SEAside Thoughts: Mariners West Coast Beatdown (Literally) in Week 12

Mariners SEAside Thoughts: Week 12

“I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey (baseball) game broke out.”

-Rodney Dangerfield

• Lets just get right into this brawl.
  • Boo the Angels! Their goon-like behavior was pre-meditated.
    • There’s a reason why they started an opener, and there’s a reason they had an injured player chirp relentlessly at Jesse Winker.  They were trying to coax the Mariners to take the bait…and they did.
    • Terrible culture and organizational values by the Angels to intentionally throw at Julio Rodriguez. When they don’t get the reaction they had hoped for, they throw at another player an inning later?
    • There’s a reason why the Angels have the two best players to play baseball in a decade, and they can’t even sniff postseason play. Classless.
  • The worst part is that it worked…The Mariners took the bait and lost Jesse Winker, JP, and Julio for the rest of the game, and I believe they lost the game because of it.
  • Jesse Winker, who was just starting to play like 2021 Jesse Winker, will likely now miss up to a week of games. He’s awesome, emotional, relatable, and now has a slice of a connection to this fanbase. Mariners fans love him for this and I can’t hate his reaction.
• Beyond the brawl, what an awesome week of baseball.
  • The Mariners rotation is absolutely dealing right now. All five starters are giving 6-7 innings constantly, while keeping their AL West rivals in check. If this rotation can even keep 80% of this current level of play, the Mariners can get back and past .500.
  • The bullpen has been fantastic as well. They’ll need to keep this up through the all-star break, to keep Seattle in the hunt. If so, I expect to see reinforcements.
  • The offense is really wacky and frustrating right now, but they sure are hitting the ball, which is great to see.
• The league leaders in runners left on base definitely sucks, but I also tend to look at it in a different way. It’s not 2019 or 2020 bad, but there’s still quite a few guys getting at-bats that will not be on this roster if Seattle wants to get into the postseason by 2023. Padlo, Torrens, Upton, Ellis, Frazier, and one of Toro or Moore will likely not be on the roster by next spring, and that should be an exciting possibility for Mariners fans.

• Speaking of exciting, this growth and development by Cal Raleigh is shocking, but such a pleasant surprise. Raleigh has returned from Tacoma a new man: a fantastic defensive catcher and a legit threat offensively. With a 1.4 WAR and a 117 OPS+, Cal can have one of the best seasons by a catcher in the league this year, which is wild to think of after watching him for the first two weeks.
• With a Winker suspension, I’m curious if Kelenic gets his last chance with Seattle a little earlier than Dipoto wants. If Kelenic has any level of growth and maturity like we’ve seen with Raleigh, then Seattle could be primed for a huge second half run by adding a superstar talent.
• On a very very very worried note, this lineup is dead as is currently stands. Ty France, Seattle’s best player, is out for a couple a weeks. Jesse Winker will likely miss multiple games, and you can’t rule out JP and Julio missing more games. Mitch Haniger is still out. The Kyle Lewis saga continues to be bizarre. Tom Murphy is shelved for the season.
  • The 2022 Seattle Mariners opening day lineup is looking at missing seven members of that original lineup; this offense is completely depleted.
• It sucks because Seattle is in the middle of their easiest part of the schedule, and are at their worst offensively it appears. The Mariners are 34-40 and seven games back of the final wildcard spot. With the Orioles and the same Oakland A’s team that you just swept in town for a full seven-game week, the M’s need to go at least 5-2 during this week. They’re not dead yet after a very good week of baseball, but will need the pitching to continue to carry them before the reinforcements return.

• I still can’t believe the Mariners won that final game in Oakland.
• Adding a new thought, a weekly SEAside player of the week. This week’s winner is… A.J. Puk! Thanks dude!
• This week’s “Mariner Music Mojo” is Fight for your Right by Beastie Boys.