Seattle Mariners First Half Progress Report

During the fireworks show on Friday night, all I could think about is about October baseball and how this Mariners team is playing as hard as they can to make sure that the fans can enjoy that privilege.

This Mariners team has possibly the best chance at the playoffs then any other M’s team in the past 13 years. Now that we are done with the first half of the season, I want to look back at how they got this far.

The first thing the 2014 Mariners did to get to this point is they did what fans wanted the front office to do and that’s spend money. They went and signed Robinson Cano to a 10-year $240 million dollar deal. They then went and signed Corey Hart, traded to get Logan Morrison, and then signed Fernando Rodney.

During spring training, the Mariners had a big set back in their pitching rotation as both Hisashi Iwakuma and Taijuan Walker were placed on the disabled list. So the M’s had a problem already – finding two starting pitchers to fill Walker’s and Kuma’s spot. They found just those two, Roenis Elias and Chris Young.

During the beginning of the season fans endured struggles from a lot of players including Kyle Seager, the M’s then went on an eight-game losing streak and then all of a sudden the Mariners caught fire. Seager broke out of his funk by hitting two home runs including a 3-run walk off HR that not only ended the losing streak but boosted the entire team’s confidence. Since Seager’s walk off win the Mariners have won 35 games and have put themselves in 2nd place in the AL Wild Card standings.

The Mariners have used call ups, home runs, great pitching, and lot of hits to surge into one of the biggest surprises in baseball. The players that have been the biggest help to the team has been the biggest call up in James Jones, Seager, Felix Hernandez, Endy Chavez, Michael Saunders, Brad Miller, the entire bullpen, and of course Cano.

They have all been the biggest contributors to the success of this team making a surge in the standings. With now three months left in the regular season the Mariners could use one more big bat to help them in their attempt to get back to the playoffs for the first time in 13 years.

The first half has been everything I thought it would be and more. Here’s hoping to an even better second half.