Seattle Mariners

Seattle Mariners General Manager Jack Zduriencik announced today that the M's acquired outfielder Ryan Langerhans from the Washington Nationals in exchange for Mike Morse. He will most likely be on the 25-man roster as soon as third baseman Adrian Beltre hits the disabled list.

As of right now, the Seattle Mariners are a game over .500, 2.5 games behind Texas and LA/Anaheim. They are set to play the Padres and gain more ground.

However, the direction of present and future Mariners lies in what happens the next 10 days.

That's right, the road trip from hell.

At the onset of this season I thought the Mariners would perform within a range: either they would lose as many or more games than they did last year, or they would finish at about .500.

Halfway in the Mariners are meeting my higher expectations, standing at exactly 35 wins and 35 losses, and looking as if they could make a push at the Rangers and Angels. Sitting 2 and a half games back of first place is a good place for a team that hasn't really found its stride or suffered major setbacks.

No doubt about it, the A.L. West is one of the worst divisions in baseball.  Good thing for Mariners fans: The M's are 2.5 games back in the division, trailing only the Rangers and Angels through the first half of the season. 

Fans cannot look at just the negatives surrounding the ball club. With the negatives there are also many positives following the Mariners into the second half of the season.

One of the many things going the Mariners way is their starting pitching.

Looks like the apparent blunder of nixing a Washburn deal with the Minnesota Twins last year was not much of a mistake. 

This is a question that Mariners fans have been asking themselves and each other all season. So far, there really hasn't been a clear cut answer, but it's starting to look more and more like a yes.

As of now, the Seattle Mariners are sitting at 35-34, two-and-a-half games behind Texas and two behind LA.  On top of that, this upcoming series with San Diego presents an opportunity to gain even more ground, as our division rivals are facing much more challenging opponents.

Even as King Felix dominated Sunday's game, the Mariners offense slumbered. It took a crucial mistake from the opposing first baseman to seal a 3-2 Seattle win.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the game tied at two, Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Tony Clark flat-out dropped the throw from third baseman Mark Reynolds on a Franklin Gutierrez groundout.

It wasn't the ideal way to win a game, but I guess it sorta makes up for the one of the Brandon Morrow meltdowns in Texas.

When Endy Chavez and Yuniesky Betancourt collided in shallow left field, I had one reaction: “Endy’s career is over.”

Then, when he was rolling over on the grass holding his knee, I felt bad for prophesying the eventual end to his career. He’s a slap-hitting, speed-oriented outfielder, and serious knee injury is the equivalent to a motorcycle with a flat tire.

In the first game I have attended since moving back to Seattle, the Mariners rallied from a three-run deficit to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-3.

Ken Griffey Jr. hit a two-run pinch hit homerun in eighth inning to tie the game and Rob Johnson had the go-ahead RBI as the Mariners earned a victory in their MLB-leading 27th one-run game.

The Diamondbacks drew first blood, scoring two runs in the third inning after a costly throwing error by Mariners SP Jarrod Washburn. A Miguel Montero solo homerun in the fourth inning gave the Diamondbacks an early 3-0 lead.