Mariner’s Second Half Begins

We know that starting Friday it is the unofficial second half of the baseball season because the Mariners have 73 games remaining instead of 81. What we now look as fans for the remaining of the season as though we are the general manager or manager.

Sometimes it is real easy as a fan what the team needs and we know that the Mariners management knows the same thing as well. Foremost the Mariners rotation needs to improve and we know that both Felix Hernandez and TaiJuan Walker should be back within a couple weeks. Friday night Felix is making a rehab assignment with the Triple A Tacoma Rainiers. The crowd has been announced as a sellout. The King is expected to throw seventy pitches or five innings and everything goes right he will start next Wednesday. James Paxton who is starting tonight for the Mariners will probably make his next start against the Blue Jays in Toronto next Friday. How the rest of the rotation will be announced since the Mariners have an off day on Monday July 25 and Thursday July 28. With three off-days between now and the end of the month it will be interesting how the Mariners starting rotation will go. Having the 25^th off most likely Felix will start his second outing on the 26^th followed by Paxton. My guess would be that TaiJuan Walker will make his first start off disabled list on the following weekend against the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field.

Now we look at the Mariners going forward for these seventy-three games. I am sure over the four day break Dipoto and Servais discussed what will happen. I am sure Servais has gone over in his head what changes he may make in his manager style now that he was managed over a half of a season.  First thing will be the starting rotation followed by the bullpen. The Mariners having one of the top offenses in the American League there probably will not be a lot of changes happening in the lineup. It will be interesting to see how much Leonys Martin and Ketel Marte will be at the top or the bottom of the lineup. The most important thing is make sure they are getting on base in front of Seth Smith or Franklin Gutierrez, Cano, Cruz and Seager. It would be nice to get another athletic outfielder to play either left or right field to be in the mix as well. Having a legitimate leadoff batter for the Mariners would be great or going with Martin or Marte. In either case I see Smith or Gutierrez hitting second in the batting order though I like Marte in that spot.

Another question will be in the regular lineup whether Adam Lind and Dae-Ho Lee will be back to platooning all the time at first base or will Nelson Cruz play more right field and that they share first base and designated hitter against right handers. Also I see a couple other possibilities if the Mariners don’t go out and get another outfielder. One would be that Aoki is brought back up which would not surprise me though could be in a couple weeks. Another would be that Daniel Robertson and Shawn O’Malley share left field. It is hard to know how much offense will come out of them however the defense would be better and the Mariners would have more speed. In this case they are at the top or bottom of the order. The ideal would be that Martin would be on fire and leading off though either of them could lead off or bat second. Nothing in the regular lineup would have to be different than left field.

Besides Felix and Walker coming back into the rotation  we hope to see more consistency from Paxton, Miley and Iwakuma. We may see Montgomery or LeBlanc in the starting rotation before Walker returns. Not sure what happens with LeBlanc if he is not in the starting rotation while we know Montgomery will go back into the bullpen. Also this will depend on Paxton and Miley’s performances before the return of Walker. The Mariners need either or both do well in the second half of the season. LeBlanc if still around could take one of their places too.

The second question is the bullpen and that relies a lot on the starting rotation as well. The bullpen should be fine three of the guys in the rotation are going at least six innings on a consistent basis. At this point Nathan Karns will be the primary guy coming out of the bullpen first and be able to go a couple innings. This will be Montgomery’s job to if and when he returns to the bullpen.

The back of the bullpen is the big question at this point. Will the Mariners stick with Steve Cishek as the closer the rest of the season or will Dipoto go and trade for a closer. If this is the case than I see Cishek moving to pitching either the seventh or eighth inning; in this case Edwin Diaz will be the main guy in either of those innings. I don’t see much of Benoit pitching in the second half of the season if he is still on the staff by August. Nick Vincent should be a big player when he comes off of the disabled list. This would be the same for Charlie Furbush who right now is on rehab assignment. Depending of the hitters I would not be surprised if Vincent and Furbush share the seventh inning.  Cishek and Diaz the eighth inning and the closer the ninth; either could close when the closer would need a rest. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple weeks and the rest of the season. Go M’s.

