Week 14 Recap

That road trip felt worse than it actually was. Its probably recency bias because of the terrible time the Mariners had in Chicago.

• Did you know that the Mariners are just 5-23 when playing the White Sox in Chicago since 2008. Woof.
• All four runs scored by the Mariners in the series were scored in the ninth inning or later. Yikes.
• The Mariners were shutout by Hector Noesi. Yes, the same Hector Noesi who ran a 6.13 ERA as a Seattle Mariner. Ugh.

But, hey, at least the Mariners outscored the Astros by twenty runs!

You’ve probably heard about the massive trade between the Cubs and the Athletics. The A’s gained two premier pitchers to bolster their run for the World Series. Of course this is bad news for the Mariners because the A’s are a division rival and we had been in the market for starting pitching depth. But its not as bad as it seems. The Mariners just got Taijuan Walker back from injury and he’s a certain upgrade over Erasmo Ramirez. James Paxton is about a month away from rejoining the team too and that’s another upgrade. Plus the teams who were really looking for starting pitching help are all in the AL East and if the Mariners are going to make it to the playoffs this year, we’re going to have to go through the Wild Card against those teams from the AL East.

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 (6/23-7/6).

Batters

• When the initial All-Star Roster was revealed, Kyle Seager was conspicuously absent. We’ve known for a while that Seager is an incredibly valuable piece on this roster but he’s really turned it up to eleven this year. He’s currently the seventh most valuable player in the AL and the second most valuable third baseman behind Josh Donaldson (the starter on the All-Star team). Heck, over the last two weeks, all Seager has done is hit over .400 with 3 HRs. That’s quite a push right before the All-Star break, so it was a relief to see Seager named to the All-Star team as an injury replacement. He’s finally receiving some recognition for the key player he’s been for the Mariners.
• Corey Hart returned from his hamstring injury and Cole Gillespie was designated for assignment. Justin Smoak was also activated from the disabled list but he was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma and Logan Morrison looks like he’s locked down first base for now. The Mariners faced two tough lefties in Chicago, Chris Sale and Jose Quintana, and were able to score just one run off both of them. Lefties have been a weakness for our lineup all year long so hopefully Corey Hart will show a bit more life in the second half. I’d expect the team to make move to acquire a right-handed batter as we near the trade deadline.

Pitchers

• Taijaun Walker returned to the rotation this week with a start in Houston and a start in Chicago. Neither of them were particularly outstanding but it was good to see him on the mound after he was on the shelf for so long. In his first start, the strikeouts were there and he seemed like was in control for short amounts of time. His only runs were off a mammoth blast from George Springer and a laser beam homer off Marwin Gonzalez. In his second start, his command was way off, as he gave up five walks but just two hits. His next start will be against the Athletics, a patient team, so hopefully he’ll be able to adjust and get his command under control.
• Brandon Maurer has returned but this time as a bullpen arm. And, boy, does he look good as a reliever. As a starter, his fastball sat in the low 90’s and his game plan was centered around nibbling at the corners. As a reliever, his fastball is sitting in the upper 90’s (topping out at 99!) and he’s going right after hitters with his fastball/slider combo. Already, he’s racked up an 11.57 K/9 rate as a reliever and could make his way into some high leverage innings soon.

AL West Standings

AL Wild Card Standings

The Week Ahead

We’re heading into the All-Star Break with a seven game homestand against the Twins and the Athletics. After facing those two tough lefties in Chicago, the Mariners get a week full of righties. The three games against the A’s to wrap up the first half of the season should give us a good idea of how this team compares to the top team in the majors right now. That pitching matchup on Friday should be quite a showdown. If you’re in Seattle, I’d recommend getting tickets because that will be a very fun game.