Seattle Mariners weekly review: August 22nd-28th edition

By Kshell

The Seattle Mariners ended the week in disappointment after starting off so successful. The Mariners began the week taking three out of four against Eric Wedge's old team the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland. The offense had erupted that series but quickly went silent when the Mariners came home. The Mariners were swept by the Chicago White Sox scoring just five runs in three games. The Mariners for the week went 3-4 and two hitters who had been so red hot went ice cold this week. The Mariners are seeing youngsters Kyle Seager and Trayvon Robinson hit the ball pretty well. While Ichiro is making a late push to hit 200 hits this for the 11th consecutive season. The Mariners young pitching continues to get blown up while the pitching face of the franchise Felix Hernandez continues to pitch great down the stretch. The Mariners did go 3-4 so that means I'll talk about the good(Seager and Ichiro), the bad(young pitching) and the bad(more in depth on the young pitching).

The Good:

The week started off well for the Mariners as they beat playoff contender Cleveland Indians three out of four and had a lead in the ninth inning in their only loss. The Mariners have had some hot hitting from Ichiro who has an 11 game hitting streak and Kyle Seager who has a nine game hitting streak. The Mariners received some offense this week from the catchers position which hasn't been seen most of the year. The pitching duo of Felix Hernandez and Michael Pineda was nice to watch this week. Hernandez has been dominant in his last six starts while Pineda has had back to back quality starts. The bullpen was pretty good as four bullpen arms were on my good list which is pretty impressive. The outfield of the Mariners hit pretty well this week with Ichiro, Franklin Gutierrez and Trayvon Robinson.

Good Hitting:

Ichiro: 13-33(.394), HR, 3 RBI's, 5 runs, 3 SB's-11 game hitting streak
Kyle Seager: 13-24(.542), HR, 2 RBI's, 7 runs,6 dbls -9 game hitting streak
Trayvon Robinson: 7-22(.318), 4 RBI's, 2 runs
Franklin Gutierrez: 9-26(.346), 4 RBI's, 2 runs, SB
Josh Bard: 2-8(.250), HR, 3 RBI's, 3 runs
Miguel Olivo: 6-18(.333), HR, 3 RBI's, 3 runs - 5 game hitting streak, has hit safely eight of last nine games

Good Pitching:

Felix Hernandez: 1-0, 6 IP, 3.00 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 10 K's
Michael Pineda: 0-1,6 IP, 3.00 ERA, 0.67 WHIP, 8 K's
Blake Beavan: 6 IP, 4.50 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 4 K's
Jamey Wright: 4.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 6 K's
Tom Wilhelmsen: 3.2 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 7 K's
Josh Lueke: 3.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 5 K's
Jeff Gray: 3.2 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, K, Save

Felix Hernandez last six starts: 4-2, 42.1 IP, 2.98 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 47 K's, 9.99 K's per 9.
Felix Hernandez season stats: 12-11, 200.1 IP(7.1 innings a start), 3.37 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 195 K's, 8.76 K's per 9.

I feel sometimes that fans take Hernandez for granted. He's not putting up the same numbers he did when he won the Cy Young but he is still have a pretty solid year. He has pitched over 200 innings for the fourth straight year, will strike out 200+ hitters for the third straight season in his next start. It has been sad seeing the Mariners waste Hernandez as he is pitched way better than his 25-23 record the last two seasons. I hope Hernandez hasn't spoiled fans by his greatness but I get the feeling he has.

The Bad:

The Mariners in getting swept by the Chicago White Sox scored just five runs in that series sweep. The Mariners hitting went to sleep especially two hitters in particular. The Mariners when they aren't hitting rack up the strikeouts while not drawing any walks in the process which shows they are a free swinging team. The pitching particularly the starting pitching was pretty bad this time especially the left handed pitching which saw three left handers get rocked this week. The Mariners also saw all-star closer Brandon League get roughed up once again in Cleveland as he blew his second save in Cleveland this year giving up three runs without recording a single out. The Mariners had a chance to have a successful week as they snapped their five game losing streak but instead ended the week on a three game losing streak. With the division rivals Angels coming to town things could get ugly.

