With the way the Mariners season is going they need to start looking at some younger players. That means guys like Michael Saunders should get a lot of ABs the rest of the way to show what he can do. He has played in 53 games for the Mariners this year and he is 33 of 145 (.228 avg, .718 OPS) with 21 runs scored, 7 homers and 21 RBIs. His power has come at a price though as he has already whiffed 48 times this season. Hopefully the Mariners will give Saunders more P.T. so they can see if he can fix some of the flaws in his swing. He does look like he has a nice upside though.

32-year old switch hitting DH/LF Milton Bradley was supposed to give the Mariners a solid middle of the order bat, but that just hasn’t happened so far this year. Bradley has played in 55 games for the Mariners so far this season and he is 39 of 190 (.205 avg, .650 OPS) with 22 runs scored, 7 homers, 27 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. At the time of the trade with the Cubs I thought it favored the Mariners big time figuring that Bradley would hit the ball while Carlos Silva would suck for the Cubs. But Silva has started 14 games for the Cubs this season and he is 8-2 with a 3.01 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP. The Mariners should have known from Bradley’s past that he would be more trouble than he is worth.

The Mariners need more production out of the firstbasemen. 27-year old Casey Kotchman is a elite defender at 1B but he just isn’t hitting too well. He has played in 55 games for the Mariners so far this season and he is 33 of 179 (.184 avg, .551 OPS) with 13 runs scored, 3 homers and 21 RBIs. The Mariners have recently brought up 24-year old lefty swinging Mike Carp but he isn’t hitting either. He has played in 8 games for the Mariners this year and he is 4 of 24 (.167 avg, .468 OPS) with 1 run scored. If the Mariners don’t get any offensive punch soon out of either Carp or Kotchman they will have to turn to someone else as they can’t afford to play a 1B that can’t hit no matter how good he is on defense.

The Mariners had visions of Ichiro and Figgins wreaking havoc on the bases and getting into pitchers heads all year long. Ichiro is doing his part but Figgins has not been up to the task yet. Figgins has played in 64 games for the Mariners this season and he is 53 of 227 (.233 avg, .630 OPS) with 28 runs scored, 0 homers, 17 RBIs and 13 stolen bases. He has walked 39 times this season but he has also already whiffed 50 times this year as he seems to be pressing at the plate. Personally I think the Mariners should switch Figgins back to 3B and Lopez back to 2B where both players are more comfortable. It might hurt the defense to do that but if it revives both of their bats it would be worth the risk.

32-year old switch hitting 2B Chone Figgins and 26-year old righty swinging 3B Jose Lopez have both been struggling with the bats this season. Part of the problem could be that manager Don Wakamatsu decided in spring training to have them switch positions with the idea of tightening up the defense. But, you could make a case that playing new positions in the field has hampered their offense because they are thinking way more about playing defense. Maybe the Mariners should switch both guys back to where they are more comfortable in the field to see if it helps their hitting. Figgins has played in 28 games this season for the Mariners and he is 20 of 98 (.204 avg, .601 OPS) with 14 runs scored, 7 RBIs and 7 stolen bases. Lopez has played in 28 games for the Mariners this season and he is 25 of 114 (.219 avg, .524 OPS) with 8 runs scored, 1 homer, 12 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. Figgins and Lopez were two of the Mariners’ hitters that they were depending on this season so they should try to do whatever it takes to get them hitting even if it hurts the defense a bit.