UPDATE 4:24 -- Officially Ichiro has tightness in his left calf. It's been bothering him the last week and it "grabbed on him" a little at the end of yesterday's game. Manager Don Wakamatsu said Ichiro said the calf is much better today. But Wakamatsu indicated that Ichiro probably won't play till Wednesday.

UPDATE 3:29 -- Apparently Ichiro has a strained calf. Not sure of the extent.

Ichiro Suzuki is not in the line-up today, Bill Hall will be taking his place in right field. Not sure what's up with it, but I will let you know more when I get the chance.

Mariners (63-61)
Franklin Gutierrez CF
Russell Branyan 1B
Jose Lopez 2B
Ken Griffey Jr. DH
Bill Hall RF
Kenji Johjima C
Jack Hannahan 3B
Jack Wilson SS
Michael Saunders LF
---------
RHP Ian Snell

Not much to say. Ian Snell makes his Safeco debut and the Mariners face a pretty good pitcher in James Shields. In six career starts, Shields has a 1-2 record against the M's, but he's only allowed 8 runs in 37 innings pitched for a 1.95 ERA, his lowest against any AL opponent.

First Inning
Well, don't be afraid to mix in a strike every once in a while. Snell looks a little pumped to be pitching at Safeco. He's all over the place. He walked two of the first three hitters, then gave up an RBI single and followed with a bases loaded walk. He threw 41 pitches in the first inning.

Shields was basically the opposite of Snell, economical, efficient and perfect, going 1-2-3.

Second inning
Snell seemed to have settled down for a few moments, but he walked Barlett for the second time, gave up a double to Carl Crawford, a fielder's choice to Longoria and then walked Ben Zobrist. At that point, Wakamatsu had seen enough and pulled him and went to Chris Jakubauskas. Jak came in and got a double play ball to end the inning.

Snell pitched 1 1/3 giving up three runs on two hits, while walking six and striking out one.

The Mariners cut the lead to to 3-2 as Carl Crawford misplays Adrian Beltre's fly ball to left for a double and Franklin Gutierrez rips a two-run homer - his 13th of the season. Shields then gives up back-to-back hits and throws away a pick off attempt at first to score a run. It's now 3-3.

Third inning
1-2-3 innings for each team. I didn't know if that was possible.

Fourth inning
A strong inning for Jakubauskas

Meanwhile, the bottom part of the order mixes it up for the Mariners but nothing comes of it.

Fifth inning
Well, Jak is getting jacked around a little. Evan Longoria rips a solo bomb to center and Carlos Pena goes deep with a two-run shot to right. Its now 6-3

A note from Round Rock tonight
Brandon Morrow got a no-decision in the Rainiers 7-6 win (sweeping Round Rock in 4-game series), he allowed 5 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and 8 strikeouts in 6.0 IP. He threw 90 pitches/60 strikes.

Over his last 2 starts, Morrow has 12 hits, 3 runs and struck out 13 in 13.0 innings.

But as the venerable Mike Curto pointed out before the game, Round Rock is one of the worst hitting teams in the PCL with the fewest walks - a perfect set-up for Morrow.

Sixth inning
Gutierrez with a double - that's three hits and he's a triple away from the cycle.
The Mariners push across a run as Saunders comes up with his third hit, doubling home Gutierrez. Gutz and Saunders have six of the M's eight hits.

Seventh inning
Well that was just plain ugly, Olson walks the first two hitters he faces and Sean White can't bail him out giving up three straight hits. Of the nine walks issued by Mariners pitchers, six scored.

Well, it was thought that Doug Fister's removal from the game last night was precautionary when Jason Vargas blew up early, but it was something more.

Vargas was optioned to Triple A Tacoma, and the Mariners have selected Fister from Tacoma. Fister is technically "selected" because he's not on the 40-man roster, but a glance at the Mariners 40-man roster right now, only list 37 names, so they won't have to drop somebody from it.

"We had Jason Vargas in a little while ago," Manager Don Wakamatsu said. "It's never easy thing to send a player out. The discussion we had with him, in a short period of time he's been able to experience some success and some failure, and have the opportunity to learn from that. The plan of attack with him is to be able to go down and refine some things. I thought yesterday's game, where he gave up five in the first, yet came back, changed his style of pitching a little, going with some softer pitches, and the command -- using 61 pitches over the last five innings -- is more of what we're looking for."

