With best record in June, Mariners are shooting up latest power rankings

This is the Mariners team we have been waiting to see all year! They are clicking and playing some really good baseball and it is a joy to watch them. The pitching continues to dominate as we are seeing Logan Gilbert transform into his alter ego, "Walter", while the offense has legitimately become a top 15 unit in the game.

In the month of June, the Mariners have the best record in baseball and have started to build a comfortable lead in the American League West. They continue to dominate their division opponents, and after a sweep of the Texas Rangers, the Mariners are currently 17-5 versus the AL West.

After a tough couple of weeks to start the season, they slowly started climbing their back up the power rankings. They rankings obviously don't mean much in terms of playoffs and aren't indicative of performances, but people are noticing that this team is playing some of the best baseball in the league. The way the offense is starting to click and the elite level of talent within the pitching staff, this team is very dangerous.

In the latest power rankings from Bleacher Report, they think the Mariners are one of the hottest teams in the game and have bumped them up a couple of spots to the fifth-best team.

"The Mariners improved to an MLB-best 11-4 in June with a 5-0 shutout of the Texas Rangers on Sunday behind eight shutout innings from Logan Gilbert. They now have an 8.5-game lead over the defending champions in the AL West standings, which is the largest advantage of any division leader."

- Joel Reuter via Bleacher Report

The pitching continues to be the driving force of this team and in the month of June, they have shown that they could dominate a run to the World Series. In 15 games in June, Mariners starting pitching has the best ERA in the games (2.49) and continues to dominate the zone with a league-leading 1.63 BB/9. Though the bullpen hasn't been as dominant as we thought it would be coming into this year, they have still been a top-10 unit in baseball and that has continued in June. Another arm (or the healthy return of Gregory Santos could catapult this bullpen to the elite category).

As the pitching carries this team, the offense has started to pull their own weight. Some of the big names and expected key contributors are stepping up, and with the injuries to Ty France and Jorge Polanco, some youngsters were going to need to step up.

Mitch Garver is really starting to come into his own, maybe the move to backup catcher was a genius one from Scott Servais. In June he is only hitting .205, but a .380 on-base percentage and .513 slugging percentage (3 HR) more than make up for that average. Guys like Julio Rodriguez (.281/.359/.459 with 3 HR) and Dominic Canzone (.286/.412/.429 1 HR) have started to turn a corner. This offense still needs another bat or two, but the way they are playing, they are very much good enough to make a deep playoff run.

The Mariners have become one of the hottest teams in baseball and since the Mariners won game one against the Astros on May 27th, they have the best record in the game. This is the team we wanted to see this year. Mariners fans should enjoy the baseball that they get to watch right now, it is truly elite-level play. Hopefully, they will be aggressive at the trade deadline and can continue this throughout the year and into the postseason.