Carlos Peguero News

With Erasmo Ramirez's brilliant start last night capping a brilliant run on his rehab stint, the bottom three members of the M's rotation have each got to be looking over their shoulders a bit.

Hype meets hope Tuesday in Atlanta when Zack Wheeler is expected to make his first start in the big leagues for the Mets.

Last Friday night as Russell Wilson took the mound to throw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the Seattle Mariners game against the New York Yankees , I began to wonder.

Normally we examine 10 position battles around the league, but this week, let's instead look at each league's bottom-five teams and think about how their depth charts could be affected by the decision to sell as the July 31 trade deadline approaches.

It was reported earlier that the Mariners are calling up top prospect and catcher Mike Zunino .

Ken Griffey Jr. attended Tacoma's game against Las Vegas on Monday night at Cashman Field, but the Rainiers didn't need any help from the former Mariners slugger.

The Mariners outfield is a complete disaster. Not that this was that hard to see coming, but with Michael Saunders looking more like the 2011 version of suck than last year's useful role player, the Mariners simply don't have a single outfielder on the team that projects as any more than a decent bench player going forward.

Zack Wheeler, cruising to an easy night here at Cheney Stadium, lost his rhythm after the Las Vegas 51s put up a long, five-run top of the fifth inning.

Simpson is another catcher who is being moved to the outfield by the Mariners, which makes sense because his glove was well below average behind the plate.

Dustin Ackley, Carlos Peguero and Rich Poythress hit home runs as the Tacoma Rainiers pounded out a 9-1 Pacific Coast League win over Las Vegas before 3,848 at Cheney Stadium Thursday night.

Nick Franklin has now played in seven games for the Mariners and, all things considered, he has done a very good job.

Now that future Hall of Famers Carlos Triunfel, Nick Franklin and Jesus Marcelo Medina Sucre have a total of sixteen games played between then, it's time to look at where they stand in the Mariner pantheon.

Mariners starting pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma went eight strong innings against Texas, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits while striking out 8.. Hisashi Iwakuma's performance was a bit of an afterthought after Sunday's 4-3 victory in 13 innings over the Texas Rangers at Safeco Field.

Lalli and Prince smacked back-to-back homers in the fifth inning, helping the visiting Sounds snap Tacoma's five-game winning streak with an 11-2 Pacific Coast League victory Thursday night at Cheney Stadium.

For at least a little bit of time, it's felt somewhat inevitable that the Mariners would demote Jesus Montero and call up Jesus Sucre in his place.