Seattle Mariners weekly recap: May 14th-20th edition

By Kshell

The Seattle Mariners just completed their 10 game road trip going 4-6 but ended it with a three game sweep at the Colorado Rockies. This week started off with back to back two game sweeps at the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians before recovering with a three game sweep at Colorado. For the Mariners this week wasn't all bad as much of the young bats continue to produce on this road trip. The main problem on this trip was the pitching mainly the bullpen which blew a 4-1 lead against the Cleveland Indians on  May 16th then Brandon League blew the save in extra innings as the Mariners lost 6-5. The Mariners did recover from that tough loss with a sweep which showed that this team is mentally tough. This team is just consistently inconsistent which is the sign of a young team. The Mariners did go 3-4 this week meaning I'll talk about the good(the young hitters), the bad(the pitchers including the Mariners 1-2 punch in the rotation) and the ugly(the bullpen which has been shaky this year).

The Good:

All the good that happened this week for the Mariners happened in interleague play with the sweep of the Colorado Rockies in Coors Field. The Mariners saw their young hitting core of Dustin Ackley, Kyle Seager, Jesus Montero, and Justin Smoak all have big weeks. This week also saw Kevin Millwood show that he still does have value on this team as he threw a complete game shutout in Coors Field this past Friday night. Some of the Mariners long relievers and secondary bullpen pieces pitched well this week. Just nice this team bounce back from that horrible series in Boston where they didn't compete and the disaster in Cleveland where they blew a four run lead. The Mariners took it to the Colorado Rockies and that was led by their youngsters despite what Eric Wedge wanting more veterans these young guys need to continue to grow.

Good Hitting:

Justin Smoak: 7-25(.280), HR, run, 2 RBI's
Kyle Seager: 7-28(.250), HR, 4 runs, 6 RBI's, SB
Ichiro: 8-31(.258), 5 runs, RBI, 3 SB's
Jason Vargas: 1-3(.333), run, RBI, BB
Jesus Montero: 5-20(.250), HR, 2 runs, 3 RBI, 3 BB's
Michael Saunders: 7-27(.259), 2 runs, 2 RBI's, SB, 3 XBH's
Brendan Ryan: 5-19(.263), 4 runs, RBI, SB, 3 BB's
Dustin Ackley: 9-31(.290), HR, 5 runs, 4 RBI's, 2 SB's

Good Pitching:

Kevin Millwood: 1-0, 9 IP, CG, SHO, 0.00 ERA, 0.33 WHIP, 7 K's
Charlie Furbush: 4.2 IP, 1.93 ERA, 0.43 WHIP, 4 K's
Shawn Kelly: 4.2 IP, 1.93 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 4 K's
Hisashi Iwakuma: 4 IP, 2.25 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 4 K's
Hector Noesi: 6.1 IP, 1.42 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 5 K's

The North Carolina Tarheels connection is starting to pay off lately. For this year in 140 AB's Kyle Seager is hitting .286/.308/.486 with five home runs, 17 runs and 26 RBI's. Seager is looking like a main stay for the Mariners whether he sticks at third base or moves to short stop.

Dustin Ackley #2 hitter: Hit .221/.275/.305 in 102 PA's with just one home run, 10 runs and 6 RBI's. He had 19 K's to just seven walks.

Dustin Ackley now as a leadoff hitter: Hitting .294/.368/.456 in 76 PA's. Has two home runs, 12 runs, 8 RBI's. He has 13 K's to eight walks.

As you can see Ackley is hitting a lot better since moving to leadoff which is important for the growth of the franchise.

Bad:

The road trip ended well with the sweep but it was looking like a complete disaster before that. Felix Hernandez got rocked twice on this road trip as the Mariners went 4-6 including his worst start of the year against the Cleveland Indians when he couldn't get past the fourth inning. The Mariners still aren't beating good teams this year and seeing Hernandez getting rocked was tough to watch. The other Mariners All-Star who had a bad week was Brandon League who blew the save on Wednesday then got rough up in a mop up role yesterday. The Mariners blew a 4-0 lead on Wednesday and what made it sting the most was Steve Delabar giving up a three-run home run to Jose Lopez in the eighth inning to up the game. Yes former Mariner Jose Lopez who has since bounced around baseball hit that shot.

