Seattle Mariners

At the All-Star break the Seattle Mariners are in third place in the Western Division, 45 wins and 44 losses. At one point they were 10 games above .500 but then kept getting swept in series to drop to just 1 game now.

To make the playoffs, currently behind 6 teams (top two play the Wildcard game), they have to return to the form they had when they were winning, and not getting swept in series. They've shown they can do that and have shown they can't.

They're 12th in hitting, 7th in the American League, far better than the last few years where they were consistently near the bottom. They're 10th in pitching, 4th in the American league, not as good as some recent years, but good enough if they had the consistently they haven't shown of late.

Where they have fallen down this year from recent years, ofen in the top 5, is defense, they're 22nd overall, 13th in the American League. This is where they have to improve in the second half, to cut the number of errors to reduce the number of extra outs errors gives opposing teams.

The Mariners went into this season with lots of potential to win the division, and were for a few days, but they've shown they have problems winning late games, something that's plagued them for a few years now. They have to close and win those games.

All that said, there's hope they'll be in the playoffs, but it will depend on how they play, and win, in July and August. Another possibility is that they could also find some trades to bolster the team, but their farm system isn't all that strong anymore to sacrifice too many young players.

It's clear it's in their ballpark now to win, something they can do. They have the team, now they have to do the job. The fans are there. It would be nice for the Mariners to be playing in October.