First the birds, then the NL...

So I haven't written a post in a bloody fort night. Since the last time I wrote a blog article I have beaten the monster of all video game conferences, in E3, and I have also gotten engaged to my lovely fiance Natasha, so its been a wild couple of weeks. But the baseball season keeps chugging along, so lets get into this.

The M's seem to be on a bit of an upswing as of late. Winners of 7 of their last 10, they currently sit one game under .500, and 5 games out behind the Rangers. Looks like Beltre is figuring some things out at the plate along with Lopez, Branyan is still sitting balls into Lake Washington, and some kid who was a throw-in player in the JJ Putz deal refuses to let any one score when he's on the bump. Justin, err, Jason Vargas is currently a 2-0 pitcher, with a 1.93 ERA. and looking more and more like a solid number 4-5 starter. A very pleasant surprise, and he goes tonight against Baltimore, who he only gave up 2 runs against last time he faced them on June 3rd, in a 3-2 win, in which he got a no decision.

Looking ahead on the calender, after we finish the series in Baltimore, we then stroll into Colorado for three and then San Diego (I believe it means 'A Whale's Vagina' in German) for three. The M's have always seemed to play very well against the NL, going 116-96 leading up to this year, so if history tells us anything, it says we might be able to make some headway and be in the black, record wise, when we get home. For our next homestand, we get AZ, San Diego, and then off to Dodger land for the start of the following road trip.

If this team wants to make the playoffs, it needs to rip through this road trip, stay hot, and get home with some confidence and momentum. I personally think anything less then 5-4 record is a disappointment, with 6-3 being the goal. The three teams we are facing are a combined 19 games under .500, so its time to make a move. Either that, or go 3-6, and Bedard, Branyan, and Washburn better not be on the flight home. Instead, they should be flying out to their new teams because they just got traded. We are starting to get down to the nitty gritty here for this team. They are making a case that with the correct guys producing, they can win games. But if I were the GM, I would be expecting them to tear through the NL in this next month. June is going to be make or break, and I really don't think it could have lined up any better for us, given our history. 15 games this month against teams we have always done pretty well against in the past can't hurt a club looking to climb back into it. So here's to hoping!

Garbs

PS. As Noah mentioned in an earlier blog post, today is the first day of the MLB Draft. Strausberg is off to the Nats, he'll to warrant 40-50 million before throwing a major league pitch, and we could have had him if the A's wouldn't have purposely thrown the last series of the year, last Sept (my conspiracy theory, not proven). Instead, we get Dustin Ackley, who I'm happy with. Sounds like a decent amount of talent with some good upside, so we'll see I guess. I'll tell you what though, if Strausberg ends up being a bust for the Nationals (which crazier things have happened), that's it for that franchise. They need a shot in the arm, and this could be it, but if not, that's a mighty big motza ball to have to cover for a team that wins approx 60 games a year and has about 4 people watch their games.

Looking at the young kids, and what to do with them

After Nick and I returned from Vegas to see Erik Bedard scratched from the Boston Red Sox series we both thought escaping this series with a win would be very difficult. I mean, the M's were sending three of their most inexperienced pitchers on the big league roster. But now that the series is all said and done, I can say the reason the M's were able to take 2-out-of-3 games was because of the pitching from Chris Jakubauskas, Garrett Olson and Jason Vargas. Granted, each of the pitchers made mistakes in their games, but they were able to pitch out of jams by generating double play balls, striking batters out and producing short pop ups.

Let's take a closer look at the youngsters.

Chris Jakubauskas: The elder statesman of the three struggled with his control early in the game. In the first three innings, Jakubauskas threw 33 strikes out of 62 pitches for a 53% strike rate. But that's not the reason he was roughed up so bad. The reason he was lit up for runs is that when you're struggling to find the plate, often times you'll leave pitches out in the middle of the plate thigh-to-belt high. This is what happened to Jakubauskas. If you were to look a plot of his pitches I guarantee you would see most of them down the middle of the plate with little to no strikes called on the corners. Sometimes you can get away with leaving pitches over the plate, but not against the Boston Red Sox, and we saw what happens when the Sox get pitches to hit. They lit Jakubauskas up for 4 runs in 3 innings.

Innings 4-6 were a different story as Jakubauskas began throwing his fastball for strikes and could then rely on his curveball to keep the hitters off balance. He was able to throw 31-of-43 pitches for strikes for a 72% strike rate. When he was missing with his pitches they were closer to the zone. This allowed for him to collect some swinging and even some called strikes with pitches out of the strike zone. When Jakubauskas did throw a strike many of his pitches weren't in the middle of the plate like the first three innings of the game. He was able to hit the corners a lot more consistently. Overall, a decent job of being able to keep the Mariners in the ball game against a dangerous Boston lineup.

Garrett Olson: Garrett Olson struggled during his entire 6 innings to keep the ball in the zone. Of his 93 total pitches, only 50 were strikes for a 54% strike rate. Regardless of Olson's struggle with his command he only gave up 4 hits. Unfortuanately, he also issued 4 walks and served up 3 home runs. Two of those home runs came immediately following a walk. When you're pitching against a powerful offensive team like the Red Sox, you can't issue walks, or they will make you pay much like they made Olson pay. Regardless of the walks and the home runs, Olson still did his job and left the game after 6 innings only down by 2 runs. Overall, the outcome of the game was not how the M's would have liked, but given Olson was a stop-gap pitcher filling in for Erik Bedard who's out with a hamstring injury you couldn't have asked for much more.

Jason Vargas: Vargas' outing on Sunday was less than spectacular as he struggled through out the day giving up 7 hits and 3 walks and 2 runs (1 earned because of an error on Yuniesky Betancourt). He did, however, benefit from some stellar defense to get him out of some jams. Twice with the bases loaded, Vargas was able to serve up double play balls to escape the innings with minimal damage, if any at all. Vargas threw 57% strikes locating 54-of-94 in the zone often times working inside to lefties and outside to righties. As a pitcher that throws mostly fastballs he can benefit from throwing outside of the zone, but he needs to be able to prove that he can get his fastball over for strikes when needed to justify throwing out of the zone. Something that he just wasn't able to do consistently against the Red Sox. But when it was all said and done, Vargas kept us in it for five innings and received a no decision for his efforts.

All three of these young pitchers are not going to blow batters away with their electrifying stuff. They all throw their fastballs in the low-90s and rely on being able to throw their secondary pitches for strikes. Where they are going to be successful is being able to locate their fastball and throw the breaking balls in the zone.

Unfortunately, the Mariners' starting rotation is full, Rowland-Smith and Silva will be back soon and granted both of them are not guaranteed a spot on the roster, but my initial feeling is that they will be welcomed back into the rotation upon their return. So where does that leave Jakubauskas, Olson and Vargas? If you ask me, I think Jakubauskas finds himself back in the bullpen, Olson will be sent back down to Triple-A Tacoma and Vargas will probably find himself in a similar situation. However, the ability of these three young pitchers to keep the Mariners close in these games against the Red Sox have given General Manager Jack Zduriencik some options to pursue regarding trades regardless of where they lie in the standings. What does this mean? It means you can sure as hell guarantee come July, Jarrod Washburn will no longer be a member of the Seattle Mariners.