Talking Points: Every team has someone to hate

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Sporting News says every Major League Baseball team has a public enemy No. 1, the most hated person in the history of the franchise. Often it’s the team’s owner, like in Minnesota, where Carl Pohlad twice tried to kill the team.

Sporting News says enemy No. 1 for the Mariners is Alex Rodriguez, who bolted Seattle for division-rival Texas and a 10-year deal worth $252 million. Rodriguez could make the same list for Texas or the Yankees.

But A-Rod should not be in the top 3. Former M’s owners George Argyros and Jeff Smulyan top the list. Argyros, a real estate investor and former ambassador to Spain, ran the team on a shoestring budget from 1981 to 1989. He sold the media mogul Smulyan of Indiana, who also ran the team on as little payroll as possible.

The worst on-field player for the M’s was Bobby Ayala, the definition of a reliever non-grata. Ayala was 1-10 with a 7.29 ERA in 1998 with nine blown saves to compensate for eight saves in 62 appearances. Ayala is No. 63 on Deadspin’s list of baseball’s worst 100 players.

Ayala’s name has become synomous for a volcanic bullpen that has featured Heathcliff Slocumb, Omar Olivares and Bob Wells.

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Willie Bloomquist is coming back to the Mariners. He signed a two-year deal for $2.8 million in 2014 and $3 million in 2015.

Of note, Bloomquist is No. 72 on Deadspin’s list of the 100 worst players in Major League Baseball history.

Kevin Cacabelos of sbnation.com describes Bloomquist as “a compendium of bad clichés. He is the utility player who can allegedly help your team with his defensive versatility despite not fielding exceptionally well anywhere. He’s the scrappy hustling little guy — working his butt off to help the team with his intangibles, but actually hurting the team with his inability to hit.”