It's interesting from time to time to think about the path not taken.

What, for example, would the Mariners be like today if Bill Bavasi had finished second in the process of selecting the Seattle general manager in 2003?

That would mean that Al Avila, who finished runner-up to Bavasi, would have been the general manager.

How different would that team have been? Well for one thing, the Mariners would never have traded the man who was then their starting shortstop, Carlos Guillen, to the Tigers. We can say that with a high degree of certainty, because it was Avila, in his role as assistant GM in Detroit, who negotiated the deal that sent Guillen to Motown.

It seems logical then that Avila, had he gotten the job, would have kept Guillen, a player he likes and a player who has become an All-Star. And that, if nothing else would have kept the Mariners from getting as old as they did as quickly as they did in 2004.

There would have been mistakes in an Avila reign, but it's not likely that they would have been the mistakes of the last four-plus years that Mariner fans grouse about now -- acquisitions like Scott Spiezio and Rich Aurilia, and departures like Jose Guillen.

We bring this up for no particular reason other than the fact that Avila is still the assistant GM in Detroit, and he's still interested in becoming a general manager. He's a strong candidate to be on the short list of GM candidates club president Chuck Armstrong is putting together if the club doesn't decide to stick with interim GM Lee Pelekoudas.

And we bring this up because Avila is with the Tigers this weekend. Not getting the job with Seattle doesn't appear to have hurt him -- he's got a World Series ring, and with the Tigers having put together an offensive powerhouse, there could be more in Detroit's future.

It will be worth keeping an eye on Avila if the Seattle job does come open this fall.

The first thing Brandon Morrow tends to show you is his fastball.

And why not? The Seattle reliever can hit 100 mph on occasion, the kind of velocity that tends to put hitter after hitter away.

But for Kenji Johjima, Morrow is more than just a one-pitch pitcher.

The veteran catcher looks back to last year and to this spring, when Morrow struggled with his command.

''He changed his grip on his slider,'' Johjima said. ''Ever since he did that, it's become a great pitch for him.

''Hitters have to go up there looking for the fastball, but now that he's throwing the slider so hard for strikes, they've got no chance to prepare for it.''

Morrow, who is serving as the closer with J.J. Putz disabled, got his fifth save Wednesday and lowered his ERA to 0.71.

He has a chance to set a club record for the lowest ERA at the All-Star break. Shigetoshi Hasegawa was at 0.77 at the break in 2003.

Miguel Cairo has made an impression on Ichiro Suzuki that no one in the big leagues has ever done.

Cairo was the star for Seattle Wednesday in a 4-2 win over Toronto with a couple of doubles and three RBIs against a tough pitcher, Blue Jays right-hander Dustin McGowan.

Ichiro, who had three hits and a walk to get his average to .301, scored twice, once on each of Cairo's doubles.

Afterward, Ichiro doled out significant praise to the man batting behind him in the lineup.

''I personally think that Japanese make the best No. 2 hitters,'' Ichiro said. ''But he (Cairo) is as good as anyone in Japan batting second. Of course, Jose Lopez has done a good job for us batting second, too.

''But Miguel is the first real No. 2 batter I've seen since I came to the U.S.''

Asked what constituted a ''real No. 2 batter,'' Ichiro just tapped the side of his head.

''He understands the mental side of the game.''

For the better part of six weeks, Richie Sexson couldn't buy a home run.

He hit one Tuesday, a game-tying solo shot in the eighth inning.

The Seattle first baseman knows what happened - he got backspin on the ball, elevating it and getting it to soar out over the left field scoreboard.

What he doesn't know was whether or not it was a one-time thing.

''I've been hitting the ball hard for a couple of weeks now,'' he said before Wednesday's game. ''But before last night, it was all topspin. and you need backspin (to hit home runs).''

Well, I take a long weekend off, and I miss a Mariner sweep in San Diego and, by all accounts, one of the best pitching exhibitions of the season from Toronto's Roy Halladay Monday.

The blog is back, for better or worse, just in time to see the Mariners throw their bullpen at the Blue Jays Tuesday.

I've thought for a while now that Ryan Rowland-Smith, who has set down the first six men he's faced in order, is starter material. It wouldn't surprise me to see him go five innings, although he's not done that in relief this year.

But the elevation of lefty Cesar Jimenez to the Seattle big league roster is a bit troubling, because it underscores the fact that at the moment, the Mariners don't have anybody at Triple-A they'd want to bring up if just for one start.

