August 2006
81-51 1st Place AL West

A division title looks closer and closer each day. Second place Oakland is 10 games out with a month to go. We should close things out and be in first. And right now, we are tied with the Yankees for the best record in the league. We would have home field advantage until the World Series if we get that far.

We finally decided to option Prince Fielder, Carl Crawford and Willy Tavaras back down to AAA to keep them under control for another year. We signed Geoff Blum, Rob Mackowiak and Josh Paul to contracts until the end of the year. We thought about doing the same with Ryan Zimmerman but he was doing better than Fielder so we kept him. Our young catchers have played real well. Both Brian McCann and Rene Rivera are hitting over .285 and have led the staff well. Jason Bay just needs 10 RBI's and 3 homers to tie career highs. Ken Griffey, Jr's homer totals have been low but he has hit 38 doubles so far. Ichiro has stolen 41 bases and I'm really starting to like Mike Morse.

Our pitching is still amazing and that is all you need to know. We released Matt Thornton as he was struggling and Cesar Jimenez replaced him. John Patterson could be on the trading block if we cannot work out a long-term deal.

Stats:
Code:
2006 Batting             Team    G   AVG    AB    H  2B  3B  HR   BB    K   SB  CS    R  RBI   SLG   OBP
Suzuki, Ichiro            SEA  132  .345   576  199  34   7   8   42   51   41  15  108   65  .470  .393
Guillen, Carlos           SEA  129  .298   521  155  23  11  16   53   95    5   8   81   79  .476  .363
Zimmerman, Ryan           SEA  127  .232   478  111  21   3  12   43   99    2   9   44   49  .364  .297
Griffey, Ken              SEA  124  .320   463  148  36   1  14   64   76   10   0   69   82  .492  .399
Bay, Jason                SEA  130  .232   456  106  19   6  36   78  120    8   1   82  111  .537  .349
Lopez, Jose               SEA  125  .284   455  129  25   5  14   15   67    1   1   61   58  .453  .321
McCann, Brian             SEA  115  .283   406  115  23   0   6   45   61    0   1   40   54  .384  .360
Fielder, Prince           SEA   93  .201   329   66  15   0  11   46   72    0   1   40   32  .347  .312
Clement, Jeff             SEA   80  .363   273   99  22   1   5   41   58    3   2   49   48  .505  .453
Crawford, Carl            SEA   56  .245   184   45   8   3   3   11   24   13   4   30   18  .370  .285
Morse, Mike               SEA   42  .326   135   44   5   0   1   14   29    1   3   27   13  .385  .391
Rivera, Rene              SEA   49  .291   103   30   2   0   2    8   20    1   0   10   17  .369  .348
Theriot, Ryan             SEA   31  .253    83   21   6   1   0    4    8    5   1   13    4  .349  .295
Taveras, Willy            SEA   30  .264    72   19   3   0   0    3   13    5   1    9   11  .306  .321
Mackowiak, Rob            SEA   24  .200    50   10   2   0   0    8   10    1   0    7    5  .240  .310
Baek, Cha Seung           SEA    3  .000     7    0   0   0   0    1    3    0   0    1    0  .000  .125
Rowland-Smith, Ryan       SEA    2  .333     6    2   0   0   0    0    3    0   0    0    2  .333  .333
Patterson, John           SEA    2  .333     3    1   0   0   0    0    0    0   0    0    0  .333  .333
Nageotte, Clint           SEA    1  .000     1    0   0   0   0    0    1    0   0    0    0  .000  .000
Saunders, Joe             SEA    1  .000     1    0   0   0   0    0    0    0   0    0    0  .000  .000
Code:
2006 Pitching            Team     IP   ERA    G  GS   W   L  SV    K   BB   R/9
Rowland-Smith, Ryan       SEA  183.0  2.90   27  27  14   4   0  122   56 10.57
Patterson, John           SEA  160.0  3.71   26  26   9   7   0  150   47 10.80
Nageotte, Clint           SEA  158.2  3.46   26  26  10   6   0  106   53 11.40
Baek, Cha Seung           SEA  145.2  3.15   23  23  11   5   0  111   33  9.51
Saunders, Joe             SEA  132.0  3.55   21  21  10   6   0  101   41 11.93
Huber, Jon                SEA   97.0  3.25   65   0  11   8   2   59   25  9.93
Livingston, Bobby         SEA   84.0  3.43   17   9   5   4   0   55   21 10.50
Sherrill, George          SEA   64.0  3.09   54   0   8   2   3   62   28 10.97
Lowe, Mark                SEA   57.0  4.74   45   0   1   2   0   44   19 11.37
Capps, Matt               SEA   48.0  2.06   57   0   2   2  37   42   19  9.94
Hiranuma, Yoshisune       SEA   10.2 10.13    8   0   0   1   0    8    8 21.09
Jimenez, Cesar            SEA    8.2  2.08    3   0   0   0   1    7    3 11.42