Was the Mariners’ first half a success? Brock and Salk react
Jul 16, 2024, 8:20 AM
(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
With the All-Star break underway and the MLB season at its unofficial midway point, it’s time to reflect on an eventful first half for the Seattle Mariners.
State of the Mariners: What stands out at All-Star break
In many ways, they’re a particularly tough team to evaluate.
On one hand, the Mariners are in first place at the All-Star break for the first time since 2003. That’s certainly an accomplishment.
However, the hard-charging Houston Astros are breathing right down their neck. After holding a commanding 10-game advantage on June 19, Seattle (52-46) has stumbled on an 8-15 stretch and watched its division lead dwindle all the way down to just one game.
Then, of course, there’s the stark dichotomy between the Mariners’ elite pitching and their struggling offense.
Seattle’s pitching staff ranks third in the majors in ERA (3.46), first in WHIP (1.08) and first in opponent batting average (.216). The Mariners’ starting rotation has an MLB-best 58 quality starts, five more than any other team. And earlier this season, their rotation strung together a historic run of 21 consecutive starts with two earned runs allowed or fewer. It was tied for the second-longest such streak in MLB history and the longest since the 1915 Washington Senators.
It’s been the polar opposite on offense, though. Seattle ranks 28th in runs per game (3.87), dead-last in batting average (.219), 25th in on-base percentage (.300), 28th in slugging percentage (.367) and 28th in OPS (.667). The Mariners have far and away the highest strikeout rate in the league at 28.1%, which is two full percentage points higher than the next-closest team. They have been held to three runs or fewer in 50 of their 98 games, including 14 times in their past 23 games.
Given all that, was the first half of the season a success for the M’s? Brock Huard and Mike Salk were posed that question Monday on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. Here’s a summary of what they said.
Huard: ‘I can’t say yes’
Huard said he ultimately can’t consider the first half a success. As he pointed out, the Mariners have benefited from a weak division. They have just the seventh-best record in the AL right now. If they weren’t leading their division, they currently would be 2.5 games out of the final AL wild-card spot. Also, their plus-19 run differential ranks just eighth in the AL and 13th in the majors.
“I can’t say yes,” Huard said. “It’s a great question and it’s one you can frame in certain ways. And I’m sure some are screaming at me like, ‘Are you serious? You’ve been in first place for how long? When was the last time you did that?’ If we leave spring training and you tell me the Mariners are in first place for two months of the first half? Like, sign me up. That’s the best first half in 21 years.
“But then you realize, actually, you have the seventh-best record in the American League. … That’s a reality. Like, yeah, you’re playing in the weakest division in the American League, by long ways.”
Huard also pointed to Seattle’s struggles against the league’s top teams. The Mariners are just 13-20 against the six AL teams above them in the overall league standings.
“Every time you’ve matched up against good teams, you’ve not won those series,” Huard said. “Was it successful? OK, yes. On paper, success. You’re where you want to be. You’re leading the division with 64 games to go. But every time here over the last two months you’ve matched up with the quality teams that are ahead of you, you’ve just not fared well against them.”
Huard then contrasted the success of the Mariners’ pitching staff with the glaring struggles of their lineup.
“Was the first half a success for the pitching staff? 100 out of 100,” Huard said. “Like, not even a question. … It was an unbelievably successful first half for this pitching staff. … We can go on and on and on about everything that was such a huge success through 98 games of pitching. And then the flip side of that is you can do the exact same thing with the underperformance offensively.”
Salk: More of a success than not
Salk ultimately termed the first half a success, mostly due to the Mariners being in first place at the break.
“I think ultimately I would say yes,” Salk said. “It’s been a success more than it’s not been. It’s not been an unmitigated success. There’s a lot of mitigation. But I think overall, you’re in first place heading into the All-Star break. If I told you that that’s where you would be a few months ago, you’d have said, ‘Yep, sign me up, of course, 100 percent, I want to be in first place heading into the All-Star break.’
“And that’s where they’re at. And they’ve set themselves up now for the second half. That’s what you’re supposed to do in the first half – set yourself up to compete and to add. And by any objective measure, they’ve done all of those things. So in that regard, I would term it a success.”
However, Salk said he fully understands why the first half doesn’t feel like a success to so many Mariners fans. In less than a month, Seattle watched its 10-game division lead almost completely evaporate. And the Mariners closed the first half with one of their most disappointing series of the season, dropping three consecutive one-run games to the lowly Los Angeles Angels.
“The team is just so flawed that it’s hard to call it successful,” Salk said. “But I think despite those flaws, they’ve had success. I think it’s hard because the last three weeks have been so crappy. … Even though you went 3-3 on this (final) road trip, it sure didn’t feel like it because of the way you lost the three games and who you lost them to.
“So I think in those ways, it doesn’t feel as successful as maybe it’s been. Additionally, their offseason additions have probably taken away more than they’ve added, and that’s another reason that it’s hard to make it feel like a success.”
Listen to the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
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