Leone's defense

After a few weeks into the Justin Leone experiment, the main thing that jumps out is some of the bad plays he's made on defense. Along with the defense, his current line:

.200 / .263 / .429 / .692

After a nice start, Justin has been struggling a bit. With the M's offense playing better of late, perhaps Melvin will resist the urge to tinker with the lineup and just leave Justin out there. He needs to play every day and not feel like he's going to get yanked if he makes a bad play. He has too much of a track record in the minors to cause alarm yet, but if this continues...

Meanwhile, Bucky's current line:

.333 / .500 / .762 / 1.262

He needed to produce immediately to justify taking bats from 'Gar and Spiezio, so mission accomplished. He is fun to watch- how could you not keep running him out there?

And our current SS, Melvinquist:

.245 / .276 / .309 / .584

Jose Lopez can't get here fast enough.

The simple answer for why the M's are scoring more runs is pretty straightforward. Ichiro is on fire, Winn is hitting (doubles even!) and the middle of the order is driving them in. Let's hope the hitting continues, because the pitching is a real cause for concern.

Speaking of which, for those that believe the M's need to add a pitcher next year (and most do), who do you see available this winter you want to see in an M's uniform?

It's going to be tough to find a free-agent pitcher who will not cost an arm-and-a-leg, and who will be better than Freddy Garcia...