Short and Simple M's Report

Seattle Mariners, 23-14, tied for 1st place with the Oakland Athletics

TEAM STATISTICS (rankings out of all 30 MLB teams):
Batting:
.274 AVG (9th)
194 RUNS (8th)
35 HR (tied for 19th)

Pitching:
3.84 ERA (8th)
1.31 WHIP (10th)
221 K (18th)

A LOOK AT THE M’S RESULTS SO FAR:
Record against teams above .500: 6-7, .462 (Yankees, Athletics)
Record against teams below .500: 17-7, .708 (Rangers, Angels, White Sox, Indians, Tigers)
Record against teams below .400: 5-1, .833 (Indians, Tigers)

~The M’s have played 7 different teams so far and only have a losing record against the league’s best team, the New York Yankees (2-4).
~They’ve played the AL West to the tune of an 11-8 (.579) mark.
~They’ve thrashed the league’s bottom-feeders, going 3-0 against Cleveland and 2-1 against the Detroit Tigers.

Analysis: The M’s are doing a good job of taking care of the teams they SHOULD beat, while looking competitive with the tougher teams in the league. With the competitiveness of the AL West, the M’s need to continue to beat up on the AL Central and the bottom-feeders in the AL East (Baltimore, Toronto, Tampa Bay) to compete with the Athletics.

A LOOK AHEAD:
The M’s begin a 6-game road trip, playing 3 in Cleveland (11-25) and 3 in Detroit (8-27).
After that road trip, they’ll be home for 3 against Kansas City (22-13) and 3 against Minnesota (20-16), then they go to Kansas City for 2 games and Minnesota for 4 more.

Analysis: The Mariners need to continue to win the games they SHOULD win, meaning taking a minimum of 4 of the 6 games versus the Indians and Tigers (a 6-game sweep is possible). When they come back home, we should get an idea of how they compare with the teams currently at the top of the AL Central.

FREDDY GARCIA:
Ick. If you have Freddy Garcia on your fantasy team, last week included Black Thursday when Freddy got rocked by the Yankees (2.2 inn, 7 h, 9 er), running his record for the season to 3-4 with a 5.40 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP. When you drafted him, you were looking for 15-18 wins, a mid 3.00’s ERA, and around a 1.25 WHIP. What do you do with him now?

Well, first off, it’s even worse than it looks. Here’s a closer look at Freddy’s season:
Vs. Oakland (twice), Texas (twice), and the Yankees (once): 1-4, 7.71 ERA, 1.71 WHIP, 5.3 BB/9 IP
Vs. Cleveland, Detroit, and the White Sox: 2-0, 2.33 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 1.9 BB/9 IP

Analysis: As you can see, Freddy’s been terrible against good teams (Oakland, New York) or good-hitting teams (Texas) and great against the league’s 3 worst-hitting teams (based on runs scored). The good news is that his next start is against Cleveland. If you’re tired of his undependable ways, hold on to him until after the Cleveland start. If he puts up good numbers, start fishing around to see what you can get for him.

THE STARTING ROTATION:
In theory, the M’s starting rotation is set up this way:
#1 Freddy Garcia
#2 Jamie Moyer
#3 Joel Pineiro
#4 Ryan Franklin
#5 Gil Meche

But let’s take a look at the results so far:
Freddy Garcia 3-4, 5.40 ERA, 1.38 WHIP
Jamie Moyer 5-2, 3.61, 1.33
Joel Pineiro 2-3, 4.06, 1.38
Ryan Franklin 3-2, 3.80, 1.33
Gil Meche 4-2, 2.86, 1.14

At this point in the season (37 games, 23% of the season done), the top-to-bottom order, based on performance, looks more like this:
#1 Jamie Moyer
#2 Gil Meche
#3 Ryan Franklin
#4 Joel Pineiro
#5 Freddy Garcia

Analysis: When your #4 and #5 guys in the rotation are 7-4, 3.35, things should be looking good. And they are, for the most part. Pineiro hasn’t yet been as good as last year, but he hasn’t been bad either. Moyer is still baffling teams with his bag of tricks. Franklin has been solid. Meche has been terrific. Only Freddie has been blatantly awful.