The Killer B's
Three B's have killed the Mariners this season--Bavasi, Beltre and Boone.
Bill Bavasi, the team's general manager, is the mastermind behind such trades as Carlos Guillen (batting .355 for the Detroit Tigers) for Ramon Santiago (batting .225 for the Tacoma Rainiers), and of last year's free agent signings of Scott Spiezio and Rich Aurila, the pop-out twins.
His major signing this year was B number 2, Adrian Beltre, who, after hitting 47 home runs in a breakout season for the Dodgers last year, has 5 for the Mariners this year. Here's how bad Beltre has been as a power hitter--he has as many homers as Ichiro.
The final B, Bret Boone, has been temporarily, mercifully, expelled from the hive. After watching Boone hit .188 this month (after hitting .202 in May), the Mariners called up prospect Jose Lopez to play second base. Boone, according to manager Mike Hargrove, won't start for a week, so he can work on his swing.
Unfortunately, everyone knows that what Boone needs most is a more relaxed steroid-use policy. Like Jeff Bagwell and Jason Giambi before him, Boone's noticeable loss of weight, power and bat speed coincides with MLB's crackdown on steroid use.
