The All-Time Seattle Mariners Team – Part One

With the All-Star break approaching next week and the Oregon Sports News taking a short break this week, I thought it might be fun to look at an All-Time Seattle Mariners Team.  To keep with the spirit of the All-Star game, I’ll be looking at single season performance at each position, using FanGraphs’ version of WAR, to assemble the greatest Mariners fantasy team possible.

In Part One, I’ll look at positional players, and in Part Two, I’ll look at pitchers.

The All Time Greats

What jumps out immediately when looking at single season leaders in WAR is the preeminence of three names in the top ten: Ken Griffey, Jr., Alex Rodriguez, and Ichiro Suzuki.  Only Brett Boone, with his 2001 performance, intrudes into the top ten seasons by a Mariner.

Edgar Martinez appears frequently in the next group of ten, with the addition of Franklin Guterrez, Mike Cameron, and Alvin Davis.  Oh, and some more Ken Griffey, Jr.

Position by Position 

Dan Johnson – Catcher

The single best year for a Mariners’ catcher, as calculated by WAR, belongs to Dan Johnson.  In both 1996 and 1997, Johnson recorded a 3.5 WAR.  The 1996 season is slightly more impressive when looking at the conventional stat lines.

In 1996, Johnson hit .285/.330/.444 with 18 HR and 83 RBI.  He even swiped one bag and scored 51 times.

Alvin Davis – First Base

The Mariners have had some really good first basemen over the years.  The names include Edgar Martinez, Tino Martinez, John Olderud, and Richie Sexson.  So, it may come as a surprise that the single best season, in terms of WAR, belongs to Alvin Davis in 1984, with 5.3.

And, yes, Edgar and Tino and Olderud all have better single seasons, but they had them either playing DH, in the case of Edgar, or with other teams.

In 1984, Alvin Davis hit .284/.391/.497 with 27 HR, 116 RBI, 80 R, and 5 SB.  Who wouldn’t trade Justin Smoak and Logan Morrison for that type of production at 1B this year?

Bret Boone – Second Base

As much as I’d love to see Harold Reynolds, one of the early seminal Mariners and all around great goofy announcers, at second base, the honor will go to Brett Boone and his remarkable 7.8 WAR season of 2001.

Bret Boone, the brother of Aaron Boone of Yankees / Red Sox walk off homer fame, the son of former major league player and manager, Bob Boone, and the grandson of former major league manager, Ray Boone, hit .331/.372/.578 with 37 HR, 141 RBI, 118 R, and 5 SB in 2001.

Alex Rodriguez – Shortstop

Shortstop is fairly easy to figure out, as Omar Vizquel and Carlos Guillen only played a few seasons for the Mariners very early in their career and were mostly known for defense, which leaves the obvious choice of Alex Rodriquez to the All Mariners team.

Even with his brief stint in Seattle, A-Rod owns 3 of the top 8 Mariners’ seasons by WAR ever, with his 9.5 WAR 2000 season being his best.

In 2000, Alex hit .316/.420/.606 with 41 HR, 132 RBI, 134 R, and 15 SB.  The next season he would bolt to the Texas Rangers and the first of his contracts in excess of a quarter of a billion dollars.

Kyle Seager – Third Base

Third base is kind of tricky.  Before becoming perhaps the greatest DH of all time (what are you doing here Boston fan?) and occasionally playing 1B, Edgar Martinez played significant time at 3B in 1990, 1991, and 1992 (143, 144, and 103 games respectively).  Edgar’s 5.5, 5.7, and 6.0 WAR for those seasons would rank as the best in Mariners’ history, but I’m going to take the liberty of slotting Edgar in at DH, where he is most remembered.

Adrian Beltre would seem to be the next logical candidate at 3B, but Mariners fans are not quick to forget that Beltre left his monster 9.7 WAR 2004 season in Los Angeles and was never quite the offensive producer in Seattle.  2006 was his best season in Seattle, with a 4.7 WAR, .268/.328/.465, 25 HR, 89 RBI, 88 R, and 11 SB.

But there’s actually a better season than that 2006 Beltre year unfolding at 3B for the Mariners this year in the performance of Kyle Seager.

Coming into the week, Seagar has a ZiPS (U) projected WAR total of 5.1.  He is currently hitting .278/.351/.489, with 13 HR, 59 RBI, 36 R, and 4 SB and projects out to finish with .273/.343/.463, 22 HR, 98 RBI, 73 R, and 9 SB.

Ichiro Suzuki / Ken Griffey, Jr. / Phil Bradley – Outfielders

With the outfield, I’m being a little more strict than All-Star balloting would be, looking specifically at one RF, one CF, and one LF.  Ichiro and Griffey are obvious choices.  Phil Bradley?  Maybe not so much.

Ichiro claims 2 of the top 10 all-time Mariners’ seasons by WAR, while Junior claims 4.  Phil Bradley is 38^th. 

Ichiro

In 2004, Ichiro played in all but one game (he only missed 3 games from 2004 through 2008), accumulating a 6.9 WAR by hitting an incredible .372 and accumulating a MLB single season record 262 hits.  His OBP was .414 with a respectable .455 slugging.  While never known for power (he hit 8 HR and 60 RBI in 2004), he scored 101 R and stole 36 bases.

Junior

Enough superlatives cannot be heaped on Ken Griffey, Jr.  With the exception of his rookie year and an injury shortened 1995 season, in which he only played 72 games, Ken Griffey, Jr. never posted a WAR lower than 4.9 in a Mariners uniform.  He went to 10 All-Star games as a Mariner and won 10 Gold Gloves.  Eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame in 2016, Junior is a sure fire first ballot HOFer.

In 1996, while playing in only 140 games, Griffey racked up an incredible 9.7 WAR while hitting .303/.392/.628, with 49 HR, 140 RBI, 125 R, and 16 SB.

Phil Bradley

Lesser known than his OF companions, in 1985 Phil Bradley posted a 4.8 WAR in LF by hitting .300/.365/.498, with 26 HR, 88 RBI, 100 R, and 22 SB.  Again, Mariners’ fans would trade Dustin Ackley in a heartbeat for that sort of production in LF.

Edgar Martinez – DH

The man for whom a street that the ball park sets on is named for had many great seasons with the Mariners.  1995 is by far his greatest season as an almost exclusive DH (he played 3 games at 1B and 4 games at 3B).  Edgar’s 7.0 WAR is incredibly impressive when you consider that it is almost all offense.

That year he hit .356/.479/.628, with 29 HR, 113 RBI, 121 R, and even 4 SB.  Those kind of numbers definitely deserve a street named after you.

Summary

Here’s a recap of the Mariners’ All Time Team on offense, position by position, with the years and the stat lines:

*Projected final season numbers

In my next column, I’ll continue the look at the All Time Mariners team by examining the pitchers.