How are the Mariners doing?

SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners will celebrate the 10th anniversary of their 2001 team this weekend, stoking the memory of their record-tying 116-victory season and everything it took to accomplish it — strong pitching, quality defense and timely, efficient hitting.

Oh, how the 2011 Mariners

could use some of that.

The Mariners return from the All-Star break tonight with their June surge into contention having turned to reality this month. Since pulling within 11/2 games of first-place Texas in the American League West on June 26, the Mariners have gone 4-9 and fallen 71/2 games

out.

What the Mariners are left with in their remaining 71 games — besides dimming hope that they can still jump into the division race — are issues that really haven’t changed since the season began.

Where’s the wood?

Seattle’s offense remains the worst in the American League. Last in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and runs, the Mariners have tried everything short of bringing back Edgar Martinez.

Manager Eric Wedge has used 83 different batting orders in 91 games, including six different hitters in the No. 3 spot — Dustin Ackley in three games, Milton Bradley 27 before his release, Franklin Gutierrez once, Adam Kennedy 23, Ryan Langerhans twice and Justin Smoak 35.

Kennedy has been the most consistent presence, batting .259 with six home runs and 30 RBI. But Wedge must be careful with the workload he’s laying on the 35-year-old who showed signs of wearing down during heavy use in June when he started 21 of 27 games.

Smoak, who dealt with the heartache of his father’s death early this season, was a big presence in the middle of the order with eight home runs and 31 RBI through May. However, Smoak hasn’t homered since June 12 and he has only five RBI since then. His average is down to .229.

Another element to watch is Ichiro Suzuki’s quest to finish with at least 200 hits, which would extend his own major league record to 11 consecutive seasons. He needs 99 hits in the final 71 games. Not only that, he needs a serious surge to avoid a final batting average of less than .300 for the first time in his career — the majors and Japan combined.

Mound presence

Seattle’s pitching has been spectacular, but can it hold up? The biggest shame of 2011 is that the Mariners have pitched well enough to be bona-fide contenders, compromised by the lack of offensive support.

The Mariners rank second in the AL with a 3.23 earned run average (Oakland leads at 3.14) and their nine complete games and 236 walks also are best in the league.

The problem, and Wedge voiced this in the past few weeks, is that the Mariners must be careful with the workload they’re putting on their pitchers, particularly rookie Michael Pineda, who has thrown 113 innings in 18 starts. Not counting his one inning Tuesday in the All-Star Game, Pineda will have gone 10 days before his next start, and the Mariners will take advantage of off days to ensure the 22-year-old gets additional rest between starts.

But the same also holds for others in the Mariners’ rotation. Jason Vargas and Doug Fister are on their way to career-highs in innings, and Erik Bedard goes into the dog days of his first season back after missing two years because of shoulder injuries. Bedard isn’t expected to pitch until late this month because of a knee injury that landed him on the disabled list.

Learning curve

The Mariners’ young players are learning on the job, sometimes the hard way. If there was any question about what the Mariners of July, August and September will look like, Wedge’s lineup Sunday provided a fairly clear answer.

Five rookies started that day — Pineda, second baseman Dustin Ackley, third baseman Kyle Seager, center fielder Greg Halman and left fielder Carlos Peguero. That’s in addition to first baseman Justin Smoak, who’d played just 100 big-league games entering this season.

Seattle must find out whether those and others in the system can produce at the big-league level, and the only way to know is to give them playing time and see how (and if) they adjust.

Pineda became an All-Star and has a solid choice for Rookie of the Year. Since being called up in mid-June, Ackley has proven he can handle big-league competition at the plate and in the field.

Halman has experienced success with sporadic playing time and Seager is adjusting to the big leagues after he literally hit his way into a promotion with a dozen phenomenal games at Class AAA Tacoma.

The power-hitting, strikeout-prone Peguero is the most intriguing of the rookies. He’s batting .199 with 52 strikeouts in 152 plate appearances, an alarming number that would earn a lot of players a trip back to the minors. However, Wedge continues to play Peguero because he’s so capable of changing a game with his powerful swing.

Let’s make a deal

Will there be a trade (and will it matter)? That was a hot topic in June when the Mariners spent a couple of days within 11/2 games of the first-place Rangers. At the time, it was hard to argue against acquiring a big bat that might make the difference on a team that wouldn’t need much of an offensive spark considering the strength of its pitching.

But, any truly big bat likely would come at a steep price — multiple prospects. The Mariners have restocked the minor leagues well under general manager Jack Zduriencik. And, while a trade now wouldn’t gut the system, it still would dent Zduriencik’s goal to build an organization that achieves success and sustains it.

With veterans Chone Figgins, Jack Wilson and Jack Cust spending most of their time on the bench, the Mariners clearly would be willing to trade them. But even if there’s interest, the return would be minimal. Wilson, considered an elite shortstop who’s in the final three months of his two-year, $11 million contract with the Mariners, would have the greatest trade value. Figgins is under contract for two more years at $17 million in 2012 and 2013, and Cust, making $2.5 million on a one-year deal, has been a huge bust as a hitter.

In the meantime, the latest stretch of losses has all but silenced talk of trading prospects in order to make a run at the division this year. One additional bat may still be one too few to make a serious dent in this team’s offensive problems.

There are too many young players and too much challenge in the schedule with 32 games remaining against the AL West and 24 against the East.

The Mariners have made good strides already with their pitching and the experience they’ve given a number of young players. But it’s not realistic to expect them to climb back into contention.

Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com/marinersblog and follow his Twitter updates at @kirbyarnold.