![]() ![]() One or two shaky outings stand out but often mean little for established pitchers. Relievers have so few opportunities to pitch in games in the spring, at most every few days and usually for just one inning. Take this with a boulder of salt, however. There is the requisite “bullpens are fickle and you should never trust them year to year,” but also, there were a couple of relievers who appeared to struggle this spring, Paul Sewald included. He was still struggling to find his timing at the plate when he fouled a ball off his foot, sidelining him for the last few days of Cactus League play.Īlso of slight concern, the bullpen. Crawford banged up before the season has even started. Shortstop is more the concern, and it is tough to see J.P. The Mariners are painfully thin up the middle, although Sam Haggerty should be able to fill in nicely as Wong’s platoon partner at second until Moore returns. Dylan Moore is due back in mid-April, but there are no guarantees with oblique injuries. There are still some concerns heading into the season, though. The Mariners were by no means grumbling about his performance in 2022, but if he is able to improve on that? Opposing hitters will not be looking forward to series against the Mariners. With the new pitch and the slider, he all but put away the “break glass in case of emergency” two-seamer he leaned on last year. It wasn’t just the new splitter or the increased velocity on his fastball in spring training – his slider looked better, as well. No chasing numbers - Mariners’ Jarred Kelenic commits to his swingĪnother wild card? Robbie Ray. If he hits, this lineup has a chance to look very different. We will see soon if the changes he made with both his swing and mindset play under the big lights. One of the “younger guys” he was talking about was Jarred Kelenic. We did a good job of getting on base last year and creating opportunities, hopefully we are more consistent with runners in scoring position because timely hits and key pitching usually win a lot of games.” But having guys who are going to find a way to get on base, we saw in the second half (of 2022) we (can) hit a lot of home runs, that helps. It’s hard to say we are going to roll out and score five, six runs each night – that’s not going to happen. But ultimately it comes down to consistency. Bringing in the veteran additions of Teoscar Hernández and what Kolten Wong have done in their careers, their experience is really valuable. “We have some younger guys who have an opportunity to really step up. Taking a step forward with the offense could make some of those games more comfortable.Ī year ago at this time, Servais wasn’t quite sure what he had in his offense. Playing and winning close games is something they do. This team will once again lean on pitching, something eighth-year manager Scott Servais is comfortable with. While it won’t be the end of the world if they don’t get off to a good start (and they can and will fall back on knowing that they came back in 2022 and almost made it to the postseason in ’21 should they stumble), it’s fair to hope for a better start this year as the improvements aren’t built in and the roster should be more stable start to finish. While in the last two years in particular I was much more concerned about what they did in the last three months of the season – there were young players such as Kirby, Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez and an Andrés Muñoz coming off injury that needed to get their feet wet – this year’s group is much more established. While there is still room for many to grow or regress, because of the experience, this team should be watched differently than teams in the recent past. Never mind the fact that nearly all have now experienced the playoffs – this year, there are no rookies on the opening day roster. This group is far more experienced than the group that broke camp one year ago. The drought business has been taken care of, the rebuild is over. This group is carving out its own history, and the start is on the wall for every player to pass by every day. At the top of the step on one side is the iconic scene at home plate after “The Double.” The other, the now iconic shot of Cal Raleigh holding his bat aloft after hitting the drought-ending home run. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |