Week 12 Recap

Early in the week, the Mariners split a four game, home-away series in which the losing team scored only once in each game. We also gave away another gem of a performance from King Felix (7 IP, 10 K, 3 H) on Wednesday. Over the weekend, we took on the Royals, who had recently been on a 12-game winning streak. The Mariners juggernaut swept away that pitiful band of royalty. We’ve firmly entrenched ourselves in the AL Wild Card race and have refused to give up any ground.

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 (6/9-22).

Batters

• Well, look who finally decided to show up. . That .349/.383/.512 line you see next to Brad Miller’s name is no joke, B-Rad has been hitting the cover off the ball in June. He’s still striking out more often but his walk rate has rebounded past where it was last year. This is a good sign. It tells me that, while continuing to be an aggressive swinger, he’s started to be selective about when he’s swinging and at which pitches he’s swinging at. Earlier in the year, it was pretty obvious that he was pressing at the plate, trying to hit everything the pitcher threw. If these adjustments stick, I’d look for him to continue to walk at his current rate and continue to hit for power with a batting average around .260-.270.
• Mike Zunino had himself a good series in Kansas City, hitting two home runs in two games, including the game winner on Sunday. The one he hit on Friday was a mammoth blast. He may still have trouble making consistent contact but when he does, the ball goes far.

Pitchers

• A good week from our pitching staff. Take a look down the leverage index (gmLI) column. Our bullpen has pitched in some very high leverage games recently. Furbush and Leone got hit with losses in San Diego but the bullpen rebounded in Kansas City, locking down all three wins. Fernando Rodney looks like he’s gotten over his early season jitters and has turned into the lockdown closer we paid for this offseason. He’s only given up one walk and one run in ten appearances in June and he appeared in four straight games last week and earned saves in three of them (the fourth wasn’t a save opportunity).

AL West Standings

AL Wild Card Standings

The Week Ahead

The Mariners earn a much needed day off after a three game series with the Red Sox. Over the weekend, the Indians come to town for another series with Playoff implications. The Indians are just outside of the Wild Card race so a series win over them would help the Mariners solidify their place in the race.