The All-Star break affords the opportunity to look back at the first half to see what went right and wrong for the thirty MLB teams. The Seattle Mariners are up next, and here is the pre-season post on the AL West.
| Statistic | Seattle | AL Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Runs per Game | 3.95 | 13th |
| Batting Averge | .261 | 9th |
| On-Base Average | .317 | 11th-T |
| Slugging Percentage | .403 | 12th |
| ERA | 3.73 | 1st |
| Strikeouts per 9 IP | 6.7 | 9th-T |
| Walks per 9 ip | 3.5 | 10th-T |
| HR per 200 IP | 21.8 | 4th |
What Went Right
Seattle ended up with a strong rotation as Erik Bedard returned to form and Jarrod Washburn is posting the lowest ERA of his career. Combine that with the maturation of Felix Hernandez and the team trots out three starters with ERAs under 3.00. David Aardsma moved into the closer role perfectly. His big weakness, allowing home runs, disappeared this year. He given up just one in 41 1/3 innings.
I do worry that their league leading ERA isn’t sustainable. as a group, their strikeouts and walks rank at the wrong end of the spectrum. Fangraphs ranks them as the second best defensive team in the AL. That’s probably why they traded for Jack Hannahan. They’re going to win this with great defense to back up a pitching staff that allows lots of balls in play and lots of extra base runners.
On the offensive side, Ichiro is back to hitting like Ichiro, Russell Branyan proved to be the power-hitting first basemen they’ve been looking to acquire for years, and Franklin Gutierrez turned out to be a decent offensive replacement for Raul Ibanez.
What Went Wrong
Ken Griffey, Jr. is really a shell of his former self. A designated hitter should really be better than .222/.342/.404. His eye for the strike zone is the only thing keeping him from being an out machine. Pitchers should fear him less and go after him in the zone. Andrian Beltre’s injury killed his offense. A healthy Beltre might have this team in first place right now.
The Mariners could use a real slugger in the outfield, one who hits for power and gets on base. They are woeful in OBA at five positions. If they could find someone to stick in leftfield, they might just pull out the AL West.
Other teams in this series:
In 2008, the league hit .276 against the Mariner’s pitching staff, whereas this year it’s .244, from being ranked 27th to 3rd. A big reason for that was Carlos Silva, who started for them last year and part of this year and who allowed a .330 average in 2008. That was the second worst batting average against of any pitcher this decade with his number of innings. I estimate that he singlehandedly added 10 points versus a pitcher who allowed a more normal number of hits (.267 vs. .276). The fact that he’s not starting games for them right now is a big factor in their improvement.