BUMP AND STACY

What the Mariners can learn from remaining playoff teams

Oct 17, 2024, 8:07 AM

Seattle Mariners Julio Rodriguez...

Julio Rodriguez of the Seattle Mariners and Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers chat during a baseball game. (Alika Jenner/Getty Images)

(Alika Jenner/Getty Images)

The MLB playoffs are in full swing with the championship series taking place in the American and National Leagues, but the Seattle Mariners are stuck watching at home.

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The Mariners once again finished frustratingly close to a playoff berth, falling one game shy of the final AL wild card spot. Over the past four seasons, Seattle has made the playoffs once but also missed them by two games or less three times.

Is there something the team can learn from the four teams left in the postseason right now to help it moving forward? Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy pondered that question Tuesday.

“It has nothing to do with stats, absolutely nothing. (It’s) just the intensity and focus and star power that it takes to be competitive in these games,” Michael Bumpus said. “If you wanna play with the big dogs, your team has to look, feel and perform like big dogs. At no point during this season did I feel like the Mariners were big dogs.”

Bumpus thought back to his days growing up in Culver City, Calif. He and his friends played basketball at a local park where there were three courts. Court one was where the high school varsity and junior college players would play. Court two is where is the junior varsity-level kids would play. And court three was where the middle schoolers played.

“I’m looking at the Mariners right now, they’re in that middle court,” Bumpus said. “They’re not with the pups. They’re in that middle court, and they’re trying to find a way to get up there. … If they would have gotten into the playoffs this year and maybe played one of the big dogs, they would have a feeling of what it takes. But the scary part about them getting to that No. 1 court is that ownership might be like, ‘We’re good. We made it to the to the big boy court.’ And you don’t really do enough to kind of push forward and get better. Yeah, you make it, you have one run and then you’re off and you’re back down to the middle court.”

Co-host Stacy Rost sees one team that shares some similarities with the M’s – the Cleveland Guardians. The Guardians have a payroll much closer to Seattle than the New York Mets, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. And like Seattle with center fielder Julio Rodríguez, Cleveland has one true star player in third baseman José Ramírez.

But Rost points out there are still some major differences between the teams.

“On a very, very surface level you can go, ‘Oh, well (look at) the Guardians. You can just have that one superstar.’ But no, no, no. The Guardians were so much more effective at getting on base, driving in runs and they didn’t strike out nearly as much,” Rost said. “So yeah, they have the superstar, but then they have all of these complementary pieces, particularly (outfielder) Steven Kwan. They had the fourth-fewest strikeouts, had the fifth-most stolen bases and more sac bunts than any of the other three remaining teams. And even though they were like middle of the road in OPS (and) 12th and home runs, they got on base (and) drove in runs. They played the closest thing to small ball you can still play in today’s game. The Mariners are not built like that. And furthermore, they don’t have a lot of complementary pieces.

“So I hope that they learn that you can’t just enter this season going, ‘Alright, Julio, be MVP and we got this thing.’  Because then how far do you really go?”

Listen to the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

More on the Seattle Mariners

Two Seattle Mariners named AL Gold Glove Award finalists
• Drayer: Important dates for Mariners offseason
• The Mariners’ top prospect is on fire in Arizona Fall League
• Report: Jorge Polanco undergoes surgery, played through injury
• MLB insider reacts to a pair of ‘what if’ Mariners scenarios

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