Seahawks Defensive Live

Now that we are getting close to the beginning training camp and the pre-season I figure to talk about the defensive line.

We know it begins with Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril who start out on the end positions. A big question will the Seahawks pay Bennett more money after last season though he still has more left on this contract. Being Seahawk fans I am sure we all hope so and that he will continue playing at the high level he has been over the last couple season or so.

Though he starts on the outside Bennett usually moves in on the passing down and Frank Clark comes in on the end position. Now that Bruce Irvin has moved onto the Oakland Raiders would not be surprised if Clark takes his spot on passing downs. In this case Bennett may play more at the defensive end then in past years. Also this will depend if Chris Clemons makes the roster or one of the other defensive ends on the roster improves.

Now that   Brandon Mebane has left in free agency the Seahawks second pick in the college draft Quinton Jefferson likely will take his spot as the starting right defensive tackle teaming up with Ahtyba Rubin who is returning to play at left defensive tackle. Jefferson is not your typical rookie defensive tackle at the age of twenty-three along with having a family so he will be hungry coming in to become that starting right tackle. His strength is like Mebane in stopping the run.

Other players who are going to make the team on the defensive line are Tavaris Barnes at defensive end, Cassius Marsh at defensive end however could be playing linebacker in the same way as Frank Clark, rookie David Perkins at defensive end, Ryan Robinson at DE, Christian French at DE, Brandin Bryant a rookie at defensive tackle who is a rookie who may get a shot at full back as well, Justin Hamilton at DT, Jordan Hill at Dt, and veteran Sealver Siliga at DT. Hard to know who the backups will be and who will be released or put on the practice squad. The Seahawks could bring in some others to compete as well. All we do know that the starters will be really good and we hope that the backup will be good too. It is important that none of the starters get hurt.

Next look will be at the linebackers who have some change over last season though two of the key starters are still around. Go Seahawks.  

Coming Up This Week

With the Mariners having the all-star break I will be writing some about what they should be doing going into the trading deadline at the end of July and about the Seahawks as well since their training camp will be coming up soon. Also the Huskies and the Cougars will be starting camp as well heading into the college season. So we can see the next several weeks Washington sports will be busy. We hope that the Mariners can be relevant still so we don’t tune them out and go totally into football. I do know that there are some who are into football all the time but I am one who likes to see both football and baseball. Since the Sonics left the NBA is not the same in Seattle though the Portland Trail Blazers announced that Kevin Calabro will be their new television announcer. The games will be on Comcast Cable however I am not sure whether I will watch them either since I think the games will cost extra to see. I believe the games will be broadcasted locally on the radio by KJR-Am as well. It will be interesting to see how many people in the area will actually listen or watch the Trail Blazer games. In my case since I haven’t really watched the NBA since the Sonics left I don’t know very many players except the big names whose names are always plastered away. I am not sure whether I will watch the games in the Olympics either. 

So here we go with baseball and football for a while. Let’s go M’s and Seahawks.  Also the Huskies and if we have to the Cougars.   

Another Blown Game

I could easily say the Mariners had another blow save however they have had a lot more blow games over the season. In fact most of the losses in the last month or so have been blown games.

I mentioned on social media after Thursday’s blown game against the Kansas City Royals that the Mariners lost because they did not play their A game. In this game which was a walk-off double that gave the Royals 4-3 win. The Royals should have had only one runner on base because Cishek hit a batter making two batters on base. So a hit like that could have made it a tie instead. Of course we never know what could have happened either without the additional runner on base. We will never know because the Royals could have scored another run as well with batter on second.

It was a tough game because James Paxton pitched a really good game for eight innings. I believe he should have been left in the game to finish it off. He deserved the chance to finish the game however the manager decided to take him out. Sometimes I think the manager over does things sometimes. I would call it over managing. Although Cishek’s job is to be the closer I believe the manager like in this game should leave the starter in the game. Just because almost every manager would do the same thing doesn’t mean you have to. I am sure if Felix Hernandez was in the same situation he probably would have been left in to finish the game.

