Jeff invited this, so I'll just take the torch and run with it.
Seattle is a terrible team. There is a not-insignificant chance they will end this season the worst team in MLB baseball. The italics is meant to imply a hard "e", just so you know. Right now, they stand four games behind the Orioles for the worst record in baseball. The Orioles are a terrible team. Nearly as terrible is the ever-terrible Pittsburgh Pirates. Baltimore and Pittsburgh are good at this bad thing, but the Mariners are only on-again off-again epically bad. They are dark horse for the Losingest Bunch of Losers Award for 2010.
Major League Baseball awards the worst team in baseball the first overall pick in the following year's amateur draft, then the second worst the second pick and so on. The two through whatever picks are often undifferentiated, but the first overall pick is where great players originate from: Stephen Strasburg, Joe Mauer, Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodrigues, etc.
This year's great talent is Anthony Rendon. Rendon is a 20-year old third baseman that plays for the Rice Owls. Here's the skinny:
Baseball America awarded Rendon the Player of the Year honor for 2010. He is only the fourth underclassmen to ever win the award joining John Olerud, Mark Teixeira and Robin Ventura. To avoid direct plagiarism, I put those in alphabetical order. Here's what BA had to say about Rendon:
Rice sophomore third baseman Anthony Rendon fits the same mold. The early favorite to be drafted No. 1 overall in 2011, Rendon put up numbers that match his prodigious talent, hitting .394/.530/.801 with 26 home runs and 85 RBIs. That power output is even more impressive given how seldom he got good pitches to hit, as evidenced by his 65 walks and 22 strikeouts in 226 at-bats. If that weren't enough, Rendon also stole 14 bases in 18 tries and posted a .973 fielding percentage at the hot corner, where he committed just five errors all season.
You will have to excuse that mention of field percentage. I am currently picking the vomit of my pants. Rage vomit is so sticky.
Rendon fractured his ankle and tore ligaments in an injury this June. That's bad. And it's compounded* by the fact that he injured the same ankle last year. Steer away Pirates and Orioles, that bastards about to blow any minute.
Seattle is likely to move Chone Figgins back to third after flushing Jose Lopez this off-season. It's solid at second with former second overall pick, not-Strasburg, Dustin Ackley already playing at AAA Tacoma. Figgins is already showing worrying symptoms of Jeff Cerillo syndrome and so the end might come soon for the little guy, but, regardless, Chone can move around and Seattle needs future talent at the hot corner. Could it be Rendon? Only if Seattle finishes first among losers. So don't root for losses, but don't suffer them too badly either. There's hope in every failure.