MyMariners, not this year he isnt lol!

"Albert Pujols is batting something like .220 with 0 home runs and an OPS under .600. Do you really think the Angels are going to start benching him even though his numbers look a lot like Olivo and Figgins numbers? No. No they are not."

The Angels owe Pujols $240M, all of it guaranteed. We owe Olivo and Figgins a combined $20.5M guaranteed. That's 8.5% of what they owe Pujols.

Even if Pujols were making the league minimum, he wouldn't be being benched right now because he has a long history of excellence. My point is that it's too early to just start replacing everyone that isn't producing at their career norms. Plenty of all stars barely hitting their weight and big time power hitters with as many or less home runs than Chone Figgins currently.

This is more of a general statement. I wouldn't shed a tear if Figgins and Olivo were kicked to the curb, but that has more to do with the fact that they were both awful last year and Figgins for 2 straight years and this year makes it look like more of the same.

Setting aside the vastly different contract situations, can you compare Pujols' 3-week cold start to Figgins' two years of non-production or Olivo's career-long offensive deficiencies? You're comparing two expendable players to Albert Pujols. Pujols was fourth in WAR in 2010. Last year, his worst ever, he batted .299 with a .906 OPS and 37 HR. I can't see any basis -- span of non-production, size of contract, or statistical history -- where you can make a meaningful comparison between Pujols and these two players. It's like comparing Carlos Silva to Felix Hernandez.

"Figgens is far from a Pujois."

Yeah, one of them has hit a home run this year.

I'm not comparing them.

I'm arguing against knee jerk reactions to playing positional musical chairs because someone (NOT JUST FIGGINS OR OLIVO OR ANYONE IN PARTICULAR) is struggling after two weeks. It's pertaining to Smoak. To Saunders. To the thought of giving Liddi a ton of playing time. Whatever the case. Whomever the example.

Stop getting hung up on my Pujols example. He wasn't being directly compared to anybody. I'm merely stating that you remove players once they are actually deemed bad players and not because they've had a bad April so far.

Again, yes I get it. Figgins and Olivo are deemed pretty bad over a full year plus of futility. I'm NOT defending them.

After a month of playing I am not seeing any improvement or a glimmer of hope. We still have a hole at 1b. Im starting to think Smoak is not the answer. Figgy anywhere on the field is a waste of roster space. We have no LF. We might have something with Wells but we dont know becuase Figgy is there. Saunders is showing some signs at CF, but can he maintain it. SS is also a hole offensively. Now with Montero behind the Dish we have a hole at DH. We have NOONE in the minors to bring up for those positions. Our pitching has taken a step back, but we are told there are three stud pitchers coming up. The odds of all three making it are pretty slim so I am figuring 2 of them. I just dont see this team being successfull anytime soon. We have no stars to trade for anyone except for Felix which means we need to draft, but that takes 3-5 years to get them to the majors or the FA market, but unless we want to OVERSPEND we wont get a hitter as their numbers will plummet. So yes im getting very frustrated.

We do have Nick Franklin at short on the farm, but I don't know how far away he is from being ready. Triunfel seems to be struggling at the plate in Tacoma. Peguero, who had ridiculous numbers (2.350 OPS) in three games with the Rainiers, is on the DL - I don't know why. If he could get healthy and hit for average, I'd gladly endure his defense, which is probably no worse than Carp's.

I'm starting to share your pessimism about Smoak; he's looking like our next Figgins in the lineup, a guy who we thought would hit but isn't. Who knows how long it will take Zduriencik to admit another mistake, if it comes to that?

I think a big problem with the team right now is that Wedge is probably being forced to juggle his lineup with players he'd rather not play, but whom Z is forcing him to play. That keeps the entire roster, except for a few constant starters like Ackley, Ichiro, and Smoak, off-balance and out of rhythm, which is exactly the last thing you want when you're trying to play baseball at the speed of this game at the major-league level.

The more I look at what goes on with this team, the more I suspect that the problem centers around one man: Jack Zduriencik. If Wedge is serious with all his verbiage about accountability and playing to win, he's either an incompetent manager or he's being forced to play guys he'd rather not.

You know, I have but one answer, and YOU, said it.........................'It is what it is'!! Let's face it, we're losers!! The day that we can actually put together a GOOD season, is the day about 10 years down the road. Our management team has absolutely no timetable for a winning team, and on the present course they now pursue, it WILL, be about ten years, IF that soon. I began to have a faint glimmer of hope when they beat the Tigers a couple of weeks ago, but since then, it's been all downhill.
............................................................again!!! We're losing ground quickly, and once more, headed to last place...................okay, so what else is new. Yep, that good old 'rebuilding' process is going nowhere at the present!

You should become a Blues fan.

Maybe it's a function of money but it seems lots of teams that were good, have had long stretches of "rebuilding"...some seem mired in it and can't get out...the Pirates were tremendous 20-30 years ago and have hit tough times The Royals with Brett come to mind, as do the Twins after The Puckett years rebounded somewhat with Mauer/Morneau...Atlanta rebounded quickly, and the Dodgers have been up and down...In the long run a 10 year downturn may not be so far off the norm, and i can see us rebounding by 2014