Next Week Spring Training

The Mariners are now down to a few days when spring training will begin. The pitchers and catchers are to report on next Tuesday to spring training for their physicals. I expect that many of them are there already especially those who feel that they don’t have a sure roster spot. News is that the Mariners have one less catcher who will report because Jesus Sucre was traded to Tampa Bay Rays. I hope that he has a good chance in making the opening roster and be their backup catcher.

Like every year pitching is the key to the success of the Mariners along with defense. The Mariners were able to add speed and defense to the outfield during the off-season along with Jean Segura at shortstop. Segura brings more of a veteran to the position along with higher batting average and able to steal bases. Marte who the Mariners traded to Arizona Diamondbacks along with TaiJuan Walker looked like a guy who was in a sophomore slump who could use another year in triple A. So the Mariners would have had to bring in another shortstop anyway. In that trade the Mariners also received outfielder Mitch Haniger who is expected to be the regular everyday right fielder.  He brings speed, defense and power to the position. I hope that he brings what Ichiro brought when he came to Seattle from Japan along with Jay Buhner who brought a rifle arm as well along with power at the plate. We have to remember that there were questions about both of them when they came to the Mariners.  They both played well for the Mariners right away so hopefully this will be a good third time for them.

Last year we saw a lot of problems on defense both at shortstop and in the outfield except in centerfield. This new group will help the Mariners and the pitching not having to deal with getting more batters out and throw more pitches. I saw so many times where the Mariners should have been out of innings but the pitchers had to face more batters in the inning and it cost them the games in some instances. This will be especially true with the starters. Hopefully the defense will help the starters go a solid six or seven innings. This will keep from putting a strain on the bullpen as well.

I am not sure how many more games this will allow the Mariners to win but you would think it could get them to three or four more wins. It doesn’t sound like a lot however over a long season it is. The big difference the defense could help the Mariners not go on any long losing streaks. This can be the same for speed on the base paths. Another important part here is not to make mistakes on the bases either. The Mariners have had problem in this area over the last several years and kept them out of rallies where they could have scored a one or two more in the game.

I believe with the speed and defense the Mariners will win more one run games than they have done in previous years. Last year they were close to five hundred in one run games but in several years before they had a lot of losses in one run games. They have had more one run games than almost every team in the major leagues so this should help them a whole lot.

I am sure in spring training and early in the season we will see where this really pans out or not. The speed and defense should make the Mariners look more exciting too. It will be interesting to see if the amount of home runs go down though we do know the big three in Cano, Cruz and Seager should still have a fair share of home runs but if they do go down the speed will help score runs when they were absent sometimes last year. Like they say speed does not slump. Go M’s.