Week 9 Recap

Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Score	Result
5/27	Mariners	9	Padres	0	W
5/28	Mariners	1	Padres	6	L
5/29	Padres	3	Mariners	2	L
5/30	Padres	1	Mariners	7	W
5/31	Twins	0	Mariners	3	W
6/1	Twins	5	Mariners	4	L
6/2	Twins	10	Mariners	0	L

• Blech, that was a week to forget. The Mariners split a four game, home and home series against the Padres and then flew to Minneapolis to play the Twins and lost that series. There were two more walk-off losses this week, raising the season total to six. Those kind of losses are particularly hard to swallow because a good team should be able to win those kinds of games and the way the Mariners are losing them really exemplifies our weaknesses. This is not a good team.

• The Mariners hit 13 home runs and scored only 3.71 runs per game this week. That brings their season total to 68 HRs (7th in the league) and 206 runs scored (25th in the league). Hitting a bunch of solo home runs does not make for a good offense, no matter how exciting it is to see Jason Bay hit a go ahead home run in the top of the ninth-or seventh-inning.

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 (5/20-6/2).

	PA	1B/2B/3B/HR	AVG/OBP/SLG	K%/xK%	BB%/xBB%	HR%/xHR%	SCOUT
Kelly Shoppach	27	1 / 0 / 0 / 1	.077 /.111 /.192	44.4/24.2	3.7/7.6	14.3/11.6	-3.1
Jesus Sucre	24	4 / 0 / 0 / 0	.190 /.250 /.190	4.2/17.3	8.3/8.0	0.0/10.4	-5.4
Justin Smoak	21	2 / 0 / 0 / 1	.150 /.190 /.300	28.6/21.0	4.8/7.8	14.3/11.5	-0.3
Kendrys Morales	57	13 / 7 / 0 / 3	.411 /.421 /.696	19.3/19.6	1.8/6.8	16.7/12.3	2.6
Nick Franklin	21	2 / 0 / 0 / 2	.235 /.381 /.588	9.5/18.4	19.0/8.8	22.2/12.1	11.2
Brendan Ryan	45	9 / 3 / 0 / 1	.302 /.333 /.442	11.1/17.2	4.4/7.5	5.9/10.5	-7.3
Carlos Triunfel	13	0 / 0 / 0 / 0	.000 /.000 /.000	23.1/20.1	0.0/7.7	0.0/10.8	-5.9
Kyle Seager	54	8 / 5 / 0 / 2	.294 /.333 /.510	14.8/18.0	5.6/7.6	11.8/11.4	-0.1
Mike Morse	31	7 / 0 / 0 / 1	.286 /.355 /.393	16.1/19.0	9.7/8.2	11.1/11.3	1.3
Jason Bay	43	4 / 0 / 0 / 4	.216 /.326 /.541	23.3/20.8	14.0/8.9	33.3/14.5	29.3
Raul Ibanez	37	5 / 2 / 0 / 1	.229 /.270 /.371	27.0/21.6	5.4/7.7	14.3/11.7	0.1
Endy Chavez	36	7 / 0 / 0 / 2	.265 /.278 /.441	0.0/15.0	2.8/7.4	22.2/12.6	11.2
Michael Saunders	48	4 / 2 / 0 / 0	.136 /.250 /.182	33.3/24.1	12.5/8.7	0.0/9.5	-14.5

• Nick Franklin started his major league career with a bang this week. More impressive than his two home runs on Thursday were the four walks he took against only two strikeouts. It’s clear he’s made some positive adjustments to his plate discipline this year- he’s cut his strikeout rate almost in half this year, from 19.3% last year to 10.9% this year. Plate discipline alone does not make for a complete hitter, just ask Mr. Passive himself, Dustin Ackley. Franklin, to his credit, has only swung and missed three times in his 21 plate appearances in the majors. We all hope that he will be able to leverage his discipline into a productive batting line. The Mariners could use a win from their farm system.
• This offseason when the Mariners traded for Kendrys Morales and Mike Morse, the question that was often brought up was, “Which one do the Mariners extend to a multi-year contract?” I think Kendrys Morales has answered that question with an outstanding May batting line of .343/.385/.598. He hit five home runs in May and he was 74% better than a league average batter. He has also made positive adjustments to his strikeout and walk rates. Dave Cameron from USS Mariner has an interesting piece on why the Mariners don’t need to extend Morales now. I think that if the opportunity arrises, extending him would probably be the most prudent thing to do. Why allow him to be freely available on the free agent market, even if we’re guaranteed a first round draft pick if he does sign elsewhere? I’d rather extend Morales for three years than have the unknown of another draft pick who may or may not pan out.
• Endy Chavez hasn’t struck out since May 11. He has 14 games and 48 plate appearances in a row without a strikeout. The record is 115 games without a strikeout. You can do it Endy!

