Series Preview: Oakland Athletics @ Seattle Mariners

Seattle: 63-61
Oakland: 55-68

SUMMARY

Stupid Indians. Feels like they have our number this year, maybe it's revenge for Mike Hargrove.

Wow has Oakland played better than us this season. Their bullpen has been both deep and fantastic, while ours has been injury ridden, short and crap. A couple more dropped series and we start heading toward that protected first round draft pick territory. I wonder if there's a significant marketing and/or financial motivation for the team to finish above .500. It certainly sounds better to come back from a 61-win season and say they either finished above .500 or improved by 20 games, or what have you.

16 game improvement just does not have quite the emotional impact.

GAMES

Game 1: Ian Snell vs. Vin Mazzaro
Game 2: Ryan Rowland-Smith* vs. Brett Anderson*
Game 3: Lucas French* vs. Gio Gonzalez*

Who are these plucky Athletic starters? Vin Mazzaro made some waves with his first couple outings being the no-runs allowed type, but that was wasted hype as the walks and line drives would have illustrated. Since then, Mazzarro has given up runs and fallen off the latest young Oakland starter news machine and become another solidly just worse than average pitcher, which for a 22-year-old, is intriguing.

Anderson looks like the real deal and at just 21 years of age and with limited professional experience, a Mariners fan has to worry about him further developing his command and getting better going forward. His slider is a real weapon.

Gio Gonzalez can miss a ton of bats. He also misses the strike zone a lot and also has displayed a poor habit of getting his pitches knocked well beyond that demarcation thingy in the outfield. So far in his starting Major League career, one in every 20 batters that he has faced has hit a home run.