Bad Hitting:

Mike Carp: 3-27(.111), HR, 2 RBI's, run, 14 K's, one walk
Brendan Ryan: 4-22(.182), 2 RBI's, 4 runs, 7 K's
Casper Wells: 1-19(.052), run, 9 K's, zero walks
Adam Kennedy: 2-12(.167), run, K, SB
Willy Mo Pena: 3-15(.200), HR, 4 RBI's, 2 runs, 3 K's

Bad Pitching:

Jason Vargas: 0-1, 12.2 IP, 6.39 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 4 K's
Charlie Furbush: 0-1, 5 IP, 7.20 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, 4 K's
Anthony Vasquez: 1-0, 5.1 IP, 8.44 ERA, 2.06 WHIP, 2 K's
Chance Ruffin: 1-0, 3.1 IP, 5.40 ERA, 1.80 WHIP, K
Brandon League: 0-1, Blown Save, 2 IP, 9.00 ERA, 2.00 WHIP, K, save

The hot hitting duo of Casper Wells and Mike Carp came crashing down this week. Those two have been overachieving as their K's to BB ratio reminds you of Carlos Peguero. For the season Carp is striking out 30.3% of the time while walking only 7.8% of the time. As for Wells he is striking out 42.4% of the time while walking only 5.4% of the time. So keep that in mind when looking at their small sample sizes.

The Ugly:

The Mariners once strong pitching staff has been pretty poor since trading away Doug Fister and Erik Bedard. The Mariners had to make some moves to acquire some offense which for the most part has improved greatly. Still, getting swept at home isn't good at all. The Mariners three left handed starters were roughed up this week. In particular two left handers have been getting rocked quite a bit lately in Charlie Furbush and Jason Vargas. For Vargas this is the third straight second half he has melted down and his pitches keep rising up in the strike zone for home runs. As for Furbush is reminding Mariners fans of another left hander Jack Zduriencik acquired from Detroit named Luke French. Furbush has had a bad habit of getting rocked around despite pitching in a friendly ballpark for left handed pitchers.

Ugly Pitching:

Charlie Furbush: 2-3, 25 IP, 6.48 ERA, 1.56 WHIP, 15 K's, .296 BAA.
Jason Vargas: 7-12, 169.1 IP, 4.52 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 104 K's, .266 BAA.
Jason Vargas second half: 1-6, 48 IP, 7.13 ERA, 1.88 WHIP, 23 K's, .340 BAA

As you can see Furbush has been horrible for the Mariners since coming here. As for Vargas this is the third straight year where he has had a bad second half, second straight year where he was terrific in the first half but horrible second half. A good left hander should thrive in Safeco Field since right handers have trouble hitting the ball out of the ball park yet these two continue to get rocked. Vargas this year at Safeco is 5-9 having pitched 99.2 innings with a 5.24 ERA and 1.35 WHIP. Which doesn't make sense since he is a fly ball pitcher.

AL West Standings:

Texas Rangers: 76-59, First Place
L.A. Angels: 72-61, 3.0 GB
Oakland A's: 60-73, 15.0 GB
Seattle Mariners: 56-76, 18.5 GB

In conclusion, the Mariners are winding down an August that saw them go 10-14 so far. Eric Wedge needs to realize the season is over and just play the youngsters even if it cost the team wins in the present. He needs to limit the workload of Hernandez who is on pace to throw over 250 innings for the second straight season. Guys like Adam Kennedy and Jack Wilson should just be DFA'd as they serve zero purpose on this roster right now. The Mariners have one more week of people following them then football season will begin which means the focus on the Mariners will shift towards the Washington Huskies, Washington State Cougars and Seattle Seahawks. The Mariners are playing hard and that is why that White Sox sweep was so depressing as that was an ass kicking for three games. I felt the Mariners had regressed big time that weekend. The Mariners play their next 10 games against division opponents. Hopefully the Mariners can close out September better than they have in July and August.

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 2nd-May 8th edition

By Kshell

The Seattle Mariners just completed an interesting week which saw the team go 3-3 including winning the series against the Texas Rangers. The week got even more interesting today as the Mariners cut ties with Milton Bradley and Ryan Langerhans today. The week saw more great pitching but some terrible hitting as usual. The Mariners despite having only two hitters are finding a way to be competive because of their pitching. The Mariners week could have been better had they hung on to the win against the Chicago White Sox yesterday in 10 innings. At least the Mariners revenged their early season sweep of the Rangers beating them two of three. Now I'll talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of the team as I review the week.

