San Diego (24-17) @ Seattle (15-26)

[TTown]

M's host the toast of NL early season surprise teams, but they have lost 5 of 7. Still, they lead the majors in staff ERA (2.78). We're 6th overall, and allow almost a whole run more a game than they do. That's insane stuff by the Padres. Should make scoring 4 runs in a single game like yesterday a pipe dream.

Wade LeBlanc (2-1, 1.54) vs. Cliff Lee (1-2, 2.08) tonight. Shapes up like a 2-1 loss any way you draw it up, yes?

We should be pitching RRS and Felix in games two or three. Is this RRS' last stand (0-4, 7.62 ERA, ineffective, etc.)? At least with Snell, he'll mix in a quality start here or there in-between shellings. Personally, I think it might be time to recall Luke French. 1.64 ERA in 55 IP for Tacoma.

[TTown]

So... we beat San Diego 15-8 yesterday. Some things:

We were second to last in the majors in runs produced going into the game, going against the #1 ERA team in baseball. So naturally, we score 15 runs.

Cliff Lee gave up 7 runs, but we won by the same number.

Sweeney was 4/6 with 2 HRs and 6 RBIs. Hello, 2001?

I can't tell if I have a man crush on Josh Bard by comparison to what we've seen so far this year at catcher (Johnson/Moore) or if he's legit, but I'm liking what I'm seeing so far. Production from the bottom of the order! Uncanny.

Bradley has 5 hits in 12 at bats since coming back. I'll live with that mental implosion at the beginning of the month if he's going to start swinging the bat. He's just under .250 now, much better than flirting with Mendoza like he did in April.

Speaking of April, did we score 15 runs the entire month of?

Ian Snell gets the start tonight, not RRS. Can't say I disagree with the change. Let's hope he makes the most of the opportunity.

[Bay_Areas_Finest]

That win felt good!

Sweeney was on a mission, and hell yeah, TTown, Bard is tearing it up. I've loving what I see from the guy, but I have a feeling he'll fall back down to Earth soon enough.

Glad about the Snell change as well. RRS, even though I've been a fan, has been awful.

[TTown]

Our bullpen makes me sad.

I mean, our bullpen is one of the several things about this team that make me sad.

[Sweezo]

There's a reason Colome was able to pass through waivers earlier this year. Very disappointing.

At this point, I am resigned to the fact that we might as well start looking for Cliff Lee suitors. Same with Aardsma. If talent can be sold off with an eye towards adding pieces next year, it needs to be done. If the team can add a decent hitting 1B and SS, things will look a lot better next year. Bradley can slide at DH, Saunders can get his shot at LF...if the offensive can simply be league average without destroying the offense, we'd be doing OK.

On the bright side, Bard looks like a league average catcher, which is huge for a team that's made it to this point with an overmatched rookie and Felix' personal catcher who can't catch. Or hit.

[TTown]

I was just coming here to make a devil's advocate thread about what happens if we find ourselves as sellers near the deadline (which looks likely).

We know that Ichiro, Guti, and Figgins are locked up for the foreseeable future, Figgins' contract in particular looking rather untradable at the moment. I would LOVE to trade Ichiro and make off with New York or Boston's farm system, but there's next to no chance management ever lets that happen.

So we've got 2/3 of our outfield set for the next couple of years, with little wiggle room. Saunders is under our control and looks like he's the future, but at the same time, if there's an upgrade to be made via some sort of trade, I'm not opposed to it.

Figgins is our 2B for the next few years. We've got Lopez at 3B till the end of 2011, and unfortunately, I'm not sure how attractive he is for trade purposes after his lousy start this season. Jack Wilson is here until the end of 2011. Not exactly sure of the fine details of his contract, but he might be tough to move as a highly paid defensive whiz who can sometimes slap singles to shallow left. I'd be down for upgrades at all 3 spots, but Figgins is untradable, and I'm not sure Lopez/Wilson bring back anything of merit. Perhaps I'm (and would love to be) wrong, though. I image the "loose" plan is to either rid ourselves of Lopez at some point or wait out his contract, at which time we'll slide Figgs to 3rd and call up Ackley at 2B? If we can upgrade at any of the spots, hopefully production will win out over finances and we'll just have a really expensive bench.

1B is in obvious need of an upgrade. Sorry, Kotch. He's done here after 2010. Bradley's under contract till the end of 2011. Might not be the worst idea in the world to eat that contract and send him along his merry way at the next blowup. A cancer on a good team is okay if he's hitting, a cancer on a bad team when he's not hitting is lethal.

I think trading Lee and Aardsma is the smart money. Where the hell is Josh Fields? Is he still in the plans? Draft a closer in the 1st round, I'd expect to here some noise about him...

Going into 2011, is this reasonable with a little luck?:

RF Ichiro
2B Ackley
CF Guti
DH UPGRADE
1B UPGRADE
LF Saunders/UPGRADE
SS Wilson/UPGRADE
C Bard/Moore (Moore will only improve, IMO)
3B Figgins

Too soon for Ackley?

We should/could have a pitching staff of:

Felix
Fister
Bedard (eh? maybe? we'll see how he does)
Vargas
Snell/French/Olson/UPGRADE