Seattle Mariners weekly review: July 25th-July 31st edition

By Kshell

The Seattle Mariners just completed the week losing two of three to the New York Yankees then two of three to the Tampa Bay Rays. The Mariners did snap their franchise record 17 game losing streak this week with a 9-2 win over the Yankees. The Mariners went 2-4 and also traded three players from their team and designated Jack Cust for assignment. The Mariners have gone through some major changes from their roster compared to the roster they had on opening day. The Mariners find themselves in last place for the third time in four seasons and they still aren't hitting. The Mariners also received some bad pitching this week as well from two left handed starters. The Mariners did see both of their all-star pitchers rise to the occasion this week which was nice to see. So the Mariners went 2-4 which means I'll be doing a good(all-star pitchers), the bad(tons of hitters and three left handed pitchers) and the ugly(second half woes plus Jack Cust).

The Good:

The Mariners just completed a 2-4 week but there was some bright spots this past week. One of the bright spots was the Mariners finally won a game after losing 17 straight. Another positive was seeing all-star pitchers Felix Hernandez and Michael Pineda bounce back from poor outings to have strong outings this week each picking up the win. The Mariners also saw Dustin Ackley continue to hit while Mike Carp is taking advantage of playing every single day in left field. The Mariners also saw their bullpen arms pitch pretty well. The Mariners still aren't scoring enough runs but it is nice to see two guys who began the year in Tacoma really hitting the ball well. It was especially nice to see the Mariners two aces rebound from a tough week with dominating performances each earning a hard earned win for the Mariners who desperatly need as many victories as possible.

Good Hitting:

Dustin Ackley: 7-20(.350), HR, 5 RBI's, 4 runs, .458 OB%
Mike Carp: 7-21(.333) 5 RBI's, 2 runs, .391 OB%
Ichiro: 6-24(.250), RBI, 4 runs, 2 SB's

Good Pitching:

Felix Hernandez: 1-0, 7 IP, 1.28 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 5 K's
Michael Pineda: 1-0, 6.1 IP, 1.42 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, 10 K's
Josh Lueke: 2 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.00 WHIP, 2 K's
Chris Ray: 4 IP, 2.25 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 2 K's
Jamey Wright: 4 IP, 2.25 ERA, 0.50 WHIP, 3 K's
Brandon League: 2 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.00 WHIP, K, Save
Doug Fister: 0-1, 7 IP, 3.86 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 5 K's

For Doug Fister, Erik Bedard and David Pauley they were traded away and all had good seasons.

Erik Bedard: 4-7, 91.1 IP, 3.45 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 87 K's
David Pauley: 5-4, 54.1 IP, 2.15 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, 34 K's, 7 holds
Doug Fister: 3-12, 146.0 IP, 3.33 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 89 K's

These Mariners pitchers will be missed and replacing their value won't be as easy as some Mariners fans may think.

The Bad:

When you go 2-4 for the week there has been plenty of bad. When twice this week a pitcher has flirted with a no-hitter against you there is plenty of bad. The Mariners hitters are in a season long slump and this isn't just Chone Figgins who is slumping. Since May Miguel Olivo and Justin Smoak have been just as awful as Figgins not to mention Franklin Gutierrez who has been terrible as well. The Mariners also saw two left handed pitchers get rocked as well. In the case of Bedard his Mariners career is over so no sense stressing over that. In the case of Jason Vargas who I'll talk about later in this post in more depth he has had a horrible second half which is exactly what happened last season. The Mariners are showing some red flags that is concerning for the future mainly in Vargas and Smoak. It apears Smoak still hasn't adjusted to teams adjusting to him. The same could be said towards Vargas who is once again struggling in the second half of the season.

Bad Hitting:

Justin Smoak: 2-17(.117), RBI, 3 runs, 8 K's
Jack Cust: 1-5(.200), run, 3 K's
Miguel Olivo: 1-16(.062), 9 K's
Adam Kennedy: 4-18(.222), RBI, 2 runs, 4 K's
Brendan Ryan: 3-24(.125), RBI, run, 8 K's
Greg Halman: 0-5(.000), 2 K's
Franklin Gutierrez: 4-19(.210), RBI, 5 K's

Bad Pitching:

Jason Vargas: 0-2, 9.1 IP, 7.71 ERA, 1.92 WHIP, 8 K's
Aaron Laffey: 1.2 IP, 16.16 ERA, 3.59 WHIP, 2 K's
Erik Bedard: 0-1, 1.1 IP, 33.75 ERA, 5.25 WHIP, 2 K's

Justin Smoak has been awful in the month of July hitting just .141/.211/.188 in 85 AB's this month. He has zero home runs and just four RBI's while striking out 24 times(28.2%) to just 8 walks(9.4%) which isn't good. He's hit under .230 for three straight months now which suggests maybe this is a trend and not a slump.

Miguel Olivo has been terrible since May. In June he hit just .189/.196/.489 in 90 AB's. He had belted eight home runs while driving in 19 guys. He also struck out 26 times(28.8%) to just one walk(1.1%) which is awful. Then in July he managed to hit even worse by hitting .188/.188/.304 in 69 AB's. He has belted just two home runs while driving in eight guys. He has struck out 22 times(31.8%) to zero walks(0.0%) in the month of July. Olivo was terrible his first stint with the Mariners and he is just another Jack Zduriencik failed free agent signing.

The Ugly:

There has been plenty of ugly going around with this Mariners franchise. Last season the Mariners saw their #3 hitter Casey Kotchman flop, #4 hitter Milton Bradley flop and #5 hitter Ken Griffey Jr suddenly retire. Well this year has seen their #3 hitter Bradley get released less than a month into the season, their #4 hitter Jack Cust was recently DFA'd while their #5 hitter Justin Smoak has been awful other than April. I don't care how many speedsters you have if your 3-4-5 guys are terrible chances are your offense will be terrible as well.

Ugly Hitting:

Jack Cust: For the season hit .213/.344/.329 in 225 AB's. He had just 3 HR's while driving in 23 runs. He struck out 87 times(38.6%) while walking 44 times(19.5%). Now his walking was good but he was also brought in for some power. He had a home run every 75 AB's was just awful considering he was striking out two out of every five at bats. This is the second straight season the Mariners have received nothing from DH or left field. Not to mention the nothing from third base this year, almost nothing from catcher and nothing from center field. When you receive that much nothing no wonder your offense is going to the shitter quick.

Ugly Pitching:

Jason Vargas 2011 second half: 0-4, 18.1 IP, 8.84 ERA, 2.29 WHIP, 11 K's.
Jason Vargas 2011 first half: 6-6, 121.1 IP, 3.49 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 81 K's

Jason Vargas 2010 second half: 3-8, 85.0 IP, 4.66 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 48 K's.
Jason Vargas 2010 first half: 6-4, 107.2 IP, 3.09 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 68 K's

Jason Vargas 2009 second half: 0-3, 28.0 IP, 7.39 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 13 K's
Jason Vargas 2009 first half: 3-3, 63.2 IP, 3.82 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 41 K's

As you can see Vargas in the second half has been downright terrible. In all three first halves he had ERA's in the low 3's while in the second half he fell apart. Hard to blame arm fatigue when this is becoming a pattern. The fact that Vargas is showing he might not be a second half pitcher should worry some fans about trading away Doug Fister.

