Manager Jim Riggleman has a vision, a Mariners rotation with five healthy starting pitchers.

So far, that's all it is - a vision.

Twenty-three pitches into his start Wednesday, Miguel Batista called trainer Rick Griffin to the mound and then left the game with a strained right groin.

If you're counting, that's one pitcher (Felix Hernandez) on the disabled list with a sprained ankle, another (Erik Bedard) sidelined by a tender shoulder and now a third (Batista) unavailable.

Felix is due back Friday, and Ryan Rowland-Smith will probably slide into Batista's spot if needed.

It’s an odd situation to face in any year, but in a season in which you’re dead last among American League teams, why are the Seattle Mariners carrying three catchers on their 25-man roster?

No, it’s not so that Jamie Burke can pitch in relief.

In Burke, Jeff Clement and Kenji Johjima, there’s at least one too many players to give each of them work – so why are they all here?

Burke is a solid backup who’s out of options. He can’t be sent to the minor leagues. Clement is the catcher of the future, according to the Mariners. And Johjima?

The worst-kept secret in baseball is that pitchers don’t like throwing to Joh, and this dates back years. When John McLaren managed, he tried to protect Johjima from criticism, but Jim Riggleman is in charge now.

And Johjima’s time behind the plate has been cut severely.

Instead, Johjima – who signed a three-year extension in April – has done a little DHing and a little watching from the bench. Offering him the lucrative extension was not a baseball decision, but one that came directly from Japan.

Now Seattle has to figure out what to do about it. Joh is untradeable with three years on his deal. He also is clearly unhappy with his role today.

It’s an issue that’s going to be troublesome the remainder of the season and probably beyond.

Normally we start the links with the Mariners, but we're starting with a team in the organization that actually hits the ball - the Everett Aqua Sox, specifically second-round draft pick Dennis Raben, who at this point can't seem to make an out.

I was hoping to get up to Everett to watch Raben play, but he might not be around that long.

We'll stick with the minor league updates some, the Rainiers got pummeled last night. But the worse news was that Rich Dorman left the game in the first inning with a sore arm. Here's Mike Curto's story on the game and Dorman. Also in the story, it notes that Bryan LaHair just returned from missing seven games with a foot injury.

Alright I guess we'll get to the Mariners.

I watched the game last night. Justin Duchscherer is good, he's got 10 wins and an all-star and deservedly so. When he can throw his curveball for a strike, he's filthy. And he shut the Mariners down with startling efficiency. But really is shutting out the Mariners that big of an accomplishment, he just joins the list of pitchers that the Mariners' hitters have made look like all-stars for one game this season....

Here's a refresher:
Edwin Jackson, Tampa Bay
Zack Greinke, Kansas City
Ervin Santana, Los Angeles
Paul Byrd, Cleveland
Daniel Cabrera, Baltimore
Cliff Lee, Cleveland
Chien Ming Wang, New York
Vincente Padilla, Texas
Tim Wakefield, Boston
Dustin McGowan, Toronto
Tim Hudson, Atlanta
Roy Halladay, Toronto
Justin Duchscherer, Oakland

Now there's some pretty good pitchers on that list, but these were all starts that I watched in person with the exception of the Duchscherer and in those games, the Mariners didn't have a sniff against these guys. They swung early, swung often -- usually at bad pitches and were dominated.

Lash's notebook leads with Erik Bedard getting shut down till after the all-star break. No big shocker here, but then again the media writes whatever they want to write. I watched his interview with Brad Adam from a few weeks back on Mariners all-access. First of all, take off the sunglasses. Seriously? Who does he think he is Kanye West? Second of all, did he really say anything that we hadn't heard? No.

* John McGrath chimes in with a column today based on a conversation we had on Sunday at the Mariners game, about why the Mariners still playing players like Sexson and Vidro, who won't be a part of next year's team. Neither of us could come up with a logical reason, other than Pelekoudas is still holding out hope that they might get something more than a cracked fungo and a used pine tar rag for either of them.

* The SF Chronicle had a short story on the game. The reason being there was some other stuff to cover yesterday on the A's beat, namely the trade of Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin to the Cubs.

* Chronicle columnist Ray Ratto has his take on the trade.

* Chicago columnist Rick Morrisey also weighs in on the trade. Jay Mariotti also had a column on it, but I won't be posting any Mariotti columns on here today, or ever.

* In this notebook from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, there is mention that the Twins may have some interest in trading for Adrian Beltre.

* Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman breaks down some possible candidates for trades. Bedard and Raul are of course mentioned. And as usual he takes his shots at Ichiro... this time for making the all-star game.

And oh yes, Ichiro (.302), who plays hard only occasionally, shouldn't be allowed anywhere near Yankee Stadium. That one was the fault of the fans.

* Apparently when Pat Gillick looks at acquiring players, he looks at heart over numbers. Perhaps that's why he drafted Michael Garciaparra two picks ahead of David Wright.

* So Red Sox fans are not only annoying, but now some of them are psycho and criminal.

* Tim Lincecum's velocity was down in his last night's start.

A-ROD TIME!!! A-ROD TIME!!! A-ROD TIME!!! A-ROD TIME!!!

A few people have asked me why I post this, well, as some of you know I have 3,232,967 reasons why I dislike Alex. It started back in 2000 when I was interning for the TNT. I had to run down to the clubhouse and try and get a quote about a knee injury he was recovering from. And he proceeded to put "Who let the dogs out!" on repeat on the clubhouse sound system and playing it at 12,000 decibels. To this day, I dislike him and hate that song, which was a plague upon society as we know it.

And yes SharkHawk, most of A-Rod's female dalliances are a bit mannish.

From the NY Daily News...

Apparently more women (I'm sure all mannish looking) including the wife of John Rocker (this is just getting better by the second)have come forward to discuss their relationships with A-Rod.

A-Rod didn't make the NY Post cover today, but there was a story about him demanding to see his children, which I think is a pretty fair demand.

Here's the actual divorce paperwork.

Thanks to Pete Morisseau for sending this little piece of goodness in ....