Justin Dunn, Seattle Mariners.
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.
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.
As previously hinted, the Seattle Mariners finally caught up to their unkind advanced metrics. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how some of the bullpen’s advanced metrics indicated their results were better than they should have been. At the time, only Drew Steckenrider, Kendall Graveman, Casey Sadler, and Anthony Misiewicz were pitching well enough to reflect their results.
Well, that hurricane has come ashore. The bullpen hasn’t been as dominant as it was earlier in the year. Possibly because they’re overworked. Remember, those bullpen days meant no starters pitched. So, instead of going with a five-man rotation, and continuing to limit the wear and tear on the pen, Servais added more to their workload. With that being said, the bullpen is the strongest part of Seattle’s pitching staff, so it makes sense to use them.
However, hindsight is saying that may have been a mistake. Another thing to consider is that Kikuchi and Chris Flexen are the only starters eating innings. The duo pitched more than 5.2 innings a game in 10 of 14 outings. The rest routinely went about five-ish innings before turning it over to the pen.
Early in the season, managers walk a fine line. They have to balance letting their starters go but not putting them at an increased risk of injury and providing enough work for the bullpen. Could Servais have been too cautious with some of the starter’s starts?
It’s here! It’s finally here. The day that non-box score watching fans were waiting for. Thursday, Jarred Kelenic made his major league debut. He batted leadoff in his first game and went hitless. Was Kelenic ready for MLB pitching after just 29 Triple-A at-bats?
That question was answered the next night, Kelenic was 3-for-4, and all his hits were extra bases, including a third-inning home run. His wasn’t the only big debut.
Accompanying Kelenic to Seattle was former Stetson stud Logan Gilbert. He pitched pretty well on Thursday night against Cleveland. Gilbert went four innings, striking out five and allowing four runs. Outside of a hanging-breaking ball that went beyond the outfield seats, he had a promising debut.
There are a few things Gilbert needs to work on as a big-league pitcher. For instance, his command as well as pitching from the stretch. The command needed to succeed at Triple-A is different than the command needed to succeed in the Majors. This issue will get corrected as he gains more experience.
The coaches have must work with Gilbert to go more with a slide step when pitching from the stretch. Currently, his form has a “high” leg kick. If he plans on controlling the opponents running game, he’ll need to shorten or remove this.
I don’t know about you, but I was so excited when the news broke of Kelenic’s call-up. Then the next day, we learned Gilbert was joining him. I got even more excited! So, much so that I can’t recall the last time I ever got this excited about a prospect getting their first crack in the majors.
The Mariners’ team batting average ranks dead last. *facepalm.* The offense wasn’t racking up video game numbers before the team’s recent troubles, but they were coming through with enough timely hits.
Kyle Seager, Mitch Haniger, and Ty France started the season hot but have faded the last few weeks. In fact, Friday, France went on the injured list with a wrist issue. Meanwhile, Dylan Moore and J.P. Crawford took their hitting up a notch. It’d be nice if those guys kept hitting while the former guys got back to where they were.
Back to Justin Dunn. Since his first start of the year, he’s been the Seattle Mariners’most consistent and reliable starter. It’s been great to see Dunn’s consistency improve compared to Sheffield’s volatility from start to start. However, Sheffield’s good starts have been better than Dunn’s. For now, Dunn’s consistency has been much more important to the team’s success.
Well, that’s all there is for this week. An MLB season is a marathon and not a sprint. Seattle’s early success was great, but now the league is catching up to the M’s. The Mariners need to make adjustments of their own to counter.
The M’s are in third place in the division, four-and-a-half games back of the Oakland A’s, and two games behind Houston. Their upcoming short-term schedule is favorable two more games against light-hitting Cleveland and then a three-game series with Detroit.
What are your thoughts about the Seattle Mariners’ performance over the last week? Let us know in the comments section below or on social media.