Week 1 Recap

Update: In a bit of good news, Ryan Langerhans has cleared waivers and has been out righted to AAA Tacoma

Well, that probably wasn’t exactly what the Mariners had in mind when they envisioned how the first week of their season would play out. Quite frankly, some of the games this past week have been down right dreadful to watch, and if not for Felix Hernandez and Franklin Gutierrez this team could certainly be starring 0-7 in the face right now. With that said, there is hope on the horizon. Despite being 2-5, Cliff Lee and Erik Bedard are quickly working there way back to a potential return in early and late May, respectively. Also, despite the fact that most of the offense has been down right dreadful, there are quality big league hitters in this lineup and they will start to progress toward the mean as the season continues to unfold. So, in no particular order, here’s a couple of my thoughts on the Mariners 1 week into the Major League Baseball season:

• The starting pitching could not have been much worse
  Excluding Felix, the rotation looked just about as bad as it could possibly be this week. I’m probably over-exaggerating a bit here, but needless to say I was not very impressed. Ian Snell turned in a decent outing in Oakland, but he was downright dreadful today in Texas against a much better Rangers lineup. Ryan Rowland-Smith was just about as erratic as I’ve ever seen him in his first start against the A’s. That said, I do think RRS will rebound and be a solid mainstay in the Mariners rotation as the season continues to progress. Doug Fister was awful against a weak Oakland lineup. For being so highly regarded for his ability to avoid giving up the free pass during his minor league career, Fister continuously backed himself into full counts the entire day and ended up walking a handful of A’s as well. Jason Vargas was very good for 5+ innings against the Rangers but immediately unraveled their after. I think I like Vargas in the rotation more so than Fister, but as I’ve stated on here many times in the past, I still don’t think either guy is a great fit in a big league rotation.
• The bullpen wasn’t all that much better
  I’m not really sure what to make of the bullpen’s performance this past week. The pen blew two saves but only ended up losing one of those games. David Aardsma looked pretty solid, going 2-2 in save opportunities this week, but he definitely owes Gutierrez a steak dinner for that game saving catch. Mark Lowe, Shawn Kelley and Brandon League looked pretty nasty during their appearances this week, even though they did give up a couple of runs as a whole. Kanekoa Texiera and the new addition to the pen, Jesus Colome, got a bunch of work in this week. Texiera was definitely baptised by fire in his first appearance, working his way out of a 1 out, bases loaded jam only to then give up the game winning hit the following inning. Both guys were a bit inconsistent so it should be interesting to see how they perform as the season unfolds. Sean White cost Felix a win in the season opener and almost cost the Mariners the game. White got some more work in later in the week, but honestly, he’s just not very good
• Screw you Mike Sweeney
  We want Langerhans!
• The offense is really struggling
  Aside from Gutierrez, the offense really looked down right bad this week. If Ichiro and Figgins cant get on base at an above average clip, you can really see how this offense is going to have a lot of trouble scoring runs. Milton Bradley is really slumping at the plate right now, his lone hit being a homer. Milton should be fine as long as he can separate playing the game from the distractions (fans, media, etc.) that come with it. Griffey’s bat looks REALLY slow right now. I’m hoping he can rebound a little bit but I’m not very confident. In further proof that spring training stats don’t matter at all, Mike Sweeney once again sucks. I’m sorry for lashing out on Sweeney here because as a person I really do like the guy, but as a baseball player, I like Ryan Langerhans and many other players a hell of a lot more. Jose Lopez looks like he’s struggling a little bit but he is what he is at the plate so he’ll be okay. In addition, Lopez actually  doesn’t look too bad at third base either. After getting a brief look at Eric Byrnes thus far, I don’t really like him, not really sure what it is but I’m just not a big fan. In other news, Adam Moore is also struggling so far, Jack Wilson still cant hit, and despite having hip surgeries, Rob Johnson still cant catch

  Well, that’s about all I have for now. Monday is the home opener for the M’s so lets hope they can get something going this week!

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