A Seattle Mariners Fan’s Thoughts From Opening Week

After watching the “Hometown Nine” win three of four games against the defending World Series Champion Boston Red Sox, a few Mariners specific thoughts from baseball’s opening week need to be shared.

The Mariners are going to be a lot more fun than the “experts” predicted. I’m not saying the Mariners are going to make the playoffs (that would be such a “Mariner” thing to do), but watching the first six games was a ton of fun as a fan. This team battled in every inning of the first six games and different players emerged as heroes.

The energy on the field was contagious. Guys like Mallex Smith and Tim Beckham looked like they were having fun and that is a pleasant change from some of the past Mariner teams.

The Mariner’s lineup is deep and dangerous and has plenty of power in it. Watching the TV broadcasts of the games this weekend there was a lot of talk about how deep the Red Sox lineup was and that there wasn’t an easy out anywhere in the lineup. The same should be said of the Mariners lineup.

While it’s early and slumps will happen, this entire lineup is capable of working counts and getting themselves into positions where they can get a pitch that they can hit. Each Red Sox starter was forced into high pitch counts early in the game because the Mariners’ hitters just wouldn’t give in, and more often than not in the first six games, the Mariners took advantage of those situations.

Domingo Santana will be an All-Star caliber player. Santana has been a welcome addition to the lineup. He’s provided plenty of firepower (could he help offset Nelson Cruz’s numbers?) and has surprising speed. While left field has been a black hole for the Mariners during their history, Santana could turn out to be the steal of the off-season.

The defense is shaky and will eventually cost them games. While this is stating the obvious if you watched any of the first six games, it should help temper expectations after the first six games. Getting Kyle Seager back will help, but until then third base will be an adventure.

The bullpen is a work in progress and that’s ok. While some fans are clamoring for the Mariners to sign Craig Kimbrel as a way of fortifying the back end of the bullpen, the move just doesn’t make sense for what the Mariners are trying to accomplish.

The bullpen is going to continue to cause problems all year long, but the team needs to see what they have in the arms they have collected. The player I’d like to see get a chance at closing out games, for now, is Matt Festa, but mixing and matching the relievers with the opponent is a solid strategy as well.

Finally, Jay Bruce will be just as much of a team “dad” as Seth Smith was. Smith was beloved during his time in Seattle because of his dad like qualities and Bruce will mirror some of those. His smile when he got to the dugout (the one from the header of the story) and the way he ran the bases just screamed “dad” to me.

Maybe it’s just a gut feeling thing, but Bruce will carry the mantle of team dad moving forward and that will provide another reason to watch this team.