Seattle Mariners weekly review: May 30th-June 5th edition

By Kshell

The Seattle Mariners completed another successful week going 5-2. The Mariners in the past three weeks have gone 15-5. This is the first time since 2001 when the club won 116 games where they have won six straight series. The Mariners this week took the Baltimore Orioles two out of three then whooped up on the Tampa Bay Rays winning three of four. The starting pitching was terrific this week having thrown seven quality starts out of seven. The hitting picked it up against the Rays as well hitting nine home runs against the Rays. The Mariners pitching is keeping the team in the game while the hitting is starting to come around. This week I'll go over the good(which features a ton of pitchers), the bad(the same guy every week) and the awesome(more on our pitching). Like I said in the past it's always better to write about the good weeks than the bad weeks which the Mariners have been doing a great job lately.

The Good:

There was plenty of good this week for the Mariners to write about. The hitting started to show off some power including two great comebacks. One game the Mariners trailed 2-0 with two outs in the eighth inning when Justin Smoak hit a three run home run. Then yesterday against the Rays the Mariners rallied from 3-0 and 6-5 down to win led by Miguel Olivo who hit a three run home run. Of course the pitching this week has been terrific as usual. I feel as if I'm always putting a ton of pitchers on the "good" list because they have been lights out this past month. We also saw Jason Vargas for the first time in his major league or minor league career throw a complete game shutout over the Rays on Friday. So here we go the best of the best this week.

Good Hitting:

Adam Kennedy: 6-19(.315), HR, 5 RBI's, 4 runs
Justin Smoak: 5-24(.208), 3 HR's, 6 RBI's, 4 runs
Carlos Peguero: 5-17(.294), 2 HR's, 4 RBI's, 6 runs
Miguel Olivo: 7-23(.304), 3 HR's, 8 RBI's, 4 runs

Good Pitching:

Jason Vargas: 1-0, 9 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.55 WHIP, 4 K's
Felix Hernandez: 1-0, 7 IP, 1.28 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 11 K's
Michael Pineda: 7 IP, 1.28 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 7 K's
Erik Bedard: 13.1 IP, 3.37 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 14 K's
Doug Fister: 1-1, 14.1 IP, 3.76 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 15 K's
Chris Ray: 1-0, 2.2 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 4 K's
Brandon League: 3 saves, 3 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.33 WHIP, 2 K's

The Bad:

Luckily for the Mariners lately there hasn't been much bad going on. However there are two hitters who have been slumping badly now for a month. The pitching list only has one pitcher who had a rough week and hopefully it was just that. Mainly the hitting has been slumping especially the table setters. Ichiro and Chone Figgins were supposed to get on base, steal bases and cause lots of runs. Instead both are slumping especially Figgins for the past month. The Mariners despite 27 million(on those two) and another 12 million on Milton Bradley are playing well despite nearly half of their payroll giving them nothing.

Slumping Hitting:

Ichiro: 6-29(.206), 2 RBI's, 5 runs, 2 SB's, 4 K's
Chone Figgins: 2-18(.111), RBI, run, 6 K's
Franklin Gutierrez: 0-18(.000), run

Slumping Pitching:

Jamey Wright: 1-1, BS, Hold, 2.1 IP, 15.45 ERA, 2.14 WHIP, K

Chone Figgins on the season is hitting .186/.225/.248 . Since May 1st he is hitting 17-107(.158) with just four walks and four stolen bases.

Ichiro since May 1st is hitting 26-127(.204) with just four stolen bases and three caught stealing. Pretty amazing how the Mariners are doing so well with these two slumping so badly.

The Awesome:

The Mariners have won 15 of their last 20 games which is extremely impressive. During that stretch the team is averaging 4.1 runs a game while posting an ERA of 2.47 during that stretch. The Mariners offense is slowly coming around while the pitching is just been dominating as of late. If the Mariners can reach the playoffs they would be a team that nobody would want to face due to their great starting pitching. The team has surprised everyone so far as many including myself picked them to finish last place. The pitching staff everyone figured would be pretty good but nobody thought they'd be this amazing.

Amazing Pitching:

Mariners team pitching: 31-28, 3.32 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, .240 BAA, 16 saves

Felix Hernandez: 6-4, 91.2 IP, 3.04 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 92 K's, .223 BAA
Michael Pineda: 6-2, 70.1 IP, 2.30 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 73 K's, .196 BAA
Erik Bedard: 3-4, 65.0 IP, 3.46 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 59 K's, .247 BAA
Doug Fister: 3-6, 79.1 IP, 3.29 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 56 K's, .273 BAA
Jason Vargas: 4-3, 75.0 IP, 3.96 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 48 K's, .252 BAA

David Pauley: 4-0, 3 Holds, 35.1 IP, 0.76 ERA, 0.68 WHIP, 20 K's, .157 BAA
Jamey Wright: 2-2, 11 holds, 26.2 IP, 2.70 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 17 K's, .232 BAA
Aaron Laffey: 0-1, 2 holds, 26.1 IP, 2.05 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 13 K's, .235 BAA
Brandon League:0-4, 16 saves, 25.0 IP, 4.68 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 17 K's,.253 BAA

As you can see the Mariners starting pitching has been incredible this season. The pitching is keeping this team in it and so is the bullpen. The pitching staff has been carrying this team all year long. If the hitting can keep producing like they did this past week the Mariners can make some noise in this AL West.

