The Mariners are 43-52, in 3rd place, 11.5 games back of Texas in the AL West. They are on a 9 game losing streak, having been swept in 2 straight 4 game series. They only managed 2 runs in 4 games against the Rangers. So there is not a lot of happiness in Mariner land. We lose two games and it gets depressing around here, count your blessings. 

Even with all that Jeff Sullivan, from Lookout Landing, SB's great Seattle Mariner blog, was willing to answer some questions for me.

Can we get a quick scouting report on the starting pitchers the Jays are going to face?

Right now it looks like the Jays are going to get Michael Pineda, Jason Vargas and Doug Fister. Pineda's a hard-throwing giant righty with a fastball he locates and a swing-and-miss slider that has somehow gotten the job done against both righties and lefties alike. He's the current favorite to win the AL RoY. Vargas is a lefty with a dynamite changeup but nothing else that'll get your attention. He's a good bet to go six or seven innings while allowing three or four runs, and then when he's done you shake your head and wonder where two hours just went. Fister's kind of a generic command-first righty who'll allow the ball to be hit. He has a full assortment of pitches that he locates well, but none of them are remarkable. As with Vargas, his starts kind of just happen, and he seldom does anything really worth talking about.

With the trade deadline coming do you have some idea of what the Mariners might do? Are there players you'd like to see moved?

The Mariners are going to sell, but they don't have a lot to shed. Erik Bedard's the most appealing get, if he can return from the DL. Brandon League could be made available, although he has another year of team control. Beyond them, there's just a middling pile of available crap like Jack Cust, Jack Wilson, Adam Kennedy, Jamey Wright, and so on. Veteran bench guys and seventh relievers. This doesn't look like it'll be an exciting deadline.

How is Brandon League doing?

Fairly well, and worse than he could. You guys understand.

How is Dustin Ackley doing? Any other young Mariners we should look for?

We couldn't ask for Ackley to be much more than he's been in the early going, as he's flashed contact, on-base ability, power, speed, and defense. All the tools have been there, albeit not necessarily on a consistent basis. But he just broke in. You can expect to see Kyle Seager, Greg Halman and Mike Carp as well. They are much less exciting. Seager's a line drive third baseman, Halman's a powerful outfielder with a swing-happy approach, and Carp is an ugly, unathletic son of a bitch who's up because he was destroying the PCL. Does Justin Smoak count for this question too? You'll see a lot of him, but he's currently mired in a godawful slump. I usually don't buy into slumps having predictive value, but Smoak's is a doozy.

Ichiro isn't having his normal season. What's happening with him? Is he getting old?

He's not getting young. I learned a long time ago that Ichiro will take you by surprise if you try to analyze him like you do other players, but there's no denying that he's been quite bad for a few months now. He still runs well. He still makes contact with everything. But the contact is worse, and his bat looks like more of a bat, and less like a magic wand. While I won't go so far as to say that Ichiro is finished as an upper-level player because Ichiro has earned the benefit of the doubt, there are a lot of questions, and with Ichiro, we're not used to there being questions. This could be it.

The Mariners offense has been pretty awful, do Mariner fans have any hope that it will improve this year or next?

It couldn't really get much worse, right? The Mariners have gotten a sub-.600 OPS from four different positions so far this year. A sub-.600 OPS. Chone Figgins has been terrible. Franklin Gutierrez has been terrible. The left fielders have been terrible. You'd figure that simple regression would lift things up between now and the end of the year, and you'd figure that the front office would bring in some help over the offseason, but you're kind of catching us at a low point right now, so while we all assume that things will get better, none of us have confidence, if that makes any sense. At the moment we kind of prefer to think that we're doomed.

Thanks Jeff. I do hope your team's offense comes around, but not this series, ok. 

Happy Canada Day. We have are hosting a weekend series with Doc and the Phillies, starting today. I sent off some questions to Whole Camels from The Good Plight, SB Nations Philadelphia Phillies blog.

