Not Even The Wizard Can Help Emerald City

Not Even The Wizard Can Help Emerald City

 

 

Seattle, known as The Emerald City, is the land of Starbucks, Macklemore, and underwhelming baseball. The Mariners have not had consistent winning seasons since 2000-2003. They have done a horrendous job of putting teams together and also developing quality homegrown hitters. They’ve done pretty well with pitchers but some of that success has to be attributed to the dimensions of Safeco Field as much as talent. Seattle solved the hitting problem by signing Robinson Cano this offseason, their first middle of the order threat since the days of Alex Rodriguez. The only problem is, after Cano, there is absolutely no one in this lineup. The Mariners also acquired Corey Hart and Logan Morrison to shore up their offense. Only problem is Hart is coming off injuries and is a shell of himself and Morrison can’t produce wins just by being great on Twitter. Social media acumen aside, Morrison is injury prone, horrendous in the field, and too inconsistent with the bat. Mike Zunino and Brad Miller join the team for a full season this year and can potentially be good but knowing the team’s track record with hitters I’m not too optimistic. Dustin Ackley is at another position where he will underperform and not hit and Justin Smoak is getting yet another chance to show he cannot be an everyday first baseman.

Pitching is the strength of this team and there are few stronger than King Felix. He will once again dominate the competition and waste a year of his prime in Seattle. He very well may not have a running mate this year to dominate alongside him as Hisashi Iwakuma has never had back to back good seasons in his career thus far. Tiajuan Walker will be starting the year on the DL but he, along with James Paxton are the future of this rotation. They may start off slow due to nerves, coming off injuries, and being full time starters but they will develop into top of the order starters. Once again, it will all be for naught though if the Mariners cannot find some hitters to consistently contribute other than Cano.

The bullpen is very good as well but that has as much to do with Safeco. Like the Padres and Petco Park, you can plug any reliever in and their stats will see a positive uptick. Fernando Rodney should do very well with the opportunities he will get to close, when he does in fact get them. Daniel “Lord” Farquhar will be a bright spot as well. He proved last year how well he can pitch and I expect that to continue.

Seattle needs to be very thankful, at least for now, that the Astros are not ready to contend. It will save them from a last place finish once more but the Astros have major pieces ready to contribute come the second half of this season and beyond. If Seattle cannot get the hitters they need and surround Cano with better talent, it could be a very long time in the cellar for this team.

We will be back tomorrow with a look at the Atlanta Braves and their chances of repeating as NL East Champions. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @changingspeeds for all our coverage of the national pastime.