Seattle Mariners 2016 Report Card Part 3

Now I do my report on each position of the infield, outfield, dh and utility player. I will start at first base where Adam Lind and Dae-Ho Lee performed the duties most of the year. I give them a grade of C-. Adam Lind was the left handed hitter and Lee the right handed hitter in a platoon situation. They both had power combining for a total of thirty-four home runs and one hundred-seven runs batted in although the batting average was low especially for Lind at .239. Why I give them a grade of C- is that they were inconsistent at the plate especially in the second half of the season. In fact Lee was sent down for ten days to triple-A because he was struggling at the plate. He did do better after returning to the team. They both did a good job playing defense at first base. Adam Lind is a free agent so likely he won’t return especially when the Mariners acquired Daniel Vogelbach from the Chicago Cubs. He is expected to be the Mariner’s first baseman next year though he had little chance playing in September when he was called up because the Mariners were in the playoff chase. Lee is a free agent as well but his status is more up in the air. It depends how much interest is found around the majors for his services and whether the Mariners feel that they need to platoon once again at first base. I will get back to that at another time.

Second base was all Robinson Cano who played there for almost all the games. He was the Mariners player of the year and he was so outstanding at the plate and in the field so his grade is an A like no other. This was his best season as a Mariner and we hope that we can see more of this from him. He had his highest total ever in home runs with thirty-nine the second most on the team to Nelson Cruz and second in runs batted in to the same guy with one hundred-three. He and Cruz along with Seager to some extent had a lot to do with the success of the Mariners.

Speaking of Kyle Seager his grade is A-. He would be higher on his grade however he had a slow start to the season in April batting less than .200. The amazing thing though is that he had five home runs every month of the season from April through September. I am not sure if anyone has ever done that before. His defense was pretty good most of the season though he did have a few lapses as well. It would be nice if next season he could get off to a better start. His batting average for the season was .278. It would be nice next April he batted somewhere between .200 and .278. He struggled at the plate in September as well though he continued with his home runs.

Shortstop with Ketel Marte playing the position for one hundred and nineteen games; he was out mostly the other forty-three games because of injury and mono. Not sure how much either one affected him when he returned. I found it hard to grade him whether C- or D+. You can take either one. His batting average was .259 which was not bad for someone who missed the 43 games and it was his first full season in the majors however his defense was inconsistent and sometimes awful. Everyone including the Mariner coaching staff found that Shawn O’Malley played a good shortstop when Marte was out. As the utility player playing several positions most felt before that playing shortstop was his shortcoming. Now we know that he could play shortstop for a good period of time. In fact so much we wonder why Servais did not play him more there the last couple weeks of the season when it was obvious that Marte was struggling. We will get more on him on another post considering his future with the Mariners.

Now the utility position which Shawn O’Malley took over in late May or so and never gave up the spot. Luis Sardinas started out there in the beginning of the season however his hitting was not good batting .181 in thirty-two games. He was sent down in May to Tacoma and then the Mariners traded him to San Diego. Also Chris Taylor came up for  a couple games but because of errors he was sent back down to when O’Malley came up for the rest of the season and he was eventually traded to the Dodgers. Both Sardinas and Taylor were not only in spring training for the utility position but as a possibility at shortstop in the future depending on Marte. Neither one worked out nor the Mariners brass felt they had no future.

Now in the outfield we will start with left field. I give the grade of C+. Norichika Aoki was the primary player at that position. He platooned hitting against right handed pitchers. First half of the season he struggled so much that he was sent down to Tacoma for a few weeks. When he returned his offense became much better that he was one of the key players down the stretch run. In fact so much that his batting average and on base percentage were right about his career average; the Mariners are thinking about picking up his 2017 option however it may not happen depending if they can acquire a regular corner outfielder. His defense was the sore spot most of the season and often was replaced in the late innings. Franklin Gutierrez and Seth Smith shared left field when Aoki was sent down to Tacoma with Nelson playing right field.

Centerfield was patrolled for the season primarily by Leonys Martin who played a solid defense. He was out for a short period of time with an injury that put him on the disabled list. It did take him some time to get his batting and running on the bases back in gear. Though his batting average was .247 he did have a career high of fifteen home runs.