It isn't surprising that Fister (right) was given this opportunity. Manager Don Wakamatsu mentioned him as a possible candidate for a spot in the rotation a few weeks back, when Vargas got moved in there.

Fister is 6-4 with a 3.81 ERA. I've watched him pitch, he's lanky at 6-foot-8 and his fastball is right around 90-92 as a starter, when he pitched in relief he could hop it up to 94. He has a slider that's decent and has pretty good presence on the mound.

He's a command guy that doesn't overpower hitters. But at 6-8, he does create some angles on the ball and can get some ground balls.

I've seen Fister when he's been really good - pitching seven innings, allowing six hits and one run against Portland with six strikeouts. I've also seen him get rocked by Las Vegas. But giving him an opportunity isn't a bad thing.

Fister wasn't in the clubhouse. The Rainiers were in Round Rock, Texas, so he's probably on his way back.

Obviously, the Mariners want to see something different after Vargas struggled yesterday. It isn't certain whether Fister will move into the rotation and take Vargas' spot and pitch on Tuesday against the White Sox. We'll wait to hear from Don Wakamatsu.

Also Erik Bedard was seen carrying the results of his MRI back to the training room, so we should get a report. A group of reporters tried to talk to him but he made a quick retreat to the back room.

A relatively quiet pregame meeting with manager Don Wakamatsu.

The status of Russell Branyan and Jose Lopez and their achy backs were the first order of business.

We thought we'd have tehm both back in there today, but they were both a little bit stiff," Wakamatsu said. "I'd like to think they are going to be in there tomorrow. Bottom line, I think it's better off resting them and letting them get in there tomorrow."

Branyan has battled this on different occasions, including spring training and most recently the road trip in Cleveland. But Wakamatsu said this isn't quite as severe.

Lopez just woke up stiff, there wasn't a play that tweaked the back that Wakamatsu could recall.

Wakamatsu said he probably won't use either in a pinch-hitting situation.

As I type this, Adrian Beltre is taking batting practice on the field. He's hit a few balls deep into the left-field stands.

"His BP yesterday was as good as I've seen in a long time," Wakamatsu said.

The plan is to have Beltre to continue taking batting practice and working out into the Texas portion of the road trip and then possibly activating him Kansas City.

Jarrod Washburn takes the mound tonight while trade rumors continue to swirl about him. According to Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal and JP Morosi, the Mariners have told interested teams like the Brewers, Yankees and Phillies, that Washburn is officially on the market.

Wakamatsu was asked how Washburn is dealing with the rumors and speculation.

"It’s not easy for anybody," Wakamatsu said. "We had a talk in there yesterday and just tried to keep him focused. He is a veteran guy and been through a lot. He went through it last year and nothing happened last year. To me, if there is anybody can handle it, it would be him."

As for Erik Bedard's replacement in the rotation, Wakamatsu said they are leaning towards Garrett Olson making that start.

Well, I made my flight, after taking possibly one of the scariest, most expensive cab rides ever. I'm not certain, but I think I may have similar pain in my neck that Franklin Gutierrez is experiencing after my cab driver used his breaks in the jump on them with two feet method.

Anyway, a great win for the Mariners. It wasn't pretty offensively. Manager Don Wakamatsu called it "scratch and claw." I guess Mike Sweeney's RBI double was "scratch" and Wlad Balentien's RBI fielder's choice "claw."

It was enough for Washburn, who was extremely candid following his fourth straight win to improve to 8-6 on the season and lower his ERA to 2.71.

We talked with Washburn who was very candid about the team, the standings and the trade deadline.

When asked about the Angels, he said ...

"You pay attention. Our goal is to catch 'em, so you pay attention, keep an eye on what they're doing. All we can control is what we're going on the field. We have to keep playing the way we are now and try to win the first game of a series. Then stay within striking distance when we really have a chance to control our fate, when we're playing Texas and the Angels head to head. All we can control is what we're doing. You pay attention. It's just human nature to pay attention. But all we worry about is what we can control."

In fact it was Washburn who first mentioned the trade deadline, not us.

