Word is trickling in this morning that Carlos Guillen is deciding to call it quits instead of playing another baseball season - and by playing I mean suffering through another Seattle Mariners season.
"It was the best for this team,'' Guillen said. "We've got great talent here. A lot of young guys, a lot of talent.''
Guillen made the decision over the past couple of days, saying that "your body tells you'' when it can't go forward. He said his family still encouraged him to keep going but he realized it was time to step away.
This isn't so much of a blow as it will really put more pressure on Kyle Seager to prove he belongs consistently in the line-up. The team has awarded Chone Figgins some time to prove to other teams he still remembers how to play some aspects of baseball, but with the injury to Franklin Gutierrez and the possibility of Figgins out in center-field, Guillen was supposed to be the stop-gap between the harsh realities of 95 mph fastballs and Seager struggling at the plate. I was looking forward to seeing a re-energized Guillen so I could get all re-angry about trading his best years to the Detroit Tigers, but at least Guillen had the decency to step down from the Mariners before his .150 average made the team quietly force him out.
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