Cha Seung Baek is gone, traded to San Diego. Ryan Feierabend (left elbow problems) is nowhere near ready. So when the Mariners talk about the dept of their minor league system, it's best to remember that they dealt three of their best young pitchers to Baltimore as part of the Erik Bedard deal back in February.

I think the jury is still out on whether the Bedard deal is a train wreck, but it's clear that it's impacting the Mariners even when he's not the issue.

In case you were holding out hope that Seattle closer J.J. Putz would be back before the All-Star break, forget it.

Putz is going to start throwing on flat ground on the side Saturday in San Diego, but he's a long way from being ready.

He has to put his hyperextended right elbow through a rehab process, and then he's going to have to go out on an injury rehabilitiation assignment.

Putz knows all this, but he's smiling, because the injury could have been much worse. He's going to start throwing again, and will be in his natural element again.

''It's been brutal not being able to do anything,'' Putz said. ''It's going to be great to get out and throw again. I'm tired to not doing anything.''

''There's no way I'm going to be back before the break. The program they have for me will take at least that long. And I'm not going to rush it. I'm going to be sure I'm ready to go before I'm back. There's no reason not to.''

Putz has said that he might have tried to come back too quickly from his rib cage injury in April. He doesn't want that to be an issue this time around.

Here's today's question:

What's the general feeling about whether or not Dan Wilson would be a good candidate for any of the jobs the Mariners are likely to have open this off-season - manager, coach, assistant GM or even general manager?

Wilson, a catcher for a decade with the Mariners, is a long time fan favorite in Seattle, a smart guy and someone who wants some sort of long-term career in baseball.

Should it be in Seattle? Should it be in uniform or in the front office?

I talked to Wilson about this before Tuesday's game and will have his answers for you in my daily notebook later. But I'm just curious as to what readers of the blog think.

Just when you thought the Seattle season couldn't become any more depressing ...

The sight of Felix Hernandez limping off the field with the assistance of trainers Rick Griffin and Rob Nodine after a freak injury in the bottom of the fifth inning was one of the more depressing moments in an already depressed Seattle summer.

The right-hander had hit a grand slam off Johan Santana to give the Mariners the better part of a 5-0 against the Mets. And, coming off four consecutive starts, all wins, in which he'd allowed just a total of three runs, he was dominating the Mets.

But Carlos Beltran, trying to score from third base on a wild pitch, slid into Hernandez, causing a sprained left ankle.

Hernandez, one out away from having enough innings for a win and pitching against his idol, Santana, wanted to stay in the game. He threw one pitch, hopped around in obvious misery and still had to be forced off the field.

One wonders what the man who got the opening day start ahead of Hernandez, Erik Bedard, would have done.

I think, based on what Seattle has seen this year, the difference is that Bedard, who will miss Wednesday's start with back spasm problems, is a pitcher. Hernandez is a fighter who also pitches.

Maybe Bedard is a fighter, too. But we haven't seen it yet.

It's been clear for a while that Felix Hernandez is far and away Seattle's best starting pitcher.

What we didn't know until just now is that he may be the team's best hitter, too.

Hernandez needed just one pitch to do what Seattle hitters have resolutely avoided doing, getting men in scoring postition.

And he did it against two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana, hitting Santana's first pitch for an opposite-field grand slam in the second inning Monday.

It was the first homer ever by a Mariner pitcher.

It was, in fact, one of the nicest moments of a year that has not had many.

Well, it's more of the same for the Seattle pitching rotation.

Erik Bedard, out after three innings in his last start Friday in Atlanta because of back spasms, won't make his scheduled start Wednesday.

Instead that will go to Miguel Batista, who is out of the bullpen and back in the rotation because the Nariners don't have any options.

And that means that knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, who pitched in relief Saturday, won't miss a start. He'll pitch Tuesday.

Batista's move to the bullpen has been predicated on the fact that Brandon Morrow is healthy again (he says he is) ready to closer (he says he will be, starting Tuesday after throwing hard on fla ground Monday in Shea Stadium).

Manager Jim Riggleman said it's not ideal -- he'd like to be able to use Dickey out of the bullpen, where he's been effective -- but it's what there is.

''Every team deals with this,'' Riggleman said. ''There are teams starting pitchers they would like to have pitching out of the bullpen. Other teams have center fielders they'd rather have in right. Or first baseman they think should be catching. But sometimes it just doesn't happen.''

As for tonight, Riggleman wouldn't commit to a closer with Morrow and Batista out of action. It will be ''whatever matchup seems to work,'' Riggleman said.