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Ryan Divish has been with Tacoma News Tribune since 2006, covering the Tacoma Rainiers and high school sports. Divish played baseball at Dickinson State University and also earned a journalism degree from the University of Montana.
E-mail Ryan.
Larry LaRue has covered the Seattle Mariners and Major League Baseball for The News Tribune since 1988. E-mail Larry.
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Fresh off another loss in which they couldn't get over the great three-run barrier, the Seattle Mariners know what their offensive problems are.
On nights when their top two hitters - Ichiro Suzuki and Russell Branyan - don't reach base, scoring is going to be an issue.
Beyond those two, the Mariners don't have any regular hitting as high as .280.
They do, however, have two batting under .200.
Compare, for a moment, the bottom four hitters in Seattle's lineup Wednesday to the last four in New York's.
The Mariners?
Wladimir Balentien: .225 wih three home runs and 10 RBI. Chris Woodward, batting .333 in six games, no home runs, no RBI. Rob Johnson, batting .187 with no home runs, 13 RBI. And Ronny Cedeno, batting .140 with three home runs and eight RBI.
The Yankees?
Robinson Cano (.300, 12, 42), Nick Swisher (.238, 14, 39) Melkey Cabrera (.287, 8, 32) and Cody Ransom (.190, 0, 8).
Cano, Swisher and Cabrera each have more RBI than all four of those Mariners combined.
The Balentien experiment has run its course, Woodward is a useable reserve infielder, as is Cedeno - but neither is an every day player. And Johnson may be a better catcher than Kenji Johjima, but neither is hitting this season.
The Mariners don't see an outfielder, third baseman, middle infielder or catcher in their system ready to replace anyone currently on the 25-man roster.
After 77 games, including 37 in which they've scored three runs or less, it may be time to push a few of those young prospects and see what the franchise has that's worth keeping.
That might bringing up out-of-position players like Chris Shelton or Bryan LaHair and trying them on for size.
Mike Wilson has played only five games since coming off a sprained ankle? Can he be worse than Balentien?
This team, its general manager and manager have done marvelous jobs thinking outside the norm this season - and it's gotten them to the brink of the All-Star break with a 39-38 record.
It's time to start thinking again, about the second half, about next year, about letting players without a future in the organization move on.
If you're going to lose games by only scoring two runs, you can do that with almost anyone. Why not try doing better with someone else?
