STARTERS

FELIX HERNANDEZ: Felix was great in April and decidedly mediocre in May. He missed fewer bats, he got way fewer ground balls, he allowed more home runs, he walked more hitters, you get the picture. Come back, April 2010 Felix. GRADE: C

CLIFF LEE: We got a full month of Cliff Lee this time and wow is he fun. We've talked incessantly about how much fun he is so I don't feel the need to repeat myself further. However, I will say that much like with Felix a year ago, if there was any player that Jack and Co. could sign and not have me care too much about the money ramifications, it would be Cliff Lee. He is everything that I love about pitching, even more than Felix.. GRADE: A+

RYAN ROWLAND-SMITH: Only two starts this month but both showed some tinges of improvement. GRADE: Incomplete

IAN SNELL: Slightly more strikes without a reduction in missed bats is good! A 23% ground ball rate is so very very bad. More walks than strikeouts? Yeah, that's a paddlin'. GRADE: Incomplete

JASON VARGAS: Strikeouts down, missed bats down, ground balls down and walks up in May adds up easily to a worse month overall for Vargas. The news isn't catastrophic though as the trends were small and Vargas remained serviceable. GRADE: C

GRADE: C

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RELIEVERS

Sing the praises of Shawn Kelley's return! It helped to salve some of the burning wounds left behind by a continuing disappointment of a bullpen. Everyone but Brandon League and Sean White got hit too hard. Nobody was downright horrific in May though and Kelley (and White's and Snell's!) tRAs were low enough to boost the entire pen above average. A whole tenth of a run above average!

GRADE: C

You want another idea of how much I feel bad luck plagued this team in May? The four overall grades were B+, D, C and C. Using UZR as the defensive measurement, the grand total for the team was 4.7 runs below average and that doesn't even get rid of the sort of (bad) luck found in wOBA regressions. The Mariners played baseball at the level roughly of a .500 team. They instead ended up 8-19. Those five lost wins would make the entire tone of the season going forward quite different from what they actually face. What a pity.