It's Time to Fire McLaren

The Mariners' awful 14-22 start isn't all John McLaren's fault, but it's partially his fault. The affable bench-coach-cum-skipper is a talented individual, but those talents don't include managing his pitching staff properly or inspiring his players to exert a greater day-to-day effort, which the M's, to a man, really need right now. Here's the problem: the M's just dropped three in a row to Texas to gain sole possession of the cellar in the AL West, eight games back of the Angels and A's, two expertly run franchises that rarely fade (with the exception of last year's Oakland anomaly). So the M's need to right the ship -- right now.

If Seattle were playing in a flimsier division -- say, the AL Central, where the spectacularly disappointing Tigers are only 3-1/2 games back with essentially the same record -- we wouldn't say what we're about to say. And what we're about to say is that the M's need to make a move on McLaren. They need to do something to shake things up, and in the world of guaranteed contracts, that something inevitably ends up being the sacking of the manager, fair or not. After last year's September collapse, we were frankly surprised McLaren had the interim tag removed from his title. Well, now it's time to remove that title altogether. Sorry, John: desperate times call for desperate measures.