Seattle Mariners weekly recap: September 5th-11th edition

By Kshell

The Seattle Mariners just finished up a 3-4 week which saw them lose two out of three down there in Anaheim while splitting up here in Seattle with the Kansas City Royals. The Mariners kind of went back to the first half Mariners where the pitching staff was terrific but the offense was horrible. During the week the Mariners averaged just 2.8 runs per game. The Mariners did see Justin Smoak return from the DL last week and this week he started to hit the ball. This was Smoak's best week in a few months which was nice for the Mariners as he factors into the future plans. The Mariners pitching staff was terrific this week led by once again Felix Hernandez who has been a dominant ace for the month of August and September. The Mariners also saw pitchers Jason Vargas, Blake Beavan, and Charlie Furbush have nice bounce back performances which they all desperately needed. The Mariners only have 16 games remaining on their schedule as they are just playing out the season. This week I'll go over the good(the pitching staff), the bad(the hitting) and the ugly(all the losses). The Mariners have just three weeks left in the season if anyone is still paying attention to this club.

The Good:

The Mariners had some good things this week despite going 3-4. One of those good things was the recent hitting of Ichiro who has been on fire now for about five weeks. Ichiro this week displayed some power and also showed that he still has some speed left in his game. For having a "bad" year Ichiro is still having a productive season he simply isn't having an Ichiro season is all. The Mariners also saw their pitching staff pitch extremely well this week anchored by Felix Hernandez. Hernandez is now 6-2 in his last eight starts. The Mariners starting pitching this week went 3-4 but in seven starts managed to throw 47.1 innings with a 2.85 ERA and 29 strikeouts. The Mariners pitching staff who had been struggling lately was nice to see them turn it around this week. The Mariners bullpen pitched pretty well too. Overall the Mariners pitching didn't have a single pitcher appear on the bad list. The Mariners hitters only had three regular players which was Ichiro, Justin Smoak and Miguel Olivo. The Mariners hitting which had been improving hit another disasterous slump this week. At least the pitching staff came to play to salvage the week by going 3-4. The Mariners pitching which has been terrific all seaosn long was terrific this week as well.

Good Hitting:

Ichiro: 8-29(.276), 2 HR's, 4 RBI's, 3 runs,  5 SB's
Willy Mo Pena: 2-7(.286), RBI
Miguel Olivo: 6-20(.300), HR, 2 RBI's, 3 runs
Justin Smoak: 9-27(.333), 2 HR's, 6 RBI's, 4 runs

Good Pitching:

Felix Hernandez: 1-0, 8 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 7 K's
Jason Vargas: 1-0, 6 IP, 1.50 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 3 K's
Blake Beavan: 1-0, 6.1 IP, 4.26 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 3 K's
Charlie Furbush: 0-1, 7.1 IP, 3.68 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, 3 K's
Anthony Vasquez: 0-2, 11.2 IP, 3.86 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 5 K's
Michael Pineda: 0-1, 8 IP, 3.37 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 8 K's
Jamey Wright: 5 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.40 WHIP, 6 K's
Shaun Kelley: 4 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 2 K's
Tom Wilhemsen: 2.2 IP, 3.37 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 2 K's
Brandon League : 2 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.50 WHIP, 2 saves

Felix Hernandez last 8 starts: 6-2, 59.1 IP(7.2 IP a start), 2.27 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 63 K's(9.55 K's per 9).
Michael Pineda last four starts: 0-3, 26 IP(6.2 IP a start), 3.46 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, 28 K's(9.69 K's per 9).

As you can see Hernandez has been dominating lately and is finally racking up the much deserved wins. Meanwhile you may read that Michael Pineda hasn't won since July 30th and see he went from 6-2 to 9-10. Pineda simply isn't getting the run suppor but he is still pitching extremely well down the stretch while setting a career high in innings pitched with 167(previous high was 141).

Bad:

The Mariners this week went 3-4 despite the pitching staff just carrying them. The offense scored just 2.8 runs this week as the Mariners lost two out of three in Anaheim. After winning the first two games against the Royals the Mariners dropped the next two games. The Mariners are going with some youthful pieces who are all slumping at the same time which is hurting the offense. The Mariners also for whatever reason keep on insisting to play Adam Kennedy even though he doesn't factor into their future plans at all. The Mariners pitching was great this week so they'll have no pitchers on the bad list which is rare for a 3-4 week. The Mariners have gone 5-12 in their last 17 games and are headed towards another 90 plus loss season. The Mariners rank towards the bottom in just about every offensive category for the second straight season. This year was supposed to be a rebuilding season for the Mariners but after the hot start the first three months nobody expected to see this team headed towards another 90 plus loss season. The Mariners will most likely finish in last place for the sixth time in eight seasons. During that stretch the Mariners will have lost over 90 games five times in the past eight seasons. The hitting needs to be worked on this offseason or expect another long season next year.

