After a respectable 2009 and an off-season that saw the team acquire Cliff Lee, Chone Figgins, and Milton Bradley, the Mariners were a popular pick to win the AL West. The Mariners weren’t a consensus favorite, but with a strong defense and a potentially great starting rotation, there was a definite buzz surrounding the Mariners. The respected sabermetric website Fangraphs even went so far as to label Seattle as the No. 6 best positioned organization in the game.
The Mariners Have Crept Back Into The AL West Race
Then the Mariners lost a number of one-run games, endured the “Griffey was asleep” story, saw Milton Bradley leave the team to fight his demons, and began the season with a ruinous 14-26 record.
However, the Mariners aren’t quite ruined, at least not just yet. Seattle has put together a modest hot streak since bottoming out, going 8-5 in their last thirteen games, buoyed by a three game winning streak against the Twins this week. They’re still just 22-31, but only 6 games behind division-leading Texas, who is only 28-25. The Rangers, it should be noted, are 23-24 against teams that aren’t the Royals.
Seattle still has some major work to do, but everything that people liked about their roster before is still in place. The Mariners have played in an absurd 20 one-run games this season, and thus far they are only 7-13 in those games. Moreover, they have gone 1-6 in extra inning games. It’s a cliche, but the Mariners have legitimately been unlucky in 2010. Combined with a number of players who seem likely to improve, there’s good reason to believe Seattle has better baseball ahead of them. They might not be able to come all the way back, but they certainly aren’t out of it either.
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