This Sunday, Randy Johnson will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The 51 year-old former pitcher, known as the ‘Big Unit’, played for the Seattle Mariners from 1989 to 1998 before being traded away to Houston and then onto Arizona, where he arguably had some of the best games of his life (including pitching a perfect game at the age of 40). Nowadays he spends his time putting his photojournalism skills to use: his website features some incredibly talented photography (also notice his signature is a dead bird – presumably a posthumous nod to the poor dove who imploded after coming in contact with one of his pitches).
Though Randy may be donning a Diamondbacks hat during induction, he’ll always be the most influential player in Mariners history right next to Ken Griffey, Jr. In fact, things just haven’t felt right with the organization since. I’ve been forced to eat my words from earlier this year and watch the Mariners continue an average performance that’s left them at the bottom of the AL West when they were early favorites to win the World Series. I long for the days of the Big Unit headed out to the mound, where nine times out of ten you knew they were going to come away with a win.
Why, even with a pitcher arguably as strong as Johnson, are the Mariners failing to capitalize on talent (insert PED joke here)? They finally managed to assemble a strong cast with the addition of Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz to the team, and Kyle Seager’s consistent improvement was sure to be clutch. In honor of the upcoming anniversary of the ’95 Slide, perhaps that year’s team could shed light on the current situation:
First of all, the ’95 Ms had Dan Wilson as a catcher. Mike Zunino is not having a good season. In 263 at-bats, he has just 43 hits (batting .163). Though Zunino and Wilson are comparable in many ways (age, slugging percentage, home runs), Zunino already has nearly twice as many strike-outs half-way through this season as Wilson did in the entirety of ’95.
Second, Edgar Martinez was behind the plate instead of behind the dugout. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the addition of Edgar as hitting coach back in June (replacing Howard Johnson who was reassigned to the minors), but his coaching impact is far from that as a DH. Back in ’95 he had 182 hits, 113 RBIs and 29 homers. Since joining the team as coach, the team is 10-11. Half way through the season, current DH Seth Smith, who surprised everybody in the season opener, has struggled with a groin injury and only has 24 RBIs and 8 homers. If Edgar isn’t getting through to them, let’s hope his skills rub off through osmosis or something.
Third, people aren’t getting on base enough for Nelson Cruz. Though Cruz is on pace to match Jay Buhner’s 40 home runs in ’95, he’ll never be able to have the RBI impact if his teammates can’t pull it together and manage more hits. Nobody batted under .250 during the ’95 season, and even though Griffey owned the spotlight, he certainly wasn’t the reason for their success that year. Players like 3B Mike Blowers, 1B Tino Martinez, 2B Joey Cora, and LF Vince Coleman all put up impressive numbers after Griffey was out for most of the season after he broke his wrist colliding with the outfield wall. Right now, Cano isn’t performing as hoped, and despite what the statistics may indicate, nobody else is picking up runs when and where it counts.
Finally, of course, the 1995 Mariners didn’t have to deal with the antics of Fernando Rodney. How many times does he have to shoot that invisible arrow into his own foot before they finally accept it’s not going to work out? It’s like somebody who won $40 on the nickel slots and they just keep pressing the “bet” button expecting that eventually they’ll win again, but soon find themselves $200 in the hole. Even Bobby Ayala, the Rodney of his day, couldn’t have blown that many games.
Of course this list is not exhaustive nor obviously does anything that happened 20 years ago bear any effect on this season. There’s something very special about a team that is not only rife with talent, but also executes as such in harmony with one another. Lloyd McClendon’s definitely trying, right down to Lou Piniella-esque fits of rage, but it’s just not the same. In all seriousness, the M’s could really benefit from some solid pitching changes (remember when we brought in Norm Charlton aka “The Sheriff”?) and more than a one-game winning streak to get some positivity flowing through that locker room. So there’s your task, Lloyd: find yourself the 2015 Sheriff.
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