I'd ask about Doc, but it makes me said to think about him. Want to say thank you to us for giving him to you?

Yeah, good stuff, but you might want to thank Alex Anthopoulos, who managed to wrangle just about the same package out of the Phillies in December 2009 as Ruben Amaro, Jr. was willing to give up the previous July. Between that and the Vernon Wells deal, I'm pretty sure your GM is a Jedi Knight.

Who is your closer? Do you have confidence in him and the other pitchers at the back end of the bullpen?

If you haven't noticed, the Phillies bullpen has been a disaster of injuries this season, if not poor performance. The current primary "closer" is Antonio Bastardo, a 25 year old lefty from the Dominican Republic and owner of my favorite name in professional sports. Bastardo has swing-and-miss stuff and can get both righties and lefties out. While there are some troubling bits of data underlying his otherwise sterling performance and sub-1.00 ERA so far in 2011, overall he's been one of the real nice surprises of the season.

Still, I'd rather have a healthy Ryan Madson back ASAP.

Who is your first half offensive MVP?

Center fielder Shane Victorino, and it's not even close. .291/.357/.508, nine HRs, 12-for-13 in stolen bases. Kind of says a lot about how much this team has changed over the past two seasons.

Who replaced Jason Werth in your line up? I guess you must be enjoying his poor first half.

At various times, combinations of Ben Francisco, Domonic Brown, and John Mayberry, Jr.

I've been OK with Jayson Werth and his departure. I understood that he was entitled to a big payday and that the Phillies likely weren't going to be the team to give it to him. I kind of wish him the best, but I'm afraid of what the Washington Nationals could become in a couple years.

What do Phillies fans think of Charlie Manuel? What are his strengths and weaknesses?

Winning the Series in 2008 was a big cleanser for Charlie's rep. He struggles with a lot of things like bullpen management and pinch-hitter deployment, but I think you can say similar things about most managers. Year in and year out, I believe that he oversees one of the best clubhouses in baseball, which is something that we as fans aren't privy to on a daily basis, but is something that is extremely important.

 Domonic Brown isn't tearing up the league, he's one that a lot of Jays fans were hoping we'd get for Halladay. are you worried about him?

We wrote about this briefly earlier this week. Brown has been the victim of some very bad luck on balls in play, something that will likely balance out as the season progresses. The underlying numbers are fine. Sure he could be doing better, but for a guy in his first full season, you give him some slack.

Anything else we should know about the Phillies?

Obviously, this is a pitching-oriented team. The offense can be pretty easily held down by decent pitching. Against Doc and Cliff Lee, you want to hope for a few quick runs and then a good outing from your own starter. This team doesn't play on artificial turf very often, which may play into the style of play of guys like Victorino and Jimmy Rollins, but Raul Ibanez and Ryan Howard could have a real adventure at Rogers Centre.

We start a 3 game series against the Pirates tonight. The Pirates are having a nice season, they are 39-38, in 4th place, but just 4 games back of the Brewers, who lead the division and just 1 game back from the Cardinals in second. They can thank us for that. 

I sent off some questions to Charlie from SB Nation's popular Pirates blog Bucs Dugout and he was nice enough to give me some answers. I also did the same for him, but I was pretty long winded (yeah I know, it isn't a surprise). You try to answer a question about Edwin in less than 500 words. I dare you.

How's our old friend Lyle Overbay doing for you guys?

He looks over-the-hill. Or, excuse me, Overthehill. Overpaid. Overdone. He hasn't hit, and while his scooping ability at first has helped the rest of the infield, his range appears to have declined. He was recently benched, and unless he breaks out in the second half of the season, I'd expect those benchings to become more regular.

Who is your first half MVP?

Andrew McCutchen, and it's not close - he's taken a nice step forward offensively and has become downright good defensively, which makes him one of the best position players in the National League. That's not an exaggeration.

Could we have a quick scouting report on the starting pitchers the Jays will be facing?