AL West Standings:

Texas Rangers: 61-48, First Place
L.A. Angels: 59-50, 2.0 GB
Oakland A's: 49-59, 11.5 GB
Seattle Mariners: 45-62, 15.0 GB

In conclusion the Mariners end July on a terrible note going just 6-20 after starting off 4-1 too it has been just a disaster. The Mariners began the month only two games back of first place with the hope of being buyers. Instead the Mariners will most likely finish last place for sixth time since 2004. The Mariners despite having a future hall of famer in Ichiro will have finished last place six times with him on their team in his 11 seasons which is sad considering they didn't finish last his first three seasons. The Mariners appear to be a team just going through the motions and the pitching staff is finally breaking down. If Zduriencik does anything at all this offseason he needs to bring in some power bats. Like I explained the last two years the Mariners 3-4-5 which was questionable going into the season has proven to blow up in their faces during both years. The Mariners completed a tough stretch where they bombed terribly losing 19 of 21 games. Now the Mariners like they have done too many times recently are simply playing out the season.

Mariners trade Bedard in three team deal to Red Sox

By Kshell

The Seattle Mariners officially ended the Erik Bedard era in Seattle by trading him to the Boston Red Sox in a three team deal that brought back two outfield prospects. The Mariners have traded away two starting pitchers and a bullpen arm the last two days for three outfielders, a third baseman and a bullpen/starting pitcher. The Mariners under Jack Zduriencik are once again rebuilding trying to get younger. The Mariners offense this season has been horrible so the Mariners are hoping some of these prospects can pan out. With the Mariners traded Bedard this ends a frustrating three and a half year marriage that started off with so much promise. For those who remember previous GM Bill Bavasi traded away Adam Jones, George Sherrill and Chris Tillman for Bedard. Bedard was brought in to be the ace of the staff as the hope was he'd anchor the rotation in the playoffs. Instead the Mariners got only 46 starts from Bedard. Bedard in his years with the Mariners never pitched a single inning in August or September. In fact he hasn't pitched in September since 2006 and has never pitched in a playoff race.

What the Red Sox are acquiring is a pretty good starting pitcher when he is healthy. In his career with the Mariners Bedard made 46 starts with a 15-14 record throwing 255.1 innings with a 3.31 ERA. He posted a 1.22 WHIP with 249 strikeouts to 101 walks. This season Bedard who hadn't pitched in 2010 started the year off rough and has pitched great since then. He recently was on the DL and came back to make his final start for the Mariners lasting just 1.1 innings allowing five earned runs. For the season Bedard went 4-7 in 16 starts with a 3.45 ERA in 91.1 innings pitched. He posted 1.17 WHIP with 87 strikeouts to 30 walks. Bedard when he is on can be an ace as he showed in May posting a 1.39 ERA in 32.1 innings pitched. He had a 0.95 WHIP with 32 strikeouts to 9 walks. In June he posted a 2.25 ERA in 32 innings pitched. He had a 0.84 WHIP with 33 strikeouts to 6 walks. The Red Sox are acquiring a pretty good pitcher when healthy. The Red Sox also gained 2008 first round draft pick reliever Josh Fields from the Mariners. Fields this year in the minors in 29 games has pitched 39 innings posting a 3.92 ERA. He has a 1.53 WHIP with 39 strikeouts to 32 walks with three saves. In his brief career he has appeared in 81 games pitching 101 innings posting an ERA of 4.54. He has a WHIP of 1.51 with 103 strikeouts to 72 walks. The Red Sox didn't make this deal because of Fields it was for the chance to land a potential key playoff starter in Bedard.

The Mariners acquired Trayvon Robinson from the Dodgers organization and Chih-Hsien Chiang of the Red Sox. Both are in the minor leagues and both guys are putting up good seasons. First I'll start with the 23 year old Robinson who is in triple A. For his career he is hitting .283/.358/.436 in 2,441 career AB's. He has hit 64 home runs(HR every 38.1 AB's) with 697 strikeouts(28.5%) to 267 walks(10.9%) which isn't great. He also has 149 stolen bases in his career. For this season he is breaking out hitting .293/.375/.563 in 368 AB's. He has hit 26 home runs(HR every 14.1 AB's) with 122 strikeouts(33.1%) while walking 45 times(12.2%) with 8 stolen bases. Robinson like Casper Wells will be competing for a spot on next years roster. If Robinson doesn't crack the roster he'll provide depth for Tacoma.

The other player the Mariners got was Chih-Hsien Chiang who is also an outfielder. Chiang is a 23 year old in double A who has a career line of .284/.333/.460 in 1,887 career minor league at bats. He has hit 51 home runs(HR every 37 AB's) with 326 strikeouts(17.2%) to 126 walks(6.6%).This year in double A Portland(Maine) Chiang is hitting .338/.399/.647 in 317 AB's. He has hit 18 home runs(HR every 17.6 AB's) with 61 strikeouts(19.2%) to 25 walks(7.8%). When you look at Chiang's numbers you see improvement in his career and a guy who is a slugger. His strikeouts are about right while I'd like to see his walks increase. Chiang hopefully in a year or two can make the Mariners roster. For now he'll add organizational depth in the outfield as the Mariners are hurting in the outfield position. Zduriencik is hoping that one of these three outfielders he acquired in the past 48 hours can someday produce for the Mariners.

In conclusion, the Mariners we all knew were going to be sellers this trade deadline. The Mariners were pretty thin at the outfield position which is why Zduriencik traded for three outfielders hoping to help that weakness. The Mariners traded from a position of strength to help out a position of weakness. I know fans are tired of prospects as am I because rebuilding simply sucks. The Mariners are hoping with these deals they can have some major league depth down the road. While the Red Sox are preparing for the playoffs with a pitcher who proved this season he can be an ace. With Bedard he is such a wild card because he can give you a great outing or he can break down once again. The Mariners made some moves for more prospects so now as fans we have no choice but to wait and see. From all the reports I've read Zduriencik did well once again. Nobody has questioned Zduriencik eye for young talent. Now if Zduriencik can just apply that same strength to free agency we have ourselves a great general manager.

Seattle Mariners weekly review: June 27th-July 3rd edition

By Kshell

This week the Seattle Mariners completed another 2-4 week which saw them get swept at home to the Atlanta Braves but recover to take the San Diego Padres two out of three. The Mariners aren't playing well having lost 15 of their last 25 games including going 4-8 the last two weeks. The Mariners once again saw their starting pitching pitch great and yet received no wins. The Mariners hitters were silent once again and in particular two hitters have been killing them this season. The fans have been riding one hitter but have given the other hitter a free pass which I won't be doing with this weekly review. The Mariners were swept to the Braves despite throwing Erik Bedard who later landed on the DL, all-star hopeful Michael Pineda and all-star Felix Hernandez. Then against the Padres the Mariners saw their starting pitching throw 25 innings while allowing just two earned runs yet only won two of three games. So like I do in a losing week I'll go over the good(starting pitching), the bad(hitting) and the ugly(more hitting).

The Good:

This week the Mariners went just 2-4 but not everything was bad. The starting pitching the last two weeks has been pretty good despite the poor record. Against the San Diego Padres this season the Mariners went 5-1 with a 0.50 ERA in six games. The pitching like it has all season long has carried the team. The Mariners did see rookie sensation Dustin Ackley once again do well even though he had to sit out two games due to a bruise rib. The Mariners also saw the return of Jack Cust who hadn't started a game in over two weeks due to interleague play. The Mariners this week also saw the major league debut of Blake Beavan who was acquired in the Cliff Lee trade and he pitched terrific getting the win in his major league debut.

