Week 5 Recap

• The Mariners took two of three from both the Orioles and the Blue Jays and have now won seven of their last ten games. It seems like the team is beginning to heat up after a month of frustration. We do have to remember who our most recent opponents have been though. The Angels and Blue Jays both came into the season with expectations sky high and have disappointed in the early goings. Our last three opponents have pitching staffs that rank in the bottom third of the league. So the Mariners have been beating up on weak teams, that’s necessary for any competitive team. I’ll start believing the Mariners have turned a corner when they start beating quality teams like the Athletics or the Yankees.

Player Performances

One of the features I’m including is a look at the recent player performances from the past two weeks. That small of a sample size will give us some pretty extreme data points. If you want to see the methodology behind these statistics, check out this page. The two tables below are the batting and pitching data from the last two weeks (4/22-5/5).

• Jesus Montero hit a triple. Let me repeat that. Jesus Montero hit a ball far enough (but not out of the ballpark) that he was able to run all the way to third base without being thrown out. Yes, Adam Jones made a terrible play on the ball and fell down immediately after dropping the catch. A month or two from now, we won’t remember that detail, all that will be left will be the ‘1’ in the Triples column of Jesus Montero’s stat line. I think the best part of all of this is Montero’s reaction, captured in GIF form:

Yes, Jesus, we should all celebrate the little victories.

• Michael Saunders is back in a big way. He blasted a home run in his first at-bat after being activated from the disabled list and hit two more on Saturday against reigning NL Cy Young winner, R.A. Dickey. Just a year ago, who would’ve thought that Michael Saunders would be an integral piece of this team? More and more it seems like those swing adjustments he made two offseasons ago are actually sustainable and have turned him into a productive hitter. Hopefully we see him continue to grow because this team definitely needs a win from its player development department.

• Joe Saunders pitched decently at home on Monday and then gets shelled on the road on Sunday. This dichotomy seems to follows from the pattern established by other lefties with fly ball tendencies like Jason Vargas and Jarrod Washburn, except Saunders has taken it to the extreme. He’s now given up 26 earned runs in four away starts and 2 earned runs in three home starts. This week he starts at home against the Athletics. Over or under 1.5 runs allowed?
• Blake Beavan was sent down because he was completely ineffective in the bullpen. His strikeout rate jumped up a tick but so did his walk rate and home run rate. Beavan’s destined to be rotation depth, stashed in AAA-Tacoma for the day when everything falls apart in the Mariners rotation. Lucas Luetge was called up to replace Beavan on the active roster.
• Felix and Iwakuma continued to be an amazing 1-2 combo on top of our rotation. Signing Iwakuma to a two year contract seems like the smartest move the front office made this offseason.

AL West Standings

The Week Ahead

The schedule over compensates for the lack of off-days in April with five in May, including two this week. The Mariners travel to Pittsburgh for a brief series against the Pirates, a team that is in a very similar situation, organizationally, as the Mariners. Brandon Maurer and Felix swap rotation spots. After another travel day, the Mariners return home for a brief home stand against the Athletics and we get to see if the Joe Saunders dichotomy stays true.