Nice To See You, Seattle Mariners
It’s the day after the Super Bowl and everything still sucks. The play call sucks, the end of a winning streak sucks, and the Seattle Seahawks losing the biggest game of the season at the last possible second extra-sucks. The sky in Seattle is grey and everything. Today’s a bummer. No way around it.
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But it’s not going to be like this forever. Soon we’ll be focusing on how the ‘Hawks are still the best team in the NFL and still in a better position to succeed in the years to come than any other franchise in the league. We’ll remember that hey, they won the NFC two years in a row. And we’ll have a nice distraction in the form of the Seattle Mariners.
The who? The what? That used to be the response to the end of football and the start of baseball in the Emerald City. But just as the football team is coming off having fallen one yard short of a championship, our attention is turning to the baseball team who last September fell one game short of a playoff appearance. And that team is poised to be even better this time around.
For the first time in a long time we can look at the changing of the sports seasons with legitimate excitement, as there’s every reason to believe the 2015 Mariners have a bright outlook. The Seahawks are still the class of the town, but don’t be surprised if the guys across the street are about to match their achievements.
The M’s made a huge improvement in 2014, upping their win total from 71 to 87. It was a significant gain, but perhaps even more significant was the manor in which they did it. Previous winning Mariners teams in 2007 and 2009 succeeded by outperforming their run differentials. These Mariners outscored their opponents handily, boasting the fourth-best differential in the league (after having spent most of the season ranked even higher). That’s the kind of numbers that indicate a team that’s strong to it’s core.
2014’s Mariners won with good defense and amazing pitching. They got just enough on offense, then made the necessary additions this offseason. Nelson Cruz and Seth Smith are going to add a lot to this lineup. Justin Ruggiano is a useful offensive piece as well. Oh, and they did all this without downgrading the pitching staff. If anything, they upgraded the rotation by adding J.A. Happ and his increased velocity.
The Mariners added strong complementary pieces to their outstanding core of Felix Hernandez, Hisashi Iwakuma, Robinson Cano, and Kyle Seager. But with a ton of young guys on the roster, it’s not at all unreasonable to expect some improvements from many of last year’s key players. Mike Zunino, Chris Taylor, Brad Miller, Taijuan Walker, and James Paxton are all guys who seem to be on the verge of breakouts.
But that’s not all. You’ve also got the long-perplexing Dustin Ackley, who appeared to turn the corner last summer but must prove he can sustain his performance before being trusted as anything more than an average player. Logan Morrison fits this billing, too. And then there’s center fielder Austin Jackson, who has turned in legitimate star-level seasons in the not-so-distant past and will get every chance to rebound from a 2014 that, hopefully, will soon be nothing but an outlier in an otherwise-productive career.
There’s nowhere on the roster where the Mariners are obviously bad and plenty of depth stashed away deep on the roster or in the high minors. The farm system has impact prospects who may be ready to help the MLB team as soon as 2015. And the team’s coming off a successful 2014. The Mariners have all the makings of a powerhouse on the rise, no matter what angle you’re looking from.
In less than a month pitchers and catchers will report to Spring Training. The 2015 Mariners aren’t going to deliver us a Super Bowl win, but that’s not their job. They’ll be playing to erase a decade-long struggle for relevance and to help solidify Seattle’s place on the sports map. And based on all that we can see, they’ve set themselves up pretty nicely to do all this and more.