Seattle Mariners: Robbie Ray vs. ghosts of M’s past sins
Chris Phillips
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Final Thoughts
Looking more at these three pitchers, Ray is similar to Bedard in that both pitchers both only go about six innings per start. Lee was at just about eight innings. Of the three Ray comes in with the highest career strikeout per nine innings, 11.2, Bedard second at 8.6, and Lee last at 7.6. If you run those names backward you’d have the correct order for their walks per nine innings; Lee 1.9, Bedard 3.7, and Ray 3.9.
Bedard only made 46 starts during his tenure with the Seattle Mariners, never pitching over 130 innings in a season. His end-of-the-year stat lines were good but looking closer at certain categories and factoring in how uncomfortable he was plus criticism for exiting games after only throwing 90 pitches the numbers were deceiving. Injuries affected his availability to pitch which included missing all of 2010 due to shoulder surgery. Not what the team was expecting from someone thought to be an “ace”.
As previously mentioned, Lee was only with the Seattle Mariners for part of one season. A reason Philadelphia traded Lee in the first place was that he intended to test free agency when his contract ended. So, resigning Lee might have been problematic even if Seattle had a good team.
Neither Bedard or Lee worked out for the Seattle Mariners. There’s an old cliche, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Maybe the third time will be a charm. And maybe this time they finally got it right. Here’s to hoping that’s the case but fully understanding it may not be.
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How do you feel about the Seattle Mariners Signing Robbie Ray? Do past high-profile disappointments play a factor in your expectations? Let us know in the comments section below.