Right field I would give a grade of A-. Most of the season Seth Smith and Franklin Gutierrez platooned there though when Aoki was out Nelson Cruz played right field. Gutierrez was inconsistent however he did have fourteen home runs for the Mariners. His defense was not as good as we are accustomed to and his batting average was .246. Right now it is hard to know whether he will return in 2017. Seth Smith was another one that was inconsistent as well and he ended up with .249 however had sixteen home runs. Smith had some key home runs and carried the team a few times during the season. Heredia who played most of the year in double-A and triple A came up a few times in August and then was part of the hands on team that manager Servais called it. He and Ben Gamel who the Mariners received in a trade with the Yankees late August were those two guys coming in playing left and right field in late innings. One or both could be on the team next year.

Designated Hitter there is no other grade than an A since Nelson Cruz was the primary one especially the second half of the season. The first half he played some right field however Franklin Gutierrez and Seth Smith did solid there themselves. Also Dae-Ho Lee did so when Aoki was sent down to Tacoma. Cruz despite his sore wrist was the major driver offensively the last couple weeks when the Mariners were going toward the playoffs. If it were not Cano he would have been the Mariners player of the year.

That is my report card on the Mariners. During the off-season I will write about the Mariner players where I see them next year including on the Mariners or not. Also I will give my opinion for any transactions and trades that general manager Jerry Dipoto makes. I am sure he will be a busy man though probably not as much like last off season however we will see. Have you all a great holiday season and look forward to next season Go M’s.

Seattle Mariners 2016 Report Card Part 2

 

Now going to look at the catchers and pitchers of the Seattle Mariners 2016 season; going to stop with the catchers where I give them a grade of C-. I am probably giving them a kind grade here but I think defensively in general they were good however the hitting was another suspect year.

The season started with Chris Iannetta being the starting catcher and Steve Clevenger who they got in the trade for Mark Trumbo from the Baltimore Orioles. As we all know it was made as a salary dump. I will mention it more when we get to the first baseman position. For the first half of the season Chris Iannetta was the primary catcher while Clevenger played sparingly until he got hurt in July. His batting average was below .200 however he did have a few key hits while Iannetta played almost every game except getting a Sunday off. The first half of the season his batting average hovered around .230 while his defense was OK; when Clevenger was hurt Mike Zunino came up from Tacoma. The Mariners plan was for him to play the year in Tacoma too improve on his hitting. For a couple months he played about two games to Iannetta’s one game. Zunino started off hitting pretty well when he was called up especially hit home runs however over time his batting average went down. Hitting with power especially home runs was the key to him and the Mariners. On some occasions even when he was struggling at the plate he hit some key home runs even at the end of the season. Chris Iannetta playing time dwindled in September when the roster’s expanded and Jesus Sucre was added onto the roster. Most of September Zunino did a lot of the catching however Sucre did some catching especially when Felix Hernandez was pitching. In fact Sucre hit pretty well in September batting near .500 including a couple of home runs that helped win a game for the Mariners. Iannetta defense got worse over the season because he was catching way too much for someone in their mid-30s. The Mariners have a club option on Iannetta of over $4 million so likely he will not return. The Mariners expect that Zunino will be the everyday catcher in 2017. How long that last will depend on his hitting. If he can hit around .230 with power because of his defense he will catch however if he is around .200 then the Mariners will look elsewhere for another catcher. Speaking of another catcher Jesus Sucre may start as the backup or they may go out for a veteran catcher who has some pop in his bat.

Now I will look at the starting pitching. I give a grade of B- to them. The season started out well for the starting rotation going through May however injuries cost the Mariners victories in June and July. In fact it is the primary reason they did not make the playoffs and have a run against the Texas Rangers for the West division title.  The injury to Felix Hernandez was the key one because the team counts on him so much.

When Felix returned in August although he was not his old self the team won several games while he was on the mound; Iwakuma and Paxton were the key pitchers during the second half of the season along with Ariel Miranda the Mariners picked up for Wade Miley who had his ups and downs all season long. While Felix was out along with TaiJuan Walker the Mariners had to count on pitchers who were called up from Tacoma and did a poor job to say the least. TaiJuan Walker return from the disabled list at the beginning of September had a terrible outing in his first outing and could not make it through the first inning. With the help of pitching Coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr he came back to pitch pretty well and again shows potential for the upcoming season. It looks as though the starters at the end of the season will be the ones starting next season unless the Mariners can pick up a top notch pitcher. Nathan Karns coming back after being out for half of the season will bring depth to the starting rotation however I don’t think that is enough.

