God, that’s just depressing to look at.

51 Ichiro RF
16 Willie Bloomquist CF
28 Raul Ibanez LF
29 Adrian Beltre 3B
4 Jose Lopez 2B
13 Miguel Cairo 1B
2 Kenji Johjima DH
15 Jamie Burke C
5 Yuniesky Betancourt SS

More in line with the Richie we know, he K’d in the 3rd.

Right after his K, Cano hit a 2 RBI HR. Wrong Masher!

You know how you make that Yugo into a Ferrari? Replace each of the Yugo parts with the equivalent Ferrari part. When you’re done, you have a Ferrari.

And, as Johnny Cash once said, “one piece at a time”.

Oh, wait…he had a Caddy.

This is the only thing better than not watching Sexson ever again put on a M’s uniform.

You watched him?? Gross.

Heck, they even stole more bases than any other team in the AL (and were successful 81% of the time, also significantly better than any other AL team).

They overachieved a bit (Pythag suggests 109 wins) but this was an all-around strong offensive team….that also made its pitching look good through great defense.

Not a “power-hitting” team? By what measure? Remember, they had the best OPS+ in the AL. Team slugging was .445, good for fourth in the league (behind Texas, Cleveland, and the White Sox — all playing in more hitter-friendly parks). Their ISO was lower but only because the team batting average was so high.

It’s clear the M’s front office operates on received wisdom and preconceived notions rather than looking at actual facts. According to the actual facts, the 2001 Mariners was a power-hitting team. According to the actual facts, the 2008 Mariners is not a good defensive team.

Insisting the team is somehow intrinsically different than what its performance on the field demonstrates is just insanity. You can insist your Yugo is actually a Ferrari but that doesn’t make it so, and people just laugh at you (while driving rings around you in competition). Sure, it might have a couple of Ferrari parts (hello
Felix). But the Yugo parts aren’t going to magically turn into Ferrari parts if they just want it enough or try harder or you think they’re better parts than every measure indicates. You know how you make that Yugo into a Ferrari? Replace each of the Yugo parts with the equivalent Ferrari part. When you’re done, you have a Ferrari.

(The good news is that on a baseball team, not every part has to be a Ferrari. The bad news is, the M’s have already traded away some of the better ones.)