Change for Change Sake

I think most baseball fans understand the importance of July 31. That date is the trade deadline where teams that are in the playoff hunt look for help to win ballgames in the last two months of the season. Trades can and will be made after this date, but not as easily as they are prior to July 31.

For baseball teams, this is a very significant part of the season. You may hear the trades that some teams make talked about as fire sales where high priced veterans get traded for two or three youngsters with potential.

Good teams try to get experience and proven talent whereas the also ran look to get young and hope for the best in the future.

Fans of professional football and basketball look to the draft as the most exciting time during the off-season where teams look to get better by drafting talented youth.

The baseball draft is fun to look at but the challenge for baseball is knowing that these kids will spend some time in the minor leagues polishing their game and hopefully get that opportunity to play on a bigger stage so to speak.

There have been some trades that have failed big time where the young talent actually did a better job than the talented veteran. Some trades were huge and would eventually bring a World Series title to the new team. There have even been a few teams where the traded players played better for their respective teams than they did for their old team. Sometime a change of zip codes is all that is needed.

Depending on who you talk to the Dustin Ackley trade to the New York Yankees was hard to imagine. Ackley was a number 1 draft pick by the Mariners a few years back but never did become a consistent hitter. He was never a problem and accepted the fact that he would never play second base for the Mariners after Robinson Cano came to Seattle.

Ackley was sent down to Tacoma last year and was told that he needed to learn how to play the outfield. Ever the professional, Ackley worked hard to become the left fielder and there were a few games that his speed took away extra base hits as well as one impressive catch on a no doubt home run.

Ackley had a few games this year that he did well on offense and defense but never with the consistency that a Manager needs to pencil in a player’s name each day.

I hope for Dustin Ackley this move is good for him. He has the speed and the ability to help a team over the long haul so this change may be just what Ackley needs. The Yankee Stadium short porch in right field could be very welcoming to a left-handed hitter with average power.

We also hope that the new players will be successful wearing a Seattle uniform. Just playing every day can be very beneficial.

The time is running out on this year’s Seattle Mariners. Maybe they can put together a winning streak and make it interesting in the last two months. Or maybe they will play spoilers and knock out a team or two from contention in the last couple of weeks of the season.

Whatever they do I hope they make it interesting. They owe it to their Manager Lloyd McClendon for sticking with them and not blowing up the clubhouse. I think I would have trouble not dumping over the buffet table after the game for some of the clunkers that we’ve seen in the last month.

I’m not sure what it is about being a Mariner fan. I know it isn’t easy. But getting older isn’t easy either. Matter of fact neither one is for sissies. Anyone can root for a winner but it is the real optimist that forever holds out hope that the Mariners will get back to the playoffs. Not sure when that will happen next but it should certainly happen sooner than later, I hope.

The trade deadline has come and gone and there are new faces that will be wearing a Seattle uniform. We Mariner fans hope the changes that were made last week were for good talent and not just to get rid of players that under performed. Winning is still the main goal in the long run, I think.