Oh boy, if this continues, I might need a drink. Or four.
The Mariners have made an abysmal start to the season in the first week, and while we may be getting ahead of ourselves, there are some major concerns.
First of all, the offense has been completely inept. The whole offense looks uneven and is not producing with runners in scoring position. That may turn around, and probably will, but that is just the trend we are used to seeing with Mariners teams. Hopefully that will turn itself around, and it should because we have a bevy of veteran hitters that know how to work out of slumps.
Secondly, who in the world scheduled a seven-game road trip to start the year? I get the fact that some team has to be on the road to start the year, but really with the four-game trip to Houston? What a crummy way to start the year. That is just an excuse, but I feel like these guys will pick it up once they return to Safeco.
But I won’t just be negative and start selling all of my stock on this team this early on. To start, the starting pitching has shown a great promise through its first go-around. Also, the speed shown by the new additions of Jean Segura, Mitch Haniger, and especially Jarrod Dyson make me feel hopeful that this offense will be indeed scary. After all, the hits aren’t the issue as much as the team not being able to capitalize when runners are in scoring position.
After all, this is the first week of the season and the team is off to a slow start, but they have been in every single game so far, if only they could get a couple of balls to fall their way. I expect this team to turn in around.
A player I am excited about: Hisashi Iwakuma. After a very shaky spring and concerns about his age playing a factor, he came out and held his own against a very deep Houston lineup. If he can manage to stay healthy then he should provide this staff with a reliable front-end arm.
A player I am surprised about: Nelson Cruz. This is just put plain and simple, it looks like he isn’t seeing the ball well. He is swinging at balls way out of the zone and looks uncomfortable at the plate. I am hoping it is just early season jitters, but his age is an obvious point of concern as to whether or not age is finally catching up to the Boomstick.
This season is 162 games and we can’t get hung up on a bad week, so just hang in there Mariners' faithful, and hopefully we can right the ship in the coming weeks.
As always, stay true to the blue.