This week saw some good hitting there wasn't too many hitters who struggled minus one in particular in Alex Liddi who is starting to go back to his bad traits from Tacoma where he is striking out a lot. The Mariners week was bad but like I stated it was saved at the end. Just was tough seeing their two best pitchers in Hernandez and Jason Vargas have such a bad week although Vargas did bounce back against Colorado pitching well.

Bad Hitting:

Alex Liddi: 2-17(.117), 9 K's
Mike Carp: 2-10(.200), 2 HR's, 2 runs, 2 RBI's, 3 K's
John Jaso: 2-10(.200), 2 runs, 2 RBI's, K
Casper Wells: 2-10(.200), run, 2 RBI's, K

Bad Pitching:

Felix Hernandez: 0-1, 3.2 IP, 14.71 ERA, 3.54 WHIP, 3 K's
Jason Vargas: 1-1, 13 IP, 5.53 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 4 K's, 3 HR's allowed
Blake Beavan: 1-1, 9 IP, 5.00 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, 11 K's
Steve Delabar: 2.2 IP, BS, 10.11 ERA, 1.87 WHIP, 3 K's
Brandon League: 0-1, BS, 1.1 IP, 27.00 ERA, 6.76 WHIP, 2 K's

This week saw Hernandez and Vargas go a combined 1-2 having thrown only 16.2 innings with a 8.63 ERA and 1.73 WHIP with only 7 K's. The Mariners won't have too many successful road trips if those two pitch like that.

The Ugly:

The Ugly this week was the bullpen melting down and in particular this season. If a starting pitcher has a 3.60 ERA which is above average for a reliever to match that he must have a 2.00 ERA. None of the Mariners relievers have close to that. The bullpen struggled once again this past week highlighted by that Cleveland game where they blew a 4-1 lead then League blew a 5-4 lead in the 11th inning. This week in only 1 1/3 innings League allowed four runs and nine base runners. This wasn't a case of League getting unlucky as he allowed six base hits and three walks. League has been very shaky this season as has the rest of the pen. The Mariners would be wise to trade League very quickly before he loses all of his value. More bullpen blowups like this and the Mariners will be hurting. They will also be regretting how they didn't deal League sooner and acquire some pieces.

Ugly Pitching:

Brandon League: 0-3, 8 saves, 3 blown saves, 18.1 IP, 3.93 ERA, 1.58 WHIP, .275 BAA, 11 K's(5.40 K's per 9). Nothing about his stats look good at all as his ERA is high for a closer, his WHIP is really high and his K's per 9 is horrible.

Tom Wilhelmsen: 1-1, blown save, 6 holds, 21.1 IP, 3.80 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, .262 BAA, 26 K's(10.97 K's per 9).  Wilhelmsen is the Mariners top setup man and also has a high ERA for a reliever plus WHIP and BAA. At least he records strikeouts unlike League.

Steve Delabar: 1-0, blown save, 3 holds, 19.1 IP, 5.12 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, .186 BAA, 24 K's(11.17 K's per 9). What is hurting Delabar is he has already allowed six home runs as the rest of his numbers are fantastic but the ERA is unacceptable.

The Mariners aren't a good team and their bullpen is making their record even worse as they have recorded six blown saves on the year while recording only eight saves. That isn't going to cut it at all and if this group doesn't improve changes will have to be made.

Al West Standings:

Texas Rangers: 26-16, first place
Oakland A's: 21-21, 5.0 GB
Seattle Mariners: 19-24, 7.5 GB
L.A. Angels: 18-24, 8.0 GB

If the Mariners have any shot at fooling their fans into thinking they can do something this year now is the time to do it. The Mariners play host to the Texas Rangers this week for three games then the L.A. Angels for four games. The following week the Mariners travel to Texas for three games. Both of these teams have kicked the Mariners ass the last couple of seasons. Now is the time to see if the Mariners young kids are up for the challenge. This is a streaky team but boring ole consistency like taking two out of three every series is what the playoff ball clubs do. The Mariners aren't there yet and won't be for a couple of more seasons it appears.

