The Mariners have been playing ok baseball lately, going 16-16 in their last 32 games. The A’s, unfortunately, have gone something like 37-0 in their last 12 games, though, closing the gap to just two games at the time this description is being written. Is it time to panic? Are the A’s going to sink the Mariners and extend the misery of Mariners fans for another year?
We think probably not, though one of us thinks MORE probably not than the other. We’ll let you guess who.
Edwin Diaz has been great in case you forgot, so we remind you of how good with some of those fancy-ass numbers.
How badly has the team missed Robinson Cano during this stretch? It’s clear that they’ve missed him, but just how much better should we expect the M’s to get once they add him back to their lineup? And what the ideal way to get everyone playing time now that Ryon Healy and Dee Gordon have started the second half hot?
Brett also takes some time to get mad at people for thinking it’s obvious that Dee Gordon is better at second base than Robinson Cano, and has a very adorable borderline nerd meltdown getting worked up about it.
We also revisit the Control the Zone statistic and use it while discussing how we feel about whether the Mariners’ low run differential is a valid reason to think they’ve been overachieving.
When we record next week, the trade deadline will have come and gone, and the Mariners will likely have some new players. We talk about who we think they could or should be. Names discussed include: J.A. Happ, Yangervis Solarte, Ryan Tepera, Leonys Martin, Matt Boyd, Drew VerHagen, Whit Merrifield, and more.
It’s looking more and more likely that Earl Thomas’ days in Seattle are over. We briefly discuss that and other changes the team is going through as training camp opened up today. But you know, briefly. Regular season baseball is more important than football practice. Duh.
