Seattle Mariners weekly review: June 6th-12th edition

By Kshell

The Seattle Mariners hot winning ways ended this week as they went just 3-4 on the road. The Mariners lost two out of three in Chicago against the White Sox and then split a four game series with the Detroit Tigers. The Mariners hitting wasn't that great this week and the pitching unlike previous weeks wasn't that good either. The Mariners did a good job surviving the rough week by going 3-4 and winning getting the split in Detroit. The Mariners had some young guys step up at the plate while the same guys continued to struggle. Since the Mariners lost this week I'll be doing my the good(Smoak back), the bad(Rough week for Pineda) and the ugly(Ichiro and Figgins). These reviews were more fun when the Mariners had winning weeks that is for sure.

The Good:

The good this week was the hitting of Justin Smoak who appears to have ended his slump. The young first baseman is having a nice year as the full-time first baseman and shows the future is bright. The Mariners also had nice production from Carlos Peguero and Franklin Gutierrez. The pitching saw two relievers bounce back greatly from earlier slumps in the year. The starting pitching saw two left handed pitchers throw good games which would eventually turn into wins for the team. The Mariners survived a week going 3-4 considering Felix Hernandez and Michael Pineda went just 1-3 on the week. Well I'll break down the good of the week which saw some nice hitting from some guys.

Hitting stars:

Justin Smoak: 7-26(.269), 2 HR's, 4 RBI's, 2 runs
Carlos Peguero: 4-15(.266), HR, RBI, 3 runs
Franklin Gutierrez: 6-23(.260), 3 RBI's, SB
Greg Hallman: 5-14(.357), 3 runs, SB

Pitching stars:

Jason Vargas: 7.1 IP, 3.68 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 4 K's
Erik Bedard: 5 IP, 3.60 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 6 K's
Brandon League: 2 saves, 3 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.33 WHIP, 3 K's
Chris Ray: 1-0, 3.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.00 WHIP, 3 K's

Brandon League since blowing up on May 8th-May 13th has been pretty good. Since then he has nine saves in nine save opportunities. Has pitched 12 IP allowing zero runs and has a whip of 0.50. He also has seven strikeouts. League currently leads the American League with 18 saves.

Remember when Chris Ray was bad? In just 5.1 IP he had allowed 10 ER's making his ERA 16.88. He had only one strikeout and his WHIP was 2.62.
Well since then he has pitched 13 innings allowing just one ER. During that stretch his ERA has been 0.69 with a whip of 0.84. He also has 13 K's. Remember Ray started the year off as our setup man. We are starting to see why.

The Bad:

Well the Mariners had a losing week this week was pretty bad. The Mariners lost two of three in Chicago then salvaged the trip with a split in Detroit. The Mariners saw their two best pitchers each get lit up this week where Hernandez and Pineda went 1-3 on the week. The continued hitting slump of Ichiro and Chone Figgins is hurting the team. Although Ichiro ended the week on a high note overally both him and Figgins were terrible this week. The Mariners also saw eighth inning setup man Jamey Wright get blown up again and Eric Wedge has moved him to sixth inning duty.

Bad hitting:

Chone Figgins: 4-18(.222), run, SB, CS, 3 K's
Ichiro: 5-25(.200), 3 runs, RBI, 3 K's
Adam Kennedy: 4-20(.200), 3 runs, RBI, SB, 2 K's
Miguel Olivo: 4-24(.167), 3 HR's, 7 RBI's, 4 runs, 8 K's

Slumping pitching:

Michael Pineda: 0-2, 12.1 IP, 5.11 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 7 K's
Felix Hernandez: 1-1, 14.2 IP, 4.90 ERA, 1.63 WHIP, 11 K's
Jamey Wright: BS, 2.1 IP, 7.72 ERA, 2.57 WHIP, ZERO K's

The Ugly:

Well the Mariners 1-2 speed punch of Ichiro and Chone Figgins has been pretty bad all season long. Pretty incredible that the Mariners are still winning despite those two slumping. The Mariners are paying those two 27 million yet they are struggling. The Mariners through this rough stretch by them are still playing well. The Mariners actually gained some ground on the standings which was good to see. I'll show you the numbers of both guys on why they are slumping.

Ugly hitting:

Chone Figgins: .189/.238/.250 for the season and this is June 13th. Those are beyond terrible numbers. He is currently the worst everyday player in the major leagues according to WAR which is wins above replacement level.

Figgins in April hit .214/.261/.311 then in May he hit .163/.198/.196 and now in June hitting .182/.270/.212. He only has eight stolen bases in 14 attempts on the year. He is playing terrible and not even getting steals.

Ichiro: .258/.311/.306 for the season. This is pretty late in the year for him to be struggling this badly. In April Ichiro hit .328/.380/.378 then it all went downhill for Ichiro in May. In May he hit .210/.270/.238 then in June he's been even worse hitting .191/.224/.277. He has just four stolen bases since May 1st after stealing 10 in April. Hopefully Ichiro is just slumping and April wasn't his last ditch effort.

AL West Standings:

Texas Rangers: 36-31, first place
Seattle Mariners: 34-32, 1.5 GB
LA Angels: 31-36, 5.0 GB
Oakland A's: 28-39, 8.0 GB

At the end of the day the Mariners are slowly distancing themselves from the Angels and the Athletics while closing the gap on the Texas Rangers. Eric Wedge has his team playing some good ball right now. The hitting is struggling but the pitching is picking up the slack. The Mariners are winning despite getting lack of production from Ichiro and Figgins. The Mariners are finding ways to win despite the lack of hitting. The pitching has been great and it's nice to see June games matter unlike the past two of three seasons. This is a big week for the Mariners as they host the Angels and the Philadelphia Phillies. Hopefully the fans turn out for the Mariners this week because you'll witness some good pitching.