Parts III & IV

Geoff Baker has Part III and Part IV in his series of what's ahead for the Mariners.

Part 3: Mariners' pitching future promising

The most stunning development on the mound for the Mariners this season didn't come from Brandon Morrow getting within five outs of a no-hitter.

Nor from Erik Bedard throwing five innings on America's birthday, then calling it a season. Or J.J. Putz blowing as many saves in the first week as he did in the first four months of last year.

Instead, the most eye-opening sight was very likely the sustained success as a starting pitcher enjoyed by Australian left-hander Ryan Rowland-Smith. While Morrow is still feeling his way, Bedard faces season-ending surgery today and Putz still has plenty of questions to answer, Rowland-Smith just keeps on getting hitters out.

And while the steady approach by Rowland-Smith failed to generate the headlines of those hurlers, his ascent to a starting job, seemingly out of nowhere, appears to have given the Mariners some depth they hadn't planned on. Seven consecutive strong outings by Rowland-Smith, against teams like the Yankees, Angels, Twins and Indians, have the Mariners feeling they've made the equivalent of a good midseason trade without giving anything up.

"He's been a pleasant surprise," said Mariners pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, who has worked with his share of good pitchers. "When we sent him down [to Class AAA], we thought he was struggling a little bit with command of his fastball. He's come around very well. To me, he's very dependable now."

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All of a sudden, this organization's starting pitching could be deeper than imagined. To the point where a pitcher like Ryan Feierabend, only two years from being a "can't miss" prospect at age 21, could have trouble cracking this rotation — even if Bedard's Seattle career is over.

The depth that Rowland-Smith potentially brings, if he repeats this success, allows the Mariners to trade lefty Jarrod Washburn, even if Bedard does not return. Seattle will still have Carlos Silva around for three years, $36 million and one more season of Miguel Batista at $9 million.

With Feierabend possibly around as a second lefty, on a rebuilding team, it's doubtful Washburn would be brought back at $10.3 million.

Part 4: Owners not among changes

A rumor all summer claims that Mariners minority owner Chris Larson has been negotiating to buy a controlling stake in the team.

The way it lays out is that Larson, the media-shy, somewhat-reclusive, 49-year-old former Microsoft executive, would purchase the controlling-interest shares held by Nintendo of America — which assumed technical control of Japanese billionaire Hiroshi Yamauchi's stake in the team in 2004 — as well as those of Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln. In turn, Lincoln would vanish and team president Chuck Armstrong would step aside so that Larson could hire former Mariners general manager Pat Gillick to replace him.

There's only one problem with the entire scenario: The fact that Larson insists it's pure fiction.

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"I don't anticipate any change in the ownership structure," Lincoln said, adding that the only ownership change since Yamauchi acquired the Mariners in 1992 came when minority shareholder John Stanton bought out John McCaw's stake for about $5 million in 2001.

And make no mistake, Lincoln added, he and Armstrong will be the only ones picking a new GM.

"This is a decision that's going to be made by Chuck and by me," Lincoln said. "But let me make it very clear that, having said that, we're certainly going to be, as we have been all summer, keeping our ownership group apprised of what we've been doing and where we're headed."