Kevin Correia has earned some notice for his wins totals this year, but he's a garden-variety back-of-the-rotation guy. Paul Maholm is a No. 3 starter who has had a strong year, statistically, thanks in part to the Pirates' improved defense, which has gobbled up ground balls it would have missed last year. And Jeff Karstens is a veteran swingman type who has somehow posted amazing numbers in 2011. Improved command and a zippier changeup have probably helped, as has the fact that Clint Hurdle has been smart about pulling him when he starts to hit a wall, but he still doesn't have terrific stuff, so it has been a little baffling to see him pitch well in start after start. Not that I'm complaining.

Who is your closer? How confident are you in him and the rest of the back end of the pen?

Joel Hanrahan has been nearly automatic this year; his fastball is a thing of beauty, and National League hitters have had no idea what to do with it. The main setup men have been Jose Veras and Chris Resop, who both have good stuff and overall numbers. They've looked shaky at times recently, but part of the reason they've seemed that way is that few relievers look good next to Hanrahan. In reality, the back of the Pirates' 'pen has been very good, and that's one reason for the team's modestly successful season so far.

I don't know much about your manager Clint Hurdle. What are his strengths and weaknesses?

I'm not a fan of his tactical approach - the Pirates bunt way too much and run into far too many outs on the bases. But the Bucs have played, and looked, so much better this season that it's difficult to find too much fault. Most of the past two decades have seen the Pirates play ridiculous, Bad News Bears-type baseball, but this season there has been little of that, as the Pirates usually seem alert and competent. Also, Hurdle has done a good job handling his pitchers, yanking guys like Karstens and James McDonald before they give up big innings, and doing a nice job mixing and matching with the bullpen.

The Pirates are having a nice season. Are Pirate fans expecting a run at the playoffs this season or are they thinking more that this is the first step towards a more competitive future?

That depends who you ask. Personally, I lean towards the latter - this looks more like a 75-win team to me than an 85-win team, so I'm not sure how realistic a playoff run would be, and a .500 season means little by itself unless the Bucs can follow that up with more winning in the future - just ask the 2004 Royals. So I wouldn't want the Pirates to trade top prospects for veterans. At the same time, their farm system is well-stocked with the kind of B-grade prospects that usually come in return for veterans at the trade deadline, so there aren't strong incentives for the Bucs to go trading veterans like Hanrahan and Maholm. If the Pirates can remain at .500 or better, the trade deadline should be a very interesting time.

We start a 3 game series with the Atlanta Braves tonight. The Braves are 40-33, 5 games back of the Phillies for second in the NL East, but tied with the Brewers and Cardinals for the lead in the Wild Card race.  Tony Almeyda from Talking Chop, SB Nation's very popular Braves blog, and I exchanged questions on our respective teams. Here are his answers.

How is Alex Gonzalez working out for you guys?

Gonzalez has provided nothing more than what was expected of him; he's all glove and not enough bat. He's been invaluable on defense and has even had some big hits for us. He hasn't been Yunel Escobar at the plate, but with the offense struggling as it has been recently, we'd certainly like him to be.

Can you give us a quick scouting report on the starting pitchers the Jays will face?

Tim Hudson: he's a sinkerball pitcher who mixes in a changeup and an occasional splitter; when he's on, he gets a lot of ground balls.

Mike Minor: he's a young lefty who's essentially a two-pitch pitcher, throwing a fastball and changeup, but his breaking pitches still need some work, especially his curveball; he's a strikeout pitcher, although he struggles with location and gives up a lot of hits.

Brandon Beachy: he debuted late last year and was pitching very well this year before his oblique injury in May, posting a strikeout/walk ratio of almost 4 to 1; he's mostly a fastball/slider pitcher with an occasional changeup and curveball; he's induced mostly fly balls among balls in play, which I find a bit worrisome.

