Throwing the Bums Out

by Matthew on Oct 21, 2011 5:00 PM PDT in Seattle Mariners History

The 2011 Mariners' offense ended up performing similarly to the 2010 squad to the point that it might have caused a strong feeling of déjà vu, but it was more like a remake than a repeat. The plot was the same, but the actors were mostly different. While comparing the two squads, I took note of how many of the dregs on the 2010 team (Rob Johnson, Casey Kotchman, Ken Griffey, Josh Wilson, Jose Lopez) were tossed aside in 2011, mostly replaced by new dead weight. It seemed like a lot, so I graphed it! I like graphs.

The 2011 Mariners had 5,972 plate appearances. 2,924 (49%) of them were taken by a player who was a Seattle Mariner (on the big squad, not just within the Mariners' organization) during the 2010 season. Phrased another way, over half of the team's hitting chances in 2011 went to new players. And they still sucked.

I don't know how this 51% turnover rate compares with other teams or times. I have not found a systematic way of measuring it and I'm not going to go do it by hand for other teams. You might be interested to note that roughly 24% of the 2011's plate appearances were taken by players who are already no longer part of the organization. However, I am unsure that the number will climb significantly higher than that by this time next year. The 2012 team seems more likely to put the players acquired this season to greater use rather than completely replacing them again. That's not a bad thing on its own. Or a good thing for that matter. The team doesn't need different players, it needs better play regardless of who it comes from. Hopefully the returning players find better success than seen by this year's crop.

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Comments

Wow, that graph's pretty amazing.

And as you wrote, 24% of the PAs were made by people who aren’t Mariners any more.
That seems like almost unprecedented turnover.

But since the total run scoring sucked anyway, it didn’t really feel like a huge turnover at the time. Guys who generally sucked at hitting faded away to be replaced by guys who generally sucked at hitting.

by daveinny on Oct 21, 2011 6:14 PM PDT reply actions

What pratically doomed 2011 from the start was the lack of resources to make significant improvements.

Our big free-agent splashes on the position-player side were Miguel Olivo and Jack Cust for a total of $4.75 million for the year. Throw in Brendan Ryan through trade to make it $5.75 million. Everything else we added was via dumpster diving.

Along with our acquisitions, our production initially rested on the shoulders of Ichiro, Chone Figgins, Milton Bradley, Justin Smoak. Whoa, Nelly that was fun.

Thankfully for 2012, the team has a relatively significant amount of payroll coming off the books (assuming no change in payroll). That plus a fair list of young players to work with as the organization assembles the 2012 Mariners makes it hard to imagine next year’s team being as bad as it has been offensively.

by ThundaPC on Oct 21, 2011 7:16 PM PDT reply actions