Bad Hitting:

Dustin Ackley: 5-24(.208), 2 runs, SB, 6 K's, .321 OB%
Mike Carp: 3-21(.143), HR, RBI, run, 8 K's
Kyle Seager: 3-18(.167), run, SB, 5 K's
Trayvon Robinson: 4-18(.222), HR, 2 RBI's, run, SB, 9 K's
Brendan Ryan: 5-30(.167), HR, RBI, 2 runs, 3 SB's, 7 K's
Adam Kennedy: 2-11(.182), run, 4 K's
Casper Wells: 1-6(.167), 3 K's
Michael Saunders: 0-5(.000), RBI, run, 2 K's
Alex Liddi: 1-8(.125), run, 5 K's

Adam Kennedy 2nd half: Hitting .172/.193/.284 in 116 AB's with 25 K's to just 2 walks.
Casper Wells last 3 weeks: 3-39(.076), run, 17 K's

The Ugly:

The  Mariners are headed towards another crappy finish to a crappy season. The Mariners since the all-star break are now 18-36(.333) which is just terrible. The Mariners are now the fourth worst team in the major leagues. This would be the third time in the last four seasons the Mariners are in the bottom five in all of major league baseball. The Mariners offense currently ranks dead last in batting average, on base percentage, slugging, hits and are second to last in runs scored. The Mariners are going with the youth experiment which is okay but in the process it sure is hard to watch on a daily basis. The Mariners are in danger of losing their fan base with all this losing and lack of hitting. The Mariners are one of the worst teams in all of baseball since 2004. Only the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates have been worse during that stretch.

Ugly Baseball:

2004 Seattle Mariners: 63-99(.389), last place, runs scored: 698, runs against: 823
2005 Seattle Mariners: 69-93(.426), last place, runs scored: 699, runs against: 751
2006 Seattle Mariners: 78-84(.481), last place, runs scored: 756, runs against: 792
2007 Seattle Mariners: 88-74(.543), 2nd place, runs scored: 794, runs against: 813
2008 Seattle Mariners: 61-101(.377), last place, runs scored:671, runs against: 811
2009 Seattle Mariners: 85-77(.525), 3rd place, runs scored: 640, runs against: 692
2010 Seattle Mariners: 61-101(.377), last place, runs scored: 513, runs against: 698
2011 Seattle Mariners: 61-85(.418), last place, runs scored: 500, runs against 600

As you can see the Mariners have been horrible during this eight year stretch and even in their two winning seasons they were still outscored on the year. The Mariners are a franchise who are headed nowhere with no direction. The Mariners claim to be rebuilding yet Adam Kennedy still is finding two to three starts a week. The Mariners have reverted back to the 1980's where winning seems to be an after thought. The Mariners franchise just isn't scoring enough runs and not winning enough games. Where is the public  out cry from our fan base? Why do I feel as if I'm in the minority when I should be in the majority on the Mariners.

AL West Standings:

Texas Rangers: 83-64, first place
L.A. Angels: 80-66, 2.5 GB
Oakland A's: 66-80, 16.5 GB
Seattle Mariners: 61-85, 21.5 GB

In conclusion, the Mariners are grinding out their season for the eighth straight year. For the eighth straight year nobody in Seattle including myself can give a crap about baseball as football has taken over. The Mariners have wasted the career of Ichiro and appear determine to do the same for Felix Hernandez who is having another terrific season. The Mariners are simply playing out their season and wonder why the fans can care less. This weekend there was so many empty seats and with football going on I can't blame them. Like I showed earlier the Mariners have been one of the worst franchises in all of major league baseball. The Mariners are one of two franchises to never reach the World Series and I don't expect that streak to end anytime soon. The Mariners are just 16 games away from their season ending in disappointment which has been the theme since 2004.

