Sunday, August 10, 2008

Can I Get a Turtleneck?

This is rich. The Mariners kabuki theater gets even stranger. One of the biggest busts on the club calls out his teammates to the media for not trying hard enough. If you haven't heard, Carlos Silva blew a gasket after the M's dropped a 5-3 decision to the Rays Friday night. Said the portly righty:
Maybe half of the team wants to do the best they can. Take the starting rotation...every time we cross that line, we want to do our best. No matter how many games we are behind. But maybe half of the team doesn't have that mentality. They are only thinking of finishing strong. And to put up their numbers. That's great, but that affects us. As a team, that doesn't work out.
Hey Carlos, maybe it's not so bad to think about numbers. This isn't basketball, where a ballhog hoisting 30 shots will force his four other teammates to just stand around. But hits are hits, and the rising tide of more hits raises all boats. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt Silva to think about his own numbers. Tagged with the loss, Silva ran his record to 4-13 with a 5.93 ERA. Then again, what's his motivation, given that he's less than a quarter of the way through a bloated $48 million guaranteed contract the Mariners lavished on him in the offseason.

Then Silva went medieval on us. Reprising Rickey Henderson, he referred to himself and his nickname in the third person: "Maybe Chief has to go and grab somebody from his neck and throw him into the wall and something's going to change. I've very close to doing that, so write that down." Yes, I am.

Look, it's great to be fiery and all that. But what kind of locker-room cred does Carlos Freaking Silva have? His record, ERA, contract and screed to the media can only make him a pariah in the clubhouse. Apparently, this kind of public outspokenness got him in trouble in Minnesota. During this outburst, Felix Hernandez and Jarrod Washburn were standing nearby and didn't make a peep. Chief, maybe you should let your pitching do the talking before verbally mouthing off and grabbing people from the neck.

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