Seattle Mariners

This year's Cy Young award winner is a pitcher with a:

2.27 ERA (best in baseball) 

249.2 innings (best in the American league)

6 complete games (second in the American League)

232 strikeouts (second in the American League by 1)

1.06 WHIP (second in the American League)

34 games started (best in the American League)

The Seattle Mariners did not have a picture perfect 2010 season. After a surprise 85-77 campaign in 2009, the Mariners lost 101 games last season, matching their 2008 low.

Ace starter Cliff Lee - their main acquisition a year ago - was traded to a division rival, and the Mariners finished the year with the worst record in the American League for the second time in three years.

An important and long overdue message was sent to the baseball world the other day when Felix Hernandez, a 13-game winner, was announced as the winner of the 2010 Cy Young award over CC Sabathia, a 21-game winner.

The Mariners have a lot of talent in their farm system, much of which has been acquired by Jack Zduriencik, or had their development tweaked for the better by the present regime. Last week, I detailed 20 guys that didn't quite make the cut for the Mariners top 20 prospects, and in this installment, we look at prospects 20-16.

20. Anthony Varvaro, RHP, 25 years old

In no particular order, here are the factors that led to the end result in Game 2 of the World Series.

1. Bruce Bochy is pushing all the right buttons.

2. Ron Washington doesn’t even know where the buttons are to push.

3. The Texas Rangers’ bullpen had a complete meltdown.

4. Matt Cain.

Ichiro Suzuki recently proved he is the greatest hitter in Major League Baseball history. He had his 200th hit for the 10th straight year in the United States. This is a feat no hitter has ever achieved.

Pete Rose is the only other player who had 200 hits in 10 years, which took him 15 years to accomplish. All other great hitters line up behind Suzuki, including Ty Cobb, whose AL record Suzuki shared until this year.

One of the major themes of the Seattle blogosphere this offseason, at least as it pertains to any potential managerial hiring, is quite simply that we don’t have enough information as fans to form a quantitative opinion of the guy they hired.

The Mariners hired Eric Wedge to be their new manager, and the move was met with a mass consensus of indifference among Mariners fans.

This week, the Seattle Mariners rebuffed fan demands and shunned fan favorite Bobby Valentine in favor of former Cleveland manager Eric Wedge.    

Yesterday the Seattle Mariner front office garnered similar fan enthusiasm for their latest choice to manage the team, as one might find at an exciting university lecture on Wave Particle Duality and how that relates to quantum physics.

Lots of snoring, cat-calling, muttering, outright grumbling amidst the masses, scattered with skeptical “who the crap is that??!?

As reported by CBSSports.com, the Seattle Mariners have hired former Cleveland manager Eric "The Grinder" Wedge, to replace fired skipper Don Wakamatsu following a 101 loss season.  For a team that has suffered from a chronic case of underachievement, Wedge doesn't strike me as the antidote.  Furthermore, he doesn't strike me as the solution to any team's problems.