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Tonight we start a 3 game series in Cincinnati against the Reds. The Reds are 37-33 good for 3rd, 2 games back from the Brewers in the NL Central. The NL Central has become a very competitive spot. The Brewers, Cardinals, Reds and Pirates are bunched 3 games apart. The Cubs and Astros, on the other hand are way back. 

I sent off a few questions to jch24 (those hippy parents and their strange ways of naming kids) of Reds Reporter, SB Nation's Cincinnati Reds' blog and he was nice enough to send some answers:

How is Scott Rolen doing? Do Reds fans love him as much as we did?

Scotty is getting old but when he's right he's still a force in the lineup. The problem is that he fell off a cliff power-wise in the second half of last year and hasn't come back around yet. The fans took to him immediately of course, the saying goes, "these are Scott Rolen's Reds". He's an invaluable presence in the clubhouse as well but I'm not real happy with him being the everyday 3B next year at 37 years old.

It looks like Joey Votto is having another great year? How should we pitch to him? I don't suppose you'd give him to us, he is a Toronto boy after all?

Honestly? You probably shouldn't. Joey isn't seeing a lot of pitches to hit this year due to not having a true threat in the lineup behind him which is why he's leading the league in walks. It feels very much like the other team is willing to let someone else beat them at all costs, like a mini version of 2004 Barry Bonds. Why pitch to him if you don't have to? This has been remedied somewhat by Dusty abandoning The Book and batting Joey and Jay Bruce back to back. As far as the other question goes you can have Joey Votto when you pry him from my cold dead fingers, or offer a package that includes the CN Tower.

Can you give us a quick scouting report on the starting pitchers going up against the Jays this weekend?

Friday, Mike Leake - A personal favorite of mine, Leake is the wunkind 1st rounder that jumped straight to the majors last year and jumped straight to a jail cell this spring over a "misunderstanding" involving crappy t-shirts. He's a pitcher not a thrower, and can frustrate opposing fans because he seems to continuously be in trouble before working out of it. Mike Leake's typical line looks like 6 IP, 8 H, 2 BB, 4 K. He relies on location and getting guys to chase "his pitches".

Saturday, Edinson Volquez - Million dollar arm, ten cent head. Edinson has the best pure stuff on the Red's staff (95mph fastball, great changeup) but struggles with concentration. Recently demoted due to attitude and concentration issues, he's looked great in his two starts since coming back up. He's a wild card, honestly.....I have no idea what to expect from him start to start.

Sunday, Bronson Arroyo - Bronson is the 10 year old t-shirt that you love and can't bring yourself to throw out. It smells funny and isn't as glamorous as some of your newer digs but it gets the job done and you're comfortable when you put it on. Having said that Sunday's matchup scares the hell out of me, considering what's happened the last two times Bronson faced the Jays. See here and here.

You also have former Jay Fred Lewis, what's he doing for you? Is he still as interesting to watch in the outfield?

What's Fred Lewis doing for us? Not a whole lot, honestly. LF has been a merry-go-round of sucktitude for the Reds this year and Super Flewis shares part of that blame. What confuses me the most about him as that he looks like an athletic guy but is slower than you would expect and isn't good at defense. Lewis's saving grace defensively is that he's not Jonny Gomes.

Who's your closer? Are you confident in him? How is Aroldis Chapman doing?

Francisco Cordero closes and our confidence in him wavers week to week. Like most closers when he's good he's really good, and when he's bad he's really bad. The Reds overpaid for him but if I told you that since that beginning of 2008 he has five less saves than Mariano Rivera would you believe me? Because it's true.

Chapman is a mess at this point, pitching in AA and trying to (unsuccessfully) find the strike zone. Opinions differ on what's wrong with him but I lean toward something in his mechanics being off with a lingering injury being a close second.

How is manager Dusty Baker doing? What do Reds' fans think of him?

Dusty has done a fine job in Cincinnati in my opinion but that doesn't stop the locals from grumbling/rioting over every misstep he makes. I guess we're just gun shy after seeing the likes of Bob Boone, Jerry Narron, and Dave Miley on the dugout step recently.