Good Hitting:

Dustin Ackley: 4-13(.308), HR, 4 RBI's, run, SB, .400 on base percentage
Jack Cust: 3-12(.250), HR, 4 RBI's, run, .400 on base percentage
Brendan Ryan: 6-22(.272), 4 runs, 3 SB's, .384 on base percentage
Greg Halman: 3-11(.272), SB

Good Pitching:

Jason Vargas: 1-0, 9 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.67 WHIP, 7 K's
Doug Fister: 0-1, 9 IP, 1.00 ERA, 0.77 WHIP, 7 K's
Blake Beavan: 1-0, 7 IP, 1.29 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, 4 K's
Erik Bedard: 0-1, 7 IP, 3.86 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, 5 K's
Brandon League: save, 2 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.00 WHIP, 2 K's

Jason Vargas now leads the American League with three complete game shutouts as he shutout the Padres 6-0 on friday night.

Dustin Ackley has reached base in all 13 games he has appeared in. For the year Ackley is hitting .302/.367/.558 on the season.

The Bad:

The Mariners aren't winning games anymore due to a lack of offense. The Mariners this week saw three regular hitters slump terribly. In the case of all three hitters these slumps have extended now for two weeks. For two of those hitters it has happened the entire season. The Mariners also saw their two best pitchers Felix Hernandez and Michael Pineda get roughed up a bit by the Braves. In the case of Pineda he tied a career high with five walks while Hernandez allowed 10 hits in 7 2/3 innings while throwing 127 pitches. The Mariners manager Eric Wedge also made another mistake(He's had a terrible three weeks by the way) when he didn't argue a walk which should have been only three balls in Saturday's 1-0 loss. That walk that shouldn't have been was a big deal since he scored the only run of the game while nobody on the Mariners bench caught that mistake. The Mariners have pitched well the last two weeks but are just 4-8 because the hitting has failed them yet again.

Bad Hitting:

Franklin Gutierrez: 1-17(.058), run, 5 K's, 1-21(.047) slump dating back
Justin Smoak: 1-20(.050), RBI, 2 runs, 5 K's, 1-29(.034) slump dating back
Chone Figgins: 1-10(.100), SB, 2 K's, 1-23(.043) slump dating back

Bad Pitching:

Michael Pineda: 0-1, 6.1 IP, 5.68 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 5 K's
Felix Hernandez: 0-1, 7.2 IP, 5.86 ERA, 1.69 WHIP, 6 K's

The Mariners offense this week averaged just 2.8 runs per game this week as they fell to 2-4 on the week. The Mariners completed interleague play going 9-9 which was helped by going 5-1 against the Padres.

The Ugly:

The Mariners are getting nothing from Chone Figgins and the fans are noticing by booing him every time he records an out. On the other hand Franklin Gutierrez I feel is getting a free pass with his poor hitting as are a few other hitters. The Mariners pitching staff has been pitching great this whole year but the offense once again has been terrible this season as the Mariners fall to third place in the division for the first time in over a month. The Mariners also have a tough schedule coming up so they could find themselves completely out of the race by the trade deadline if they don't make a trade.

Bad Hitting:

Chone Figgins: On the season is hitting .185/.230/.246 in 260 AB's
Franklin Gutierrez: On the season is hitting .183/.219/.229 in 131 AB's
Mike Carp: Hitting .200/.333/.257 with ZERO RBI's or runs in 35 AB's
Carlos Peguero: Hitting .206/.265/.405 in 126 AB's with 43 K's to 7 BB's

Seattle Mariners: Hitting .226/.294/.336 as a team on the season which is pathetic.

The Mariners currently rank dead last in batting average, on base percentage, runs scored, and base hits. The Mariners rank second to last in slugging percentage, and RBI's while ranking third to last in doubles. In other words the Mariners offense is the all around worst offense in all of baseball. The Mariners on the season are averaging just 3.4 runs per game for the season. The Mariners offense has gotten worse as the season has gone on due to manager Eric Wedge's agressive approach towards hitting. Wedge would rather see you be a hacker(Peguerro) than a guy who takes pitches(Cust or Carp). The value of the walk is lost with this team which is too bad to see.

AL West Standings:

Texas Rangers: 44-41, Tied First Place
L.A. Angels: 44-41, Tied First Place
Seattle Mariners: 41-43, 2.5 GB
Oakland A's: 38-47, 6.0 GB

In conclusion, the Mariners completed a rough stretch where they have lost 15 of 25 games. The schedule isn't any more friendly as the Mariners play 16 of their next 20 games on the road. In fact the Mariners have a tough schedule for their next 45 games which if the offense remains the same will most likely kill their slim chances of the playoffs. The Mariners play the Angels on the road for four games which is huge going into the all-star break. Wedge has had a rough last couple of weeks especially with his hitting lineups like the game I went to on Saturday when he had Gutierrez bat third despite Figgins and Jack Wilson also playing. The Mariners pitching has been great but if the pitching ever decides to be average for a week it could be an ugly week for the Mariners. This week the Mariners play seven games against their own division this is their sink or swim week that is for sure. The Mariners better get some hitting or else they'll be sinking this week.

Seattle Mariners midseason report card

By Kshell

The Seattle Mariners were recently swept by the Atlanta Braves which dropped their record to 39-42. That also was the end of the first half of the season. Now many will consider after the All-Star game to be the true second half I figured I'd do a midseason report card. What I'll do is grade on a bit of a curve based on player expectations heading into the season. I'll grade each player on the roster if healthy while posting their stats. I"ll also explain my grade on each player. If you have been following my weekly recaps or the Mariners in general you'll notice the pitching will grade out. The hitting probably won't grade well at all as the hitting for the season has been down right terrible. Also any player like Milton Bradley for an example who was released during the season would receive an F. So I'll start off by grading the regular starting nine.

Hitters, Grade: D

Ichiro, right fielder. Grade: C

Hitting .275/.321/.335 on the season. Has 92 hits, 1 HR, 22 RBI's, 42 runs, 20 SB's

Ichiro is experiencing by far his worst season of his major league career. At the halfway point he is a negative UZR(Ultimate Zone Rating) defender and isn't hitting like he usually does. As you can see Ichiro for the first time in his career isn't on pace to record 200+ hits in a season. Ichiro is still stealing bases just fine as he's on pace for 40 stolen bases. Ichiro is capable of having a big second half which the Mariners are hoping he will do.

Brendan Ryan, Shortstop. Grade: B-

Hitting .252/.317/.306 on the season. Has 61 hits, 0 HR's, 24 RBI's, 23 runs, 3 SB's

Brendan Ryan has been a nice addition to the Mariners this season. I know the local media tends to overrate him due to him being a great interview. He has also played great shortstop defensively and has hit better than I expected going into the season. Ryan has been the #2 hitter in the lineup by default since the Mariners lineup has been so terrible. Ryan has exceeded expectations so far and isn't the problem on offense.

