Seattle Mariners Halfway Report: Facts, and Opinions
Management
Facts
Every time the Seattle Mariners lose, naysayers and armchair critics take to social media to blame manager Scott Servais, but the facts say differently. The Mariners’ record is 40-37, after Friday’s win at Chicago. But their expected record is 34-43 based on a Pythagorean Win-Loss. A computation that takes runs scored and calculates it against opponents scoring. In addition, Seattle is really good at home (24-16) and really terrible on the road (15-21).
Managing one-run games to 17-7 is very impressive as well as winning despite a -46 run differential. Interestingly, the Mariners are 20-21 versus teams that are .500 or worse and 20-16 versus teams with a winning record. Of the 15 teams with winning records, the Mariners rank eighth in record vs. teams with losing records. The White Sox at 44-30 overall are 14-19 vs. teams with losing records. The Mets 7-12, Blue Jays 19-25, etc.
Opinion
Despite the criticism that is heaped at Servais for his managerial mistakes, no one can claim that another manager would have done a better job with this team. The Mariners weren’t expected by anyone outside of their organization and fans to have a winning record. Yet, as the halfway point of the season approaches, they have a great shot at being at or above .500 when we pass that point.
His managing of Jarred Kelenic, which has been well-publicized, proved a point. Fans aren’t and never should be GMs. Out of spring training, fueled by former team president Kevin Mather’s comments, many fans wanted the Mariners to break camp with one of the top OF prospects in the game. Turns out M’s General Manager Jerry Dipoto caved to fan pressure and a hot start at Triple-A by Kelenic and brought up the prospect. The rookie failed miserably and continues to fail (.172 since being sent down to Tacoma) offensively.
While it’s fun to talk about Servais and question his decisions, a manager that wins a majority of his decisions is nice to have. Also, some of the responsibility for losses has to be on poor execution by the players. Montero is at the top of the list, so far he cost the Mariners eight wins. He leads the league in blown saves (6), has a .299 BAA and 8.32 ERA in save situations. Clearly, he isn’t a closer. Perhaps the criticism could be that Servais needed to move Graveman into the role sooner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV37NYoD5IM