Mariners, Jack Zduriencik in tough spot as a long shot for playoffs and trade deadline upcoming

With the July 31 trade deadline approaching, Jack Zduriencik has yet to indicate if the M's will buy or sell. (AP)

As you know, the Mariners won Tuesday night on Franklin Gutierrez’s grand slam to pull within 7 ½ games of the Twins for a wild-card playoff berth.

Two problems:

1) There are seven other teams between them and the Twins, so they’re not just chasing the Twins, and to expect every one of those seven teams to play worse than the Mariners the rest of the way isn’t likely.

2) The Mariners aren’t good enough to make up 7 ½ games anyway.

Along with 7 ½, another magic number is nine – that’s how many days until the July 31st trade deadline, and we all know that GM Jack Zduriencik should be selling to plan for the future.

He should consider trading players in the last year of their contracts such as J.A. Happ, Austin Jackson, Hisashi Iwakuma and Fernando Rodney.

Heck, you could make a longer list than that, much longer, and it could even include Nelson Cruz if you really wanted to blow it up.

As an emailer pointed out, the Cardinals lost Albert Pujols to free agency four years ago and are currently sailing along with the best record in baseball at 59-34.

You can lose a star and still have a good team if you draft well and build your roster in the right way, and unfortunately, neither has happened with Jack Z in charge.

My keepers: Felix Hernandez, Robinson Cano (mainly because no one else will take on that kind of contract), Kyle Seager, Logan Morrison (who else would play first base the rest of the year, Jesus Montero? You and I both know that’s not going to happen.), Taijuan Walker, Brad Miller, Mike Montgomery, Carson Smith, and who else am I missing? Mike Zunino? Guess you have to include him too unless you want Jesus Sucre to be your every-day catcher.

I suppose you can make a case for one or two others, but if we’re talking core players like the Seahawks do, there are only about eight or maybe nine that I’d keep no matter what.

In Detroit, where the Mariners are this week, they’re talking about selling because their pitching is terrible, and it must be if the Mariners can score 11 runs in one game. Even with the league’s best hitting team, the Tigers are thinking about trading for pitching to build for the future because they don’t think they can win in the playoffs with their staff.

Yet they’re one of those seven teams the Mariners are chasing – the Tigers are 46-47 and only four games behind the Twins, but they know they’re not good enough to win the World Series.

Meanwhile, the Mariners are farther back but still think they have a chance. They should be selling but probably won’t do anything aside from acquiring a backup catcher.

If you’re clinging to that glimmer of hope, the Twins have lost three in a row and are certainly flawed – they might be 50-43 overall, but they’re 19-27 on the road.

They’re playing at a pace to finish the season at 87-75, but for the Mariners to get to 87 wins, they’d have to go 44-24 the rest of the way. That’s not going to happen.

Thing is, if I’m Zduriencik, I can’t fold. I’m done if my team doesn’t make the playoffs. I already threw most of my chips in when I traded for Mark Trumbo. I don’t have many chips left, and that’s why I thought he should have just said the hell with it and thrown the rest of them in with Montero and hope he hits his inside straight on the river.

Personally, I love Zduriencik. I thought the acquisition of Cruz and the addition of Walker to the rotation would turn the Mariners into a 100-win team.

I was wrong, and I’m wrong a lot, but I’m just a guy who says stuff on the radio.

The unfortunate difference – Zduriencik’s been wrong a lot, too, and it looks like it’s going to cost him his job.

The Go 2 Guy also writes for SeattlePI.com and 710Sports.com. You can reach Jim at jimmoorethego2guy@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @cougsgo.