Sleepless In Seattle | The Thing (Blog) That Should Not Be.

Todays blog is going to be short and sweet. To the point, an easy read.

The Seattle Mariners were at one point one of the hottest teams in baseball. They were closing on Anaheim. They had a good lead in the AL Wild Card. In the the last 10 games, the Mariners are 1-10. In that time, they have fallen behind the Angels by 7 games. They had at one point been only a game behind. They are now 2 games back of the Yankees for the Wild Card. In the last 10 games the Mariners have allowed 5 runs or more 8 times. They have allowed 5.7 runs per game. They've only scored 3.3 runs per game. It's been all around failure for Seattle. They've played 2 vs TEX, 3 vs LAA, 1 vs CLE, 3 vs TOR.

Combined Record For The Teams in Past 10 Games: 290-252

Overall, the schedule wasn't extremely daunting. Granted, 3 of the teams were over .500, but they played only 1 game vs Cleveland. Toronto is a measily 4 games over .500, and that happened while they played Seattle. Seattle should be kicking themselves for losing faltering so late in the season.

Remaining Schedule:
at TOR
3 at NYY
3 at DET
3 vs OAK
4 vs TAM
3 at OAK
4 at LAA
4 vs CLE
3 vs TEX

They dont have the starting pitching to continue to carry this team. I've said it before, the New York Yankees will win the Wild Card. They have been the hottest and most consistent team in baseball since the All Star break. They finally have their team healthy. The Yankees have a much easier schedule compared to Seattle. They play some of the worst teams in September when Seattle is playing some of the best.

And you could even say that losing Mike Hargrove as the manager could be part of this. The Mariners lost Hargrove as their manager in July. His final game was on July 1st vs Toronto. (Seattle won 2-1) Since having John McLaren as the manager the Mariners are 28-29. Hargrove had that team at 45-33 and looking great.

No disrespect to McLaren, this was to be expected. Without a starting rotation, you aren't going to hold up.

Seattle's Starting Rotation's Statistics: (Current 5)
46-43, 681.4 IP, 5.04 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, 441 K's, 212 BB's
AL Overall Pitching Rankings: 9th in ERA, 5th in Wins, 10th in Losses, 14th in IP, 10th in K's, 9th in BB's

J.J. Putz might be the only bright spot in the entire pitching roster at this point in the season. Felix Hernandez was out of this world earlier in the year. Now he's cooled off considerably. 10-7, 4.08 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, 135 K's, 23 BB's.

The Mariners WILL NOT MAKE THE PLAYOFFS. That is basically what this blog was about. I had said this even before they went on this recent 9 game losing streak. This recent skid just helped strengthen my confidence in my prediction. No starting pitching, no playoffs.