Seattle Mariners Report--May 4

Seattle Mariners, 19-11, 1st place by ½ game over Oakland Athletics

TEAM STATISTICS (rankings out of all 30 MLB teams):
Batting:
.265 AVG (13th)
148 RUNS (10th)
24 HR (tied for 23rd)

Pitching:
3.42 ERA (7th)
1.304 WHIP (10th)
188 K (16th)

LATEST NEWS:
The Mariners are 8-3 in games outside the AL West, beating up on Cleveland (3-0), Detroit (2-1), and Chicago(2-0), while losing 2 of 3 to the mighty Yankees. The rest of May will bring much of the same, with more games against the aforementioned teams, then games against KC (who are regressing back toward their expected level of mediocrity with each passing day) and Minnesota at the end of the May. It should be a good month for the M’s. It should also be a good month for the team chasing them, as the A’s will play the same teams.

The hitting and pitching has improved as the caliber of competition has decreased. Bret Boone, Mike Cameron, Edgar Martinez, and the always-reliable John Olerud have hit well in the last week. Cameron had a big 6 RBI night in Chicago on Saturday. Edgar Martinez collected his 2,000th career hit in Chicago on Friday night.

The bullpen has done well despite the absence of closer Kazu Sasaki. Jeff Nelson seems to be the most likely reliever to pick up the M’s saves, with Arthur Rhodes being the other option.

Gil Meche is a hot topic in Fantasy-land. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 3 starts, including a beautiful game against the Yankees. In Fantasy Forums I’ve visited, Meche is being compared favorably to other young pitchers like Zach Day, Brett Myers, and Jesse Foppert.

A CLOSER LOOK:
Going back to last season, RF Ichiro (.250, 16 r, 1 hr, 6 rbi, 6 sb) now has 3 straight months that are far below what we’d expect of him offensively. He hit .282 in August of ’02, then slumped to .248 in September. In April of this year, he hit .243. Add it up and you get a .258 batting average in his last 329 at-bats. That’s cause for concern. Also in that time, he has just 12 steals. If you drafted Ichiro, you were expecting a .330 average and 30-40 steals. Over his last 329 at-bats, he’s a .258 hitter with 12 steals. I don’t know if the pitcher’s have figured out a way to pitch to him or if opposing defenses are taking away hits on balls that used to get through the infield. His stock is dropping fast.

2B Bret Boone (.293, 20 r, 7 hr, 21 rbi, 2 sb) has come on strong in the last couple weeks, with 11 RBI in 12 games. He’s been slotted in the #3 spot in the batting order, ahead of Mr. Consistency, Edgar Martinez. Boone benefits greatly having Edgar behind him in the lineup, so be wary if Edgar goes down with another injury at some point this season. As expected, Boone is the 2nd-best second baseman in the AL, after the amazing Alfonso Soriano.

CF Mike Cameron (.264, 14 r, 3 hr, 13 rbi, 3 sb) is a notoriously streaky hitter. When he’s hot, he’s a joy to watch. When he’s not, it’s an endless string of u-turns at the plate—strikeouts in bunches. He had a 6 RBI game Saturday versus his first ML Team, the Chicago White Sox. This came a year and a day after his 4-homer game last season at Comiskey. Cameron still strikes out a ton (26 k’s in 87 at-bats) and still can’t hit at Safeco (.205 avg at home, .313 away). If he’s ever traded from the Mariners, he should ask to go to the White Sox. At Comiskey Park in the last 3 years, Cameron has hit .365 with 15 runs, 6 homers, 11 rbi, and 5 steals in 52 at-bats, an OBP of .468 and a slugging percentage of .788.