The bullpen was pretty good most of the season though they had to get rid of a few relievers and add a few along the way too. The key to the bullpen success happened when the Mariners brought up Edwin Diaz to first be one of the setup relievers before putting him in place of Steve Cishek as the closer. Cishek had a good season except the short period of time before they moved Diaz into the closer position. Diaz showed that he is the future closer though he did struggle the last couple weeks of the season because he never pitched this late into the season. Cishek became the number one setup man after returning from an injury himself. We will look at the reliever going into next season in a few days. The grade for the bullpen is  B+. Next post I will look at the infield, outfield and designated hitter that were excellent most of the season. The defense was questionable at times however the offense is what helped the Mariners get to eighty-six wins. Until next time Go M’s.

 

 

  

 

 

Seattle Mariners 2016 Report Card

 

 

Now my look at the Mariners 2016 team edition; I will give a breakdown of each position however I start with giving my overall grade and that of general manager and manager. My grade for the Seattle Mariner team is A- because they won ten more games over 2015. Of course if they had made the playoffs the grade would have been an A.

General Manager Jerry Dipoto and Manager Scott Servais I give the same grade as the team A-. I figure the grade of the team should be matched by the general manager and manager. There could be a time where the manager grade is higher than the general manager when the team performed better than expected. In this case I can’t say that because this was the first year that Servais is a manager so he was on the job training and Dipoto did give him what he needed. I believe that Dipoto got players that the Mariners needed for the 2016. He made more transactions than any team in the major leagues before the season began. Not all the transactions worked out however he did go after some veterans to bolster the roster and add depth to the organization. Leonys Martin was probably the best acquisition that the Mariners made and will return next season to be in center field once again. What made that trade something was that the Mariners got him for almost nothing. Not one of the players they sent to Texas Rangers did anything for them. In fact Tom Wilhelmsen was released by the Rangers and resigned by the Mariners after going through waivers. Wade Miley’s acquisition turned out to be the worst and he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles at the trading deadline. What helped out on that trade the Mariners were able to get Iwakuma back after the Dodgers decided to veto the contract he signed with them. Another trade was a salary dump sending Mark Trumbo for catcher Steve Clevenger which was a bust. The Mariners in the first trade for Dipoto was getting Nathan Karns from the Tampa Bay Rays. Karns ended up getting injured about the middle of the season so you could see that as a failure too however we have to look to see what Karns may do this coming season. Most likely he will be the fifth starter at best or starting in the bullpen. I would give a C for his transactions however he had to make moves and sometimes they just don’t work out.

Scott Servais I thought did a fine job with what he did with the Mariners. He was able to get them to ten games above

.500; ten more wins over last season. What he did most was able to get the players to play as a team. He wasn’t afraid to make changes when needed like putting Edwin Nunez in place of Steve Cishek as closer. I thought he could have done more at shortstop possibly replacing Marte with O’Malley. He may have felt that Marte needed to play out the season. It may have been a joint decision between Servais and Dipoto. Sending Mike Zunino to Tacoma to start the season was a good choice. They had to bring up about half season because of the injury to Steve Clevenger. I thought the best job he did was putting out the same lineup almost every day. He had a lineup for right handers and left handers because the Mariners did not have a regular player to use in left field and right field along with first base. The question thing I had was using pinch hitters too much. I know that he was matching up because of platooning but in my mind pinch hitting should only occur when leading off an inning or there are runners on base. Hopefully that will change next year. What I like most about Servais is that at the end of the season he was not satisfied with eight-six wins. He wants the team to make the playoffs and expects them to do so next season.

I look forward to where Dipoto can improve the roster and what Servais can do with those players. It would be nice if the Mariners can add three or four more wins next season. We will look at that during the off-season.

Coming up on my next post I will look at catcher and the pitching staff.

 

Seahawks Stick It To Jets

The Seattle Seahawks game was one of the best ones to watch in some time. The Seahawks beat the Jets in New Jersey 27-17 however the game was not as close as the score indicated. Also there were a couple plays that were questionable at the very least. The first one was the fumble by quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick   I thought was an incomplete pass. You could hear Earl Thomas saying arm went forward. I thought the same thing however after checking replay called it a fumble that turned into a touchdown. The other was pass interference on Richard Sherman when it looked like receiver Brandon Marshall did. At least Sherman got the last laugh on the next play he intercepted pass. At the end of the game he had another interception to seal the game.

