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POLL RESULTS: Voters predict runner-up finish for Mariners

Published 10:32 am Friday, April 6, 2018

By Nick Patterson

There’s little optimism about the Seattle Mariners winning the American League West this season, but there’s a strong belief the Mariners will be challenging to be the best of the rest.

The Major League Baseball season began a week ago, and this week’s Seattle Sidelines poll asked readers to project where Seattle would finish in the AL West this year. Here’s how you voted:


Add the two together and 42 percent of responders believe the Mariners will finish second in the division, followed by 26 percent predicting Seattle will finish third, 17 percent stumping for fourth/fifth, and 15 percent taking the leap to have the Mariners wind up on top.

My interpretation is this is a pretty optimistic view of Seattle’s chances this year. The Mariners happen to be in the same division as the Houston Astros, who are the defending World Series champions, won 101 games last year, and figure to be just as good if not better than last season. Predicting Seattle to finish ahead of that lot is brave indeed.

But the largest portion of voters slotted Seattle into the second spot, and a second-place finish in the division would probably have the Mariners at least challenging for a playoff berth. Considering Seattle missed out on the playoffs the past 16 seasons, giving the Mariners the longest active postseason drought in all of American major professional sports, that would have to be considered a positive campaign.

How are things looking out of the gate? Well, those Astros are doing exactly what everyone expects as they began the season 6-1. The Los Angeles Angels, fueled by the Shohei Ohtani spectacle (two homers in three games at DH plus a quality outing in his first pitching start, oh what could have been had the Mariners landed him in the offseason), are right behind at 5-2. Seattle is in third at 3-3, while Texas and Oakland are tied for fourth at 3-5.

It’s still way too early to read much into the results. Fangraphs.com’s projections still aren’t bullish on the Mariners, having Seattle projected to 77.5 wins and a third-place finish in the division, along with just a 6.8 percent chance of reaching the postseason.

But a second-place finish in the division isn’t out of reach, at least according to the fans.

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