Season Prospects for the Mariners

Living in Portland, I've adopted the Mariners as my team. They're generally fun to root for, play at a good park, and succeed just enough for fans to feel like This Year Might Be The Year. But is it?

Seattle is a mid-market city, but the franchise thinks it's big-market, throwing out big contracts to guys like Richie Sexson, Adrian Beltre and Jarrod Washburn, all of them fair-to-middling players. Beltre signed his deal right after a season that just screamed "fluke!" and his numbers have shown as much. Sexson never was much good at anything but hitting the ball a country mile now and again. Both Sexson and Beltre are hard swingers with good power when they do make contact, but big K numbers when they don't.

But Safeco Field is a pitcher's park, and sluggers like these just don't belong. Give me a guy with Beltre's glove and solid gap power and a high average instead. And give me a first-baseman with plate discipline, a good glove, and occasional power. Don't overpay for power; this is a market and a ballpark that begs to be built around pitching and defense, but none of these three guys fit that model.

Washburn is a good character guy, but a league average lefty with a tendency to both eat innings and give up gopher balls like Halloween candy (and this in the aforementioned pitcher's domain that is Safeco). Tying up big bucks in these three guys means they leave big holes, such as the one at DH, where they must rely on a sputtering Jose Vidro, who only was a steal when he could play 2B, something he hasn't done since coming to the Emerald City. 

This year, however, they've made some good moves in the right direction. Snagging Erik Bedard was the first one, even if he's currently down to a hip injury. Next, they brought up (or stuck with) some of their young talent: Yuni Betancourt and Jose Lopez are adequate, if unspectacular, up the middle and at the plate, and Yung Chi-Chen is waiting to step in, should Lopez to falter down the stretch like he did last year; Wladimir Balentien is making the most of his first year in the bigs by making like Vladimir Guererro; and they just brought up Jeff Clement (who's really a catcher) to push Vidro out of the DH spot, and backup a solid Kenji Johjima, whose contract was recently extended. King Felix will be dominant on the mound, and now that J.J. Putz is healthy, he should be the shutdown guy he was last year. 

The holes come between Felix and Putz, as the Ms have a weak 3-4-5 in their rotation and a bullpen that struggles at times to be average. But Seattle's in a weak division, with their usual rival Los Angeles Angels struggling through age and decimating injuries. So they should contend and--good Lord willing and the creek don't rise--make the playoffs. Much beyond that, however, is the stuff that dreams are made on.