It should come as no surprise that the Mariners, Major League Baseball's worst team, said good-bye to John McLaren as Manager on Thursday. In a week that also included the firing of General Manager Bill Bavasi and ongoing rumors of players getting cut, McLaren's firing comes more as final flip of the switch for a Manager that has been on death row for weeks.In discussing the move, interim GM Lee Pelekoudas could only say, "To give the players a chance to improve ... we thought a different voice was needed." But will a different voice really do much for a team that has done nothing aside from the moment the first pitch was thrown? A voice may change, but a voice doesn't have to throw the ball. A voice doesn't have to hit the ball. A voice just barks orders or calls plays and then hopes that the ears hearing the voice can manage to do something with it.
No, this is just a second step in what should be broad, sweeping moves to move this team back in the right direction. Rebuilding isn't an option, as Ichiro isn't going to want to hang around for a rebuilding phase, not to mention the team traded away some of its best prospects in the now defunct Erik Bedard deal. Cutting ties with dead weight like Jose Vidro and Richie Sexson is a start, but having to swallow the pill of Sexson's remaining contract isn't necessarily a good thing either.
So where does this team go? At this point, the new voice can do nothing more than hope for mediocrity, which would be a huge improvement over where it stands now.
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