Mariner 2017 Report Card

Now to look at the 2017 edition  of the Seattle Mariner season and their final record was 78-84. With so many injuries to the team and having to use forty pitchers it seems to be an OK season other than everyone was hoping that the Mariners would finally make the playoffs. They actually still had a chance to make it despite the injuries going into September. Up until the last two weeks of the season they were fighting for the second wild card spot. These two last weeks on the surface it didn’t look like the injuries that allowed them to come up short however I am sure they still had an effect anyway. The starting pitching that was the major cause for the team to be inconsistent all year long actually performed well in September. It was more the bullpen, the offense, defense and base running that kept them to finally get into the playoffs. The starting pitching though caused the bullpen and the offense to slide in September most likely of stress and burnout. The defense that was performing good most of the season didn’t perform at the same rate in September. Why that is anyone’s guess and probably has in part the reason Tim Bogar and Casey Candaele were released of duties on Tuesday. The base runnings had issues throughout the season and since Candaele was in charge of it another reason for his demise. Jerry Dipoto said that the upcoming spring training working on base running will be very important. Often little things that we may not see can make a difference on a team winning or losing. Although so many injuries can cause the reason a team to have a losing record and not make the playoffs I have to give the team report card a C minus. Next I will break things down by pitching and positions.

Starting pitching: This could be the hardest one to give a report on it other than all season the Mariners had to deal with seventeen different pitchers too start. Only one pitcher made all his starts until the last couple weeks of the season because I believe of burnout and that was Ariel Miranda. Actually he didn’t pitch very well for the last two months of the season but the Mariners had to keep him going since they had little choice. He actually was expected to start the season at Tacoma however the injury to Drew Smyly that turned keeping him out all season and possibly all of 2018 ended up going 8-7 with an era of 5.12. Miranda’s biggest issue was that he gave thirty-seven home runs in thirty-one games in which he started the team high twenty-nine games. I am sure this will be what he has to work on during training camp.

James Paxton who is now called the Big Maple was the Mariners pitcher of the year. His record for the year was 12-5 in twenty-four starts. He missed about a month of service being on the disabled list in August.  Andrew Albers who the Mariners picked up from the Atlanta Braves when Paxton went down is a fellow Canadian. He went into the rotation starting six games in a total of nine games with a record of 5-1 with an era of 3.51. So between Paxton and Albers they had a record of 17-6. That means the rest of the pitching staff went 61-78. The only pitcher in the original rotation in spring training Yovani Gallardo started twenty-eight games second to Miranda had a poor season having a record of 5-10. He was sent to the bullpen on two different occasions. The Mariners were hoping that he would rebound after having a poor season last year with the Baltimore Orioles. He actually pitched well when he was in the bullpen. I am sure the Mariners will not ask him back next season. Felix Hernandez was hurt for more than half of the season missing ninety games. On Tuesday Dipoto said that they would have to monitor his pitching next season. We hope that he isn’t injured next year. Having the chance that returns close to his previous form is unlikely however can be done except he will look like a different pitcher.

The Mariners picked up Erasmo Ramirez and Mike Leake in August to help down the stretch and for 2018. Leake’s performance will give him the chance to be one of the Mariners top three starting pitchers heading into next season. Ramirez will have the chance to crack the starting rotation as well. He could end up in the bullpen as well. So I will give the starting a report card of C minus although they had little control over it.

The Bullpen:    This had a lot of changing parts over the season. The Mariners had forty pitchers used over the season and seventeen were used in the starting rotation so the rest were in the bullpen though several were used both starting and relieving. For most of the season the Mariners kept bringing relief pitchers up and down between Tacoma and Seattle. These were mostly long relievers because the starters were going five or six innings at the most. When this was going on the long reliever would be up for one relief outing and then sent back down to Tacoma. This wasn’t a bad idea so the bullpen would not be over used. This worked out for most of the season however September the key relievers didn’t have a good month not pitching well most likely because they were over used. Manager Scott Servais tried to use them only when the Mariners were ahead in the game. This is what happened with Nick Vincent who had a good season going into September especially in Safeco Field but performed poorly when the Mariners really could have used him in September. It did not help that Dave Phelps who the Mariners picked up from Miami in August ended up going on the disabled list twice and then had to have surgery to end the season. Mainly because of the first half of the season I give the bullpen a rating of C.  My next post about the report card will be the catchers and the infield.