He's back in town...

The man who was once probably one of the most hated players in Mariners history is back. He has come back re-incarnated as a different player, but with the same basic results. At times in the mid 90's no one was more unpredictable coming out of the Mariners bullpen than Bobby Ayala.

This guy would save a few games, and then he was like a BP pitcher getting tee'd off on. He finally got so bad, the M's sent him to Montreal for some no-name minor league guy. Now in 2010, and again in 2011 after some success early Bobby is back. This time though, he's lost his goatee, and has gotten all tatted up. This is the face of evil in Seattle now:

This is Brandon League. He came to the Mariners for another pitcher that wasn't all that great, Brandon Morrow. Last year, Mr. League was 9-7 with 6 saves, and 6 blown saves for the M's. In 2011, already he is 0-4 with 9 saves earlier, and 3 blown saves all in the last week. In the last four outings he has gone a total of 4 innings, giving up 12 hits and 10 runs all leading to losses. He has seen his ERA go from a 2.08 to a whopping 7.31. Last night the Indians were down 2 runs in the ninth, and what do we do but put Brandon out on the bump again and then we see this for the fourth straight time.

I'm ready for Eric Wedge to try someone else in the closer's role for a while. Eric Wedge has this look quite often and doesn't like he enjoys it.

 Why not give a guy like Dan Cortes a shot at the role.

If he struggles, at least Mariners fans know he is young and working at improving at the closer spot. I think Dan has the stuff to be a decent closer. I don't mind struggling through this season if we are defining roles for guys in the future, and improving their make-up for the eventual return of good Mariner baseball. Another possibility is to give the job to Chris Ray who has closed before.

 I don't see Chris with a long future here, but it could be a stop gap for now. As of now the losing streak is at 6, I don't know if it will end today with Erik Bedard on the mound. We will see how it goes, but I think Tribe fans will happy again at the end of the day.