M's Pitching

When I played Little League baseball I was absolutely horrible at hitting. Think of the worst player you could ever imagine trying to hit a baseball and then throw up in your mouth. That was me.

I was scared of the ball. I swung meekly. I swung the bat like both my arms were broken. I trembled with fear every time the pitcher wound up. I flat out sucked at hitting.

Pitching on the other hand – I was pretty good. Granted it was the fourth and fifth grade, but I had some major highlights. I struck out four guys in an inning. I struck out my fruncle. My team won the CYO championship for teams that aren’t good at baseball.

So it is with this in mind that I must remind myself as a Mariner fan that I like this team. It is hard sometimes with the putrid middle infield defense and the flailing bats scoring zero or one runs all the time. Really it is a lot. In 59 games, the Mariners have scored zero or one runs 16 times (3-13 record, yes they have won three 1-0 games). That is 27% of the time! Ridiculous. The Mariners are last in the American League in runs scored, RBI, and OPS. They are third to last in home runs. They stink offensively. Yet somehow they are 29-30 overall and only 4.5 games out of first place in mid-June.

Like me, the Mariners are absurdly good on the mound. Ok maybe they are a tad better than me. The M’s rank first in the American League in ERA at 3.69. They are the only team under 4.00. They have three starters in the top nine in ERA. That is beyond my wildest dreams. Erik Bedard is 5-2 with a 2.47 ERA (#4 in the league), Felix Hernandez is 6-3 with a 3.06 ERA (#8), and Jarrod Washburn is 3-4 with a 3.07 ERA (#9). Recent addition Jason Vargas has only six starts and not enough innings to qualify, but is actually better than all of them with a 2.35 ERA. Those are four of the five starters right now. Amazing.

And then on a night like tonight where King Felix goes seven innings, it gets even tougher. Sean White is currently in the set up role with a 1.48 ERA and David Aardsma pitches the ninth, sitting nicely with a 1.84 ERA. What does this mean? It means that I will take a team that plays like this over a team that bashes and can’t pitch. Many would disagree with me, pointing to the excitement of mid-1990s teams in the Kingdome. People like runs. I like pitching. Maybe it is because I sucked at hitting, but I don’t buy it. I mean I absolutely dominated Dave and Ravi the last time we played wiffleball and on my wedding day I had one at bat. Result? Home run. Therefore not only am I awesome at sports that don’t matter, but the Mariners are awesome at pitching. It’s a win-win.