2006 Seattle Mariners Predictions & Season Preview
June 5, 2008
When we release our 2006 Seattle Mariners predictions each day, we factor in how they had trouble winning the first game of a series last season. As a result, they also had trouble winning the second game of a series as we saw with the Kansas City Royals as well. In fact, Seattle was just 6-20 in 2005 in the second game of a series after losing their first game. If you were to have gone against them in this situation you could have profited 12 units.
The Mariners were a very good baseball team from 2000-2003, in fact they were one of the best, before getting beat up on the past 2 seasons. They have some power in their lineup, but players such as Adrian Beltre have struggled somewhat in what has been coined as an unfriendly ballpark for hitters. It is a given that Ichiro will consistently get on base. Perhaps, Mike Hargrove should think about playing small ball, and stealing or bunting Ichiro over to second to try to manufacture some more runs. Also, if the bottom of the lineup can get on base, Ichiro is a great player to hit and run with because of his bat control. Seattle is going to have to go away from the so-called “American League style of play” in order to be successful this season. The team did add Carl Everett and Japanese catcher Kenji Johjima to go along with the bats of Beltre and Richie Sexson. Let’s see if this team can stay healthy in order to gel together and produce a little bit. So while they’re trying to get things figured out, expect them to struggle early on.
Seattle signed pitcher Jarrod Washburn away from the Anaheim Angels to see if he can bring some experience and leadership to the ace youngster Felix Hernandez. Felix is going to be the real thing as last year he posted some quality number in just 85 innings. Can Moyer keep up even though he is nearing 100 years old? This guy isn’t a power pitcher so the loss of velocity isn’t going to harm him as much as other old throwers, but he has to hit his demise at some point. The closer situation isn’t going to be a problem here, with Eddie Guardado saving 36 games last season.
I do like Seattle to improve in 2006, perhaps making it back to the .500 mark and competing with Oakland to stay out of the gutter spot in the AL West as Texas could leap frog the A’s. But in a ballpark that often quiets the Mariners bats, they will need some good starting pitching to keep them in games. And I don’t foresee enough of that this season.
This team has been one of the favorites of the fans prior to their recent demise, but that was largly back to the days of guys like Randy Johnson, Alex Rodriquez, and Ken Griffey Jr. There has been a lot of trade talks going on about bringing Griffey back to the Mariners. They could use another talented back in the lineup and a force in the field to help out Ichiro.