To start the second half strong, a lot can happen, the trade deadline is coming up. We know the only way we can control what's going to happen is at least try to make the decisions hard for Jack. Hopefully, we won't be in a position we're going to be selling the whole team off. I think we're making it hard on him. Let's see what he ends up doing, but we're happy with the way we're playing. We definitely need to come out and start the second half strong to continue the momentum we had at the end of the first half.

Given the opening we kept firing questions ...

We asked if the feelings change depending on how things work out

"I'd say it's a day to day feeling. A lot can happen in a day. Guti hitting the wall, luckily he didn't hurt anything serious, he'll only be out a couple of days. But if he was going to be out a long time, that might make some decisions easier for Jack. That would be a tough guy to replace. But we've had a few tough guys to replace go down this year, but it seems like someone steps up and fills that role. I don't doubt anything we can accomplish here."

=> Read more!

Kind of an interesting graphic for when they announce Mariners hitters. I wonder how big the license plate is when Jarrod Saltalamacchia steps into the box.

Well, I will say that David Huff's warm-up music wasn't bad. He decided to go with "The Stroke" by Billy Squier. Who can go wrong with the opening lyric being -- "Now everybody have you heard, If you're in the game, then the strokes the word."

Here's Don Wakamatsu's scouting report on Huff:

Just the report I read on him. He’s a short arm guy that tops out at 92. HE’s got four pitches,a guy that had a rough outing, but strung together some good outings before that. His change-up is a plus pitch for him. His fastball run away from righthanded hitters is good. He struggles a little bit trying to challenge guys inside and struggles against lefties.

First inning
Huff gives up a soft single to Lopez, but the shift works against Griffey as he grounds out to second baseman Jamey Carroll in shallow right.

Felix has no trouble going 1-2-3 and whiffing Shin-Soo Choo with a 96 mph fastball.

Second Inning
The Mariners have a lead as Franklin Gutierrez leads off the inning with a solo homer to right-center - a shot measured at an estimated 393 feet. Langerhans follows with a double, but he's stranded at second as Johnson pops up, Hannahan strikes out and Cedeno grounds out meekly.

No no-hitter for Felix tonight as Hafner dumps a single to right, but not much else as Felix cruises.

Third inning
Not much going on except for a rare air by Gutierrez, who then threw out Sizemore as he stupidly tried to go for second.

Fourth inning
The Mariners go up 3-0 as Rob Johnson rips a two-out double to left-center and later scores on Ronny Cedeno's RBI single to left (that's not a typo). Ichiro extends his hitting streak to 13 games with a single to center to score Cedeno. This team is a juggernaut.

Huff is at 90 some pitches already. WE'll be seeing the Indians bullpen soon, which makes Indians fans cringe at the possibility.

Cleveland had its best chance to score with Shin-Soo Choo at second but Felix froze Hafner with a 96 mpn fastball on the corner.

Fifth inning
Felix as they say is dealing. Garko and Valbuena looked clueless against him in that inning.

Sixth inning
I know a few of you won't believe it, but if Ronny Cedeno keeps hitting he's going to get over .200. He comes up with an RBI single making him 2 for 3 for the night and raising his average to .181. The Mariners tack on another run on an error by Ryan Garko on an Ichiro single.

Well, no shut out for Felix as he leaves a fastball out over the plate that Grady Sizemore rips for a triple to right-center. Asdrubal Cabrera follows with a deep fly to left to score Sizemore for the Indians' first run. But Felix comes right back and strikes out Choo to end the inning.

Seventh inning
Lopez doubles to lead off the inning and Junior comes up with his first RBI since July 1, slapping a single to short in the weak spot of the big shift the Indians have been using on him.

Felix carves up the Indians in the seventh, finishing the inning with eighth K, overwhelming Jhonny Peralta. He's over 100 pitches, but nobody's moved in the M's bullpen so we'll see him for the eighth.

Eighth inning
Felix proves that he is human as he gives up a single and a walk to start the inning, which got the bullpen up and moving. But he got a big 5-3 double play. However, Sizemore drove in a run with a double off the wall. Felix ended the inning getting Asdrubal Cabrera to ground out.

I'm sure we'll see Aardsma in the ninth.

Perhaps Don Wakamatsu is reading what the writers and the bloggers have posted on the possibility of Garrett Olson being replaced in his start on Tuesday in Detroit because that was the second thing he mentioned in the pregame meeting with him today.

