Seattle Mariners Musings

So once again, just as in 2009, we have ourselves the best defense in baseball, combined with the worst offense in the league.
The masters of run prevention continue to win at home and lose on the road and score very rarely in both places.
As of right now, they are 11th in Batting Average, 13th in OBP and Slugging, 12th in Runs, and 2 games below .500. Granted, they have yet to have top 10 pitcher Cliff Lee, who has been injured since spring training, but his arrival wont score a single run for this team.
Apparently adding Chone Figgins does not help your offense much, unless he brings Kendry Morales, Vlad Guerrero, Juan Rivera, Torii Hunter, and Bobby Abreau with him from the Angels.
I understand the Mariners felt adding a great glue guy, good defender, and stolen base threat like Figgins would help them score more runs, and I think it will, but he is not a game changer, and never has been. So they essentially have 2 leadoff hitters in Figgins and Ichiro, neither of whom has any power whatsoever, and both of whom are followed in the lineup by decent but powerless hitters in CF Gutierrez and 1b Casey Kotchman, not to mention the other 4 dead bats they have in the lineup as well.
Any team playing Ken Griffey as a DH is not too interested in scoring runs, or taking their team's playoff chances seriously. They have another great defender but zero at the plate in SS Jack Wilson. So in addition to Griffey and Wilson, what do the Mariners do to score more runs? Well, they add .200 hitter Rob Johnson to their everyday lineup, platoon Eric Byrnes, who has been done for 3 years, in left field, and give Matt Tuiasasopo regular starts at corner infield positions.

I expect this team's pitching to be just fine, and it has been, for the most part. Ian Snell is crap and I knew he would be, but he will lose his spot as soon as Lee comes back this weekend. Another problem is an unproven bullpen, coming off career years for everyone. I expect more regression for the Mariners' bullpen than any other in the league. I will be very surprised if Seattle can approach last years' win total of 85 games. But then , the Giants surprise me daily by winning with a dogshit offense. Go figure.