The Seattle Mariners were a major disappointment this past season against the odds at sports betting companies but perhaps things will be different next year with a new manager. Seattle hired Eric Wedge to turn things around. He will try and rebuild a Seattle team that has not made the playoffs in a decade and is coming off a very bad sportsbetting season against the baseball odds at SBG.
101 Losses – The Mariners were considered the favorites by some people to win the American League West this past season. That seems laughable now but it was believed Seattle would win a weak American League West. Instead, the Mariners went 61-101 and had the worst record in the American League in sportsbetting. If not for the woeful Pittsburgh Pirates they would have had the worst record in all of baseball.
GM Needs to Go – The Mariners may have fired the wrong guy this season. They got rid of manager Don Wakamatsu but in reality they should have gotten rid of general manager Jack Zduriencik. Somehow he kept his job though even with all the idiotic moves he has made in the past few seasons. Perhaps the hiring of Wedge won’t be the latest disaster.
Wedge in Cleveland – The Indians almost made the World Series under Eric Wedge. They were just a victory away in 2007 but couldn’t quite make it. Wedge went 68-94 in his first season with Cleveland but turned them into winners by year three and they won the AL Central. They beat the Yankees in the ALDS and surprised bettors at sports betting companies but lost to Boston in the ALCS after leading three games to one. They were never that good again and Wedge was fired late in the 2009 season.
The Mariner Manager Mess – There is not a lot of job security if you are the manager of the Seattle Mariners. Since Lou Piniella left in 2002 the Mariners have had six different managers and Wedge will be the seventh. The failure list is long with Bob Melvin, Mike Hargrove, John McLaren, Jim Riggleman, Don Wakamatsu and Daren Brown on the list. Riggleman and Brown were spared the total failure label since they were interim managers. Wakamatsu was not a bad manager in his first season but Zduriencik made some boneheaded decisions that left his manager with very little to work with.