Absent M’s fans speak volumes

SEATTLE – During batting practice, early in the season, in front of the Seattle Mariners dugout, team president Chuck Armstrong was positively ebullient.

“I like this team,” Armstrong fairly shouted to a group of sportswriters leaning against the green dugout railing.

“We’re going to win the West, aren’t we, Willie?” he declared as Mariners utilityman Willie Bloomquist walked up the dugout steps.

That was a month ago, when the season was young, the American League West was in disarray and all things – or at least some things – seemed possible.

But now Seattle’s warts are showing. For the third season in a row, the team is off to a horrid start. The games are starting to look like the movie “Groundhog Day,” without the humor, or the poignancy.

And already the reaction of the Mariners fans has deteriorated from curiosity to concern to anger. The fans are demanding changes in the dugout and with the decision-makers.

The team is a mess from the field to the front office. From Seattle to Kyoto.

Manager Mike Hargrove hasn’t managed a winning team since 1999, his last season in Cleveland. In his four years in Baltimore his teams got worse, losing 88 games his first season and 91 his last. His teams have lost at least 91 games in each of his last four seasons as a manager.

But this season’s slow start isn’t all his fault.

The Mariners are paying for their past mistakes.

They are paying the price for getting almost nothing of value in their trades of Freddy Garcia, Carlos Guillen and Randy Winn. They needed pitching prospects from those trades and they got none.

They are paying for overestimating the talents of young pitchers such as Matt Thornton, Ryan Anderson, Clint Nageotte and Travis Blackley.

Remember when former general manager Pat Gillick filled his roster with quality, productive veterans such as Mike Cameron, Mark McLemore, Stan Javier, Bret Boone, John Olerud, Arthur Rhodes and Jeff Nelson?

Gillick found a way to win after superstars Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez left. He found a way to win within a budget.

Sure, Gillick made mistakes. He didn’t make trades at the deadlines in 2002 and 2003 that might have added years to Seattle’s postseason life. But he kept the team competitive and he filled the seats.

Gillick left after the 2003 season and his successor, Bill Bavasi, has none of the Gillick magic. He hasn’t shown the same knack for piecing together a roster that Gillick had here.

Scott Spiezio? Aaron Sele? Ramon Santiago? Jolbert Cabrera? Pokey Reese? Dave Hansen? Matt Lawton?

Last year, Bavasi couldn’t find a shortstop. Who will ever forget Wilson Valdez? He never found a catcher, unless you thought Yorvit Torrealba was the answer.

Before the 2004 season, when the M’s finished second in the sweepstakes for shortstop Miguel Tejada, a guaranteed seat filler, the franchise had reached a crossroads.

It wasn’t close to contention and that’s when Bavasi should have persuaded ownership to begin the rebuilding process. That’s when he should have restocked the shelves.

Now the Mariners seem stuck between the wonders of their past and the uncertainty of their future.

In their budget analysis for this season, they projected attendance at about 2.2 million, which is shockingly low for a franchise that drew 3.5 million in 2001 and never has drawn fewer than 2.7 million since arriving at Safeco Field in the middle of the 1999 season.

They have been afraid to announce a full rebuilding program such as Cleveland did several years ago. The Indians traded starter Bartolo Colon and got a starting outfielder, Grady Sizemore, and dependable pitcher, Cliff Lee. Although the Indians have struggled a bit this season, their future is brighter than Seattle’s.

Nobody can blame Bavasi for spending $110 million to sign third baseman Adrian Beltre and first baseman Richie Sexson before last season. But you can blame him for not filling in the blanks and not getting quality for Garcia, Guillen or Winn.

Everything had to go perfectly for the Mariners to be competitive this season. It hasn’t. Spiezio, for instance, has more RBIs, 15, with St. Louis than Beltre, 11, has with the Mariners.

The Mariners entered Saturday’s game with San Diego seven games less than .500 and five games out of first in the wobbly West. Only geography is keeping them alive.

But Bavasi and Hargrove will be judged more on the empty seats than the standings. The 2.2 million figure seems almost optimistic now.

Both the GM and the manager are in trouble, Bavasi apparently more so than Hargrove. Fans are clamoring for both of their heads.

The team’s owners were heroes when they rescued the team from Tampa Bay’s clutches. Under their leadership, Safeco Field was built and the Mariners became one of the most lucrative franchises in sports.

But now they need the courage to make bold decisions.

This season’s direction already seems to be mapped. I don’t think Tony La Russa could manage these Mariners to a pennant. I don’t think Theo Epstein could fix this mess.

Barring some magical turnaround, this season will look a lot like the past two and, in the fall, the owners will be looking for a new general manager and another new manager.

This is a franchise lacking fire. It needs some new life in the dugout. Luis Sojo? Joey Cora? It needs to fix the front office. Could trading Ichiro Suzuki do for the Mariners’ future what trading Colon did for Cleveland?

The empty green seats at Safeco are screaming for change, and this franchise at a crossroads had better listen.