Week 9 Recap

Well, that was an interesting week. The Mariners split a four game series against the Angels, pretty normal stuff. Over the weeked, the Mariners took on the best team in the AL, the Detroit Tigers, and won two of three. We’re a third of the way through this season and this team continues to surprise.

• The win on Saturday featured Chris Young holding the Tigers to just two runs and significant contributions from Willie Bloomquist and Cole Gillespie. Of the eight position players who started on Saturday, just three of them also started on Opening Day–Smoak, Seager, and Zunino.
• The win on Sunday featured a complete game, shutout from Roenis Elias who was making just his twelfth major league start. The lineup included Endy Chavez starting at designated hitter and a Brad Miller home run off the reigning Cy Young winner, Max Scherzer.

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 (5/19-6/1). Batters

• In the table above, take a look down the column labeled K%. There is one massive outlier. No, it’s not Endy Chavez’s 0%. That’s right, Nick Franklin struck out in almost half of his plate appearances in the past two weeks. It’s no wonder he’s been sent back to Triple-A Tacoma. Its clear that whatever secret to his success in the minors just doesn’t translate well to the majors. In his comments about Franklin, Lloyd McClendon emphasized the need to be able to make adjustments against major league pitching. This isn’t anything new. For now, he’ll continue to destroy Triple-A pitching while trying to figure out how to make the jump to the next level.

Pitchers

• I briefly talked about Roenis Elias’ gem of a start on Sunday in the lede. What really impressed me was the amazing quality of his curveball. Take a look at these highlights from Sunday. I count seven of his eight strikeouts coming off his curveball. The way he uses that pitch is pretty incredible. He throws it in two varieties, the looping ~80 mph and the ~83mph version that looks more like a slurve. He’s been able to get both swinging strikes and called strikes by consistently locating it within the zone. According to FanGraphs pitch values, his curve is rated just outside the top 10 for all pitchers in the majors. Its definitely a pitch that will continue to set him apart and make him a valuable piece in the rotation.

• After having another chance to make it as a major league pitcher, Brandon Maurer was sent down to Triple-A in favor of Erasmo Ramirez. With four of the five rotation spots locked down, it’s a wonderful surprise to only have to worry about that fifth spot. Ramirez will try to lock down that fifth spot, at least until Taijuan Walker is ready to contribute again.

AL West Standings

The Week Ahead

The Mariners play a makeup game in New York before making the trek down south to play the Braves for a quick two game set and then the Rays for four games over the weekend. That four game series in Tampa Bay begins a stretch of 20 games in a row without an off day. Woof.