The Good:

The Mariners saw plenty of good this week with their pitching anchored by Felix Hernandez pitching a complete game win on Friday night. The return of Erik Bedard has been nice too as he has given the Mariners three straight great starts. The Mariners youngsters like Michael Pineda and Justin Smoak are still producing which is a great thing to watch. The Mariners did take two out of three against the division rival Rangers. Now the Mariners will try to keep their winning ways on the road this week.

Hitting Stars:

Justin Smoak: 8-22(.363), Home run, 4 RBI's, run
Brendan Ryan: 6-20(.300), 2 RBI's, run
Ichiro: 6-23(.261), 2 RBI's, 2 runs, SB
Chone Figgins: 4-13(.308), 2 runs, 3 SB's

Pitching Stars:

Felix Hernandez: 1-0, 9 IP, 2.00 ERA, 0.77 WHIP, 6 K's
Erik Bedard: 12 IP, 2.25 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, 12 K's
Jason Vargas: 1-0, 7.2 IP, 1.17 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 3 K's

The Bad:

The Mariners had a chance to make this a great week as they started the week off winning three of their first four games but the recent two game losing streak made this an average week. The Mariners simply aren't hitting the ball at all this week as they scored just four runs one time all week. The Mariners offense has been pathetic all season long and if not for great starting pitching they would have the worst record. The Mariners aren't playing great defense either this week which saw the release of Bradley which I'll touch on later in this post. The lights out bullpen this week even struggled but mainly the hitting has been awful this week.

Hitting Woes:

Michael Saunders: 0-19(.000), 8 K's
Miguel Olivo: 3-17(.176), 2 RBI's, run, 4 K's
Jack Cust: 3-16(.187), RBI, run, 7 K's

Pitching Woes:

Doug Fister: 0-1, 5.2 IP, 7.95 ERA, 2.47 WHIP, K
Brandon League: 0-1, 2 saves, 3.1 IP, 8.11 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 6 K's

Seattle Mariners as a team hitting .230/.305/.326 as they rank 25th in baseball in runs scored and 29th in home runs(only 30 teams).

The Ugly:

Well the Mariners have finally parted ways with two guys who couldn't hit on a roster full of guys who can't hit. One guy who was released in Bradley was long overdue. The guy couldn't hit and his fielding probably cost the Mariners the game on sunday. Add in the fact he's been ejected three times in the past 10 days he needed to be shown the door a long time ago. Before people get on Jack Zdruriencik remember the Bradley mess is on Bill Bavasi as he overpaid for Carlos Silva. Zduriencik took a gamble by trading our overpaid crap for their overpaid crap. Both teams ultimately lost as both guys will be paid 12 million this season to leave. The Bradley era in Seattle was a total disaster but don't think because he's gone that the Mariners are saved.

Ugly Hitting:

Milton Bradley: .218/.313./.356 with just two home runs and 13 RBI's with 31 strikeouts in 101 at bats.
Ryan Langerhans: .173/.317/.346 with three home runs and six RBI's with 22 strikeouts in 52 at bats.

Those two are released and as you can see with good reason as both failed terribly to make contact. I'll also bring up two others who shouldn't be on this roster. One guy should be sent down to Tacoma while the other should be sent packing.

Jack Cust: .198/.362/.248 with ZERO home runs and 11 RBI's. He also has 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats. He can't play the field either and is totally useless.
Michael Saunders: .170/.225/.252 with a home run and six RBI's. He has struck out 27 times in 94 at bats. Saunders may be good in the field but you simply can't have a guy in your lineup with an on base percentage of .225.

AL West Standings:

LA Angels: 20-15 First Place
Texas Rangers: 18-17 2.0 GB
Oakland A's: 18-17 2.0 GB
Seattle Mariners: 16-19 4.0 GB

In conclusion manager Eric Wedge finally got his wish of Bradley to be gone. I can't blame Wedge either on this one as Bradley was a team cancer, couldn't hit and couldn't play defense. The Mariners hitting woes won't go away as both guys they called up aren't long term answers. In fact I doubt either is a starter in the major leagues anytime after this season. The Mariners have to finally attack the offense this offseason as this piss poor lineup just can't get it done. The bright spot is the starting pitching is pretty as every day the Mariners are throwing a good pitcher. The Mariners have one of the better rotations in the American League but it doesn't matter if you average just 2.3 runs per game(this week) or on the year 3.6 runs per game. The Mariners have finally rid themselves of two crappy hitters unfortunately the roster is full of crappy hitters. At least the Milton Bradley era is finally over and done with.