Anything else we should know about the Reds?

The Reds are a streaky team and look to be on the upswing after a miserable couple of weeks. The pitching is rounding into form and looking like the strength it was purported to be. Hopefully they can continue on that track and beat up on the AL East this week.

As well as the draft, we have a 4 game series starting with the Royals today, so I sent some questions off to Will McDonald of Royals Review, SB Nation's Kansas City Royals blog.

Who has been your early season MVP?

I guess by WAR it has been Alex Gordon. I was tempted to answer with Melky Cabrera as well, but his defensive numbers have been terrible. Certainly none of the pitchers are worth talking about, although Collins and Crow have had their moments.

You guys called up Eric Hosmer, how has he looked?

The consensus is that he's looked good and ready. He got off to a very good start, i.e. his first three or four games, which makes a big difference in these matters. The fact that he's holding his own power-wise at such a young age is very encouraging.

Former top prospect Alex Gordon is finally playing like top prospect. What's changed for him?

Not much really. He's having more luck/success on BABIP, which has swung the overall triple slash around. He's walking and striking out less, so really it's all about the batting average. His BABIP is up from .250 last year to .330 this year. That's basically it. I don't really think he's much different, and if his walk rate is down for good, he might actually be getting worse long-term. Defensively, he's been better than expected, which has been nice.

Can we have a quick scouting report of the starting pitchers the Jays going to face?

Short answer: don't worry about it. Looking at the schedule, you're facing someone named Paulino on Monday and TBD on Tuesday. Nice start to a week. Danny Duffy will be a fun watch on Wednesday. I'm terrible on the scouting report type stuff, I'm afraid. Duffy's been a highly-touted young arm that's a big part of the team's path to contention, though he hasn't been fantastic thus far.

Joakim Soria is having a rough start to the year. What's going on with him? Is he going to lose the closer job?

More or less, he already has lost it. Lots of theories on Soria, who has looked "off" from the beginning. His strikeout/swinging strike numbers have been down, his command has been lacking, he's been inconsistent. Some think he's injured, some think he's "lost it" (whatever that might mean) some think he's screwing around with new pitches, etc. The current plan, which I truly don't understand, is that he's no longer the closer, and that when possible he's going to throw two inning stints to try to figure things out. OK then.

The Royals have a bunch a very good looking prospects, are Royals fans buying into the future is bright?

Yes and no. The prospect thing is never going to be fully a driver for mainstream and casual fans. The hardcore fans are excited, partially for good reason, partially out of hope, however. But there's years of accumulated ill will and despair and bitterness too. Lots of default skepticism that "we've heard about prospects before." Which is both true and not true. Still, being skeptical about prospects, of any team, is a nice default position to have.

Anything else we should know about the Royals. You guys wouldn't like to trade divisions would you?

Probably not, although I think in some sense it would be fun being in the AL East. Personally, I'm starting to get burnt out on millions of games against Cleveland and Detroit and the rest. As a pure fan, more Yankee and Red Sox games would be fun, at least for awhile. As for the other question, the Royal bullpen is exciting to watch at times, as its filled with interesting young arms. And Hosmer. Can't forget about him.

With a weekend series against the Orioles ahead, I sent off some questions to Stacey Long from my favorite Orioles blog, Camden Chat  (ok, I'll admit I can't name another Oriole blog off the top of my head, but I do like Stacey's writing). 

 I see Brian Roberts is out with a concussion. What happened? When is he expected back?

Brian Roberts' concussion is on account of him being a dummy. He first got it towards the end of last year when he purposely conked himself in the head with a baseball bat after striking out. He had concussion symptoms through most of the off season, then as he started feeling better he dove head first into first base in a meaningless Spring Training game. He finally got back from that and then did the same exact thing a few weeks ago and re-concussed himself. There is currently no timetable on his return but between his knack for hurting himself and his back problems from last season, most Orioles fans have stopped relying on Roberts for anything.

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