Seattle Mariners Second Half Preview

Well the four day wait is over, the Seattle Mariners are back!!! Tonight Hisashi Iwakuma goes up against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, and thankfully Kuma-bear has gotten his good stuff back so going against the Angels in their own ball park its good to have two of our top starters going in the first two games.

Felix Hernandez takes the mound for the 2nd game, so again we could use these first two games. The Mariners will start the first 3 games of the second half on the road but then come right back to Safeco Field for a whole week.

Currently the Mariners lead the Royals and the Blue Jays by 2.5 games for the 2nd spot in the Wild Card standings and trail the A’s by 8 games in the AL West.

The key to this second half for the Mariners will be the bullpen. The bullpen has been the key in the first half and in the second half they will really help this team get into the playoffs for the first time in 13 years.

Also making a move by the front office would be key as well. Currently the Mariners are linked to rumors about making a trade for David Price and Ben Zobrist from the Tampa Bay Rays.

Look I’m not a fan of trading for Price, but Zobrist I am interested in. If the Mariners were to pull off a trade that brought Zobrist to Seattle the M’s would give up Brad Miller, Nick Franklin, and Justin Smoak possibly, at least that’s what the rumors have said.

Now if the team doesn’t make a move this team still will make a push for the playoffs. This team has done well with only Robinson Cano and Kyle Seager as their prime power hitters and they will do just fine without making a trade.

During the All Star Game Joe Buck was quoted saying during Seager’s first AB “that Mariners team is getting better and better”.

This team is good and is getting better but they can only get better if the hitters can get key hits and if the pitching continues to dominate this team will be 100% fine.

Look for the Mariners to finish at least 11 games over .500 this 2nd half and get ready for some Mariners post season play.

Go Mariners!!!!