The 10 All-Time Best Hitters against the Mariners throughout their History

We all think about this. The players who seem to just own a team. Like Adolis Garcia against the Astros in the 2023 ALCS. Bitter, yet sweet was that one. Throughout the history of the Mariners, all the way back to 1977, which players have hit the best against the Mariners?

The most important part of this is figuring out what to use as a cut off. We can't just look at best BA without a minimum AB count. If so, then we have 28 hitters who never got out against the Mariners. Surprisingly, no one has ever gone 3 for 3 or better against the Mariners in their career. So no crazy "this guy went 11 for 11" stats today. Kit Pellow did go 4 for 5 with two walks though, so good for him.

10 AB doesn't seem near enough either. Otherwise, the title goes to Jerry Grote, who went 6 for 10 against the Mariners with 7 RBI. That's still darn good, but I don't think it counts for a career Mariners killer designation.

I think I'm going to break these up into 3 categories. The small sample killers, the guys who need to worry about, and the ones that give you nightmares. Hitting .325 in 14 ABs doesn't mean a ton. Doing it over 100 AB will wake you up in a cold sweat.

Let's ease into this and look at the small sample Mariners killers.

These guys hit the Mariners, but I can still sleep at night

Tim Anderson: 54-139, .388/.399/.612, 8 2B, 7 HR, 5 SB, 19 RBI, 25 R

Hey, Tim Anderson. Yeah, that one, the one who recently had his option declined by the White Sox that a fair amount of Mariners fans have been hoping comes to the Mariners. It would be good to see just from the fact that he destroys Seattle pitching, hitting nearly .400 in 139 AB. Anderson never walks, but when you have nearly double-digit 2B and HR, who needs walks. He's scored a boatload too, constantly setting the table for the White Sox.

Mike Lamb: 46-123, .374/.432/.553, 13 2B, 3 HR, 23 RBI, 22 R

Lamb stuck around for a while, putting together an 11-year career despite a 92 OPS+ and below average defense. That didn't stop him from putting a hurting on the Mariners. His OPS+ against the Mariners was 163, and they don't have WAR against specific teams, but it wouldn't ne hard to argue that the majority of Lamb's 4.0 career WAR game just against the Mariners.

Lou Pinella: 52-149, .349/.403/.503, 12 2B, 3 HR, 12 RBI, 15 R

Sweet Lou. Wow. I didn't expect that one. I think many a Mariners fan forgets that Pinella was actually a darn good player in his day. He won Rookie of the Year back in 1969, was a career .291 hitter, but a good defender he was not. Didn't matter against the Mariners, as he was able to hit them well whenever they matched up.

No, please, no. Don't let the Mariners face these guys again

All but one of these guys are retired, but you get the point. These are players that, for their career, feasted on Mariners pitching. You just felt it in your gut that they were gonna do well at the plate against Seattle.

Wade Boggs: 236-691, .342/.433/.457, 51 2B, 7 HR, 83 RBI, 132 R

It can't be that much of a surprise to see one of the best hitters of the modern era start off this list. He played for so long, beore Interleague play mostly, that he raked up appearances against all the AL teams. Only the Yankees and Sox, who he played the majority of his career for, saw less than 600 PA by Boggs against them. He hit better than .330 against 7 AL teams, but seemed to rip a double and score every time he came to the plate.

Carlos Delgado: 111-316, .351/.463/.728, 30 2B, 29 HR, 90 RBI, 80 R

This one sticks in my mind, and I wasn't surprised at all to see him on the list. Shoot, I expected it. It seemed like everytime the Mariners played the Blue Jays, Delgado was raking. 90 RBI in 316 AB? That's insane. Delgado normally had around 575 AB in a season, so that would project to 163 RBI in a full season... with over 50 homers and over 50 doubles.

Vladimir Guerrero: 157-462, .340/.408/.606, 31 2B, 30 HR, 95 RBI, 92 R

Here's the other one that fits in with Delgado. Vladdy just hit and hit and hit. He di nearly the exact same numbers as Delgado, but it took another 150 AB to get there. Vlad actually hit .340 or better against 6 teams in baseball, and 7 if you count his 10 games against the Nationals. He absolutely destroyed the Rangers and Phillies, posting .395/.461/.661 and .371/.465/739 slash lines against them, respectively.

Mike Trout: 211-658, .321/.428/.657, 37 2B, 54 HR, 135 RBI, 144 R

Is it really a surprise to see Mike Trout on here? That's about a full season worth of stats right there, just over with how often Trout walks, but you can see the damage. Trout plays at prime Trout levels against the Mariners, playing like an MVP in his 184 games against Seattle. He has 102 XBH against the Mariners, meaning that nearly half the time he gets a hit, it's going for two or more bases.

Rod Carew: 144-404, .356/.431/.458, 24 2B, 4 3B, 3 HR, 52 RBI, 67 R

I know I put an extra person in here, but they all needed to be mentioned. Can you really say that any of them weren't Mariners killers? Carew didn't have the power of the others or the AB of Boggs, but he has the highest BA all-time against the Mariners with at least 300 AB against them. Then, here are the All-Time leaders in some key stats, in case you weren't upset enough.

AB: Cal Ripken Jr - 882
2B: Garret Anderson - 56
3B: George Brett & Mike Trout - 11 each
HR: Mike Trout - 54
RBI: Rafael Palmiero - 143
R: Rickey Henderson - 145
SB: Rickey Henderson - 93
BB: Frank Thomas - 132

These guys all dominated the Mariners, hitting well against them whenever they saw them. 132 walks against the Big Hurt is wild to me, and so is 93 steals by Rickey. Trout is just going to keep climbing this list pending his health. I think we can all agree in saying that we don't want to see any of these guys step to the plate against the Mariners anytime soon.