There's a huge Mariners omission in MLB.com's Starting Pitcher Power Rankings

Plenty of Mariners fans and indeed Seattle sports fans in general often complain about an East coast/anti-Pacific Northwest bias, when it comes to the mainstream media in North America. Well, now there's more evidence to use towards this claim.

David Adler unveiled MLB.com's latest Starting Pitcher Power Rankings on Thursday, and for some reason they decided to omit Bryan Woo. However, don't take this as some pro-Mariners, biased and emotional rant to proclaim the omission of Woo as being asinine.

There were some people predicting Woo could be the best starter on the Mariners ahead of this season, which was some claim given the strength and talent of the rotation overall. However, this has turned out to be the case, with him taking his form to a whole other level and potentially being greater than expected.

Bryan Woo leading the majors when it comes to durability

Woo is the only major league pitcher to have gone at least six innings in every outing so far this season, with nine starts to date. This included going 7.0 innings in his most recent appearance against the dangerous San Diego Padres, with him allowing just five hits, no walks and one run, while also striking out five.

At his current pace, Woo is projected to set several career-bests in 2025, including with a 2.65 ERA, 2.77 FIP, and 0.867 WHIP ahead of his next scheduled start on Saturday in Houston against the Astros. His Baseball Savant page makes for enticing reading, highlighted by being in the 99th percentile for both Pitching and Fastball Run Value.

Further, it's not as if the righty has only been lights out recently. Among pitchers with 30 starts since last season, he ranks seventh with a 2.82 ERA, as well as second with both a 0.888 WHIP and 7.43 strikeouts-to-walks ratio.

Mariners' home ballpark isn't THAT much of a factor in Woo's success

We appreciate there will be those who point towards the T-Mobile Park factor as evidence against placing Woo amongst the best starters in the game overall, which is fair...to a point. The Oakland native does have a 3.52 ERA on the road in six starts this year compared to 0.93 at home in three outings, but his 0.887 WHIP and opposing team .568 OPS on his travels are excellent and comparable to 0.828 and .498 respectively in Seattle.

Where it becomes tougher to justify leaving Woo out is when MLB.com is putting Kris Bubic and Nathan Eovaldi in the top 10. Yes, they are both off to excellent starts this year, but neither has the ceiling or is on the same level as the Mariners ace over the last two seasons.

Ultimately, we appreciate that power rankings are subjective by nature and effectively set up to encourage debate and controversy. However, when it comes down to it at the end of the day, are you really going to trust the likes of Bubic and Eovaldi over Woo when it comes to crunch time?

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