Can you believe that our Seattle Mariners are only 7.5 games back in the AL West?  With the way they’ve been playing I keep expecting to see that they’ve fallen to 10 or 15 games back already.  Seattle still has a shot thanks to sub-.500 play from the Angels and A’s.  7.5 games is a reasonable deficit to overcome, so it’s far too early to be throwing in the towel. 

While Kenji Johjima is finally starting to hit, he may continue losing time behind the plate.  While I brought in up in April, it seems that fans and Mariner management alike are finally realizing that Johjima doesn’t bring the best out of the pitching staff.  After a string of outings in which Mariner pitchers seemed horribly out of sync, Jaime Burke got the call behind the plate for Erik Bedard’s Saturday start and caught an absolute gem while Johjima DHed.  Hopefully we’ll see Burke and Jeff Clement catching more often, a move that would boost Seattle’s already stellar starting pitching.  With an offense that is struggling to produce runs, any move to help cut down on the pitching staff’s ERA is a good one.

Speaking of the offense, manager John McLaren ran out an interesting lineup on Saturday:

Ichiro Suzuki
Adrian Beltre
Jose Lopez
Raul Ibanez
Kenji Johjima
Richie Sexson
Wlad Balentien
Jaime Burke
Yuni Betancourt

I’m not sure if Mac will stick with something similar or continue to shuffle the players around.  In a lineup that’s already lacking offensive firepower, I think it’s important for Beltre be in the middle of the order.  I also think Johjima’s contact bat should be slotted between the free swingers Sexson and Balentien.  Or, for something different, I would suggest:

Ichiro
Wlad OR Yuni
Lopez
Ibanez
Beltre
Sexson
Johjima
Clement/Burke
Yuni OR Wlad

I think such a lineup would solve a few problems.  One, it takes pressure off of Clement.  Two, Wlad finds himself in a position at either 2 or 9 where he’ll see fewer breaking balls.  Three, shifting Lopez, Ibanez, and Beltre down a spot lengthens the lineup a bit and puts consistent hitters in the biggest run producing spots.  [NOTE: I completely forgot about Vidro.  He should be losing regular playing time sooner than later to prevent his option from vesting, but either way he will be in there sometimes.  I’ll leave it be for now.] Just a thought.  How would you order the lineup?