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Mariners Roundtable: Can the M’s Make the Playoffs in 2016?
Ben Garza – @Beniitec
The AL West is going to go down to the wire like it has the last few years. However the top two teams this season will be the Seattle Mariners and the Houston Astros. The pitching staffs on these two teams will set them apart from the rest of the AL West over the long haul. At the end of the season the Houston Astros will win the AL West. The Seattle Mariners will take second. The Los Angeles Angels will be third, the Texas Rangers fourth, and the Oakland Athletics will end the year in the cellar. The Mariners record will be 89 wins and 73 losses. My realistic prediction is that the Mariners will win the Wild Card and make the one game playoff with this record.
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The M’s pitching staff is one of the best I’ve seen in a while. The top three starters, Felix Hernandez, Hisashi Iwakuma and Wade Miley don’t just have potential. They are proven veterans and can handle the rest of the AL West. That is really the key. If the Mariners can win most of their games against their division rivals, that catapults them ahead. The unknowns are Taijuan Walker and Nate Karns. They have some great upside, but we won’t know how these two will fare in a long season.
The Mariners offense is strong and healthy being led by Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz. There’s more power potential there than Seattle has had in a long time. And true to Jerry Dipoto’s philosophy, there is length in the lineup and on the bench with low strikeout and high on base percentage players.
The numbers on paper look very promising. But yesterday’s numbers don’t win tomorrow’s games. Where the Mariners may have weaknesses is in their relatively new bullpen and their rookie manager. It will be interesting to see how this team fares in the later innings and how Scott Servais handles the management of this team and specifically the bullpen. I also know that this team has some depth down at the Triple-A level. So there is help if the big club has some issues along the way.
Next: Riley hopes the M's can squeak into the postseason