What were you expecting? A championship? The Seattle Mariners will reach the halfway mark of their season Monday, and they’re no more in contention than they were at 81 games last year.
The Angels are running away with the AL West, the A’s soon will leap-frog the Rangers into second place, and what we’ll be left with is a Seattle-Texas battle for the basement.
What were you expecting?
A team doesn’t lose 99 games one year and become a playoff contender the next. Then again, it’s hard to explain why the additions of Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson haven’t made for at least a .500 team.
This team plays hard, but I’m not certain it has the passion and heart and guts it takes to turn talent into titles.
But hey, enough about the negative side of the Mariners. We’ve got three more months of that to endure. At the halfway point, let’s start with the positive about this team:
* The future will be interesting, if not bright.
During the week Mike Morse, Jose Lopez and Jeremy Reed started together at shortstop, second base and center field, Mariners fans got a good look at the probable middle of the defense for next season.
They brought an energy and enthusiasm to the team that was missing.
Now, imagine how the addition of flamboyant outfielder Chris Snelling would liven things. Snelling continues to pound the ball at Class AAA Tacoma, and the Mariners – who sorely need another productive left-handed hitter – can’t ignore that much longer.
* Richie Sexson’s power is legitimate, and concerns about his once-injured shoulder aren’t.
He’s giving the Mariners what they’re paying $50 million for – a home-run, RBI man who also will threaten the team strikeout record. That’s OK, provided other hitters can sustain a rally (they aren’t).
* Defense was the least discussed of what Adrian Beltre brought to the Mariners, but his glovework has been phenomenal. The man has hands and reflexes. Too bad he doesn’t have the same touch with his bat.
* In a half season, Jeremy Reed has become one of the top center fielders in the league. He was compared early to Jim Edmonds and, with several diving catches last month, is living up to it.
* Pat Borders showed the value of an experienced catcher who knows how to steer a pitcher through the inning-by-inning adjustments needed to get through a game. Hopefully, catcher-of-the-future Miguel Olivo is paying close attention.
* Eddie Guardado wins my Halfway Comeback of the Year Award. Told last summer that his rotator cuff was torn and he needed surgery, he got a second opinion and said no to the knife.
Guardado rehabbed the shoulder over the winter, but suffered a hamstring injury in spring training and the Mariners began the season with no clear idea what to expect of their closer.
With 19 saves in 20 opportunities and a 1.61 ERA, Guardado ended any doubts.
Today, Guardado will learn if he is chosen for the AL All-Star team. He deserves it.
So what’s wrong with this picture?
* The starting pitchers as a whole must quit nibbling around the strike zone, because all it has gotten them is the league lead in walks. It’s not like pitching coach Bryan Price hasn’t reminded them of that (Gil Meche, are you listening?).
Joel Pineiro typifies the troubles that have beset the pitching staff. Injured early, Pineiro has returned as a picture of inconsistency, not from start-to-start but often from inning-to-inning.
* Ichiro Suzuki’s sub-.300 batting average is an obvious surprise. A bigger disappointment, however, is Suzuki’s reluctance to take a risk. He rarely leaves his feet to dive for a ball and he steals bases only in the safest situations.
The offense needs a spark, and Suzuki not only needs to hit, he must become a threat.
* There hasn’t been any belt in Beltre.
His six home runs and .261 average entering the weekend support arguments that he was a one-year wonder with the Dodgers last year, when he hit 48 homers and drove in 121. The Mariners can only hope the real Beltre is something in between.
My guess is that he’ll hit. Not .334 like last year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s close to .300 by the end of September.
* Olivo’s ongoing struggles beg one question. Were we all led down another rosy Ben Davis-type path by the “experts” who raved about his can’t-miss potential? (I’ll always remember John Mabry’s advice when discussing another player who never lived up to the hype: “Having potential just means you haven’t done squat.”)
X Even if the trade rumors don’t come true and Bret Boone remains a Mariner the rest of the season, his time in Seattle is running out. Lopez will be the starting second baseman next year and Boone will be gone.
We’ll be left with the memory of a plucky little right-hander who drove the ball with power to all fields and played phenomenal defense at second base.
Problem is, we haven’t seen it from Boone in a couple of years, just as we haven’t seen a good run of baseball from the team in general.
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