A lost decade on the good ship Mariner

The Mariners could be looking up at the rest of the AL West for years.

In my lifetime, I've had very little to cheer about as a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The last time the Bucs won was 1992 and things ended in bitter fashion.

But I can say with solace it's probably worse to be a fan of the Seattle Mariners.

With a payroll trending in the upper-crust of MLB, Seattle should see the right side of .500 nearly every year. That's been the exception, not the rule. And as things played out this year the M's were the only other team, aside from Pittsburgh, to lose 100 games or more.

It's been a downward spiral at Safeco Field this decade.

In 2001, the Mariners won a record 116 games but failed to make it to the World Series. The next two years Seattle would finish with 93 wins, but miss the playoffs.

Skip ahead to 2008, the M's would earn the dubious distinction of becoming the first team in history to lose 100 games with a $100 million payroll. And by season's end in 2010, Seattle was experiencing its second 101-loss season in the past three years.

Expectations were unrealistically high entering this year. After 85 W's developing an identity as a defensive team in 2009, the Mariners went all in trying to stop runs, adding an aging Chone Figgins and trading for pitcher Cliff Lee. What the team failed to address in the 2010 off-season was its offensive.

Ex-manager Don Wakamatsu told ESPN Magazine he was surprised by the Mariners 24-game turnaround in 2009, because they had the worst offense in the American League. It didn't get any better in 2010.

Seattle had the worst offensive in all of baseball: 30th in batting average, slugging and runs. The team actually scored the fewest runs (513) for any AL team in a full season since the designated hitter arrived.

Some other humorous and dysfunctional moments that derailed the 2010 campaign: the report of Ken Griffey Jr. sleeping the clubhouse during a game, Griffey's abrupt retirement in June and a dugout fight between a slumping Figgins and Wakamatsu in late July.

It's hard to put a finger on exactly why Seattle's slumped in the standings this decade. But you can point one of those big foam fingers at the front office.

They haven't been able to recognize good talent when it's in the farm system (Shin-Soo Choo, Rafael Soriano). And for every big free-agent decision that worked out (like Raul Ibanez), there's three or four that failed miserably (Richie Sexson, Jeff Weaver, Miguel Batista, Carlos Silva).

Maybe their biggest blunder in this lost decade, was a five-for-one trade which sent outfielder Adam Jones and pitchers George Sherrill, Tony Butler, Chris Tillman and Kameron Mickolio to Baltimore for Erik Bedard.

Bedard has only started 30 games in three years for the M's, while Jones has developed into a solid everyday outfielder for the O's and at age 25 is likely just coming into his prime.

Seattle has holes everywhere, especially on the field. With limited financial flexibility and very few promising prospects there is little hope in the near future.

The Seattle Mariners are writing its own history of futility and its possible another lost decade is about to begin in 2011.

The call for MLB replay intensifies

Maybe you missed it, but Tim Lincecum pitched a 14 strikeout, two-hit gem for the San Francisco last night. It started the Giants off on the right track for what they hope will be a meaningful October run.

Using Bill James' Game Score formula, Sports Illustrated's Joe Posnanski says Lincecum's performance was better than Philadelphia pitcher Roy Halladay's no-hitter, just the second postseason no-hitter ever.

But maybe you did miss it, because most of what people have been talking and writing about today are the blown calls by umpires. It's becoming an October sport in its own right.

In the Giants game, catcher Buster Posey was clearly out on replay trying to steal second base in the fourth inning. He ended up scoring the game's only run for San Fran.

In Tampa, first base umpire Jerry Meals missed a check-swing call which gave Texas Ranger Michael Young a chance to keep hitting, which he did. Instead of a strike out, Young smashed a three-run homer to give Texas a commanding five run lead. Rays fans started chanting "replay".

Maybe it would have had an impact, maybe not. We'll never know, since Tampa Bay seems to have forgotten how to hit with just eight in two games in postseason.

And in Minnesota, the Twins had misgivings about balls and strikes too. Same song different verse as New York's Lance Berkman should've been called out on a third strike, and instead struck on the scoreboard with a go-ahead double. Yahoo Sports Jeff Passan wrote home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt's strike zone would've been bad for a Little League game.

Calls this year for more instant replay in baseball have been loud ever since June, when Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga got robbed of a perfect game. In the postseason, so far people seem more focused on bad calls then the great performances.

Call me old school, but I still haven't warmed to the idea of more instant replay.

Back in August, ESPN's Outside the Lines reviewed every call, with the exception of balls and strikes, for two weeks. Of the plays they deemed "close" 20.4 percent were found to be incorrect, 65.7 percent were confirmed as correct and 13.9 percent were too close to call.

That shows even with replay umpires are still needed.

If Major League Baseball decides to expand replay, and unfortunately I think they will, they need to go all in. A lot of the critics calling for more replay argue the objective is to get the call right. The technology exists for electronic balls and strike calls and they should do it, along with fair or foul calls and close plays on the bases.

I think any additions to replay will take the humanity out of the game. Maybe the humanity is already gone, if all people are interested in is their favorite pastime, complaining about the umps.