A wise and ancient Judo sensei once stated: "Don't ever wait for the perfectly balanced feeling, or the perfect opening.  Against tougher judo players, that moment will never come.  Begin to execute your throw as soon as you get your favorite grip, because it won't last long."

No, Yamashita did not say that, some other guy did.  But if someone had ever beaten Yamashita, it would've been from following advice like that.  Get him before he annihilates you in four ways at the same time.  Its already too late for the guy in the picture.

If you've been following the trade rumors, there have been tweets regarding Marlon Byrd, Ben Zobrist, Dayan Viciedio and Casey McGehee, a veritable whos who of losing team outfielders on short term contracts, in other words, trade targets.  There is a long running super deal rumor regarding David Price and Ben Zobrist for the Tacoma Rainiers, DJ Peterson and Jack Zduriencik's best kidney.  That stuff may or may not ever happen.

Let us talk about what is happening:

The wolves are at the door, and they hit much better than we do.  Another week of feeb hitting, and the Mariners will be squealing in their straw houses.  Coincidentially, the trade deadline is in one week.  You know we've been pining away for Ben Zobrist, an all around great player with defense, and OBP who does everything and plays everywhere.  We've been wanting David Price to shore up our rotation.  We've been wanting Casey McGehee to spray line drives all over our park.  

Well,  consider this:

Morales is here, and he's replacing Hart or Smoak.  He plays Friday.  When asked why doesn't Morales play today, Matt says that one day won't kill us.  Looking at the standings, I'm not so sure about that.

In Spring Training, Lloyd McClendon said that he expected Smoak to lead the league in doubles.  The Mariners have invested five years trying to turn Smoak into a switch hitting line drive machine who is adept at hitting balls to all fields from both sides of the plate.  They should have asked Marshawn about that:  You can't just think yourself into beast mode.  It has to come from inside of you.

This is the player the Mariners have been dreaming of in Smoak all those years.  A player whose hits don't "baloon" and die on the warning track.  A player whose good hits are numerous, forceful and completely random, to any part of Safeco field.  I've never understood the internet derision for Morales, and why there was never much uproar over the Mariners losing their best hitter from 2013.  I think its because he has a low WAR because he only plays DH.  But, somebody has to DH, and those somebodies can and do hit a lot worse than Morales. 

Maybe the Morales trade is part of a super deal club overhaul that is right around the corner.  Maybe next week has some new things in store.  Whatever the situation is, Kendrys is back now and hopefully happy to be here.  The Safe never bothered him anyway.