The Windup: For underachieving contenders, it's almost panic time

No self-respecting ball club will admit to panicking. It's a sign of weakness. It's an admission that something is terribly wrong. It's a sure signal to everyone paying attention that someone, somewhere, has screwed up. Royally.

Still, six weeks or so into the season, teams are starting to crack. You can see it with every passing day. The Reds , in fact, probably already went off the deep end when owner Bob Castellini fired his general manager, Wayne Krivsky , barely three weeks into the season.

The moment of truth is coming for other teams, too. Here's a quick look at how five teams, all of whom were expected to do well this season, are dealing with adversity so far:

Now in last place in the American League West , the Mariners are a huge disappointment. They are 12th in scoring (3.87 runs per game) and 11th in pitching (4.55 runs allowed per game). Manager John McLaren has already let his team have it behind closed doors, and he's been forthcoming in public in promising changes. So far, the Mariners cut loose outfielder Brad Wilkerson and brought up a couple of youngsters, catcher Jeff Clement and outfielder Wladimir Balentien. McLaren also has dropped Richie Sexson from fourth to sixth in the batting order as the first baseman's season-long 2007 slump continues to carry over into '08.

Manager Bud Black toyed with the lineup a little, sat some players briefly and pep-talked some others. Mostly, though, the Padres waited for someone to break out. When no one did and the team fell 10 games behind the Diamondbacks , the Padres cut center fielder Jim Edmonds , who is 37 and was hitting well under .200. They promoted Jody Gerut to take his place. That's probably not enough. But it's all the Padres -- who score only 3.3 runs a game -- have for us right now.

After the horrible 0-7 and 2-10 start, manager Jim Leyland and general manager Dave Dombrowski have been doing a little bit of a lot to try to bring the Tigers around. Leyland famously screamed at the team early on and threatened changes shortly after that. The team's biggest moves have been trying to improve the defense by shifting Miguel Cabrera from third base to first and, later, putting Gary Sheffield in left field. Sheffield got his chance in left only after the team released under-performing Jacque Jones -- hardly a team-changing move. What they really need is Justin Verlander ( 6.43 ERA) to pitch like an ace and Kenny Rogers (5.82 ERA) to find the fountain of youth.

For weeks, the Brewers promised Eric Gagne was their closer, damn the problems he was having. And then Gagne begged off the duty, citing his overall poor performance, and so now the Brewers are going with a closer-by-committee. Milwaukee went from five games above .500 in late April to two games below last week before winning a series against the first-place Cardinals over the weekend.

The defending NL champs have done their best to keep from falling into a hole. Nothing's worked. Manager Clint Hurdle has juggled the lineup on an almost-daily basis, but the Rocks are still in the bottom half of the league in runs. Second base is a gaping hole, the team's star shortstop, Troy Tulowitzki , is on the disabled list, their young pitchers ( Ubaldo Jimenez and Franklin Morales ) have had disastrous starts, ace Jeff Francis is scuffling, veteran starter Mark Redman was banished to the bullpen then waived altogether, and the team already has switched closers from Manny Corpas to Brian Fuentes . Rock-tober is over.

In his past six games, Houston 's Lance Berkman is hitting .681. As in six, eight, one. His week started with a five-for-five effort against the Nationals last Tuesday (part of a string of eight straight hits) and didn't let up through a three-game series with the Dodgers over the weekend. In that stretch, he has a pair of homers and five RBIs (giving him 36 in the Astros ' 38 games this season). Berkman 's also on a 10-game hitting streak in which he's hitting .590. The surprising Astros , not coincidentally, are 8-2 during Berkman 's tear and are now just 1 ½ games behind the Cubs in the National League Central .

The new darlings of the thrifty set, the NL East -leading Marlins (payroll: baseball-bottom $22 million and change) have ripped off a seven-game winning streak against the Padres , Brewers and Nationals . Before Sunday's game, they were hitting .310 with nine home runs in the previous six games. They also had pitched well in the first six games of the streak, with a 1.67 ERA and a .171 batting average against. The closest game in the streak, before Sunday's, was a 3-0 shutout of the Brewers last Tuesday, in which Scott Olsen pitched 8 2/3 innings of two-hit ball. Sunday, Olsen pitched again, but it was Dan Uggla 's two homers that were the difference in the 5-4 win.