Mariners weekly recap: April 11th-17th

By Kshell

The Seattle Mariners just completed another losing week going 3-4 dropping their overall record to 5-11. The week started off strong for the Mariners as they snapped a seven game losing streak by defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in the first two games. After that the Mariners lost four games in a row, three to the Kansas City Royals. The Mariners had plenty of lows this week but did have some nice wins as well. The Mariners saw a record comeback for them, great pitching by youngster Michael Pineda and Justin Smoak showing why he was such a highly regarded prospect. The Mariners unfortunately still aren't scoring enough runs. This week even saw Eric Wedge have his first of many blowups on the team after a 7-0 loss on Saturday to the Royals. Like I'll be doing all season long I'll recap the week with the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good:

The good was the two games I went to this week which the Mariners won. I'll start with Monday's game against the Toronto Blue Jays where the Mariners trailed 7-0 and 7-1 going into the eighth inning. My friend who was my ride wanted to leave early so we left early. As we were eating in McDonalds my phone kept blowing up and the Mariners pulled within 7-6. On the way back to my hotel Luis Rodriguez drilled a two run double for the Mariners to complete the comeback 8-7. I punched my friend in the arm and told him I'll be on my death bed and never forgive him.

Well the next day I saw the home debut of Michael Pineda. I didn't leave early on that game. Pineda showed the Mariners there is plenty of hope as did Justin Smoak when he made a great defensive play in the eighth. With the game 3-2, runner on third base and one out someone hit a pop up between first base and right field in foul territory. Smoak makes the catch turns and fires a strike to nail the runner at third base to basically win the game for the Mariners.

Hitting Leaders:

Justin Smoak: 8-19(.421), Home run, 4 RBI's, 2 runs
Brendan Ryan: 7-21(.333), 3 RBI's, 2 runs. Hit safely in six of seven games
Ichiro: 8-31(.258), 2 RBI's, 5 runs, stolen base

Pitching Leaders:

Michael Pineda: 2-0, 13.1 IP, 1.35 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 12 K's
Jamey Wright: 2 holds, 2.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, 2 K's
Josh Lueke: 1-0, 2.1 IP, 3.86 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 2 K's

The Bad:

The team still isn't scoring runs at all having scored just 23 runs(3.2 Runs per game) in seven games. The Mariners won two out of three from the Toronto Blue Jays but lost three of four against the Kansas Royals despite throwing Erik Bedard, Felix Hernandez and Michael Pineda at them. The Mariners aren't getting much production from the middle of the lineup and the starting pitching finally pitched poorly this week outside of Pineda. The Mariners lost four in a row which gives them already two separate losing streaks of over four games which is a bad trend. Wedge has to be crying everytime he fills out a lineup card.

Hitting Slump:

Miguel Olivo: 1-21(.047), run, 7 K's
Jack Cust: 4-19(.210), 2 RBI's, run, 6 K's. ZERO XBH
Chone Figgins: 3-19(.157), run. ZERO stolen bases

Pitching Slump:

Felix Hernandez: 0-1, 11 IP, 7.36 ERA, 2.00 WHIP, 12 K's
Chris Ray: 0-1, Blown Save, Hold, 1.1 IP, 33.83 ERA, 3.76 WHIP. ZERO K's
Erik Bedard: 0-1, 4.2 IP, 7.72 ERA, 2.14 WHIP, 6 K's

The Ugly:

Now before you think I'm picking on Ichiro I chose this picture to show how low the crowds were during that Toronto series. I was at two of the games and I felt outnumbered by all the Canada fans who drove down to root on the Blue Jays. The Mariners set a Safeco Field record for worst attendance on Monday which was later broken on Wednesday. I can't blame the fans either when you put out a crappy product who can't score runs I wouldn't go either. In fact I'm wondering why I went to two games myself.

Ugly Hitting:

Mariners scored just 23 runs(3.2 Runs per game) during this seven game series. The Mariners attendance is paying the price for it. After six games attendance is already down over 44,000 from last season. This will most likely be the worst year in Safeco history far as fan support goes. I can't really blame the fans it's one thing to be losers but another thing to not be exciting. This team lacks power or anything. They can't play big ball or small ball.

AL West Standings:

LA Angels: 10-5 tied for first
Texas Rangers: 10-5 tied for first
Oakland A's: 8-8 2.5 GB
Seattle Mariners: 5-11 5.5 GB

This year is going to be a long rebuilding season. Wedge I should hope knew this when he took the job. This team won't be competive until 2012 and won't be a playoff contender until 2013. If you guys want hope just look at the "good" list which features Michael Pineda and Justin Smoak. Felix Hernandez is still only 25 years old plus the Mariners have the number two pick in this years draft. The Mariners also have top prospect Dustin Ackley sitting in the minors. The Mariners are starting to build some nice young pieces. That won't take the pain of this season away but unlike 2008 there is at least hope at the end of the tunnel. Whether Jackie Z or Eric Wedge is here to see that well that is a different story that I'll talk about later in the year.