Previewing The Seattle Mariners

Spring is almost here, and you all know what that means – the return of America’s greatest pastime, baseball. There was a time in which I wasn’t the biggest baseball fan. I was mostly just into football and basketball. I still played home run derbies with my friends and slightly paid attention to it, but I didn’t watch it nearly as much as I do now. However, I have found a new love for the game.

Over the past few years, I have participated in MLB fantasy leagues and also a softball league with some friends. Both of these have forced me to pay attention to game a lot more. I have now realized that I was missing out on something as a child. This is a fun, team oriented game, which is just an all-around great game. There is nothing like the feeling you get when watching a game at a major league ball park. Once you hear that sound of the crack of the bat as the sun beams down on you, you can’t help but smile. Or how about the smell of fresh grass or those ball park hotdogs, and let’s not forget the beautiful ladies in their spring/summer attire. Oh baseball, you have come to us once again.

I plan on making it up to Seattle for a few Mariners games this season. I enjoy the game of baseball, but I am not going to go watch a couple poorly played games. In order to keep me coming back, the Mariners must step their game up and remain competitive.

The Mariners biggest problem last season was their hitting. They were last in just about every batting stat.  To be exact, they were last in batting average, runs, hits, and tied for last in RBI’s. Some of that had to do with the decline of Ichiro Suzuki, who went from a .315 batting average in 2010 to a .272 in 2011. You can’t blame it all on their star player because they really didn’t have anyone doing anything at the plate. They were completely horrible.

This year has to change. Ichiro has to step up. It is said that he will bat third this season instead of his original leadoff spot in order to possibly produce some more runs. Ichiro is not the only one who will need to regain their productivity at the plate. Chone Figgins also dropped significantly. He has been absolutely horrible during his 2 seasons in Seattle. In 2010 he had a .259 batting average and last year he only posted a mere .188! Well below the Mendoza line. He was an efficient hitter with the Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels before joining the Mariners. If he wants to keep a roster spot he has to improve and become efficient like he was with the Angels.

The Mariners have a group of young guys who will really need to take that next step this season. Those men are Dustin Ackley, Justin Smoak, and newly acquired Jesus Montero. Neither Ackley nor Smoak were very impressive last year. These three guys are going to be the key to whether or not this team becomes successful. They are the new corner stones of the franchise. If Figgins can’t produce, or takes over in the outfield for injured Franklin Gutierrez, then Kyle Seager will come up from Triple-A and will have to be productive as well.

This team is in desperate need of a bat. They hope that that is exactly what they were getting when they traded Michael Pineda to the New York Yankees for Jesus Montero this offseason. The trade makes sense to me, as this team has a good group of pitching prospects in James Paxton, Danny Hultzen, and Erasmo Ramirez. This trade allowed them to maybe get some looks at either one of these prospects and gives them a possible boost where they needed it most, which is at the plate.

For now, this trade left quite the void in their rotation. The back to back combination of Pineda and Felix Hernandez was nearly unbeatable. They still have Felix, and he isn’t going anywhere, but who will take Pineda’s place in the rotation? After Felix and Jason Vargas there are questions as to who will make the starting rotation. Let’s take a minute to go over the options.

The Mariners also received pitchers Hector Noesi and Hasashi Iwakuma in the offseason trade that landed Montero. I see Noesi taking a spot in the starting rotation this season. He will join Felix and Vargas. Iwakuma is a player from Japan who could also possibly earn himself a spot in the rotation. Iwakuma, at 30 years old, has been a very efficient pitcher in Japan over his years there, but we have yet to see how that will translate into the majors.

Blake Beavan and Charlie Furbush were two guys who had some chances in the rotation last season after trading away both Eric Bedard and Doug Fister. I am going to eliminate Furbush from this because Beavan was much more productive in his outings.

My rotation: Felix Hernandez, Jason Vargas, Hector Noesi, Hasashi Iwakuma, and Blake Beavan with Charlie Furbush and new signee Kevin Millwood in the 6 and 7 spots – basically in a bullpen roll and filling in for injured starters. Their bullpen was decent last season with Brandon League stepping up as a quality closer.

Most of all, this Mariners team will need to step up at the plate. Being last in virtually every hitting statistic will not cut it. It’s not fun watching a game that ends up in a 2-0 loss, or when they get blown out and by 6 or more runs while only scoring 2 or less runs. Just like many other fans, I want to see some runs. I would like to see some wins too if I’m going to travel to Seattle from Portland just to watch a ball game. I can’t wait for the season to get started. I can play around with my fantasy baseball league, I will get to play some ball myself and best of all, I will be able to watch some good old baseball.