Welcome Home Division-Leading...Seattle Mariners?

In the history of Seattle odysseys, this one ranks right up there with Citizen Dick's tour of Belgium: Your Seattle Mariners played their first seven games on the road, and come back to our chilly environs in first place with five wins, as many as any team in major league baseball. This all without Ichiro, the team's best player, who missed week one recovering from a bleeding ulcer.

Not that Joe P. SportsConsumer has noticed: ticket sales are dismal, worse than they've been since 1995.

Among hardcore Mariner fans--like the lost soul who forced his grandparents to watch the game with him during Easter brunch--the attitude is cautious optimism.

Fact is, a fair amount of the Mariners' early-season success has been luck.

The Mariners are batting .381 with runners on second or third base ("scoring position" in baseball parlance), only .229 at all other times. They are getting their hits at the right time, that's for sure, and we'd like to think they can keep up the clutch hitting all year.

But let's be honest, the trend of the entire team suddenly morphing from Willie Bloomquist to Ted Williams with runners on base isn't likely to continue.

What could continue is the stellar outfield defense being provided by new center fielder Franklin Gutierrez (or "Gooters," as we've decided to call him), and new left fielder Endy Chavez. These two speedsters chase down flyballs that last year fell as hits, helping the M's pitching staff compile an American-League-best 2.92 ERA.

However, with Ichiro set to return Wednesday, Chavez could be headed to the bench--Ken Griffey, Jr., is the M's putative starting leftfielder.

Griffey is not completely finished as an defender--he showed flashes of his former speed in making a run-saving catch of a shallow pop over the weekend. But fast players do not find themselves removed for pinch-runners, as Griffey already has twice this season.

More than likely, M's manager Don Wakamatsu will ration Junior's time in the outfield--he knows Junior needs to conserve his leg strength for powering baseballs into seats, not chasing foul pop flies. But he also knows Griffey doesn't want to be a full-time designated hitter, not yet.

Opening Day is Tuesday at 3:40 p.m. against the Angels; the game is sold out but there are plenty of tickets on StubHub and Craigslist. Plenty of seats remain for the rest of the homestand, the M's are in town until April 23rd.

Anything Can Happen mug available for $25 at Gasoline Alley Antiques

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By Seth in Miscellaneous on April 13, 2009 4:05 PM

Comments [rss]

Seth

And he's making more than $1.5 million/year! "Anything Can Happen" indeed!

bconnolly

This is what willie is up to these days: http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/99083/WillieDive.gif

bconnolly

It's a lot more than luck.

You can't even compare this season's team with the last one. Half of the guys are gone (Willie among them) and the new guys they brought in are not only clutch hitters but amazing fielders. Both Gutierrez and Chavez are amazing outfielders and now that Balentien is a permanent fixture on the roster the OF is pretty much covered.

Is the clutch hitting going to continue as it has? Probably not. Will Yuni suddenly start being terrible again at SS? Probably so. But you can expect a lot more from this season's team than you could from past lineups.