Checking on the Mariners in Baseball-Reference’s 2020 Sim

Baseball-Reference has been running a regular-season sim for the lost 2020 season. While there isn’t anything inherently valuable about the sim, it is a lot of fun to track. But, how are the Mariners fairing?

As we write this, the Mariners have played 60 games and to say the results are surprising is an understatement. Seattle currently sits in first place in the AL West. I kid you not. 60 games into the simulation and the Mariners are 37-23 holding a one-game lead over the Oakland A’s and a 2.5 game lead on the Houston Astros. How are they doing it?

First and foremost, the might Mariners offense is led by Tim Lopes and his .302/.431/.415 triple slash. Lopes leads Seattle in both batting average and on-base percentage. The offense is powered by the dynamic duo of Shed Long and Daniel Vogelbach. Cornelius has 15 home runs and Long is just behind him with 14.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the insane start by Mallex Smith. Smith is slashing .269/.346/.408 with 29 steals in 56 games. Simply incredible.

The pitching staff has been led by a dynamic 1-2 punch of Yusei Kikuchi and Marco Gonzales. Yeah, you heard that right. Kikuchi is sporting a 2.94 ERA and a 1.4 bWAR while Gonzales has a 2.85 ERA and a 1.0 bWAR.

Carl Edwards Jr. has been phenomenal, posting a 14.1 K/9 with a sub-2 ERA and a 0.6 WAR in just 21 appearances. Oddly enough, Taylor Guilbeau is the primary closer.

The virtual Jerry Dipoto has made some moves early, including claiming veterans Kevin Pillar and Johnathan Lucroy on waivers. He also signed old friend Denard Span to a minor league deal. Austin Nola has picked up where he left off but some of the younger players have struggled. J.P. Crawford and Justus Sheffield have been worth a combined 0.9 bWAR thus far.

For a full breakdown of the Baseball-Reference sim, head to the link. While the simulation does have some oddities involved, it is worth noting that we are just 40% a typical season, so we should expect things to stabilize. Still, it is the closest thing to regular season MLB we have, so it will be fun to track the rest of the way.