The 2010 Major League Baseball trade deadline is quickly approaching with the deadline being its customary date of July 31st on a yearly basis.

I will try and tackle every Major League team as the deadline approaches to see if they will be buyers, sellers or stick to their current roster.

I will be basing my assumptions on the direction the team is going, their record as of the date I post the article, possible roster injuries and so on and so forth.

I will provide the information about each team by division.

Yesterday I moved onto the AL West beginning with the division leading Texas Rangers and earlier today I continued my look at the division with the Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

I will now conclude my MLB trade deadline talk with a look at the Seattle Mariners.

Coming into play today (not counting tonight’s contest) the Seattle Mariners own a record of 39-64, which puts them in dead last in the AL West, twenty one and a half games behind the division leading Rangers.

The Mariners came into the 2010 season with a ton of hype after making major moves in the off-season, acquiring Chone Figgins (four-year, $36 million plus 2014 option) via free agency as well as trading for starting pitcher Cliff Lee, designated hitter Milton Bradley, first baseman Casey Kotchman, reliever Brandon League, while re-signing pitcher Erik Bedard (one-year, $1.5 million plus 2011 option), Mike Sweeney (minor league deal), Ken Griffey Jr (on-year, $2.35million) and than signed Franklin Gutierrez (four-year, $20.25 million plus 2014 club option), Jack Wilson (two-years, $10 million) & Felix Hernandez (five-years, $78 million) to contract extensions.

With the Mariners focussed on adding pitching and defense to a team with the likes of future hall of fame player Ichiro Suzuki and players who flourished under Don Wakamatsu in 2009 inside a very large Safeco Field, analysts around baseball projected the Mariners to take the division.

Nothing has gone according to plan for the Mariners.

Lee is no longer with the team after being traded to the division rival Rangers along with Mark Lowe in exchange for a group of prospects fronted by super prospect Justin Smoak.

Bradley melted down yet again, as the player’s personal demons disrupted his baseball life once again.

Griffey announced his retirement after having a lacklustre season and Casey Kotchman (.226AVG, 7HR, 32RBI) was such a bust at first base the team traded for former player Russell Branyan, who they did not re-sign in the off-season.

The team’s starting pitching has been successful, pitching to an earned run average of 3.84, the fourth best in the AL, while the bullpen has struggled owning an earned run average of 4.56, 12th in the AL.

The starting rotation currently features Hernandez (7-7, 2.86ERA), Doug Fister (3-6, 3.56ERA), David Pauley (0-3, 3.47ERA), Jason Vargas (6-5, 3.20ERA) & Luke French (0-1, 6.39ERA, only one start so far this season).

The bullpen is anchored by closer David Aardsma (0-6, 4.59ERA, 18SV in 22SVO) and also features League (8-6, 3.40ERA), Garrett Olson (0-3, 5.60ERA), Chris Seddon (1-0, 3.18ERA), Brian Sweeney (1-1, 4.12ERA) & Jamey Wright (1-3, 4.91ERA).

Add one of the worst offenses in the AL to a bullpen that is near the bottom of the league in ERA and you can see why the Mariners hold the record they do.

Ichiro (.311AVG, 3HR, 28RBI, 24SB) is still a useful weapon atop the Mariners line-up and will always hit for a high average and Gutierrez, despite a down year, is adding some production (.245AVG, 9HR, 41RBI) while playing Gold Glove calibre centre field.

Gutierrez has yet to make an error in 98 games for the Mariners.

Figgins has had a terrible year (.236AVG, 1HR, 25RBI, 27SB) and the team has not received much production from Bradley (.205AVG, 8HR, 29RBI). The team has next to no production from the current catching duo of Rob Johnson (.192AVG, 2HR, 13RBI) & Josh Bard (.238AVG, 2HR, 6RBI) and Jose Lopez (.236AVG, 6HR, 42RBI) & Wilson (.253AVG, 0HR, 13RBI) are not contributing much offensively in starting roles.

Seattle’s offense is last in the AL in runs scored (341), hits (810), doubles (149), home runs (63), total bases (1168), runs batted in (322), team batting average (.236), on-base percentage (.304) and slugging percentage (.340).

The team has next to no chance to make the playoffs with the Rangers storming away with the division lead trailed by the A’s & Angels and have traded away their biggest trade chip already in Lee.

Jose Lopez is another trade piece the Mariners would like to deal, but the interest in the infielder has been non-existent, but Aardsma is drawing some interest from teams such as the Red Sox and Giants and could earn the Mariners a few decent prospects in return for the right-handed closer, who recorded 38 saves in 2009.

David Aardsma is drawing attention, but that's about it for Seattle.

The team would love to get rid of Bradley, but it’s doubtful any team would take on the player or his salary. It took the swap of Carlos Silva’s bad contract for anyone to take Bradley off the Cubs hands in the off-season so interest is the player is none.

Hernandez, Ichiro & Gutierrez are untouchables in the Mariners organization and no one else seems to be drawing any kind of attention so it looks as if the team is just going to play out the remainder of the season as is and hope to revamp in the off-season for next year.

General Manager Jack Zduriencik may have to look over his game plan and make revisions if he wants Seattle to make a run at the AL West next season.

The remainder of the trade deadline should be quiet for the Mariners unless the team decides to move Aardsma or gets any kind of attention for Lopez.

One day remains before the trade deadline hits. A ton of action has occurred this year, most recently with the Astros sending Lance Berkman to the Yankees; will the Mariners do anything else? Or is their trade deadline work complete?

We shall see tomorrow.