...We talk a lot about injuries to our favorite players, or players in general whether it's a knee here or a shoulder there. How about the Umpires? They're in the line of fire as well, take Greg Bonin who was forced to retire in 2001 due to a series of concussions.

...With the re-call of Mariners Prospect Jeff Clement (who had dismantled PCL pitching after he was returned to Tacoma) it looks as though starting catcher Kenji Johjima could see time at 1st to allow Clement to work on his skills behind the dish.

Quoth Seattle Mariners Manager John McLaren.

"We just had [Johjima] take some ground balls, and I don't know where it's going, if it's going anywhere," McLaren said. "We're playing National League clubs, and we're ... preparing for anything and Joh's still a catcher. We're not thinking about switching positions or anything, we just had him take ground balls."

...The Milwaukee Brewers have designated Julian Tavarez for assignment to make room for pitcher David Riske. The Brew Crew now have 10 days to work a trade, release him or he can accept an assignment to Triple A Nashville.

...The Colorado Rockies have signed their first round draft pick Christian Friedrich. He collected a $1.35 million dollar signing bonus. He will likely start his season in the Short Season A Northwest League - with the Tri-City Dust Devils.

Seattle Mariners Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Lee Pelekoudas announced today that John McLaren has been relieved of his duties as manager.

"John worked extremely hard, but our team continued to under perform compared to our expectations of them," Pelekoudas said. "With 90 games left on our schedule, we owe it to ourselves and our fans to do everything we can to win as many games as possible. At the same time, as we move towards the trade deadline and decisions have to be made on the futures of the players on our ballclub, I wanted to see if a different voice could make a difference in their performance."

Jim Riggleman, who was on the Mariners staff as the bench coach, has been named manager for the remainder of the 2008 season. He is the 13th full-time manager in Mariners history.