No Excuses

The Seattle Mariners are 10 games under .500 this morning. With 36 games remaining in the schedule, they would have to go 23 wins and 13 loses to get to even, and better to get into the playoffs. They've had their chances and there's no excuses for this year's team.

Three of the four teams with a lower team batting average have wining records, two leading their division and the other currently a wildcard team. Only one of the four has a worse record than Seattle.   And only one team with a winning record scored less runs.

This shows you can overcome poor offense with good pitching and defense, as the Mariners showed last year, but also it's the old adage about timely hitting, scoring runs when you have runners in scoring position (2nd or 3rd base), something the Mariners have done poorly this year.

The Mariners are in the top ten in fielding, and five of the seven teams with a better team fielding percentage have winning records, but many with a worse fielding percentage are winning teams, showing that fielding is important but not the most critical part of winning games. Last year the Mariners were in the top three all year.

Only one team with a higher team pitching ERA has a winning record, the Texas Rangers, currently a wildcard team. Last year the Mariners had one of the best team ERA's, especially their bullpen staff. This shows how much pitching matters in winning games.

The overall stats don't necessarily mean much to baseball analysts, but it shows where the team is with respect to other teams, and especially to winning teams. The Mariners have lost games this year from their lack of timely hitting, getting runs with runners in scoring positions.

But the stats show how critical good pitching is to winning, and where the Mariners have failed, and it's the whole staff, even the best of them had bad outings on the mound, but it's the whole staff, 22nd for ERA for starters and 26th for relievers.

The Mariners came into this season with a lot of promise from last year and better hitting (eg. Nelson Cruz), but they have failed in almost every way, but more so with pitching. They have no more excuses for not winning, not having a winning record, and not being in the playoff picture.

No fan is angry with the team, just disappointed. All the promises never paid off from the beginning, never being above .500 the whole season so far and likely to the end of it. They underachieved, and for that there are no excuses.