DH Edgar Martinez (.351, 10 r, 3 hr, 16 rbi) continues to hit. His OBP this season is .485. His OPS is 1.017. He collected his 2000th career hit on Friday night. He also has over 1100 career walks to go along with a .317 career average. He’s one of the best players of his generation. He wasn’t a Major League regular until he was 27, so his career totals could be even better if he hadn’t wasted some years in the Mariners’ minor leagues. The biggest question surrounding Edgar Martinez is about the Hall of Fame. Is he a Hall of Famer? He has comparable career hitting numbers to Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett, but Edgar was a DH, while Puckett won 6 Gold Gloves as a centerfielder. Also, Puckett had his career cut short with an injury.

LF Randy Winn (.255 avg, 19 r, 0 hr, 5 rbi, 5 sb) hasn’t hit like he did last season for the Devil Rays, but he’s 2nd on the team in runs scored and 2nd in steals. He also played a solid centerfield in Cameron’s absence (with an injury). Winn has a .231/.278 home-road split and is slugging just .288 at Safeco Field.

SP Gil Meche (32 inn, 29 h, 9 er, 29 k, 9 bb, 3-1, 2.53 ERA, 1.19 WHIP) has been a very pleasant surprise for the M’s and is the talk of the town at the moment. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 3 starts (vs. Oakland, Cleveland, and the Yankees) and has 17 strikeouts in 21.2 innings in that time. His next 4 starts look like this: @CHW, CHW, @DET, KC. If he hasn’t been picked up in your league yet, get him while you can.

RP Shigetoshi Hasegawa (15 g, 17.2 inn, 1 er, 10 k, 5 bb, 1-0, 0 svs, 0.51 era, 0.96 WHIP) has been the M’s best reliever so far, but he’s a middle-innings guy, so he won’t give you any saves and isn’t worth a spot on a Fantasy Team unless you play in a league that uses Holds as a category, but it’s nice to see a 0.51 ERA.

RP Arthur Rhodes (15 g, 14.1 inn, 3 er, 12 k, 5 bb, 1-0, 0 svs, 1.89 ERA, 0.98 WHIP) has been his usual dominant self. He might pick up a few saves while Sasaki is out, but is a better option if you play in a league that uses Holds as a category.

RP Jeff Nelson (13 g, 11 inn, 4 er, 13 k, 2 bb, 2-0, 2 svs, 3.27 ERA, 1.27 WHIP) seems to have taken the closer role in Sasaki’s absence, but manager Bob Melvin hasn’t stated that Nelson is the closer. Nelson is a good pick-up, though, if you need saves.

LOCAL SPIN:
Gil Meche is the hot topic of conversation, after shutting down the Yankees and outdueling Clemens in the opener of a 3-game set the M’s had in New York. He was the team’s highest-regarded pitching prospect as far back as 1999, but missed significant time with a major arm injury that caused him to miss all of the 2001 season. He came back last year and was terrible in AA but pitched well last fall, then won the 5th-starters job in spring training and has looked better and better with each start this season. He throws hard (29 K’s in 32 innings), and has shown good command so far (9 BB in 32 innings). Something else to consider about Meche is that, despite having pitched in the bigs as far back as 1999, he’s only 24 years old.

INJURIES:
Kazuhiro Sasaki is on the DL. The Mariners say it’s because of a sore back but there are rumors that it’s more than that, that his shoulder is giving him trouble. The M’s deny this and say he’ll be ready to return when he’s eligible to come off the DL on May 8. I’m not buying it, though. It’s just a hunch, but I think there’s more hurting Kaz than his back. Check back with me on May 8 and we’ll see if my hunch is correct or not.

Mike Cameron missed 5 games last week with a groin injury but is back in the lineup now, and hitting well.

MY TWO CENTS:
I was listening to ESPN radio Saturday afternoon and Rob Dibble was talking about the roles of starting pitchers compared to relief pitchers. He said, “I tried to be a starter for 2 years in the minors but wasn’t good at it and got put in the bullpen. But going to the bullpen is not a demotion, it just means that you aren’t good enough to start.”

Huh? Going to the bullpen is NOT A DEMOTION, it just means you AREN’T GOOD ENOUGH to start. Am I the only one who thinks that’s a ridiculous statement?