What a heartless team/franchise!

2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016, and now this year, 2017. These are all years of which I was confident and hyped up before the season or by at least July 1st of said season. They show potential, play great baseball when they're on, but when they aren't on, every single time they are more than just off. They suck. Every god forsaken year this happens. Here is a timeline from 2004 to 2017.
Bill Bavasi/Mike Hargrove. They were spitting talent out left and right and had everything going for them. Then Ownership sided with this selfish prick named Ichiro instead of Hargrove, our last proven Major League Manager, and Hargrove flipped the bird to this franchise and left. I can't really blame him either, we traded all our talent away and sank. Typical Mariners.
Jack Zduriencik/Don Wakamatsu, Eric Wedge, & Lloyd McClendon. Wak was fine, but Jack Z was a massive Piece of shit. He wanted things his way and only his way, and his way was absolutely terrible all the way around. He fired Wakamatsu, ownership sided with him and his failures and fired Wedge, and then got away with a fluke season in 2014. 2015 brought us all back down to earth, both Lloyd and Jack were fired. 7 years wasted, not a single playoff game to show for it. Typical Mariners.
Jerry Dipoto/Scott Servais. Dipoto is amazing, I will give him that all day, everyday. But, the flip side of that coin, Servais is a Courtney Love-level mess one day, then respectable the next day, then downright craptastic the day after. I'm tired of it. Last year, down seasons for players like Nori Aoki, Adam Lind, Nathan Karns, Wade Miley, and other plagued us. This year, injuries and stupid baseball playing has plagued us. I don't care how great of a scout, director, or assistant GM Servais was in Texas and Anaheim, he is not fit for field managing, and our play is showing just that. Many players will refuse to nut up, as well as coaches and the manager.
We just got swept, at home, to the worst team in all of baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies. They SUCK on the road, yet they came here, kicked our ass, and made an embarrassment out of us. Another year where if we could just get out of our own heads and where if our manager wasn't so damn terrible, we'd most likely be a post season team.
But no, once again something has to be wrong when it doesn't have to be. So many things that have gone wrong this year have been avoidable, like being in our own heads and downright sucking. Slumps happen, but not like this. This team is great for 10 days and can beat anybody in the league, then for 11 days they can't beat the most simplest of teams to beat.
It's sad, it's disappointing. It's annoying, it's frustrating. For far too long I have put up with mediocre play year after year after year after year after year. Frankly, I am goddamn sick of it. Some days I absolutely hate being a baseball fan, today is one of those days.
But don't worry, we'll come out of July at .500 due to some nice winning streak, go through August playing "solid .500 ball", make a run through the end in September and come up just a little bit short. If you like that sort of thing then good for you. I quite frankly am sick of it, and I find it unacceptable that we are not a playoff team. I hope to be wrong and that we go on this miracle run and make the post season, but as of now that does not seem anywhere close to likely happen.
Seattle Mariners, you suck. You really, really suck.

The Jason Varitek/Derek Lowe Trade

On the morning of July 31st 1996, the Seattle Mariners traded outfielder Darren Bragg for left-handed pitcher Jamie Moyer, who, by some unholy alignment of the planets, became one pf the greatest pitchers in Seattle Mariners history. But the following year, the Mariners more than returned the favor...

On the morning of July 31st 1997, the Seattle Mariners had 60 wins and  47 losses. They were also a half game ahead of the Anaheim Angels in the American League Western Division Standings. The Mariners had superstars like Ken Griffey Jr, Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner, Randy Johnson & a young Alex Rodriguez. But there was a problem: the Seattle Mariners bullpen was crap. Yes, that is a pretty simple reason for why the Mariners record at that point wasn't 67 and 40. The bullpen had cost the team [at least] 15 games up to that point. The Mariners were desperate for a good relief pitcher [with the word "good" being used very loosely here]. They had a few options to deal with this problem:

1) They could wait until the bullpen figured something out but will run the risk of missing out on the playoffs

2) They could acquire future Hall of Fame relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman from the San Diego Padres for future star Jose Cruz Jr. & yes this was a possibility because the Padres were way out of contention at that point in the season.

3) They could do something completely stupid & more Mariner-esque. That being trade promising young catcher Jason Varitek,  who they had just called up on the 30th of July but had yet to use him in a game and/or Derek Lowe, a promising young pitcher who impressed Manager Lou Piniella with his knowledge & work ethic.

So what did the Mariners do? They of course chose Option 3! I mean what did you expect? They are the Mariners...

But if you thought this was the only stupid part of this story, you are clearly wrong...

The Boston Red Sox only wanted Derek Lowe because they already had a catcher in the Major Leagues, named Mike Stanley & they had a promising young catcher themselves in Steve Lomasney [whose career was tragically cut short due to an eye injury in 2000]. The Red Sox just wanted to get rid of mediocre [at best!] relief pitcher Heathcliff Slocumb's $9 million salary. But, of course the Mariners went full-on stupid & included Jason Varitek in the deal!


As expected, Jason Varitek & Derek Lowe became stars in Boston, with both being key players for the 2004 World Champion Boston Red Sox. Derek Lowe threw a no-hitter versus Tampa Bay in 2002 & Jason Varitek was named the Captain of the Red Sox in 2005. Slocumb, on the other hand was released by the Mariners after the 1998 season. So, in other words, the Mariners got screwed over...AGAIN!!