THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Waiting isn't turning into wins for M's

I don't understand.

OK, OK, there are a LOT of subjects I haven't mastered despite plenty of years worth of work — but this is something I've been following very, very closely.

And for so long.

Just to give you a sense of the time I've put into sports (and baseball in particular), my cat is named for Addie Joss.

Consider: Joss pitched for the Cleveland Naps from 1902-1910 and, among other achievements, delivered one of only 24 perfect games in MLB history.

Joss is the only player ever inducted into the Hall of Fame with less than 10 years in the majors.

His stats certainly cried out for it.

He finished with an ERA of 1.89, second-best in history, and went even better with a WHIP of 0.968, a number which still stands alone.

Joss was denied a 10th season by tragedy.

He became ill during spring training prior to the 2011 season and died just a few days later, stricken by what was later diagnosed as tubercular meningitis. 

Joss was tremendously popular with fellow players — who boycotted a regular-season game to attend his funeral — and that might have been his most amazing feat of all.

Why?

Well, from 1906 onward, Addie not only dominated hitters.

He wrote about it as a full-time sports writer for newspapers in Cleveland and Toledo — without resentment from the rest of MLB.

Can you imagine someone doing that today? 

(Shohei Ohtani, maybe?)

Addie Joss STILL wasn't put on a plaque at Cooperstown until a veterans committee finally broke down and admitted him in 1978.

Those voters are a tough crowd.

ANYHOW, we were talking about some baseball business that totally puzzles me.

I confess to ignorance of the trade deadline, which is coming up next week.

The Mariners have been in the middle of trade stories and rumors for months — which is no surprise because this was supposed to be a team with a serious shot at the World Series.

It's considered gospel that boss Jerry Dipoto will make a move in the next few days.

Specifically, almost every national pundit feels certain that Jerry will trade a starting pitcher (either Luis Castillo or Emerson Hancock) for a right-handed hitter who can make decent contact.

Curiously, though, there's an interesting dissenter.

ESPN's Jeff Passan woke up a Seattle podcast this week by suggesting that the Mariners ought to swerve in a different direction.

Passan agrees with the majority covering MLB that the number of games remaining — and the absurdly slim margin involving all but a half-dozen teams — means that general managers will trip over each other in a stampede to grab one or two useful players.

He just doesn't think that selling the ranch for a chance to land one prize bull makes any sense.

And in the case of the Mariners, Passan feels giving away talent just for a lottery ticket is really, really ...

Dumb.

Passan told hosts Mike Salk and Brock Huard that he'd board a train in the other direction, perhaps trading Randy Arozarena (one of the few Mariners who hasn't embarrassed himself at the plate) for a legitimate young prospect.

The Mariners, Passan insisted, are a team that hasn't been built correctly.

At a time when 20 to 25 teams are shooting for the postseason with pitching, speed and defense, Seattle has gathered up a gang of power bats — hoping for the occasional home run.

This, in a stadium that is just about MLB's toughest on hitters.

IF YOU insist that I pick a side in the hitting-pitching debate, I probably would agree with Passan.

Watching the Mariners strike out with runners on base has become downright painful.

The fact that manager Dan Wilson is hopelessly overmatched in his job doesn't add any fun to the process, either.

Let's go back to the very first sentence of this column, though — my admission that I don't understand the trade deadline.

The issue isn't trades.

It's about WHEN teams decide to start moving bodies.

What do general managers gain by waiting until a week before the deadline?

The Mariners made two excellent midseason deals last year, but why did they wait and wait and wait before snaffling up Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez?

Both helped win a few games.

We know that they missed the World Series by ONE game.

ONE!

Think about that.

If you're going after a player or two that can really help you, why not do it as quickly as possible?

Get that talent onto the roster.

Assuming Jerry really does covet right-handed bats for the stretch run this season, dawdling has already cost him.

Two hitters with the correct resumes — Spencer Steer in Cincinnati and Casey Schmitt of the Giants — both were injured this past week.

They could be healthy and helping the Mariners right now.

Waiting around doesn't win you anything.

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Longtime journalist Steve Cameron writes "The Cheap Seats" for The Press three times each week.