Thursday Quote: Detour

This week’s quote comes from the late American businesswoman and founder of Mary Kay cosmetics; Mary Kay Ash. She once said:

“For every failure, there's an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.”

Currently, the Mariners are knee-deep in a six game losing streak and have just been swept by the division dwelling Texas Rangers in a four game series. I think part of the blame for this losing streak, besides the hitting, falls on John McLaren. Since the All-Star break, the Mariners are 5 and 9 and McLaren has taken some heat for throwing out the same old lineup every night despite who was on the mound. I believe that the criticisms have been just since it is those little things, the intangibles, which can kick any ballclub up a notch or two. Sure there have been little lineup tweaks, like moving Vidro to the five spot which I personally don’t understand. Why Johjima still hits seventh is a mystery to me. I believe that if this team is to succeed, McLaren needs to find an alternative course of action sooner rather than later.

Another thing that has to be mentioned in accordance with this quote is the front office. There is no doubt that our front office is under more pressure now than ever before to make a move before the July 31st deadline. Management has to come to terms with reality; that this team, as it stands right now, is not going to make the playoffs. Say what you will or argue that it isn’t true, but it is. This losing streak has proved that we desperately need either one more solid pitcher or one more solid hitter to give us a shot at making the playoffs. One thing that we seriously lack right now is positive momentum, and that’s because winning or losing streaks and momentum go hand in hand. Looking back at the last six games, five of those losses have been by one run. That means that if we had another good hitter that was able to drive in one or two more runs, we would have probably won a few of those games. The same thing could be said if we had one more solid pitcher. Instead of stopping the negative momentum of a losing streak, we continue to lose and drop deeper and deeper into the abyss. One win can totally reverse the trend. Bavasi has got to make a move. He needs to find the one piece that can reverse the trend, the one piece that can win us the close games, the one piece to get passed the roadblock of a mid-season crisis.