I thought Russell Wilson should not start the game because of another injury that happened the week before against the 49ers. Although he could barely get around he still passed for 309 yards. Also it was the second straight game where Jimmy Graham had over one hundred yards receiving. I wonder what people think now that thought Graham would not have a place in the Seahawks offense. I expect that we will see better things in the weeks to come. Christine Michael had another outstanding game running and receiving in the game. We hope that he continues this way until Thomas Rawls returns in about a month. Michael in a position that he has never been in playing for the Seahawks we will have to see. It is nice to see that the Seahawks have a bye week so Wilson can have some recovery time going into the next game.

Outside a couple plays including the Fitzpatrick fumble the Seahawks again was outstanding. Everyone played a good game and Richard Sherman had to have one of the few challenges he will go through during the season covering Brandon Marshall. Although Marshall got him a couple times Sherman showed that he can still intercept passes. He will have another challenge in two weeks against the Atlanta Falcons with Julius Jones who had a big game against Carolina Cougars. The Seahawks should be favored since the game is in Seattle and the Falcons don’t have a very good defense. The do have a good offense however the Seahawks should be able to stop them though it will be a challenge.

On Friday night the Washington Huskies had a surprise game dominating the Stanford Cardinal in every facet of the game winning 44-6. The Huskies now are ranked #5 in Associated Press rankings and next week they play the Oregon Ducks. This will be the biggest game of the year at least for a few weeks since the Huskies haven’t beaten the Ducks in fifteen years. The Ducks were beaten this week in Pullman by the Washington State Cougars. The Huskies should be favored in this game however they will not look ahead either since they have won in so long. The important thing is that the Huskies run a lot against the Ducks so the ball will be kept away from them and help the defense not get tired out.

Since the Seahawks won’t play this coming weekend the college games will be what everyone will be looking at. Go Huskies and Cougars. Also rest for the Seahawks.  

Season Ends with Eighty-Six Wins For Mariners

All of us Mariners fans are disappointing that the Mariners did not make it to the playoffs once again. You could say it is fifteen years and counting. On the positive side they did when eight-six games this year compared to seventy-six wins last year. It was a quite an improvement over a team last year that was expected to make it into the playoffs and all the way to the World Series. That high expectations cost the Mariners general manager and manager their jobs. Now with Dipoto and Servais at the helms it seems that the Mariners are on the way where we can see consistent seasons of eighty-six wins or more. I liked what Servais said after the game where he wants more than having a ball club that is over .500 he wants a team in the playoffs.

It looks to me the Mariners have players that are hungry and want to get into the playoffs on a regular basis. Before I forget they did lose the final game against the A’s 3-2. They did have their opportunities in the game but came short. Felix Hernandez pitched only three innings and gave up the three runs. In post-game interview he mentioned in getting back to where he was before 2016 and include pitching a little in winter ball. He will likely be put on the same program Robinson Cano was on last off-season. He knows if he wants to make it into the playoffs he has to be healthy and pitch better than he did this year.

I have mentioned some things that will need to change for the upcoming season. The Mariners fortunately don’t need a lot of change like they did after last year. I will get into those things in future posts.

I will do my annual report card this week about the team. Most likely I will break it into at least a couple posts if not three. I will probably start out with the pitching and then go into the infield and outfield. We all know to that there will be upgrades in all three of those areas during the off-season.

I am sure with the playoffs starting Tuesday with the American League play in game we will have some withdrawals concerning the Mariners and baseball. It could be postponed until after the World Series. I would not be surprised if Dipoto makes a few transactions or at least announcements before October is over.   Probably announce who may not return or put on waivers. We do know that the Mariners have a few free agents notably Adam Lind and Dae-Ho Lee. I am pretty confident that Lind won’t return and the chances that Lee won’t either since he had a pretty poor second half of the season. It was nice to have him around for one season though. Another one who probably won’t be invited back is Chris Iannetta. He had a decent first half of the season but poor second half when Mike Zunino returned. In fact he played very little in September which shows that he probably won’t be back either. I will look at those others I believe won’t return next season either next week. It is nice to know that the team progressed over last season. The main thing is to be more consistent next year; until the next time for the report cards enjoy the off-season especially the holidays. Go M’s.

Mariners Miss Out on Playoffs With Loss

Saturday night the Seattle Mariners in the next to last game of the season had their toughest loss of all as well. Winning on this night would have gotten them closer to getting into the playoffs but the loss cost them the playoffs.

The Mariners fought hard all night in the end they lost the game in the 10^th inning when rookie second baseman Joey Wendle drove in a run with a double. The Mariners were unable to match the A’s like they did in the rest of the game. I find it interesting that in the third inning Ketel Marte made a throwing error after making a fine stop on a grounder to deep short. Instead of holding onto the ball he tried to get the runner at second. The Mariners made scored in the bottom of the second to make it 2-0. After Marte’s error that allowed the runner go to third the A’s scored four runs in that inning. Wendle later on tried to scoop a ball hit to him that became an error that allowed the Mariners to get back into the game.