"As of right now, we’re still planning on pitching Oly (Olson) on Tuesday," he said in his second sentence.

He later said he and his staff hadn't even considered pulling him.

"Right now, we haven’t even talked about it," he said. "Obviously it happened yesterday. But I think you get to a point where you have to be able to work through some things and not just vacate on him. We already have some depth and we have a plan on the guys that are down there already. From our standpoint, we don’t want to create an environment or a feeling that it’s do or die. And granted we know the trade deadline and we know the situation of everything going on right now, but still we’re trying to stick the plan that’s got us here."

Wakamatsu said he didn't think there would be much over the next few days to sway his decision.

"Not right now, that’s where we’re headed," he said. "The way it’s slotted in the minor leagues, where if we wanted to expedite that (July) 25th guy. But right now, that’s kind of the plan we were going forward. Olson’s thrown some good games for us. He threw a bad game yesterday. We’ll get him back throwing a bullpen and see if he can go back out and give us another start like he did in LA."

=> Read more!

The other day Jon Shields over at Proball NW, formerly Bleeding Blue & Teal, had a excellent and detailed post on the changing mechanics of Felix Hernandez, complete with video.

So we asked Manager Don Wakamatsu if he noticed these changes and here's conversation about it.

"He’s done that at different times," Wakamatsu said. "Early in the year, we were more concerned about it because he would turn and leak down the hill. Now he turns and comes back and is back and squared up. That’s fine if we’re talking about the Luis Tiant thing. His ability to get back square before he goes down the hlll – it’s not problematic. It’s when you try to combine them all is where you get in trouble. It’s been more prevalent in his last three outings."

Wakamatsu compared it in a way to Ichiro and his unique batting stance and swing. Felix is just trying something that will help him.

"They are so athletic they can add some personality to their delivery and add some maybe deception to it and still be fine and not lose anything," he said. "That’s what we will monitor."

Wakamatsu liked what he saw from the delivery in the all-star game.

"To do it against some of the greatest players in the game and he did it in the all-star game maybe you look at it as both growth but also try to monitor it also," Wakamatsu said.

So Felix is adding deception to his other-worldly stuff, is that really fair?

"I don’t mind it," Wakamatsu said giggling. "Again, it’s nice to see a player have that comfort level. Again it takes a lot of athleticism and a lot of ability to be able to control the body to do those kind of things. As long as he’s able to command the pitches, we’ll allow him to continue down that road."

As for Felix, the rotation is slotted as Olson, Felix, Washburn, Bedard.

So here it is over the next few days
Today - Olson vs. Lee
Friday - Hernandez vs. Huff
Saturday - Washburn vs. Ohka
Sunday - Bedard vs. Laffey

So when the game comes around July 25th when the need for a fifth starter would arise, Wak said he would choose from Morrow, Vargas or Rowland-Smith.

"We'll have played Cleveland five games," Wakamatsu said. "It will give us a much clearer picture of what we might need with our choices down in Triple A. Whether it's Rowland Smith, or bringing back Morrow, or Vargas. It will depend on how they're pitching and what we need." at the time.

... for my laptop computer which appears to have expired after a few solid years of work. Because of that I could not post the links to Jim Riggleman to becoming the Nationals manager or my embarrassing appearance on Q it up Sports. This post is via blackberry.

Just a heads up that I will be doing a midseason Mariners roundtable with on KJR today with Ian Furness, Jason Puckett and possibly Steve Sandmeyer. Not sure of the time yet but it will be a few segments between 1-3.

I'm on my blackberry but here's the release

SEATTLE, Wash. - Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Jack Zduriencik announced today that the Mariners have acquired third baseman Jack Hannahan from the Oakland A's in exchange for minor league right-hander Justin Souza.Hannahan will be in uniform and available for tonight's 7:10 game versus the Texas Rangers. Seattle will have to make one other roster move prior to tonight's game.

"We had the opportunity to acquire a premium defensive player who swings a left-handed bat," Zduriencik said. "Jack will become part of our mix at third base. He's a great make-up guy, and a well above average defensive third baseman."

