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What We Learned From the All-Star Break is..
By Anthony Hill
Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz represented the Mariners well down in Miami. With Cano bringing home All-Star game MVP honors, that gives hope to a hot second half for the All-Star. But what else did we learn down in Miami?
The All-Star break is always a good time to evaluate your performance as a team. With a little more than half of games completed, teams will either identify as sellers or buyers. While down in Miami, the Mariners have hopefully realized they need to be buyers at the deadline. Here is why.
Every AL West team can just forget about winning the division title. The Houston Astros took that and are running far away with it. However, there are two reasons as to why the 2017 Mariners need to still compete for a wild card spot.
Firstly, the gap between all the Wild Card teams is not that significantly big. The Mariners are only 4.0 GB of the two wild card spots and are only behind 3 teams. Although 4 seems like quite a big number, over 78 games that is a deficit that can be made up with one solid winning streak.
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Although the Yankees seem to not realize they are supposed to be bad in 2017, they are in complete control of the first wild card spot. However, none of the teams that are competing for the second spot are very solid in ever facet of their team.
These teams are destined to have a long losing streak, and as long as the M’s can take advantage of their losing, we should be in good position for the playoffs.
Secondly, this will be one of the better Mariners teams for a long while. As scary as it may seem, this is the time for the Mariners to get to the big dance.
Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz are literally in All-Star form, Segura and Gamel are playing like All-Stars themselves, and we need to get to the playoffs before Felix cant reign over the league anymore.
It’s a shame we never got to see the old Felix in the playoffs. But as baseball fans we want to finally solve the mystery of how the King would do in the playoffs.
Most importantly, The M’s need to be buyers for the fans. The loyal Mariners fans are currently witnessing the longest playoff-less streak in all of MLB. They have been through seasons like 2012, where the only bright spot was the King and his dominance.
Next: Mariners Midseason Awards: ROY - Ben Gamel
In 2014 and 2016 we were one game away from getting to the playoffs, and yet we couldn’t quite pull through. The fans who have stayed through the thick and the thin deserve to see this team at least get into the playoffs.
After this core of players leave, there doesn’t seem to be many more playoff chances in the near future. If the M’s hope to see playoff baseball, the time to go after it is now.