Both Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz each hit two-run homes to help the Mariners to get back into the game however we see it was never meant to be. Wendle who never let the error affect him the rest of the game was the player to win the game. I am not saying that Marte’s error affected his play but he was unable to make the play to win the game.

The final game of the season Sunday afternoon Felix Hernandez the King will go against the Oakland A’s. It would have been nice to have a sweep at least but three out of four to end the season not bad.

Whether the Mariners have eighty-six or seven wins on the season we will all be thinking about the what ifs; the game they should have beaten the Cubs in Chicago and won at least one game at Safeco Field against the Minnesota Twins to name a couple. Another what if would have been that the Mariners could have gotten across the ten game above .500 earlier. The thing though is the team had a good season despite the fact they did not make the playoffs.

The plan that General Manager Jerry Dipoto made when he came to work for the Mariners last September he made it work other than getting into the playoffs his first year. He wanted the team to win at least eight-six games and see the chances which they will do. This is a good stepping stones to what the team can do in the future. The Mariners learned to win in 2016 though it was not always easy. There will be spots that will need to improve and players that most likely won’t be back.

This coming week I will give my final grade of the season. It certainly is better than last year that is for sure. Jack Z was fired before the season ended and Lloyd was not asked to return when the season ended. Actually Dipoto had a discussion with Lloyd and it was obvious what was said did not match. Dipoto added some needed parts though they not all pan out. This off-season he will add some more parts though they should not be as many as last time. Over the off-season we will discuss and see what Dipoto comes up with. As always though Go M’s.

 

Great Friday Night in Seattle

The Seattle Mariners and the Washington Huskies made Friday night worthwhile to see. The Mariners continue to be in the hunt for the wildcard. They beat the Oakland A’s 5-1 behind the hot hitting of Robinson Cano who hit two more home runs. He now has thirty-eight home runs to be only the fourth second baseman in major league baseball history to do so. Dozier of the Minnesota Twins has forty-two going into Saturday. So two guys in the same season out of four players is quite amazing; if Cano can continue his hot hitting along with the other players on the Mariners into the promise land he is worth every penny he earns.

At least to this point the Huskies game on Friday was the biggest college football game in Seattle for this season and for several that is for sure. The Huskies played the Stanford Cardinal and the winner would put themselves at the top of the north division in the Pac-12 conference. Stanford was ranked 7^th in the nation while the Huskies 10^th. Most media and fans alike considered the game as a toss-up not really knowing who would win. The Huskies ended up dominating the game being ahead 30-0 near the end of the 3^rd quarter when the Cardinal made a touchdown to make it 30-6. The Cardinal were not able to make the two point conversion. The Huskies had the ball most of the fourth quarter going more than six minutes before scoring a touchdown to put the game out of reach. They were able to get the ball back from the Cardinal to score another touchdown before the game ended making the final score 44-6.

Where the Huskies are in the national ratings after this weekend is anyone’s guess at this point; you would think that they should be at least 7^th replacing Stanford. They could go higher depending how the teams ahead of them do over the weekend. The Huskies offense was about equal with both running and receiving going over two hundred yards each. On the defensive side they were able to stop Christian McCaffrey the Cardinal outstanding all-purpose back and receiver. He was among the favorites for the Heisman Trophy. The Huskies made sure his name may be forgotten.

Another college game happens Saturday in Pullman when the Washington State Cougars host the Oregon Ducks. I expect that the Ducks are favored though they are not the team that they have been the last decade or so. It likely will be a high scoring affair since both teams are very good offensively and the Cougars at least are defensively challenged. The score may not indicate it however the winner likely will be the one who can stop the other deep in the fourth quarter.

The Mariners continue their way toward the Promise Land. They have two remaining games against the A’s in the season Saturday night and Sunday. If the Mariners can sweep the A’s they may have a chance to make the playoffs or be in a play in game having a tie on Sunday. Though the season ends on Sunday for the Mariners and most of the teams in the major leagues the Detroit Tigers may have to play the Cleveland Indians on Monday if it makes any difference in who gets into the playoffs. The Tigers and Indians had a game cancelled on Thursday because of rain so only would be played if it affects the standings. We hope that the Mariners have a big crowd Saturday night to root them on to stay alive. Go M’s.