Adam Kennedy, second base/third base. Grade: B

Hitting .264/.304/.410 on the season. Has 56 hits, 6 HR's, 24 RBI's, 25 runs, 6 SB's

Adam Kennedy currently third in the Mariners lineup started the season off as a spring training invite. It didn't take long for Kennedy to take Jack Wilson's job at second base. Then with Dustin Ackley being called up and Chone Figgins struggling Kennedy has taken over at third base. Kennedy is on pace to hit 12 HR's while driving in 48 runners which is way more than even the biggest Mariners homer could have ever predicted.

Justin Smoak, first base. Grade: C+

Hitting .243/.345/.449 on the season. Has 64 hits, 12 HR's, 40 RBI's, 22 runs

Justin Smoak was the key piece in the Cliff Lee trade from the Texas Rangers last year. Smoak currently is slumping badly but for the most part is having a good year. He is on pace for 24 HR's and 80 RBI's which the Mariners would take from him heading into the season. He has a good OB% that will go up when he makes more contact. So far Smoak is progressing well and the Mariners are glad he is part of their future for a while. If Smoak can hit in the .260 range with those power numbers the Mariners will take that for the next decade.

Dustin Ackley, second base. Grade: A

Hitting .300/.378/.575 on the season. Has 12 hits, 2 HR's, 6 RBI's, 7 runs, 1 SB(12 games)

Dustin Ackley the #2 pick overall in the 2009 baseball draft has been great since he has been called up. In 12 games he has flashed some good defense and has been terrific at the plate. Ackley who is a lefty is 6-8 on the season against left handers including three tough left handed specialist and Cole Hamels. I know this is only 12 games but if Ackley does this for a whole season he would have 162 hits, 27 HR's, 81 RBI's, 94.5 runs and 13.5 SB's which would put him in the All-star game ever season as a second baseman. Ackley has definately given the fans one hitter you look forward to watching hit.

Miguel Olivo, Catcher. Grade: C-

Hitting .222/.267/.399 on the season. Has 55 hits, 12 HR's, 38 RBI's, 34 runs, 2 SB's

Miguel Olivo in his second stint with the Mariners is having a weird season. On one hand he is on pace to hit 24 HR's, 76 RBI's and score 68 runs at the catcher position which would be incredible. On the other hand his defense this season has been terrible and he's hitting in the .220 range. His on base percentage is well below .300 which is also horrible. Olivo since most catchers are bad grades as a C- as I thought he was going to be a disaster in Seattle so he has exceeded my expectations barely.

Jack Cust, DH. Grade: D

Hitting .219/.359/.339 on the season. Has 42 hits, 3 HR's, 21 RBI's, 17 runs

Jack Cust was brought in to walk and hit for some power. He is walking as he leads the team in on base percentage amongst those who have played all season long. However he was brought in for power and being on pace for just six HR's and 42 RBI's simply won't cut it. He avoids getting the dreaded F due to his walking. Cust needs to show he can do more than just walk or he won't be on this roster very long.

Carlos Peguero, Left Fielder. Grade: D+

Hitting .202/.264/.412 on the season. Has 24 hits, 6 HR's, 16 RBI's, 14 runs

Peguero wasn't even on the radar heading into the season so for that he avoids an F. He has also shown decent power with six HR's in 119 AB's(one HR every 20 AB's) so that is the good. The bad is his negative UZR rating in defense, his inability to make contact enough, and he never walks. Peguero looks lost at the plate and if he has any chance of ever being a productive hitter he needs to be sent down to triple A. He is striking out over 33% of his at bats so his power is nice but not at the rate he strikes out. The fans have came around on Peguero as I'm no longer an "idiot" for saying he's not very good.

Franklin Gutierrez, centerfield. Grade: F

Hitting .197/.228/.246 on the season. Has 24 hits, 1 HR, 8 RBI's, 7 runs, 2 SB's

Franklin Gutierrez is playing great defense this year and started the season off sick where he lost over 30 pounds. Still through 122 at bats this season he has looked terrible. Gutierrez in the past has been a decent hitter with decent power but this year he has been terrible. He isn't walking either so he is getting out on average seven times out of every nine plate appearance.

Chone Figgins, third base. Grade: F

Hitting .186/.232/.249 on the season. Has 47 hits, 1 HR, 14 RBI's, 21 runs, 8 SB's

Chone Figgins is having one of the most unproductive seasons in Seattle Mariners history. Figgins has over 250 AB's yet is on pace to drive in 28 runs and score only 42 runs. The only people who like Figgins are alcoholics. Due to Figgins piss poor batting average Norm's a local bar in Seattle is selling beer at the price of Figgins batting average every monday for all day long. Figgins who is getting worse as the season is going on is due to be on the DL for "suckitis" at any moment. Figgins is owed 18 million the next two seasons and 4.5 million the rest of this year so the Mariners can't afford to burn 22.5 million dollars. They already lit 12 million dollars on fire by releasing Milton Bradley earlier this season. The Mariners are stuck with Figgins for a while which sucks.

Jack Wilson, second base/shortstop. Grade: F

Hitting .230/.256/.254 on the season. Has 28 hits, 0 HR's, 6 RBI's, 18 runs, 5 SB's

Jack Wilson who has been the Mariners starting shortstop the last season and a half was the opening day second baseman this year. He quickly got in manager Eric Wedge's doghouse and hasn't really done well enough to get out of it. Wilson has been a terrible hitter this season and look for him to be dealt soon as he serves no purpose on this ballclub. Wilson is another expensive contract that is thankfull off the books at the end of the season.

Pitchers, Grade: B+

Felix Hernandez, starting pitcher. Grade: B-

Has a record of 8-7, 3.35 ERA, 1.19 WHIP for the season. Has pitched 129 innings, struck out 124 batters, 2 Complete games and .233 BAA

The reigning Cy Young award winner Felix Hernandez has pitched below his capabilities that is for sure. Hernandez has been an innings eater this year as on average he is giving the Mariners a little over seven innings a start. Hernandez has had some dominant starts on the year but too many times he has had a rough inning every other start. Hernandez the Mariners are still waiting for him to have that dominant month which is capable of. As of right now Hernandez is on pace for 258 innings pitched with 248 strikeouts which is quite a lot. I think because Hernandez is so good people forget he isn't having that terrible of a season.

Michael Pineda, starting pitcher. Grade: A

Has a record of 7-5, 2.65 ERA, 1.03 WHIP on the season. Has pitched 102 innings, struck out 99 hitters and .198 BAA

As it stands now Pineda might be the only guy representing the Mariners at hte all-star game unless Hernandez has two dominant starts in his next two starts. Pineda going into the year was supposed to be the teams fifth starter yet he has pitched the best. In fact I'd call Pineda the team MVP for the first half. Pineda has been great this year but you have to be concerned about his workload as he has never thrown more than 140 innings in a season. He is on pace for 204 innings this year with 198 strikeouts. Pineda is the leading candidate for the American League's rookie of the year.

Erik Bedard, starting pitcher. Grade: B+

Has a record of 4-6, 3.00 ERA, 1.11 WHIP on the season. Has pitched 90 innings, striking out 85 hitters and .222 BAA

Erik Bedard was recently placed on the DL which is never a good thing given his injury past. Bedard for the first half of the season has been terrific. After a horrific first four starts to this season Bedard has been lights out. In his last 11 starts Bedard has pitched 71.1 innings with an ERA of 1.76 and a 0.88 WHIP with 68 strikeouts. Bedard has been great for the Mariners considering going into the year nobody knew what they were going to get from him this has been incredible. Bedard if this latest injury to his knee isn't too bad could win the comeback player of the year award in the American League.

