There has been a lot of debate around the Mariner blogosphere on and off this season about the existence of team chemistry and whether or not the Mariners have bad chemistry and which players were responsible for the team having bad chemistry and so on.  A lot of these debates were sparked by comments from guys like Carlos Silva, Jarrod Washburn and Miguel Batista. 

Today a couple of things emerged to help fuel the fire.  I was busy and away from the computer all day so I missed out on all the fun and every Mariners site out there has already given their takes on the latest developments, so instead of regurgitating the same info I’ll just direct you elsewhere if you haven’t already made the rounds.

Geoff Baker started things off letting us all know that many of the players hate Ichiro. 

Ryan Rowland-Smith then posted a blog that spent a few paragraphs speaking about Seattle’s lack of leadership in the clubhouse and how everyone was pointing fingers when things started going bad.  The blog has since been removed, but Geoff Baker posted a couple excerpts.  I have the entire post in my Google Reader, and will be happy to email it to anyone who wants to read it. 

Additional Reaction:

USS Mariner: post 1, post 2, post 3

The News Tribune: Ryan Divish collects some great quotes from manager Jim Riggleman

What do you all think about this?  Personally, I am not the least bit shocked about the whole Ichiro situation.  Does anyone else get the impression that Ichiro would be a tough guy to be teammates with (to put it nicely)?  We’d like to think that since they’re professionals their personal differences shouldn’t get in the way, but these players spend March through September together so getting along with one another could be important.

What RRS was saying is nothing new and has long been speculated by the fans and reported by insiders, but it’s nice to see a player come right out and say it (even though it may have gotten him in a bit of trouble, which would explain why the post was edited down and then ultimately removed). 

It will be an interesting situation to follow, especially on the Ichiro side of things.