	IP	BF	K / BB	ERA/FIP	K%/xK%	BB%/xBB%	HR%/xHR%	SCOUT
Felix Hernandez	13 2/3	56	15 / 4	3.95 / 2.73	26.8/22.4	7.1/7.8	14.3/11.9	-1.2
Hisashi Iwakuma	21 2/3	85	19 / 5	2.91 / 3.84	22.4/21.2	5.9/7.4	18.8/13.4	-15.0
Joe Saunders	12	48	10 / 3	5.25 / 5.43	20.8/20.1	6.3/7.7	18.8/12.5	-9.3
Brandon Maurer	8 2/3	47	4 / 3	12.46 / 6.22	8.5/16.3	6.4/7.7	15.4/11.9	-9.3
Aaron Harang	18 2/3	78	16 / 4	3.86 / 3.42	20.5/20.2	5.1/7.3	7.1/10.2	12.9
Jeremy Bonderman	4 2/3	24	1 / 1	13.50 / 11.67	4.2/17.3	4.2/7.7	30.0/12.8	-15.5
Hector Noesi	2 1/3	14	2 / 0	11.57 / 6.96	14.3/19.3	0.0/7.6	25.0/11.9	-5.1
Danny Farquhar	6	25	10 / 2	9.00 / 0.77	40.0/23.2	8.0/8.0	0.0/10.4	12.7
Yoervis Medina	4 1/3	24	4 / 8	4.15 / 6.79	16.7/19.3	33.3/10.0	0.0/10.4	0.3
Oliver Perez	3 1/3	15	5 / 1	0.00 / 1.00	33.3/21.2	6.7/7.9	0.0/10.7	7.0
Carter Capps	3 2/3	17	4 / 1	2.45 / 1.74	23.5/20.2	5.9/7.9	0.0/10.7	6.7
Charlie Furbush	7 2/3	31	7 / 3	2.35 / 4.14	22.6/20.4	9.7/8.2	12.5/11.4	-1.0
Tom Wilhelmsen	6 1/3	29	4 / 7	5.68 / 5.15	13.8/18.6	24.1/9.6	0.0/10.2	2.8

• It was a disappointing week for Tom Wilhelmsen. He blew two saves and couldn’t find the strike zone-he gave up more walks this week than he had all season long. His PITCHf/x stats are all at or near his career rates. This might have been a week long stretch of poor pitching. I’m not too worried about him. If he continues to have problems with his command, I might start to wonder if he’s dealing with an injury but right now, I expect him to right the ship soon.
• The Brandon Maurer experiment is over as he was sent to AAA-Tacoma and Jeremy Bonderman was called up to take his place. Its too bad the Mariners got the same kind of performance out of Bonderman, he allowed seven runs, three home runs, and only struck out one. Yikes. Bonderman will probably only hold his place until Erasmo Ramirez is healthy-he’s made two rehab starts already-or until Blake Beavan is called up to take his place.

AL West Standings

Team	Win-Loss	Win%	Games Behind
Rangers	35-21	.625	–
Athletics	34-24	.586	2.0
Angels	25-32	.439	10.5
Mariners	24-33	.421	11.5
Astros	20-37	.351	15.5

The Week Ahead

Date	Away Team	Probable Pitcher	Home Team	Probable Pitcher
6/3	White Sox	L John Danks	Mariners	L Joe Saunders
6/4	White Sox	R Jake Peavy	Mariners	R Felix Hernandez
6/5	White Sox	R Dylan Axelrod	Mariners	R Hisashi Iwakuma
6/6	Yankees	TBD	Mariners	R Aaron Harang
6/7	Yankees	TBD	Mariners	R Jeremy Bonderman
6/8	Yankees	TBD	Mariners	L Joe Saunders
6/9	Yankees	TBD	Mariners	R Felix Hernandez

The Mariners start a long home stand this week with a three game series against the White Sox and a four game series against the Yankees. The White Sox are the worst offensive team in the American League this year, taking that title away from the Mariners (we’re just ahead of them though. The Yankees come to town with a number of their injured stars back on the field. Let the rebuilding continue!