Hannahan, 29, appeared in 52 games with the A's this season, and was hitting .193 (23x119) with 6 doubles, 2 triples and 1 home run. Hannahan started the season with the A's but was optioned to AAA on April 4. He returned to the big leagues on April 24 where he remained until June 29. In 21 games with the Sacramento River Cats (AAA - Pacific Coast League), Hannahan was hitting .222 (18x81) with 7 doubles, 2 home runs and 11 RBI.

Last season Hannahan ranked second among American League third basemen in fielding. He made his Major League debut in 2006 when he appeared in three games for Detroit and hit .278 in 41 games with Oakland in 2007. Hannahan led the International League with a .422 on-base percentage at Toledo in 2007. He was originally a third-round draft pick of the Tigers in 2001.

In his Major League career, he's appeared in 239 games with Detroit (2006) and Oakland (2007-09), hitting a combined .223 with 13 home runs.Souza, 23, spent this season with Double A West Tenn in the Southern League. He compiled a mark of 6-6, 3.35 in 20 games, 14 starts, with the Diamond Jaxx.

The Royals are in Boston and Yuni is presumably on his way there as well, longtime Royals beat writer Bob Dutton of the Kansas City has this story in which some of Betancourt's former Mariners teammates now on the Royals - and there are plenty of them - seem happy about the deal.

But Royals fans? Well not so much. If you are looking for bitterness, anger, frustration, stunning disbelief and vitriol check out some of these links.

I went over to KC Star columnist Joe Posnanski's personal blog --- a must read. But it seems to have crashed, perhaps for the amount of words he's going to crank out demolishing this trade. I wait for it in anticipation.

The Star's fan blog Upon Further Review has this post, with this passage.

This is a head-scratcher. I don't understand -- or approve of -- this trade on any level. To me, this seems like another example of the Royals dealing for a player because of what they think he can be, rather than recognizing what he actually is

.

Over at Royals Review, the comment section of their post, which is growing quickly, is quite humorous to read. I love this comment.

Seriously, this is a bad dream. I’m going to wake up. I’m going to wake up. I’m going to wake up.

Royals Authority has this post

With this passage:

Can't hit, can't run, doesn't take a walk, can't play defense... Holy crap.

and this passage:

As much as I didn't like the Freel trade, this deal has me irate. How in the world the Royals could commit to a player for so long with such limited skills baffles me to no end. Of course, I say this knowing we're talking about a team that has allowed Tony Pena Jr to stick around for so long. I guess the joke is on me for being a fan and hoping that someday, this regime would understand how to build a better ball club.

And finally Royals Radio etc. has this post.

Check out the title of it.

UPDATE 10:36: OK, as far as I know, nothing has happened with Yuni on the trade front. Does that mean it isn't being talked about? Not at all. In fact, I do think they are or were possibly close to a deal and that's why he was pulled.

It wasn't because of his hamstring. I asked him about it and he said, "I'm good, it feels good."

Betancourt took part in batting practice, team fundamentals and infield.

"He did everything with us," Rainiers manager Daren Brown said.

Brown said he got the call about 35-40 minutes before the game starter.

When I asked Betancourt about being pulled from the line-up he said: “I was in the line-up and then they said I wasn’t playing,” he said. “I don’t know why.”

Of course, I had to ask if he'd talked to his agent about today about any possible moves, he seemed genuinely perplexed and just said, "No."

So I asked again, since he doesn't have the best grasp of English: "So your agent hasn't called you?" He shook his head.

Really, though would he know what's going on? Probably not.

The speculating is not fun. It sometimes drives me insane. We've heard the report about the Pittsburgh Pirates scouting the Mariners. I didn't see the Pirates at the Rainiers game yesterday when Yuni played second, but to be honest I wasn't looking. I will say that there are at five or six scouts here today along with Mariner exec Jim Na here the last two games.

What does it all mean I don't know.

But when he left the clubhouse at Cheney Stadium tonight Betancourt believed he was a member of the Mariners organization. And for the moment that appears to be true.

With the speculation of possible trades taking place, Betancourt being scratched 15 minutes before game time seems like more than a coincidence.

Does it mean he's been traded? No. After all, he is coming back from a hamstring injury. But he looked perfectly healthy last night, and he was at Cheney for early work in the field and took batting practice.

The Mariners official comment is that "it was an organizational decision" whatever that means.

We'll keep digging.