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★★★
Jack Zduriencik lost his job as the general manager of the Seattle Mariners, which wasn't much of a surprise. The Mariners came in with higher expectations, and, by all accounts, have failed miserably. For years, the Mariners have been a disappointment. The team has signed a couple of notable big free agents, such as Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz, Chone Figgins, and yet, Seattle seemingly can't do anything to make a playoff push. Even with a strong rotation (in theory) with Felix Hernandez, Hisashi Iwakuma, James Paxton and Taijuan Walker anchoring the group, the Mariners have barely made a whimper.
Especially in a division that had so many questions coming into the season, Seattle emerged in the preseason as a trendy pick to finish first in the American League West. Things were seemingly coming together for the Mariners; the lineup personnel was seemingly there, the pitching was there, the defense was there. But like everything in the Zduriencik era, disappoint was inevitable, and not far into the season, many realized that the Mariners would be among the biggest disappointments.
Zduriencik seemingly did nothing well while leading the Mariners. He could not develop any of his prospects into tangible major league talent (Dustin Ackley shining as one of the primary examples), could not get a trade done in the Mariners' favor, highlighted by the trades of Cliff Lee and Michael Pineda, and none of his free-agent signings worked out. Zduriencik's reign at the helm of Seattle seemingly piled on and on in the failure department. With just two winning seasons during his time with the Mariners, Zduriencik having his job for as long as he did seems like the only miracle he pulled off while working for the team
- Among the roots of the Mariners' recent struggles has been the lack of success from King Felix. Uncharacteristically, Hernandez went back to look at some film and figured out the mechanical issue that was hampering his success.
- Edwin Encarnacion hit all of the home runs for the Blue Jays on Saturday. To celebrate the hat trick of dingers, Blue Jays fans threw some caps on the field.
- A fan fell from the upper deck during Saturday night's game between the Braves and New York Yankees at Turner Field and passed away. Previously, a Braves fan fell to his death at Turner Field in 2013.Penns
- Pennsylania's Little League World Series squad held off Texas to win the U.S. championship in the 2015 iteration of the tournament. Pennsylvania will square off against Japan on Sunday.
- We're still trying to figure out how to use batted-ball velocity as a statistic to analyze player performance, so what have we learned so far?
- A runner scored from second base on a sacrifice fly. Seriously.
- The Dodgers are in hot water right now as their grasp on first place in the National League West gets weaker and weaker. Why are they underperforming?
- The Rangers find themselves in the hearts of the playoff race after being in a precarious position at the trade deadline. A development out of the bullpen has played a key role in the run.
- With the Hanley Ramirez experiment seemingly moving over to first base, the Red Sox suddenly find themselves with a steady outfield situation they could carry into 2016.
- The Mets boosted their bullpen for the playoff run with the acquisition of reliever Addison Reed from the Diamondbacks.
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