Back to the Mariners playing their A game; we saw in the series against the Baltimore Orioles how effective they are when playing their A game but I see if they are not doing so in most circumstances they will lose. The Mariners are one of those teams when they are playing A minus or less likely they will lose.  There are times playing A minus or less they will win games but in most cases this will not happen. The main reason they play so many one run games. In fact they have played more one run games than any team in the majors so less than A game they are showing that the chances are pretty highly that they will lose. They have on occasion won one of the games like when Adam Lind hit a walk-off home run. The only other times I see them winning without the A game is when the offense has scored a lot of runs and the pitching along with defense has been below par. An example of that would be if they won 10-5.

On Thursday night the Mariners showed without solid defense they will lose again despite great pitching. Early in the season they were winning because the offense and defense were working together even if the pitching was not at full par but the defense has not been that way for some time. Right now they are ranked with the worst defense in the major leagues.

I heard before the game the Royals have the third best hitting team in the American League but dead last in scoring runs so they showed Thursday night if the other team gives them additional at bats they will take advantage of the situation. Right now the Mariners have to work on the defense along with running the bases. We have seen over the season that they get in trouble giving outs away on the base paths too. A team like the Mariners one or two mistakes will cost them the game a lot of the time. Again they must play at the highest level to win. The Mariners do not have the talent to overcome mistakes though I believe most teams don’t.

Iwakuma will be pitching for the Mariners on Friday night. He needs to pitch near what Paxton did on Thursday night and no mistakes by the defense or offense. This all comes down to it that the Mariners have to get at least another player or two to be a good team. Go M’s.

Seahawks Offensive Line

With training camp less than three weeks before starting the biggest question on the team for the Seahawks is the offensive line. The look of the line will be different this coming season. At this point the starting lineup will look totally different than last season.

Shortly after the college draft Coach Pete Carroll said that Gary Gilliam who started at right tackle last year would move over to left tackle after the departure of Russell Okung who signed as a free agent with the Denver Broncos. Justin Britt who was top selection played right tackle as a rookie in 2014 and shifted to left guard in 2015 would be make another change to center.  Sort of wonder if this work out for him or be sent back to left guard. Another option would be that he backup at all three positions.

The Seahawks number one pick in this year’s draft Germain Ifedi who most thought would be playing right tackle will start out at right guard. J’Marcus Webb is expected to be the right tackle for the Seahawks. Each position on the offensive line will have competition and has added depth the big question still is whether they will be able to block successfully especially on passing downs so Russell Wilson will not be sacked so often. I don’t think anyone has a question on how they will block on running plays. So how they will do depends on getting good experience during spring training.    

Mariners Struggle to Score Runs

The Seattle Mariners Monday afternoon against the Houston Astros had trouble scoring runs throughout the game though they had a few opportunities to do so. Once instance they had the bases loaded with no one out but Dae-Ho Lee hit the ball straight to pitcher McCullers who threw it home and got Lee without any problem at all. The Mariners still had two runners on base however Adam Lind was not able to drive them home either.

I expect the problem with the offense after having such a great game on Sunday against the Orioles was that they had to play a day game after flying all the way to Houston. You have to figure not only a flight that probably takes about four or five hours to get there the two hour time change makes a difference to.

Wade Miley had a really good outing Monday having a poor one previously after coming off the disabled list. He gave up a home run to George Springer in the first inning and did well until the fifth inning when the Astros scored another run.  Tom Wilhelmsen replaced him with one out in the seventh inning. He went a total of one inning giving up just one hit on sixteen pitches. Dave Rollins the lefty replaced him the eight with two men out.  He did walk two guys but was able to get out of the inning. This was unusual because Rollins only walked one batter while in Tacoma. It doesn’t really seem the Mariners use there lefties in situations like a lot of other teams do. Neither Montgomery nor Nuno seem really the type though Rollins is more the pitcher the Mariners can use in those situations. The Mariners should do more situational pitching especially in either the seventh or eighth inning.

