Put Chuck Armstrong, Howard Lincoln with Jack Z. on Mariners' hot seat

Already it feels like so many late Septembers at Safeco Field, and I'm not talking about the weather.

The crowds are thin and the games are meaningless, but it's only the second week of August. We have more than seven weeks remaining in another going-nowhere season, but the year already is done in Seattle.

This is what the bottom looks like. This is how a franchise feels after the ownership group keeps getting it wrong and makes the same mistakes over and over again.

This is what it looks like when a baseball team, every other year, tears up its master plan and tries to start again. This is what happens when you're forced to change managers, in-season, three times in four years.

This is the disaster that the Mariners have become.

And as general manager Jack Zduriencik sat alone Monday afternoon and announced the firing of manager Don Wakamatsu, two men, the two people most responsible for this decade-long slog to the bottom, were glaringly absent.

Where were team CEO Howard Lincoln and president Chuck Armstrong? Why didn't they come to the table and address this troubled season? Why weren't they there to accept their part of the blame?

Remember the figurative Bunsen burner Lincoln broke out before the 2007 season? Remember how he put both general manager Bill Bavasi and manager Mike Hargrove on notice, saying they were on the "hot seat"?

Why isn't a flame burning under Lincoln and Armstrong? Why do they survive every managerial change, every GM switch?

They are the recurring themes of this Mariners mess. They are the same two guys who have hired all of the mistakes of the 21st century.

Should they really have another chance to hire another manager? Should they really be the guys helping to set the budget for next season's roster?

This organization has more holes in it than my high-school letter sweater.

There is a leadership void at the top. It is a franchise sorely lacking in savvy. It needs upgrades everywhere. It needs more experienced people throughout its baseball operation.

It began this latest rebuilding project with a first-year manager (Wakamatsu) and a first-year general manager (Zduriencik).

But where was the help? Why was Wak allowed to hire unproven Ty Van Burkleo as his bench coach? He should have had a former manager alongside him, helping him through the inevitable crises of a long season.

And, although Zduriencik worked magic in his first season and the team somehow won 85 games in 2009, he needed, and still needs, a wiser adviser. He needs someone with credentials similar to former M's GM Pat Gillick alongside him.

This winter Zduriencik made the mistake of building a National League club for this American League city.

He tried to survive with starting pitching and small ball. It is working in San Diego this season, but in the American League, where you have to find ways to win games by 7-5 in places like Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium, teams can't win without pop.

In the American League, you can't believe big and play small.

Now, as they begin the search for a new manager (Bobby Valentine), someone with big league experience (Bobby Valentine) and big-time drive (Bobby Valentine), someone who isn't afraid to challenge his players when he thinks they might be heading south (Bobby Valentine), it is also time for a shake-up at the top.

The Mariners need fresh ideas. They need baseball people at the top who can counsel Zduriencik. They need someone who makes certain that Zduriencik and his staff do all of their homework before trading an All-Star pitcher like Cliff Lee.

Among the players in that trade was promising relief pitcher Josh Lueke, who faced rape and sodomy charges before pleading no contest to a charge of false imprisonment with violence. Zduriencik should have known better.

The Mariners also need leadership at the top that isn't afraid to challenge ownership and ask for more.

There is no reason this city can't have a winning baseball team. There is huge fan support. Even in this down economy there is money here. And Seattle hungers for winners.

But the Mariners need a front office that is willing to go after All-Star caliber players, not just free-agent leftovers. The Mariners of the past 10 years have been woefully short of greatness, and you don't win without great players.

Who, besides Felix Hernandez, even approaches greatness on this roster?

Lincoln and Armstrong deserve all the credit on the planet for keeping the team in Seattle and convincing Major League Baseball in 1992 to accept their ownership group.

They saved baseball in the boardrooms before Lou Piniella, Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, Dan Wilson and the 1995 Mariners saved it on the field.

But theirs is the ultimate what-have-you-done-for-us-lately business.

And all they've done in the last 10 years is drag this franchise to the bottom of baseball.

Crank up the Bunsen burner.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com