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The Seattle Mariners were 10 games up in the AL West, in 1st place, on June 18th. Now, on August 15th, the Mariners sit in 2nd place, 3 games behind the Houston Astros.
It's safe to say that at least half the fanbase has officially given up on this team. There is a lot of doubt, and rightfully so. Yet, you never know how things will go with the Mariners week-to-week, even day-to-day.
In 9 of the 15 days of the month of August, the Mariners were tied TIED or in 1st place of the AL West.
Trust me, I am not at all trying to explain to you why you should be optimistic about the Seattle Mariners... But I am here to tell you that before this three-game losing streak to the Tigers, the Mariners won FOUR games in a row, and outscored the New York Mets 22-1 over the past weekend in a three-game series.
Of course, the pitching is not the problem, it's the bats. The Mariners just got back-to-back days of Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo going 7 shutout innings and found a way to lose with an 8th inning two-run homer given up by Yimi Garcia and Andrés Muñoz.
The sad reality, is that we do not know what Mariners team will show up day-to-day at the plate, or even in the bullpen. Tomorrow against Paul Skenes, they could randomly come out and score multiple runs and find a way to make us believe again.
Who do we blame? That is the question I keep coming back to. Many people blame Scott Servais, others blame Jerry Dipoto, others blame owner John Stanton, and of course one could blame the players.
Mariners are now 3 games behind the Astros.
— Seattle Mariners ON Tap (@MarinersONTap) August 16, 2024
From 10 up, to 3 behind.
40 games left.
How is everyone feeling?
The answer is a lot more complicated than we'd think. We did finally make some deadline moves, but of course Jerry Dipoto might be handcuffed on how much he can spend. Scott Servais might be handcuffed by Jerry Dipoto and the analytics team on who to put in, in every situation. So that just leaves the players, specifically the bats.
The bats are impossible to understand, players just come to the Mariners and do not perform the way they are suppose to... Is that fully on them? Is it on the coaches? Is it on the lineup provided around them?
It's impossible to narrow it down.
The best thing that we can do as fans, unfortunately, is just watch and hope it all turns out better than expected. It's not the best way to operate in life, but in fandom it might be the only option.
I'm not given up all hope, I'd prefer to have some blind belief and just enjoy the ride.
8 comments
Aren’t they still the worst franchise in all of professional sports?
Anybody take note that they NEVER take batting practice at home? For a team struggling to hit, wouldn’t a pregame warm up at the plate be prudent? There’s a sea of problems, this is just one I’ve not seen commented on yet. 🤷🏻♂️
quit putting in the Mendoza lineup..
I disagree- the majority of the offensive players are playing pretty much to the level of their career stats. The strikeouts are not astonishing. If you bring in players with high strike out and low on base ratios, they’ll continue to perform that way. The hitters are basically doing what they’ve done their entire careers. Therefore, blame rests with the person who brought these players to the team. If most of these players were in another scenario, they’d still be performing identically. That’s what their career stats show and that’s what we brought in here.
The problem is in the Mariners’ hitting approach. They all seem to be guessing, trying to ambush fastballs, trying to pull every pitch over the fence – even their leadoff hitting tries to be a power hitter! The don’t adjust (cut down on swings, make contact, go the opposite way), they just swing harder. The leadoff hitter’s job is to get on base. Subsequent hitters’ to move the runner around and get him in. The Mariners don’t manufacture runs. They strike out over 10 times/game. That’s an unproductive waste of 1/3 or more of your outs. Even with a ghost runner, you can count on a strikeout (or two), a popup, or a rollover ground ball that fails to move or score the runner. Cal Raleigh is a terrific clutch hitter, but he’s hitting .214 with 136 strikeouts. Other than underperforming Julio, Victor Robles, and Josh Rojas, everyone else is hitting just north of “the Mendoza line”. Rod Carew used to preach “selective aggression” – meaning you don’t have two swing, with less than two strikes, unless it’s the pitch you want. In other words, you take pitches, making the pitcher work, waiting for a good pitch to hit. Carew also used the entire field. If they pitched him away, he hit the ball oppo. The Mariners are among the least selective and overly aggressive hitters I’ve ever seen – year after year.