SSB Weekly Rant: May 12-18th edition

By Kshell

This week on the 32nd anniversary of Mt. St. Helens erupting which shook up the northwest for the worst especially my home town down in South Washington I'll be doing my weekly rant. The mountain erupting is very symbolic of the Seattle Mariners who have lost four games in a row and are currently 1-6 on this road trip. The Mariners should have did what the Seahawks are doing under Pete Carroll which is blow the team up completely instead of messing around with washed up veterans. Anyways with the NBA playoffs going on and today marking the 16th season of interleague play in baseball there is plenty to talk about this week. I'll start off with the baseball talk as the Mariners are taking on the Colorado Rockies.

This weekend the Seattle Mariners take on the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. The Mariners are 13-12 all-time against the Rockies but only 4-7 at Coors Field. The Mariners first ever interleague game was against the Rockies at the old Kingdome in which the Mariners won 12-11 back in 1997 in which Bobby Ayala recorded the save. The Mariners dominated this series early on from 1997-2002 going 12-7 against the Rockies but have gone just 1-5 since. I know some fans are tired of interleague play but personally I still like it. I know with free agency you have the chance to see most every player but there are some you don't get a chance to see.  It was nice seeing Tony Gwynn, Barry Bonds, Greg Maddux and Sammy Sosa playing at Safeco Field. It was nice seeing Ken Griffey Jr having his return to Seattle which let him know that the city of Seattle still loves him so he could return in 2009(I'll pretend 2010 never happened). I think interleague play still has a place in this game and was one of the better things that Bud Selig has ever done in his time as commisioner.

The Miami Heat are in serious trouble right now with Chris Bosh being out for this playoff series as the Heat have lost back to back games to the Indiana Pacers in Bosh absence. If the Heat fail to win a title again these clips of their celebration and Dan LeBatard's rant about the Heat are becoming more and more hilarious on the unintentional comeday scale. The Heat are down 2-1 and with Bosh down they are in danger of losing this series. Even if the Heat escape this series alive I don't see them beating the Boston Celtics next round and definately can't see them beating the Zombie Sonics or the San Antonio Spurs. The Heat could possibly go down as the biggest joke in sports history if they fail to win a title with the "big three" . Bosh going down has hurt the team but there is absolutely no excuse to lose to the Pacers when you still feature by far and away the two best players on the court in Dwyane Wade and Lebron James. This is their legacy right now on the line as those two choked away game two and failed to even show up for game three. Those two made the ridiculous statements and there is no turning back now. Time for those two to finally step up or they can continue to point fingers at their coach or their teammates. Years from now nobody is going to remember that Mike Miller wasn't very good they'll remember that the trio of Lebron, Wade and Bosh choked!

Sports is kind of funny cause there is always that one team that you hated but respect so much you actually start to like them. That is how I feel about the San Antonio Spurs. I've never been a big fan of Tim Duncan but there is something about how consistent he is. The Spurs are the exact opposite of the Heat. They aren't flashy, their stars don't make stupid statements, you don't see them on commercials. Instead they just win and win titles. Duncan has won four championships and three have came with teammates Manu Ginaboli and Tony Parker. I figured the Spurs would be done by now as their age had caught up to them but instead they have posted the NBA's best record two years in a row. The Spurs this postseason are 6-0 and have yet to really be challenged. Everyone assumes the Zombie Sonics will make the Finals but I feel like we are all sleeping on the Spurs. In a way a Boston Celtics-San Antonio Spurs finals would be special. It would show that good ole fassion team work, hard work and accountability still exists in today's game. The Spurs are the real deal and I think they are going to end up winning the championship which would give Duncan five titles. Could that put him in the top five players of all-time? Perhaps it can. Duncan may be boring but he is also a winner.

Well guys that is my weekly rant for this week. The Spurs just have something special about them and I thought I'd never root for them in my life yet I find myself pulling for them right now. They are the opposite of the "South Beach" media hype machine and there is something redeeming about that. The Spurs represent what is right about the NBA while "South Beach" represents what is wrong with the league. Judging by Chris Hansen's recent press conference the NBA appears to be returning to Seattle very soon. I won't write about it until it's official as I don't want to jinx anything. Once again thanks for reading my weekly rant and I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.