That's right. A new thread. I wanted to take Dawk's approach of one thread per team but that's boring...and this way I can differentiate the seasons, as I treat it as my own personal archive that nobody but two people read. Opening day is tomorrow and it feels like this version of the Seattle Mariners is better than last year's but with a huge asterisk next to it: *AS LONG AS THEY STAY HEALTHY We got rid of Hernandez, Suarez, Kelenic and all the 30%+ K rate, but 98 combined HRs for contact guys that strikeout less but who knows if they can stay healthy: The Mitches Garver and Haniger (welcome back) and Polanco at 2B. None of those three has played more than 100 games in a season in years so we shall see. The core remains intact. The front office was put on an impossible position to improve the team on less budget than last year because the owner is probably the cheapest in baseball now that the Orioles were sold. They accepted the challenge and did a good job overall, not touching the starting rotation and not trading a single top prospect. Julio Rodriguez is going to have an MVP type year. With Ohtani gone to the NL I think he has a legit chance. JP Crawford had an amazing year in 2023 and I think there's more where that came from. Cal Raleigh, The Big Dumper, is going to put his name in the best catcher in baseball conversation, and Ty France is due for a rebound year after that horrible 2023 (he was an all-star in 2022). Dom Canzone, Josh Rojas, Luis Urias and good ol' Dylan Moore are the role and bench players and they're as good as they get. The starting rotation is the best in baseball. I don't want to hear it. You're wrong. We have 3 starters that got Cy Young votes last year and they will again. I think George Kirby will take the award. His K to BB ratio is insane. It's like 10 Ks for every BB. He actually gets so pissed when he walks a batter. Luis Castillo will remain the ace for the start of the season, and he'll be in the Cy hunt too. Logan Gilbert might be a #2 or even #1 starter in half the teams of the league. Bryce Miller had an amazing rookie year and he worked on some breaking stuff over the winter so he'll get better. Brian Woo will start the season on the IL but he'll be fine. Rookie Emerson Hancock will be #5 in the mean time and he'll do just fine. And finally the bullpen is still top in the AL. It got even better with the arrivals of Santos and Vargas, and Andres Muñoz threw gas all over the place during the spring and this time he's healthy to start the year. Only Matt Brash will take a few weeks to get started but other than that we're complete. So...what are the expectations? Same as last couple of years. Make a run at this thing, get to september alive and in contention and see what happens. The expanded playoff field makes it feel like qualifying is not a big deal anymore, but I think it still is. All in all, I expect them to make it at least to the division series and see what happens from there. I think this team can win 92-94 wins and take the West from the Astros but it will be tough. Let's playball!!!
Mariners lost on opening day against the Red Sox 6-4. Positives: - Way, way, WAY less strikeouts. The ball was put in play and a few breaks here and there could've helped us but that's baseball. - Mitch Haniger hit the first HR of the season. The last time it happened, in 2022, we made the playoffs. Negatives: - Luis Castillo throwing fastballs 60% of the time is not going to cut it. - Infield defense used to be a strength. Last night let's just say it was bad. For game 2 we have Kirby on the mound and I feel good about our chances.
LMAO spoke too soon. After opening night the M's have been on a strikeout rampage that makes last year look cool. Just 4 games in we're 29th in K rate. This is the issue the team focused on fixing on an obsessive way and it's getting worse. I'm starting to think there's something wrong with the coaching staff. Others say it's still really cold in Seattle... We open a series against Cleveland tonight. It will be tougher than the red sox, that's for sure...
The Mariners are 3-2 overall, 3-0 in one-run games, and lead the league in strikeouts again. Chaos ball, baby.
Something's wrong with Luis Castillo. Our Cy Young candidate is 0-3 with a 6.89 ERA in his first 3 starts. I know he's a slow starter but this is too much and people are getting anxious. The Chaos ball vibes are higher than ever. We win one-run games but get blown out by more than 8 every other game. Not a good start but we're not even 10% into the season yet...
Castillo's start was better yesterday: 6 innings, 2 runs (1 earned) 9 Ks...and the Mariners lost 3-2. This feels more like Mariners baseball...
Mariners are back to .500. After a horrible start, the pitching settled, we got a few hits and now we're tied in 1st place with the Rangers, and we open a series against them tonight. Looks like the AL West will suck this year. The Astros look cooked which makes me happy. Let's go win this thing...
The Mariners won a series against the World Champion Rangers (their third in a row) and woke up today as the leaders of the AL West (which really sucks this year but I'm fine with that). I don't even remember the last time we led the division this early in the season, we usually make a late push that falls short 99% of the time.
We won back to back series against both world series teams to finish the week and the Mariners remain in first place for more than a day!! But now we open a series against the Braves, pretty much the best team in baseball, and I think it will be a real test of the capabilities of this team.
It was the game of the year so far. Both starters took a no-hitter to the 6th inning, in fact, Bryce Miller the M's starter had a perfecto in that inning. Then the Braves went up and we didn't get our first hit until the 8th inning. Garver had been struggling all year. His signing was celebrated, the DH we needed fresh from a World Series championship, was hitting .160 before the game and people were starting to get nervous, asking to bench him or even DFA him. That bat flip was not for show off, it was a sigh of relief.
Andres Muñoz with the 5-out save!! I almost had a heart attack!! Muñoz is money in the 8th inning but has struggled in save situations, for some reasons. I'm so happy for him, being Mexican and all. Still a little concerned that the M's are hitting like .190 the past week but we're 5-2 during that stretch. That's how dominant the pitching has been. Let's go for the sweep today!!
Mariners with another series win, their sixth straight, this time at Houston against the cheating Astros and it felt so, so good. 26 innings of almost perfect baseball. It wasn't a sweep because of that one inning in which they forgot how to field. I'll take it, of course. Now we open a 4-game series against the Twins, the hottest team in baseball, winners of 12 straight games. Something's gotta give. A split would be nice. By the way, "the Oakland Athletics will bring the movie Major League to real life" was not in my bingo card, but here we are. They're just 2 games behind us in the AL West and we have a series against them next weekend. Can't believe I'm nervous about it.
Mariners lost their first series in a month against the Twins and it was ugly at times. Just today they demolished us 11-1 scroing 8 on our best starter so far. Time to regroup and face the surprising Major League in real life Athletics. I wanted an easy sweep but at this point I'll settle with a series win.
