose. Mangini played in 58 games in AAA-ball this year and he was 78 for 232 (.336 avg, .809 OPS) with 34 runs scored, 2 homers, 41 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. In his five years in the minors for the Mariners, Mangini played in 461 games in which he was 466 for 1,667 (.280 avg, .765 OPS) with 222 runs scored, 44 homers, 238 RBIs and 23 stolen bases. Mangini got his first taste of the majors in 2010 for the Mariners. He played in 11 games for the Mariners last year and he was 8 for 38 (.211 avg, .461 OPS) with 2 runs scored and 1 RBI. Depending on what the personal issue was, Mangini could get another shot with another team. The Mariners just decided not to wait for him anymore.

The Mariners have placed 24-year old righty reliever Dan Cortes on the D.L. due to a bruised left ankle. Cortes has pitched in 9 games (0 starts) for the Mariners so far this year and he is 0-2 with a 3.48 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP. He has only given up 9 hits in his first 10 1/3 innings in the majors but he only has two strikeouts, so the defense has been helping him out quite a bit. Cortes has also walked 6 batters so far this year for the Mariners and that is too many. They hope he only has to miss two weeks.

25-year old righty starting pitcher Felix Hernandez has been a lot less electric than he was in 2010, when he won the Cy Young Award. Hernandez started 34 games for the Mariners in 2010 and he was 13-12 with a 2.27 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP. This year though hasn’t been quite as easy for Hernandez. He has started 27 games so far in 2011 for the Mariners and he is 11-11 with a 3.38 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP. He has only given up 172 hits in his first 194 1/3 innings this year while whiffing 185 batters. He has to be getting frustrated because of the Mariners constant lack of run support the last couple of years. Still, I expect that he will finish this season strongly.