Baseball in September

While I was out this morning I was thinking what difference baseball in September makes for the next season. If you are out of the race like the Seattle Mariners will the current players fighting for a spot on next year roster really help make the team better or worse. I am not sure there is any statistics anyone has taken to know if it works that way or not.

I am thinking that maybe the way the Mariners played last September affected them this year. They were in the race up to the last day missing out on the playoffs. I wonder if the players going into spring training thought sub- consciously that they were not as good as they thought since they played poorly in September, or they may have been overconfident with the signing of Nelson Cruz. It is likely hard to say one way or another.  The team did make other changes to the roster or it could be the players played better last year than they are doing this year. Most likely there is a combination of reasons why the Mariners are playing worse than last season.

If you look at the bullpen of the Mariners you know for sure they had a better season last year than this year.  A lot of people thought the bullpen did real well last year because of Fernando Rodney being the catalyst which maybe really true since this season he had a very poor season and the bullpen was completely different. The bullpen primarily was the same group of guys when the season started; however, pitchers like Danny Farquhar were sent to Triple –A. Other pitchers were traded as well after having poor starts. The Mariners had to go with Carson Smith for a while as closer though he was not ready for the position full time. Most likely you will see him more successful next season or the year after that. This was his first full season in the Major Leagues; he did not come up to pitch until last September.

The starting pitching started poorly in April while the hitting was doing well, and then in May the hitting went badly except Nelson Cruz. After the all-star break the hitting recovered; however, the pitching suffered especially the relief pitching. In August manager Lloyd said at some point the bullpen blew eighteen saves in twenty-one games; it is no wonder the Mariners fell out of contention.

Now in September the Mariners are doing much better than they were doing prior to that during the season; I wonder if it is with the dismissal and finally trade of Rodney plus the fact they are using some younger players who are trying to serve a point that they belong in the major leagues. Another thought is that Mariners fired Jack Z as general manager as well, and how has that affected the team to.

 I heard story that Jack Z had told Lloyd who to play and who not to play, and I wonder now with the Z man around Lloyd is able to play who he wants and how to setup the lineup. Last season I thought the lineups in September were not right in my mind for a team that was fighting for the playoffs. I sometimes wondered why they started Justin Smoak at first base after he was recalled spending most of the second half at Tacoma. I am sure there are moves that I can’t remember at this time that I questioned as well. I wondered what Lloyd was thinking about, and I really wonder if he was following Jack Z instructions.

Whatever happened last September it is hard to really know if it put things in the wrong gears? Of course, the first half of the season the Mariners had a very poor bench that was much improved when Franklin Gutierrez was recalled from Tacoma. Rickie Weeks and Willie Bloomquist neither of them worked out at all and both were released eventually. The bottom of the batting order seven through nine had to be the worst in baseball. The platooning and pinch hitting I didn’t think worked to well for the most part either. It did improve quite a bit when Gutierrez was recalled.

During the off-season the Mariners roster will change some because of the hiring of a new general manager. It is hard to know right now whether Lloyd will be back next season or not. It would be nice if Lloyd would be given a chance because how did he go from a good manager one year to a bad manager the next. I guess it is possible though I think it had to do with the style and decision making which may lead right back to Jack Z.

Back to my original thought will this September make a difference in the Mariners next season like last September may have I guess we will never know. Most likely with the turn-over of the roster things will change we can only hope for the good. I like to really see Brad Miller as that super utility player how it works, and I think Sean O’Malley can be good coming off the bench with his speed to go along with Marte. All we can do as Mariner fans do is waiting and see hoping for the best. Go M’s.