Doug Fister, starting pitcher. Grade: B+

Has a record of 3-8, 3.18 ERA, 1.20 WHIP on the season. Has pitched 110.1 innings, struck out 70 hitters, has 2 complete games and .260 BAA

Doug Fister has been great for the Mariners despite his bad record. He is keeping the team in games with his low ERA and is giving the team innings averaging almost seven innings a start. Fister has done everything and more a team could ask for from their back of the rotation starter. Fister every fifth day is giving the team a quality seven innings just has had a hard time getting run support this year. Fister isn't putting up flashy numbers but is on pace to give the Mariners 220.2 innings this season.

Jason Vargas, starting pitcher. Grade: B-

Has a record of 5-5, 3.88 ERA, 1.21 WHIP for the season. Has pitched 104.1 innings, struck out 68 batters, has 2 complete game shutouts and .241 BAA

Jason Vargas is having a solid season for the Mariners. Vargas my only complaint on him is he needs to be more consistent. Vargas this year too many times is terrific or terrible in a start. Still for basically the Mariners fifth starter Vargas is on pace to give them 208.2 innings pitched this season. Vargas was the fifth best player when Jack Zduriencik traded J.J. Putz and now he is the best player in that trade. Vargas like all the starting pitchers this year have been lights out.

Brandon League, closer. Grade: B

Has 21 saves, 0-4, 3.48 ERA, 1.07 WHIP for the season. Has pitched 33.2 innings, struck out 21 batters and .242 BAA

Brandon League who was supposed to be the set up man this year has done a good job as the closer. He has 21 saves in 24 opportunities which is a little over 85% success rate. League would be having an all-star season if not for one awful week in May. As is League is exceeding most fans expectations and has been lock down closer for the team.

David Pauley, reliever. Grade: A

Has a record of 5-1, 5 holds, 1.44 ERA, 0.87 WHIP for the season. Has pitched 43.2 innings, struck out 27 batters and .184 BAA

David Pauley has been a great story for the Mariners this season. Pauley who was a journeyman failed starter is having an all-star season as a setup man. Pauley began the season as a long reliever then has taken over the eighth inning job this season. Pauley is a big reason why the Mariners are competing so well for the division race.

Jamey Wright, reliever. Grade: B

Has a record of 0-2, 11 holds, 3.18 ERA, 1.35 WHIP for the season. Has pitched 34 innings, struck out 22 batters and .256 BAA

Jamey Wright another setup reliever the Mariners didn't expect much out of this season. He is also like Pauley a failed reliever who is a big reason why the Mariners are contending for the AL West. Wright has slowed down this past month but that shouldn't take away how great he was the first two months. He leads the team with 11 holds as he was the eighth inning man for the first two months. Wright had a good first half and hopefully he continues to pitch like he did in April and May.

Chris Ray, reliever. Grade: C-

Has a record of 3-2, 1 hold, 5.24 ERA, 1.30 WHIP for the season. Has pitched 22.1 innings, struck out 16 hitters and .271 BAA

When the Mariners signed Ray he was supposed to be second setup man. Then with David Aardsma being on the DL he was supposed to be the eighth inning man. Ray was terrible in April but has since recovered. If Ray continues to pitch like he has in May and June the Mariners will gladly take that.

Aaron Laffey, reliever. Grade: A-

Has a record of 1-1, 3 holds, 1.93 ERA, 1.32 WHIP on the season. Has pitched 32.2 innings, struck out 17 hitters and .254 BAA

Just like with most of the bullpen Laffey is another failed starter who is in the bullpen. Laffey the only Mariners left hander in their bullpen has done a pretty good job this season. Laffey has an ERA under two and has been lights out for them out of the bullpen. His recent outing since it is so fresh in my mind is why he didn't receive an A grade. Laffey like the rest of the bullpen has been great this season.

Manager Grade:

Eric Wedge, Manager. Grade: C+

I think Eric Wedge has done a pretty good job in his first season despite the recent struggles of losing 14 of 22 games. The Mariners are on pace to go 78-84 which is a losing season but still a 17 game improvement from last season. I still think Wedge has some room to improve especially his batting order, how he wants every hitter to be a hacker. I do think Wedge for the most part is doing the best he can with what little he has on offense. However you do this Mariners lineup the lineup won't produce many runs as they simply aren't a good offense. With that I'd say Wedge has done an above average job so far this year.

In conclusion, the first half of the season is over for the Mariners. I know it ended in a way that we wouldn't have liked. On the other hand this was a team that I thought would win just 72 games so they have exceeded my expectations so far. Overall I'd give the team the same grade I gave Wedge which is a C+. The pitching has been great while the hitting has been terrible. The one thing I'll point out is at least the Mariners so far have the fans caring again. This first half ended on a bad note and the team is under .500 but the first half of the season mattered. While last year mid May it no longer mattered anymore. So I hope you enjoyed the grades I gave out on the players who had enough evidence to grade(why I left out Mike Carp, Greg Halman and Jeff Gray). The first half ended and hopefully the second half can produce some offense with a few more wins than the first half.

Seattle Mariners weekly review: June 20th-June 26th edition

By Kshell

The Seattle Mariners just completed their road part of interleague play as they'll be having the DH for the rest of the season. With the way the pitchers hit this week and the way the hitters hit this week the Mariners might want to think about using their pitchers as the DH on off days. The Mariners struggled this week having been swept by the Washington Nationals despite their starting pitchers giving up just combined one earned run over 21 innings. Then the Mariners returned home to take on the Florida Marlins that was supposed to be in Miami but due to a U2 concert the game was played at Safeco. Those three games were Marlins home games as they were played by National League rules. That gave the fans to root on their home pitchers at the plate. The Mariners for the week went 2-4 despite their starting pitching going 43 innings allowing just seven earned runs for an ERA of 1.46 on the week. The hitting was just awful this week and played a main reason why the Mariners went just 2-4. So this week I'll be doing the good(starting pitching), the bad(almost entire hitting) and the ugly(Figgins and the left field problem). So I'll lead off this weekly review with the good news which will see a player make the good pitching and hitting list.

The Good:

The Mariners for going 2-4 this week saw plenty of great pitching this week. The starting pitching was terrific this week led by Doug Fister who can't seem to buy a win. Fister was great this week with his pitching and his hitting as well. Felix Hernandez put on a great show this week for the King's Court striking out 10 batters this week in a game that I went to in fact. The electricity around Hernandez bullpen session was great and I was glad that I brought my dad to friday's game. The King's court is like a student section you see at a college game and I think that was a great idea by the Mariners organization to give some life into Safeco Field. The Mariners pitching as they have all season long was terrific and you'll see them make the list. As for hitting well I really had to stretch to include some hitters this week. One hitter who shined was Dustin Ackley who had his first career double this week and three hit game. Ackley was terrific this week and I'm glad manager Eric Wedge finally moved him up in the lineup.

