… or at least, 10 of us.
After the Cardinals put away the Cubs Sunday afternoon, on Pujols’ dramatic home run, the Mariners at Guardians game finally resumed after a 4.5 hour rain delay. I listened mostly to the Guardians’ announcer Tom Hamilton.
Hamilton — just like the Tiger announcers in the previous series, and the White Sox before them — were all agog at how great the Mariners are. According to them, Seattle’s starting pitching is so good. The relievers are even better. The offense if full of young, rising stars, with Julio Rodriguez universally acclaimed as the ROY and a generational talent. “The Mariners are probably the best team in baseball right now,” said Hamilton Sunday.
Hamilton was speaking after observing the Mariners sweep the Tigers in three Detroit, then come to Cleveland and take the first two games there, and were leading the Guardians 3 – 1 at the time.
I also enjoyed Hamilton’s rising pride, excitement, and sense of extreme good fortune when the Guardians tied the game in the 8th, and as the extra innings unfolded. His Guardians, whose only path to the postseason is through the Central Division championship, were on the verge of a comeback victory over the mighty Mariners. “This would be the biggest win of the year for the Guardians” he said.
Until the top of the 11th, when the Mariners broke the game open with three runs. Resignation overwhelmed Hamilton. He clearly had no hope of a three-run rally in the bottom of the 11th. And he was right. “This is the toughest loss of the year for the Guardians,” said Hamilton. Partly because it dropped Cleveland into a tie for first in the AL Central with the Twins; and partly because the underdog Guardians had almost come back to beat the golden Mariners… but failed.
What can we learn from the Mariners, now that they might be the best team in baseball (despite having the 7th best record, 16.5 games worse than the Dodgers) (and despite not ranking higher than #7 in any power rankings I found after a quick search)(although at least one power ranking had them at #8 and the Yankees at #9)?
Lesson #1: Choose your division carefully.
The Mariners are in the AL West. Despite outplaying the Astros recently, the M’s are 10 games out of first place. If they were in the AL Central, they would lead the division by 7 games.
If we think about ourselves as in competition with the non-EFL MLB teams, you can see it makes a LOT of difference which division we are in. The Seraphim dominate us in the EFL, but the Dodgers have a better record. The Seraphim would be about as far behind the Dodgers as the EFL pursuers are behind Salem. Lucky for Salem the are in the NL central, leading the Cardinals by a hefty 9.7 games.
The Wolverines are in the deadly AL East where the worst team just slipped under .500 last night. Yet the W’s are in first place, the Yankees suffering a weeks-long swoon. In fact, the Wolverines are only 1/2 game behind the Astros for the best record in the American League. What a wonderful feeling. No creeping despair about catching the Seraphim. They’re irrelevant to an American League competition. I could ignore them, safe behind a delusion that they are irrelevant. The same way the Mariners can ignore them, and the Dodgers.
Lots of nice thoughts here, but irrelevant. We are in the EFL. We don’t get to choose our divisional rivals. I have to beat the Seraphim to win anything.
Lesson #2: Have LOTS of pitching depth:
The M’s used 10 pitchers yesterday to win an 11-inning game interrupted by a 4 hour rain delay in the 3rd inning. Chris Flexen pitched the bottom of the 11th. Had the M’s not moved ahead in the top of the 11th, Flexen was in for the balance of the game, no matter how may innings it went. He only had to go 1 inning, because the M’s scored thrice in the top of the 11th.
But what if they only had 13 pitchers? Or 12? And even with 14, will they have enough today, in a day game in Seattle after traveling home overnight after their late-night finale in Ohio.
Lesson #3: Have Cal Raleigh. (Peshastin does)
This is a very hard lesson to learn, because there is only one Cal Raleigh and he is buried on the 11th place Pears. But Cal Raleigh cracked another homer last night. This week — the one that started Thursday — Raleigh has gone 4 for 9 with three homers and a walk. That’s .444, .500, 1.444, a 1.944 OPS, and 36.1 rc/g.
Lesson #4: Have Julio Rodriguez. (Canberra does)
You can’t get your hands on J-Rod, either, at least not this season. The Kangaroos have him. Can somebody get him next season?
The Pears have our best shot at an early draft pick, currently 50 – 85 (.371). There are three MLB teams with better J-Rod snagging records: Oakland (50 – 85, .370), Pittsburgh (49 – 84, .368) and Washington (47 – 87, .351). All three of these are within reach. Indeed, Oakland and Pittsburgh are less than a half-game away. But J-Rod is pretty close to an automatic first pick by the computer. There’s hope, but no certainty.
Lesson #5: Be active in the trade market, but have patience.
For the first few years of his tenure, Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto got a reputation as a hyper-active trader, but was criticized by some for trading for little gain. What was all the churn about?
It was about flexibility. It was about taking risks on long-term gains. It was about incremental improvements in the rotation and the bullpen. An early trade was a position player for Marco Gonzalez, who was the M’s “ace” for a while before others came along to push him, effectively, to the #5 spot. Chris Flexen was the #2, but is now the long man out of the bullpen. He was constantly patching this, marginally improving that, looking for players with long term potential… until this year, when J-Rod, Gilbert, and Kirby arrived, Raleigh blossomed, Robbie Ray was signed, and a trade for Louis Castillo could provide the last chink in the starting-pitching armor.