We hope that Miley can pitch more like he did on Monday in the next couple starts around the all-star break and when Felix comes back. This would allow the Mariners to do a trade or two before the end of July. The Mariners need to look at picking up a talented and athletic outfield along with a solid relief pitcher or starting pitcher. Whatever the case the Mariners need to add a couple more pieces to this roster to make a good run to the playoffs;  they could trade one of the starters along with D.J. Peterson who just got elevated to triple A and doing a fine job. They could throw Aoki into the mix to if someone is looking for an extra outfielder. The Mariners do have a few other prospects down in the minors to trade as well. Peterson just doesn’t look to have a spot on the Mariners roster. Adam Lind will be a free agent at the end of the season and likely the Mariners will not resign him. Most likely Dae-Ho Lee will continue to be on the Mariner roster for another year at least. Peterson is a right handed hitter like Lee so the Mariners do not need both of them. The best would find another left handed first baseman during the off season. Of course the Mariners could look at trading Lind as well. Lee has shown that he can play almost every day and can hit right handers as well as lefties.  We will have to see what Dipoto has under his sleeves in the next few weeks. I am sure he will make a move and he has support of the ownership. Go M’s.   

Mariners Three Down and One To Go

The Baltimore Orioles came into Seattle on a good seven game winning however the Mariner players had other ideas and now have won three games and look to get a sweep.

Saturday night with the return of Mike Zunino in his first game starting after coming up to replace Steve Clevenger who got a broken hand and will be out for a couple months. General manager Jerry Dipoto said that Zunino would be around as long as he can contribute in hitting. Everyone knows how good a catcher he is just needs to be able to hit at a decent clip.  Saturday night was a good start where he hit two home runs that helped the Mariners win 12-9. The Mariners had three other homers besides the two by Zunino. He will be starting again on Monday night in the first game the Mariners play in Houston. The Mariners will have a better idea of how things will go with Zunino when heading into the all-star break that is next week after the Mariners go against the Astros and then the Kansas City Royals over the weekend. After the four day break the Mariners will come home to face the Astros once again.

Mike Zunino was able to show everyone the promise he had in 2014. If he does well during this stretch the Mariners will have two good capable catchers on their roster. I am sure they will look to use them both about half of the time. If Zunino has to be sent back down to get more development in Tacoma Iannetta will be back to being the primary catcher and whoever comes up will be in the same role as Clevenger. The Mariners hope that Zunino will be back where he was in 2014 and why he was drafted as the third overall pick in the amateur draft.

Scott Servais and Jerry Dipoto wanted to wait a game to put Zunino into a game because he knows James Paxton who started while Iannetta knew Wade LeBlanc more who started and won on Friday night.

This series against the Orioles is showing us how the Mariners can do when both the offense and the pitching can work together. This is especially true of the starting pitching where they have been able to go six innings or more most of the time though James Paxton went five and two thirds inning. He left the game with the bases loaded however Tom Wilhelmsen was able to get the last out.

Nathan Karns pitched the final three innings getting the save. He pitched well again coming out of the bullpen though he did give up a two run home run to Chris Davis which was his twenty-first of the season. I figure if you can stop the rest of the Orioles lineup besides Davis you are doing well. Karns looks like he has made the transition to the bullpen pretty well. He is valuable for the Mariner in the same fashion as Mike Montgomery another former starter who can go one to three innings in an outing. Both of them can save the rest of the relievers from being over worked. Everyone in the bullpen will be ready to go Sunday except for Karns. We will have to see if he can bounce back on Monday in Houston or wait until Tuesday. Whatever the case he is valuable in the bullpen though I am sure he liked to pitch in the rotation. Iwakuma will be pitching for the Sunday against the Orioles. So we do hope for nice sweep in the series. Go M’s.