Week 11 Recap

• The Mariners actually had a good week this week. We took two of three from both the Astros and the Athletics and Mike Zunino began showing us why he was such a valuable prospect. Getting the series win against the Astros was a relief despite losing a winnable game on Wednesday via a Tom Wilhelmsen blowup. Winning against the Athletics was a surprise, however. The Athletics had been one of the hottest teams in the majors going in to that series and we played them very competitively. All in all, I’d say it was a successful week.

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 (6/3-6/16).

• At the start of the week, Kelly Shoppach was released and the Mariners signed 41-year-old Henry Blanco. Blanco becomes the oldest player on the team and raises the average age on the team by almost a full year, from 28-years-old to 29-years-old. In his first game as a Mariner, he hit a grand slam to power the Mariners, and Felix, to win over the Athletics. It was all worth it, just for that one hit.
• Michael Saunders is mired in some kind of slump. He only has 8 hits in June, just one for extra-bases, and is striking out much more often than earlier this season. The good news is he’s still walking but that doesn’t matter much when you’re giving away all your other at-bats. I’m not sure if he’s pressing at the plate or if his mechanics are off. Either way, he definitely could use some work. Dustin Ackley has been played in the outfield in AAA-Tacoma this last week to prepare him for a super-utility role, a la Ben Zobrist. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ackley was called up this weekend and Saunders sent down to work on his swing.
• Despite all of the hub-bub surrounding the promotion of Mike Zunino, it’s fun to see such a hyped prospect in the majors. He’s already hit a home run off an offspeed pitch and has made a couple of nice plays at the plate. Let’s see what else he can bring.
• Dustin Ackley through 20 games: .304/.364/.536 10/7 K/BB
  Nick Franklin through 20 games: .299/.382/.522 11/9 K/BB
  This could either work out really well or really poorly. Baseball!

• Tom Wilhelmsen had a week to forget. The entire bullpen had a week to forget. Over the last seven days, the Mariners bullpen has  a 14.73 ERA. Yikes. Wilhelmsen is out as the closer for now. He’ll probably get a few appearances to try and work out his command issues and regain some confidence. The candidates to replace Wilhelmsen are few and far between. Oliver Perez picked up the save on Friday so he’s definitely in the mix. Charlie Furbush is also a candidate but he’s got a pretty significant split against righties. Carter Capps could have been a candidate but his command has been failing him and he’s giving up way too many home runs. We’ll see what Eric Wedge decides to do but the ninth inning could be really exciting for the next few weeks. It already was with Wilhelmsen as the closer, just exciting for the wrong fans.

AL West Standings

The Week Ahead

The Mariners travel to Los Angeles Anaheim for a four game series between two teams fighting for third place. The Angels have been one of the most disappointing teams thus far but they’re projected to have the fifth best record over the rest of the season. This should be a pretty entertaining series. The Mariners return home for a weekend series against the Athletics. We just took two of three from them last week so hopefully we’ll continue to play well against the league’s hottest team.