Mariners Analysis: M’s Chasing Records Like It’s The Late 90’s

The Mariners have turned into an offensive juggernaut in 2016, and it’s been awfully fun to watch.

The Mariner bats are on fire. So much so that it hearkens back to the late-90’s when Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, and Alex Rodriguez were smashing the ball out of the yard, and bringing home the most men in team history.

The Mariners might have been beat down 14-6 in the first game of the 2nd half of their home-and-home series against the San Diego Padres, but even in their lopsided loss they still managed to post 6 runs, 1.4 more than the American League average.

What the Mariners accomplished under Lou Piniella and through the bats of the aforementioned, as well as the rest of those historic squads back in the day, nearly broke records that stood almost 100 years. These Mariners may not challenge those storied Major League records, but they are on pace to come the closest to the the team’s 40 year record of runs set back in 1996 (993) and test the 1997 franchise home run record of 264.

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If we put aside the Boston Red Sox who are defying age and expectation in almost every offensive statistic, the Mariners are the #1 team on offense in the AL in RBI, runs, OBP %, SLG %, OPS, most 10+ run games and run differential as of June 2nd. This surprising early onslaught looks to be rattling and displeasing opposing pitchers who have hit Mariner batters 25 times, the second highest figure in the AL. The crux of the onslaught though has come from their MLB leading 78 home runs which account for 30% of the team’s overall run production. That tally puts them on track to be within arms reach (25 homers) of that slugging squad of 97’.

The combo of Nelson Cruz and Robinson Cano– who were brought to Seattle to provide pop in the lineup- are finally fulfilling the dreams M’s fans had when Cruz signed in the winter of 2014. Of course Cruz came through last season knocking the ball out of the yard 44 times and scoring 90 times, but now Cano has joined the party-recovering from all his ailments. Cano’s 16 dingers only trail Todd Frazier of the Chicago White Sox who leads the majors with 17 long bombs and 37 runs. Cruz has 10 home runs of his own so far and 28 runs.

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But it is not just these two who have made the Mariners arguably the most dangerous lineup in the American League, the likes of Kyle Seager, the M’s All-Star third baseman, newcomer, Leonys Martin and Korean sensation, Dae-ho Lee to name a few have stepped up.

I have touched on Dae-Ho Lee’s success in a recent article.

Lee’s ability to adapt from the Korean and Japanese leagues to play at such a high level in the MLB, even as an back-up, has shown the league that an early 30’s player with over a decade of experience still has game left in him. Sodo Mojo’s standing editor, Brian Helberg highlighted Martin’s meteoric rise, as he has already surpassed his career high for home runs in a season and the month on June has just begun. Helberg also praised Seagar for coming out of his early slump to have a scorching hot May and continuing that into early June.

Next: Mariners Fall to the Home Run Ball

Other showman like Adam Lind, Seth Smith and the rest of club must also be mentioned, as they too have had powerful performances adding to the century-nearing 78 home runs and inching towards the 300 mark in runs scored. It is the efforts from the top to the bottom of the lineup that has the Mariners firing on all cylinders to bring us back to the days when watching the Mariners was a thrilling spectacle. The M’s power will strike fear in their opponents come October.

The Mariners have turned into an offensive juggernaut in 2016, and it’s been awfully fun to watch.

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