We head to the Pacific Northwest for day two of our report cards. Here's what went down with the Seattle Mariners in 2010.
Seattle Mariners:
Record: 61-101 (Last place in AL West, 29 games behind Texas)
Batting Leaders
Batting Average: Ichiro Suzuki (.315)
Home Runs: Russell Branyan (15)
RBIs: Franklin Gutierrez (64)
On-base Percentage: Ichiro Suzuki (.359)
Pitching Leaders
Wins: Felix Hernandez (13)
Strikeouts: Felix Hernandez (232)
Innings Pitched: Felix Hernandez (249.2)
ERA: Felix Hernandez (2.27). Bullpen- Brandon League (3.42)
WHIP: Felix Hernandez (1.06)
Saves: David Aardsma (31)
Highlight of the Season: Ken Griffey, Jr.’s game-winning hit to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 on May 20 at Safeco Field. The hit would be a last hurrah of sorts, as Griffey would retire just 13 days later.
Lowlight of the Season: Trading starter Cliff Lee on July 9. Dealing the ace lefty only months after acquiring him via trade with Philadelphia effectively signaled that the Mariners were out of contention.
The Lowdown:
While the Mariners did not finish with the worst record in the majors this season, they certainly had to be the most disappointing team. Great things were expected of the M’s heading into 2010, as they came off of a respectable 85-77 campaign the year before. They bulked up their rotation by adding star left-hander Cliff Lee to form a formidable one-two punch with Felix Hernandez, and they added a dash of speed by signing third baseman Chone Figgins to a four-year, $36 million contract. Even though their lineup was still pretty weak following the loss of Adrian Beltre to free agency, many prognosticators were expecting this team to contend for the AL West title, at the very least. Unfortunately, for Seattle, things took a turn for the worst once the season began.
The weaknesses in their lineup became exposed like an ugly wart once the season began, and things were made worse when the rest of the rotation behind Lee and Hernandez weren’t picking up the slack. Those two things would be the ingredients of a bitter brew that led to disaster in the Pacific Northwest. Adding insult to injury, the team was placed in a precarious situation when it became painfully obvious that Ken Griffey, Jr. was well past his prime in a terrible lineup. Even though Griffey thankfully retired on June 2, the season continued to spiral out of control. Cliff Lee was traded to the Texas Rangers on July 9; Chone Figgins nearly became involved in a dugout altercation with manager Don Wakamatsu on July 24 and the team continued to display a spectacular inability to produce any sort of offense. The Mariners finished the 2010 season on a five-game losing streak, giving them their second 100-loss season in three years and bringing to a merciful end their season from hell.
Offense:
Seattle’s lineup was by far and away the worst in baseball in 2010, as their major league-low 513 runs would attest. In fact, that total would be the least amount of runs scored in a 162-game season since 1971, when the California Angels tallied a miserable 511 (and that was still two years before the advent of the Designated Hitter). It’s also no surprise that the M’s finished dead-last in just about every other major offensive statistical category. Perhaps the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal lineup was Ichiro Suzuki hitting .315, and recording his 10th consecutive 200-hit season. There’s not much else to explain about this lineup, considering they are arguably one of the worst in the last 40 years.
Final Grade: F
Pitching:
A discussion of the Mariners' pitching in 2010 should begin- and end- with Felix Hernandez. Despite his pedestrian 13-12 record, Hernandez put together a fantastic season for the M’s, leading the majors in ERA (2.27) and finishing second in strikeouts (232) and innings pitched (249.2). His won/loss record was not entirely of his doing, since the aforementioned offense of the Mariners was one of the worst to take the diamond in a long time. However, putting up those fantastic numbers for the worst team in the AL was good enough for him to earn this year’s AL Cy Young Award, besting Tampa Bay’s David Price and New York’s CC Sabathia. While Price and Sabathia each had better records than Hernandez, “King Felix” outshone the other two in just about every other pitching category.
During the first half of the season, there was another former Cy Young winner in the Mariners’ rotation virtually matching the performance of Hernandez. Cliff Lee, before getting traded to Texas, put together a fine stretch in a Mariners’ uniform, recording an 8-3 record in just 13 starts, with an ERA of 2.34 and a microscopic WHIP of 0.95. Although Lee’s performance is a small sample size, it is still worth noting, especially when the numbers were that great. Jason Vargas also had a decent year in the rotation, going 9-12 with a 3.78 ERA in 192.2 innings pitched. Seattle has to be hoping that the 27-year-old Vargas is finally turning the corner as a big-league pitcher, as this year would be the first of his career in which he started at least 30 games.
In the bullpen, there weren’t too many leads to hold, mostly because the Mariners weren’t scoring many runs, if at all. However, David Aardsma had a solid year out of the ‘pen, recording 31 saves, with Brandon League recording 13 holds behind him in 79 innings pitched. Overall, the Mariners finished tied for ninth in the majors in ERA at 3.93, which is surprisingly good considering the amount of games the team lost. Their team ERA was also better than three playoff teams (Reds, Twins, Yankees), so I can’t give them too low of a grade.
Final Grade: B-
Wild Card: Felix Hernandez
Garnering the Cy Young for such a pathetic hitting team like this one is no simple feat. He, along with Roy Halladay, are by far and away the two best pitchers in the game right now.
Final Grade: A+
Overall:
This team’s pitching really isn’t bad, but that doesn’t save them from the fact that their offense is the biggest reason why they lost 101 games. I can’t honestly give them a good grade based off of their pitching alone, because 101 losses are still 101 losses. “King Felix” keeps this team from receiving a “F,” though.
Final Grade: D-
Check back tomorrow for the report card on the Arizona Diamondbacks!
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