Good Hitting:

Dustin Ackley: 6-19(.315), 2 RBI's, 4 runs, .409 OB %
Franklin Gutierrez: 6-23(.260), 2 RBI's, run, SB
Doug Fister: 2-6(.333), RBI, Run

Good pitching:

Doug Fister: 16 IP, 1.12 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 6 K's
Felix Hernandez: 1-0, 8 IP, 1.12 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, 10 K's
Michael Pineda: 7 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, 9 K's
Erik Bedard: 0-1, 6 IP, 0.00, 0.83 WHIP, 10 K's

Bedard became the first pitcher since Johan Santana in 2009 to lose a game while allowing zero earned runs and striking out 10 batters. He was only the seventh pitcher in the last 35 years to lose such a game.

The Mariners starting pitching this year has been terrific and has been carrying this team.

Michael Pineda: 7-4, 95.2 IP, 2.45 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 94 K's, .199 BAA

Felix Hernandez: 8-6, 121.1 IP, 3.19 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 118 K's, .227 BAA

Erik Bedard: 4-5, 83.0 IP, 2.93 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 80 K's, .226 BAA

Doug Fister: 3-8, 110.1 IP, 3.18 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 70 K's, .260 BAA

Jason Vargas: 5-5, 104.1 IP, 3.88 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 68 K's, .241 BAA

The Bad:

Whenever you go 2-4 on the week when your starting pitching has a 1.46 ERA that tells the story of the hitting. The hitting like it has all year killed the Mariners this week scoring just 2.5 runs a game. The defense was terrible in the series sweep to the Nationals allowing seven unearned runs and then the final game losing 1-0 on a shallow sac fly. Also this was probably the worst week for manager Eric Wedge who made several questionable decisions this week. In the first game of the week he pulled Doug Fister who had retired seven hitters in a row and had thrown 99 pitches after eight innings with the Mariners up 5-1. The Mariners would go on to lose that game 6-5 despite being up 5-1 with two outs. Then in Tuesday's game Wedge gave Ackley a day off which made an already weak lineup even worse. He also didn't pinch hit for Chone Figgins in the 9th and Figgins rewarded him by striking out on three straight called strikes. I think Wedge is doing a decent job but that Nationals series he was a big part of two of the three losses. The lack of hitting was a big part of well all the Mariners losses this year.

Bad Hitting:

Chone Figgins: 0-6(.000), RBI, costly error, 2 K's
Justin Smoak: 4-20(.200), run, costly error, 4 K's
Ichiro: 6-26(.230), run, SB, 2 K's
Adam Kennedy: 5-21(.238), 2 RBI, 2 runs, 3 K's
Carlos Peguero: 3-16(.187), HR, RBI, run, 7 K's
Miguel Olivo: 3-20(.150), HR, 4 RBI's, 2 runs, 5 K's
Mike Carp: 0-5(.000), 2 K's

Bad Pitching:

Jason Vargas: 0-1, 6 IP, 6.00 ERA, 1.66 WHIP, 4 K's
David Pauley: 1-1, Blown Save, 2 IP, 9.00 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 2 K's

The Hitting was awful this week scoring just 2.5 runs a game with two home runs for the whole week. The Mariners were held to two runs or less in four of the six games this week including being held to one run or less in three of those games. The Mariners saw their pitchers Hernandez, Fister and Pineda get base hits yet their regular hitters can't seem to buy a hit lately. The Mariners are getting nothing from Figgins, Left Field or DH this season and unless that changes they'll find themselves out of the playoff race soon.

The Ugly:

There has been plenty of ugly hitting this year. I already wrote a blog post earlier on the week about how the Mariners should end the Carlos Peguero experiment. Well the Mariners have no left field options at all in their system. The Mariners have to trade for a DH and a left fielder as I'll post the ugly stats they are putting up as a group. You throw in Figgins who is terrible at hitting and also leads the team in errors the Mariners have some serious dead weight on their hands. In the case of Figgins they can't afford to dump him so I suggest putting him on the DL for "suckitis" for a while. As for Jack Cust, Carlos Peguero and Mike Carp it's time to put up or get a bust ticket to leave town.

Ugly Hitting:

Chone Figgins: Hitting .188/.235/.252 . He has one home run, 21 runs scored and 14 RBI's. He has 8 SB's in 14 chances(57.1%) which is just terrible. He is hitting 25-147(.170) since May 1st and has an OB% of just .230 with 23 strikeouts. He has been down right awful for the Mariners.

Jack Cust: Hitting .216/.358/.319 . He has just two home runs, 16 runs scored and 19 RBI's. Cust was brought in for power and has only 14 XBH in 185 AB's with 65 K's. For the month of June he is hitting .115/.343/.231 in 26 AB's but still has nine strikeouts. Cust was brought in for power but other than getting walked has shown to be pretty worthless.

Mike Carp: Hitting .179/.343/.214. So far in only 28 AB's he has yet to score a run or drive in a run. He does have 11 strikeouts(39.2% of AB's) since coming up. Carp after failing last year in the majors is showing he is quadruple A. I think to truly judge him Wedge needs to play him everyday for two weeks in left field or DH. If Carp still isn't productive then it's time to cut bait on Carp.

Carlos Peguero: Hitting .205/.268/.419. So far he has hit six home runs, scored 14 runs and has 16 RBI's. Peguero has provided some power this year but he is striking out way too much and not walking enough. Peguero has 40 strikeouts already in only 117 AB's(34.1%) with just seven walks(5.9%). He is also only hitting a home run one in 19.5 AB's. The problem for the Mariners is when the DH returns two of these guys are in the lineup and if Wedge plays Figgins three of these guys are playing. So if any hitters like a Justin Smoak or Ichiro are slumping which both did this week the Mariners simply aren't going to score runs.

AL West Standings:

Texas Rangers: 41-38, first place
Seattle Mariners: 39-39, 1.5 GB
L.A. Angels: 39-40, 2.0 GB
Oakland A's: 35-44, 6.0 GB

In conclusion, the Mariners this week proved what everyone already knows which is that their starting five man rotation is the best in the American League and that their starting nine is the worst in the American League. The Mariners need to make a trade to acquire a major league left fielder and DH if they seriously want to compete for the playoffs. Otherwise the Mariners should just trade Erik Bedard right now and bring in some pitching prospects. The Mariners have nobody on their roster or in their system who can be their everyday left fielder. The Mariners desperatly need to acquire a left fielder for this year and for next season while also bringing in a DH midseason to finish out the year. I do feel for Wedge as his options at DH and left field aren't good although I would play Carp over Peguero. The Mariners pitching staff with an average offense would win over 100 games. On the flip side if the Mariners pitching staff was average with this hitting they'd lose over 100 games like they did last year. At least the Mariners are about to enter July and we still care about the team.

Seattle Mariners weekly review: June 13th-June 19th edition

By Kshell

This week saw the beginning of hopefully a new era for the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners finally called up highly rated prospect Dustin Ackley when they took on the Philadelphia Phillies who came into this series with a seven game winning streak. The Mariners partly because of Ackley's bat defeated the Phillies two out of three. The called up Ackley after losing two out of three to division rival the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. This week saw plenty of great pitching for the Mariners and once again the hitting slumped this week. This was a tough week hitting wise for any team as the Mariners went up against Jered Weaver, Dan Haren, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels. So for the Mariners to go 3-3 this week was pretty incredible. The Mariners are also just a half game back of first place of the Texas Rangers in the closely tight AL West race. The Mariners went 3-3 this week but I'll keep things positive so I'll go with the good(pitching as usual), the bad(two call ups in Left Field) and the awesome(more on two specific pitchers). The Mariners under first year manager Eric Wedge are playing some good baseball and with the addition of Ackley look for the offense to improve.

The Good:

Well there was plenty of good to talk about this week for the Mariners. The Mariners saw two prospects hit their first career major league home run this week. The fans packed the house this weekend including selling out Fathers Day for only the second sell out of the season. The Mariners also saw Justin Smoak break out of his slump last week and now this week saw Ichiro come alive. Ichiro who had been slumping badly for about six weeks broke out of his slump this week. Was it because he finally got a day off? Who knows but all I know is it was nice to see Ichiro on base. When on base Ichiro was stealing some bases this week as well. Another bright spot was the pitching especially by Jason Vargas who if not for a bad break against the Angels would have went 2-0 this week. As is Vargas threw a complete shutout to outpitch Cole Hamels and win 2-0 over the Phillies. There was indeed plenty of good things to talk about this week which was nice to see for the Mariners.

Good Hitting:

Ichiro: 12-25(.480), 6 runs, 4 SB's
Greg Halman: 3-10(.300), HR(first career), Run, RBI, SB
Justin Smoak: 6-17(.352), 2 RBI's, 6 BB's(.521 OB%)
Dustin Ackley: 3-11(.273), HR(first career), RBI, 2 runs. Hit .273/.273/.727 for the week

Good Pitching:

Michael Pineda: 1-0, 6 IP, 1.50 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 5 K's
Erik Bedard: 1-0, 7 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.43 WHIP, 5 K's
Brandon League: 2 saves, 2 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.50 WHIP
Jason Vargas: 1-1, 16 IP, 2.81 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 12 K's

The Bad:

Well the Mariners still aren't scoring runs despite all the hype about the young kids being up. The offense like it has all year has been hurting this ball club. In particular the left field and DH positions plus third base the Mariners have received zero from those positions this season. You can also throw center field into the mix as well which is 44% of the lineup is giving the Mariners absolutely nothing. It appears Jack Cust is in Eric Wedge's dog house as he is playing the younger guys of Mike Carp and Carlos Peguero both of which struggled this week. Now this is going to come off as me picking on Peguero but I simply don't do that. I let the stats do the talking and right now he simply isn't getting the job done. The Mariners were hoping the return of Franklin Gutierrez would solve the centerfield problems but instead he is struggling badly at the plate. The pitching was once again good as I had to stretch to find some guys to make the slumping list.

Slumping Hitting:

Carlos Peguero: 2-15(.133), 2 RBI's, run, 6 K's
Mike Carp: 3-15(.200), 7 K's
Miguel Olivo: 3-23(.130), HR, RBI, run, 8 K's
Franklin Gutierrez: 2-16(.125), RBI 4 K's

Slumping Pitching:

Doug Fister: 0-1, 7 IP, 5.14 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 5 K's
Jamey Wright: 2 IP, 9.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 2 K's

Mike Carp on the year is hitting .217/.357/.261 in limited playing time.
Carolos Peguero on the year is hitting .208/.266/.426 with 33 K's to just 6 BB's.
Miguel Olivo on the year is hitting .230/.276/.410 but leads all catchers with 11 HR's.
Franklin Gutierrez on the year is hitting .187/.221/.253 which is behind Chone Figgins in all three categories.

The Mariners need some of these hitters to step up or make a trade ASAP if they wish to win this division. You can't expect to keep winning games 3-2 or 2-1 eventually you'll lose games like Saturday 3-1.

The Awesome:

Not just this week but for a while now you are seeing two guys emerge from two unpopular trades. Now I'm not going to defend those trades as I'd still rather not do either trade but you are starting to see what our GM's were thinking. The first trade was done by Jack Zduriencik who traded away high draft pick Brandon Morrow to the Toronto Blue Jays for reliever Brandon League. League who had one rough week has been lights out and peole aren't exactly asking for David Aardsma back anytime soon. The other trade which was extremely unpopular was of course done by Bill Bavasi when he traded away Adam Jones, George Sherrill and two prospects for Erik Bedard. Bedard up to this point had been injured so hard to call him a bust when injuries are things you can't predict. While Bedard this year especially in his last nine starts has been the best pitcher for the Mariners. On a staff that includes Cy Young award winner Felix Hernandez and Rookie of the year candidate Michael Pineda he has been the best. The Mariners are getting a lot back on two guys heading into the season the fan base wasn't really happy with.

Awsome Pitching:

Erik Bedard: 4-4, 77.0 IP, 3.16 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 70 K's, .233 BAA.
In his last 9 starts he is 4-0, 58.1 IP, 1.69 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 53 K's.

Bedard has been terrific for the Mariners rebounding from his rough first four starts which feels like a decade ago. Bedard for all the crap he's taken from our media(Softy Mahler, Steve Kelly, etc), he is owed an apology. He was injured not hurt the last three seasons this isn't a matter of being "wimpy" at all. He is also giving the team innings this season as well as he has just 12 walks in his last nine starts. Bedard is going after hitters and hopefully for his career the injuries are a thing of the past. I think people are finally seeing what Bavasi saw in him and while losing Adam Jones hurts the other prospects never materialized. For a guy the Mariners didn't expect much from this season he has been fantastic for them and is a huge reason why the Mariners are fighting for the playoffs.

Brandon League: 0-4, 20 saves in 23 opportunities, 30.0 IP, 3.90 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 20 K's, .246 BAA.

Since May 13th League has pitched 14 innings with 11 saves, has a 0.00 ERA, 0.64 WHIP, 7 K's.

League is currently leading the American League with 20 saves and is tied for first place in all of baseball with 20 saves. League was involved in another unpopular trade and struggled last year. The fans of Seattle wanted to throw him out of town after his horrible week despite nobody on the roster capable of outproducing him. I'll give Wedge credit for sticking with his closer not because of his title but instead he is the Mariners best reliever. The other relievers are pitching great but none of them have the stuff that League has. League a guy who heading into the year was a shaky setup man has been a lights out closer to date. He is also a huge reason why the Mariners are contending for the division title.

Just goes to show that you can't freak out over trades and give the trade some time. Now I still think the Mariners will end up on the short end of both deals but neither seem as lopsided as they did just a year ago. The Mariners are getting big time production from two guys who were involved in popular trades. To acquire talent you must give up talent which the Mariners did. The Mariners however did receive some talent back in those trades and it's finally paying off for the ball club.

AL West Standings:

Texas Rangers: 38-35, First Place
Seattle Mariners: 37-35, 0.5 GB
L.A. Angels: 35-38, 3.0 GB
Oakland A's: 33-40, 5.0 GB

In conclusion, the Mariners are right in the thick of this playoff race in a season many including myself thought would be a rebuilding season. Like I pointed out though the Mariners are getting production from two pitchers who were very capable but they weren't counting on. If the Mariners can just score some runs they can run away with this division as they are 25-5(.833) when scoring just 4+ runs. Which means the Mariners are 12-30(.285) when they don't score four runs. So over half their games to date the team isn't scoring runs yet the pitching like yesterday found a way to get the win. With the call up of Ackley that is another hitter for the Mariners that can actually contribute. I have a feeling Zduriencik will be working on a trade even if that is a minor trade the Mariners need some bats in left field and DH. The Mariners are winning which is a surprise and hopefully Wedge moves Ackley up in the order sooner rather than later. I'm just happy that we are three weeks from the All-Star game and the Mariners are just a half game back of first place. The ride has been good and hopefully can last a few more months.

