Mariners sweep Tigers

The Mariners took a much needed sweep of the Tigers over the last few days, showing the potential of their young core in the process. Each of the youngsters contributed with their bats over the three game stretch, from Saunders to Liddi (can't wait till he puts some Italian sausage on that "Grand Salami") to Smoak (what a three run blast!) to Ackley to Montero. Ichiro bounced back from a tough week to get his average back up at Ichiro levels. Felix was amazing again, and Noesi and Vargas did their jobs. In short, it was a fun team to watch again.

• Damn it Figgins, can't you just make things easy for us? You haven't hit the ball for the better part of two weeks, and Ackley comes in and hits leadoff like it has a crush on him, and then you come back the next day and get three hits? STOP IT. Just suck for a whole month so we can let you go and play one of the young guys at third/left field. It's hard enough as it is finding playing time for Seager, Liddi, and Wells, and Mike Carp will be back soon. Get in a bare-knuckle brawl with Wedge. We all know you'd lose, so you wouldn't have any shame having to claim injury for a while. Then, in a month or so when the Mariners are in the driver's seat for the wild card, Jacky Z can throw out a press release 11:00PM on a Tuesday saying you've been designated for assignment. And you can take the millions of dollars the Mariners gave you to play competently and flip that towards a house in France, where there aren't any baseball fans that know how much you have sucked.
  
  Seriously, the Figgins era is over. We've got three third base prospects ready to go. Get out of here. 

• Of course, it'd be so much easier to find playing time for everyone if Montero was catching more often. I understand that they are working him in gradually, and that Miguel Olivo brings a level of leadership to the clubhouse. But at the very least, use the DH slot on someone other than Olivo when Montero is behind the plate. I mean, if he can't CATCH a ball with a GLOVE, why would you expect he can HIT a ball with a BAT? He's been a black hole both behind the plate and beside it (his home run today notwithstanding). I defended him last year because, frankly, he was the Mariner's best option, but at this point I'd just as soon see Jaso be our everyday receiver.