Week 13 & 14 Recap

• After taking a week off, here’s my recap of the last two weeks of Mariners action, and it’s been an eventful couple of weeks. The Mariners dropped a five game home stand to end the month of June, losing to the Pirates and dropping two of three against the Cubs. That Cubs series was a fun one to watch as all three games went down to the wire, two of them in extra innings. The Mariners started the month of July with two road series against the Rangers and the Reds and surprisingly won both of them.

• The rebuilding efforts continued as Brad Miller got the call from Tacoma and Dustin Ackley started his conversion to outfielder. In the nine games since Miller and Ackley joined the team, we’ve gone 5-4 and scored 4.66 runs per game, higher  than the 3.58 runs per game pace the Mariners had set in the previous 79 games.

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 (6/24-7/7).

• After dominating at every minor league level, Brad Miller was called up to replace Brendan Ryan as the starting shortstop for the Mariners. He’s been compared to Kyle Seager often, they both came out of college as middle of the road prospects (Miller was drafted in the second round, Seager in the third)  but their work ethic and dedication have raised their level of play tremendously. The knock on Miller as he was climbing the organizational ladder was his defense. So far, he’s proven fully capable of holding down shortstop at the major league level and he was probably called up when he was so that he could soak up everything he could from Ryan.
• Miller has been given the chance to prove that he’s a part of this team’s future and he’s impressed so far. While he’s only hitting .229, he’s shown excellent speed and has been patient at the plate. His strikeout rate has spiked but that’s to be expected when moving from the minors to the majors. The good news is that he’s making contact at a pretty good rate (76.8%) and he isn’t swinging and missing at all (11%). As he becomes more acclimated to major league pitching, bringing down his strikeout rate will be a good sign of progress.
• After just thirteen games to relearn how to play outfield, Dustin Ackley was called up from AAA-Tacoma to rejoin the Mariners. He has played in center field in all seven games he’s started and looked shakey to begin with but has eased into the role. At the plate he has looked only okay, certainly not hitting the way he was in AAA. Learning a new position and working on your swing can’t be easy.
• We may have seen Justin Smoak actually turn the corner. Since the returning from the DL, he’s hitting .339/.422/.625 with four HRs and eight walks in sixteen games. What relief it would be if Smoak actually became a contributing member of a rejuvenated Mariner offense.

• Hisashi Iwakuma has been hit hard in his last four outings (including today), giving up ten home runs in 24 innings. I’m not sure if he’s run into some bad luck or if something is mechanically wrong. None of his peripheral stats are showing a significant change in approach, so we can just hope that he’s hitting a period of regression and that he’ll come through it after the all-star break.
• Jeremy Bonderman was knocked around in his last two games and has been designated for assignment. Erasmo Ramirez will probably start in his place on Thursday. Bonderman was a great story, returning from a devastating injury to pitch in the majors again is quite a feat. It was clear that he just wasn’t the same pitcher he was before his injury and releasing him makes this team better.
• Tom Wilhelmsen has pitched in six games without giving up a run or a walk. Hopefully his rough patch is behind him. I’ve noticed that he’s been pitching to contact more recently. I’m not sure if that’s an adjustment he’s made or just a side affect of trying to get back on the right track. Either way, as long as he’s preventing walks and striking guys out, he’ll be fine.
• Oliver Perez has struck out half the batters he’s faced in the last two weeks. His most impressive inning was when he struck out Jay Bruce, Todd Frazier, and Derrick Robinson to earn the save on Friday.

AL West Standings

The Week Ahead

Heading into the All-Star Break, the Mariners play seven straight at home against the visiting Red Sox and the Angels. The Red Sox are surprisingly leading the AL East after a strong start and continued dominance over the AL East. Just before the break, the Angels come to town for a three game set. Felix and Iwakuma were both selected to the All-Star game and both of them pitch twice this week. This should be fun!