FanPost

The 2008 Mariners as currently constructed

While accurately crunching the numbers is waaaay beyond my ability, I thought it would kill some time to see just how pathetic our starting lineup is:

C- we're set, but I'd love to see that extra power push out of Joh that we all think he has in him.

1B- one big pile o' suck, even if Richie bounces back, he's still going to be below average. This is a huge fucking hole in our offense.

2B- What you'll get here is anybody's guess. Lopez could be anywhere from terrible to well above average. If I had to bet, I'd bet on the under.

3B- Adrian Beltre is awesome. That said, it would really help us out of a jam if Beltre could OPS .850.

SS- Again, we're in good shape, whatever Yuni loses in clutchness, he could make up by playing up to his potential on defense.

LF- Assuming he doesn't collapse in on himself, Ibanez should bring the same blend of appalling glovework, and decent hitting-- which is nearly canceled out by said glovework. I think he'd be a big plus if he were DHing.

CF- Ichiro! Should lose 20-30 points of his BA. That'll cost us.

RF- Best case scenario: Wilkerson is average. This is Huge Fucking Hole #2 in our line up.

DH-  HFH#3 There's no way Slampig repeats last year's performance-- and if he sucks it'll take them months (years?) to pull him from the lineup. We're fucked.

So our lineup? Nothing special defensively, no real plus "run producers" besides Ichiro. You have a team with no real power that will have trouble pushing it's singles hitters around bases. Sexson/Wilk/Lopez could potentially give the opposition many "free" innings.

Also, our bench is terrible, there's no one who could step in and produce if one of the regulars were to be injured, and no pinch hitter worth a damn to give McLaren some match-ups (not that he'd use them, wouldn't want to risk the delicate tulip that is Raul's ego).

Given the potential awesomeness of our pitching, if we are relatively healthy, I'm not optimistic about our chances. It's almost like we're the 2005-06 Astros without Lance Berkman. I see us ending up with 83-84 wins.