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.

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.

Mariners weekly recap: May 23rd-May 29th edition

By Kshell

The Mariners have put together quite the string of success these past two weeks. The Mariners even found themselves over .500 for the first time since the second game of the season. The Mariners on the week took two out of three at the Minnesota Twins then defeated the New York Yankees two out of three at home. This week was a strange week as the Mariners hitting once again didn't hit well especially the top of the order. The starting pitching unlike all season didn't pitch well either having just thrown one quality start in six starts. The Mariners bullpen was terrific once again this week which allowed the Mariners to pull within a game of first place. The American League West race is pretty tight as the difference between first place and last place is just a game and a half. Like I'll do whenever the Mariners have a winning week I'll feature the good, the bad and the awesome. This week the good list will feature plenty of relievers, the bad will feature the top of the order while the awesome will have more attention on the middle relievers.

The Good:

The Mariners went 4-2 on the week which saw plenty of good. This week Erik Bedard like he has all month long is pitching like the pitcher Bill Bavasi gave up so much to acquire. The Mariners relief was excellent this week as they went 3-0 with three saves on the week. Then the Mariners got a little bit of offense from their double play combination especially Brendan Ryan who has been red hot for nine games after being ice cold. The Mariners this week just found ways to win as they won three games in which they trailed including two in extra innings. One of the Mariners wins came off of Mariano Rivera who is the greatest closer of all-time. The Mariners had a winning week when Felix Hernandez and Michael Pineda didn't pitch that great of games. So here were the stars of the week for the Mariners this week.

Hot Hitting:

Brendan Ryan: 12-21(.571), 3 RBI's, 2 runs
Adam Kennedy: 7-19(.368), 3 RBI's, 3 runs. He also had game winning hit off Rivera.
Franklin Gutierrez: 7-21(.333), HR, RBI, 3 runs. He robbed a home run against Nick Swisher.
Miguel Olivo: 7-17(.412), HR, 5 RBI's, 3 runs, SB

Brendan Ryan in the past nine games: 17-31(.548) with 7 RBI"s, 5 runs and a nine game hitting streak.

Hot Pitching:

Erik Bedard: 1-0, 6 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 4 K's
Brandon League: 3 saves, 4 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.50 WHIP, 2 K's
Jamey Wright: 1-0, hold, 3.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, K
David Pauley: 2-0, hold, 6 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.67 WHIP, 3 K's

Erik Bedard in his last five starts: 3-0, 33 IP, 1.09 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, 28 K's
Jamey Wright on the season: 1-1,10 holds, 24.1 IP, 1.48 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 16 K's
David Pauley on the season: 4-0, 3 holds, 32.1 IP, 0.84 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, 20 K's

The Bad:

I'm glad that some guys like Ryan, Olivo and Jack Cust aren't living on the bad list but Figgins still remains. The Mariners top of the order has been doing terrible for two weeks now. The 27 million dollar men which is Ichiro and Chone Figgins have done horrible this month. It's pretty incredible how the Mariners are even .500 with the way the team has been hitting. The starting pitching was very average and last weeks hero Jason Vargas got beat up pretty good this week. Then the Mariners have a problem in left field as all the youngsters out there have looked very quadruple A like with the non stop strikeouts. The main problem is Figgins who the Mariners are stuck with for two more seasons after this year at nine million a season. The Mariners need to call up Dustin Ackley now and bench Figgins in favor of Kennedy or at least put Figgins ninth in the order.

Poor hitting:

Chone Figgins: 1-22(.045). For the year hitting .193/.235/.260
Ichiro: 3-26(.115), 2 RBI's, 2 runs, SB
Carlos Peguerro: 2-14(.143), 2 RBI's, 8 K's
Michael Saunders: 0-9, run, SB, 6 K's
Justin Smoak: 4-24(.167), HR, 2 RBI's, 2 runs, 7 K's

Ichiro and Figgins last two weeks combined are 14-104(.135) which has to play a part of Smoak's recent struggles.

For the month Ichiro is hitting .204/.262/.235 with 2 SB's and 3 Caught Stealing. Yet he isn't even the worst hitter or in the worst slump.

For the month Figgins is hitting .169/.204/.202 with 2 RBI's, 5 runs and 4 stolen bases to 2 caught stealing. Time for Figgins to be benched or least moved to ninth in the order. Hard to score runs when your 1-2-3 go a combine 24-156(.154) in the last two weeks.

Poor pitching:

Jason Vargas: 0-1, 7.2 IP, 12.91 ERA, 2.61 WHIP, 3 K's

Vargas doesn't really ever have an average outing. It is either a great outing or a terrible outing much like Ryan doesn't have an average week hitting wise ever.

The Awesome:

The Mariners going 4-2 on the week and 10-3 the last two weeks is pretty awesome. The Mariners were 16-23 have battled back from the week where they blew several leads. Now the Mariners are playing like a team with their bullpen and Ryan carrying the offense. The same Ryan who was hitting .200 just nine games ago. The past two weeks has been fun to watch as the Mariners have given this team very little to cheer about lately. So I'll break down the awesome part of the week.

Awesome hitting:

Brendan Ryan: For the month he is hitting .385/.438/.492 and in the past two weeks he is hitting .515/.555/.687 while driving in 7 runs, scoring 6 runs and has a nine game hitting streak. Ryan has raised his average from .200/.276/.245 to in nine games is now .277/.350/.348 on the season nearly improving by over 100 points in every category.

Awesome pitching:

Erik Bedard: For the month he is 2-0, 26 IP, 1.04 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, 25 K's and .180 BAA. Bedard has been dominant his last five starts and he'll take the hill tomorrow against his former team. The Mariners have a tough choice to make here in a month on Bedard if he keeps pitching this well. I'd love to make the playoffs with Hernandez, Pineda and then Bedard as no team would want to face the Mariners.

Mariners Bullpen: 3-0, 3 saves, 2 holds, 24.2 IP, 1.09 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 12 K's. The Mariners middle relief has been great and David Pauley deserves to be an all-star.

David Pauley on the season is 4-0, 3 holds, 32.1 IP, 0.84 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, 20 K's and .168 BAA. Every year they pick a middle reliever and I don't see how Pauley isn't the leading middle reliever at this point in the season.

AL West Standings:

Texas Rangers: 28-25, First Place
LAA Angels: 28-27, 1.0 GB
Seattle Mariners: 26-26, 1.5 GB
Oakland A's: 27-27, 1.5 GB

As you can see the Mariners under first year manager Eric Wedge are right in the middle of the race. Wedge does have his team playing hard as there is no quit in this team which is nice to see. The Mariners are 10-3 the last two weeks despite the top of the order hitting horrible. The Mariners just got Gutirrez back which has already been paying off. When Dustin Ackley is finally called up and eats into Figgins playing time that will help the offense again. Also the Mariners are winning despite Ichiro slumping and his track record suggests he'll snap out of this which is another hitter as well. At least the Mariners are giving us some excitement which they didn't do last year. Hopefully the hitting turns around and the pitching staff keeps pitching well. It does feel good to talk positive about the Mariners for once. It has been a great two week stretch that I hope can last a little longer.