Odd Thoughts

Mariner Report

Coming off the All-Star break, we had a short, 4-game week, in which we managed to win two, makin us .500 for the week. The strange schedule continues as we stay in Seattle for 2 against Boston and Oakland, and a normal 3 game series with Anaheim. Ron Villone gets the start today, but I doubt he'll be a double-duty guy this week. Joel Pineiro goes tomorrow, and he will get double duty as he'll come around again for the series finale against the Angels on Sunday.

Joining Rich Aurilia in the "Designated for Assignment" group this week is John Olerud. I haven't heard anything about the futures of either player. I imagine Olerud will retire, but I will wait until a decision is made before I pay tribute.

In their places we've called up Justin Leone and Bucky Jacobsen, both of which have already hit two homeruns in their short stints with the club. Jacobsen even got pitched around by C.C. Sabathia, which forced in a run; that seems like a tremendous amount of respect for a guy who's only been in the league for a few days. Having only seen one at bat, my impressio0n of Jacobsen is that he's built like for WCW champion, Goldberg, and probably has the potential to be a Jay Buhner/Richie Sexson type player.

Mariner of the Week: Though I'd like to give the nod to Jacobsen for his for huge opening weekend (he's hitting .625 and has a 2.144 OPS), I just can't do it based on 8 at bats. So this weeks honor again goes to Joel Pineiro who actually had enough runs to win. He pitched 8 innins, allowed only one run, while striking out five.