American League West Standings:

Texas Rangers: 34-26, First Place
Seattle Mariners: 31-28, 2.5 GB
LA Angels: 30-31, 4.5 GB
Oakland A's: 27-33, 7.0 GB

The Seattle Mariners behind first year manager Eric Wedge are trying to surprise everyone. They are hoping to pull a 2010 San Francisco Giants where they sneak into the playoffs then ride the pitching. This run was nice for a week but now that it has extended for three weeks I think the fans are starting to buy in. Before you know it Safeco Field will be packed again. This pitching staff will keep the team in every game as the mariners don't have a bad pitcher in their starting rotation. This ride has been fun for three weeks now hopefully this ride never ends.

Seattle Mariners weekly review May 9th-15th edition

By Kshell

What a terrible week for the Seattle Mariners which saw the team lose all four games this week. To make things worst the Mariners had a lead going into the final at bat in three of those losses then were rained out in Cleveland. So the Mariners went 0-4 on this road trip and will have to make up two more games in Cleveland. The Mariners are currently on a six game losing streak which saw them lose four games in the final at bat. To say the Mariners are going through their roughest stretch of the season would be an understatement. What happened against the Baltimore Orioles was horrible as the Mariners lost two games in extra innings in which they had the lead. The Mariners still aren't hitting and the once reliable bullpen mainly Brandon League has given fans flashbacks of Bobby Ayala this past week. Like I've done in the past I'll break down the good(that was hard), the bad(way too many) and the ugly(where do I begin?).

The Good:

The good this week was again the starting pitching which saw them get three good performances of the three starts. The Mariners besides League had good pitching performances from their bullpen as well. Whenever a team goes 0-4 and isn't hitting I find myself grasping at straws to fill out the good. The hitting wasn't good as the usual suspects like Ichiro and Justin Smoak didn't kill the ball. Instead the Mariners really only had one hitter step up which was Jack Cust who appears to finally coming around.

Hitting Stars:

Jack Cust: 6-16(.375), run, 3 walks
Jack Wilson: 2-6(.333), run
Justin Smoak: 3-13(.231), HR, 3 RBI's, run, 4 walks

Pitching Stars:

Jason Vargas: 9 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 4 K's
Doug Fister: 8 IP, 2.25 ERA, 0.63 WHIP, 6 K's
Aaron Laffey: 3 IP, 0.00 ERA, 2.67 WHIP, 2 K's
David Pauley: 4 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 2 K's

The Bad:

Whenever you go 0-4 there is plenty of bad for the week. The Mariners parted ways with Milton Bradley and Ryan Langerhans but still got no production from left field. The Mariners Cy Young award winner Felix Hernandez was roughed up as well. The Mariners saw closer Brandon League have one of the worst weeks a reliever could possibly have as he blew three saves and went 0-3 this week. Dating back to Sunday League is 0-4 with a 30.00 ERA in his last four outings. The Mariners saw themselves get swept by the Baltimore Orioles then lose a heartbreaker to the Cleveland Indians in Eric Wedge's homecoming back to Cleveland. The Mariners will also have to make up some games but given the way they were playing that rain out could have been a good thing.

Hitting Bad:

Brendan Ryan: 2-12(.166), RBI, run, 2 K's
Miguel Olivo: 2-12(.166), 2 RBI's, run, 3 K's
Michael Saunders: 3-17(.176), HR, RBI, 3 runs, 5 K's
Carlos Peguero/Mike Wilson: 2-17(.117), HR, run, 2 RBI's, 5 K's

Pitching Bad:

Felix Hernandez: 0-1, 5 IP, 7.20 ERA, 2.00 WHIP, 4 K's
Brandon League: 0-3, 3 blown saves, 1.2 IP, 37.72 ERA, 5.40 WHIP, K

The Ugly:

The terrible defense and lack of hitting by the Mariners continues to be a major problem. The defense isn't making any outs unless the ball is hit right directly at them. While the hitting still isn't hitting at all on the year as the team features just one .300 hitter. The Mariners have just two regular everyday hitters who are hitting above .250 which simply won't cut it. In the American League you have to be able to hit the ball or you simply can't win scoring piss poor low totals. The closer problems of League are magnified because the team can't hit ever to blow anyone out.

Ugly Hitting:

Seattle Mariners team: .228/.302/.326 which is a terrible line for a player let alone an entire team. The Mariners currently rank 29th out of 30 teams in home runs, batting average, slugging percentage and on base+slugging percentage. The Mariners rank 28th in runs and hits while ranking 27th in runs batted in and on base percentage. So the Mariners rank in the bottom four in all of baseball in home runs, batting average, OBP, OPS, runs, hits and RBI's. That won't get the job done at all.

Michael Saunders: .171/.225/.270 with 32 K's in 111 AB's(3.5:1 ratio). Saunders makes me beg for the Jeremy Reed days in center that is how pathetic he has been. He was once a promising prospect but it appears he is destined to be quadruple A material for this franchise.

Miguel Olivo: .207/.250/.276 with 32 K's in 116 AB's with only two home runs. This is the Mariners clean up hitter.....ladies and gentlemen your 2011 Seattle Mariners.

American League West standings:

L.A. Angels: 22-19, first place
Texas Rangers: 21-19, 0.5 GB
Oakland A's: 20-20, 1.5 GB
Seattle Mariners: 16-23, 5.0 GB

The Mariners still can't hit so while it's fun to bitch and moan about Brandon League the real problem isn't going away. No matter who Wedge puts in the clean up hole odds are he will suck since Ichiro and Smoak are the only two hitters on this roster. This was a terribly ball club built by a third year general manager. Yes Jackie Z inherited a mess from Bill Bavasi but he isn't helping that mess. To date he sounds like Tyrone Willingham who made nothing but excuses about his mess he inherited while failing to mention he isn't doing shit about the mess. The Mariners hitting we all knew was going to be a disaster and Dustin Ackley better be called up soon because this is beyond pathetic. The Mariners better spend at least 40 million this offseason on hitting or the fans will continue to not show up.