Seattle Mariners takes for Week 7: M’s hit the skids, call up the kids
A down week for the Seattle Mariners ended with a big bang. Chris Phillips is back with his weekly Mariners takes.
We’re back for another look into the Seattle Mariners. Their latest happenings and thoughts on the team and season. Rocky times have hit, and fans in the know are aware of what’s happening with the team and organization. It takes much more than reading box scores.
An MLB season is 162 games long, and the only time the Mariners have had smooth sailing is when I’m playing EA Sports MVP Baseball 2005. We all knew this team would run into some rough times. Friday night’s win stopped a five-game losing streak. Now is the time for a young Mariners team to weather the storm. So, let’s get to it.
Pitching
This part of the team has been hit hard with injuries. Mainly the starters. James Paxton, Nick Margevicius, Marco Gonzales, and Ljay Newsome are all out of action. The M’s insist on using a six-man rotation despite all these injuries. After Margevicius went down, Scott Servais opted to use the sixth starter spot as a bullpen day.
I would have just gone to a five-man rotation until one of these starters came back. But manager Scott Servas wants to stick to his plan of limiting the innings of his young starters. Additionally, the bullpen has been incredibly effective. That is until recently, more on this topic later.
The good news out of all this carnage is that Yusei Kikuchi looks sharp. Maybe good enough to be worth his hefty salary. Justin Dunn has also been solid, looking like n MLB back-end starter. Justus Sheffield is still on the roller coaster. This is unfortunate because it looked like his inconsistency issues were behind him.