Jeff Clement and Michael Saunders: Looking Up?

The Mariners offense is dead. The pitching can't hold out much longer. The Mariners have played the most one-run games in all of baseball, and the only good part of that is they are leading the majors in one-run games won. But if the Mariners really want to make a push, they are going to need all the offense they can get.

Betancourt is down for the count, being benched for the last four games and counting. Beltre, had a nice weekend but is going back to his usual form, hitting around 240.

The Mariners really only have three players that can hit consistently. Those three are Ichiro (.359 Avg), Branyan (.320 avg and 13 HR), and Jose Lopez, who leads the team in RBI's; That's it. Yes, Beltre has his moments, but he hasn't been consistent.

The Mariners are going to have to get hitting in two different forms. One is by calling up their best young hitters in AAA Tacoma, those being C Jeff Clement (they need to DFA Kenji Johjima, Johnson is better, and Clement is a better hitter) and OF Michael Saunders (they can have Chavez and Balentien start on his days off).

Jeff Clement: .297 avg, 7 HR, 35 RBI's, 60 hits, 36 R, 102 TB, 21 BB and 47 SO.

Why the M's Should Call Up Clement: The Mariners need offense badly, even if that means sending Burke back down cause the Mariners can't have four catchers. The Mariners have Johnson and Quiroz and Burke already at the catching position.

All three are just catchers and don't really have pop to their bat. Clement is more of a hitter and less of a catcher. Now Clement could also be called up to play first base when Branyan has the day off. Sweeney and Griff can DH.

Either way, even if Clement gets called up to play every three days as a backup 1B and come off the bench and pitch hits for the other days, it still benifits the Mariners just because of his hitting that he brings.

Michael Saunders: .328 avg. 7 HR, 20 RBI's, 43 hits, 41 R, 71 TB, 21 BB and 22 SO.

Why the M's Should Call Up Saunders: Just like Clement, the Mariners need offense the quickest way possible. Calling up Saunders helps them two-fold. One, Saunders can hit for power and average. Plus the best part of Saunders' game is that he's a patient hitter and has only one more strike out then walk.

The Mariners dont have a sure number one LF. They have Endy Chavez, Waldimir Balentien who cant play defense and Griffey. Chavez, is the only real LF out of the three.

If they add Saunders, he could split time with Chavez and also learn a lot from Griffey and Chavez so next year when Griffey retires and Chavez either retires or signs some were else then Saunders will be ready to be a full time LF.

Either way, Seattle has to get hitting help, and fast. Seattle can even trade hitters like Beltre and Lopez to get back more hitting help, and can trade pitchers Jarrod Washburn and Mark Lowe to the Phillies for SS Jason Donald, to buy time for Triunfel