Series Preview: Seattle Mariners @ Cleveland Indians

Mariners current draft spot: 4th

That was some sort of exciting series! After the park invasions from the legions of Red Sox fans from Bellevue and then the hordes of Blue Jay fans from Vancouver, it must have been a humbling sight to travel to Tampa and see what a real dedicated home fan base looks like. Now the Mariners travel on to Cleveland and make up one of those rain outs from earlier in the season. Word on the street is that Seattle will recall a pitcher for the doubleheader and may possibly go forward the rest of the year with a six-man rotation. I'm not sure why that news is on the street though. Somebody should clean that up!

Mon 22 Aug 16:05
JASON VARGAS*	FAUSTO CARMONA

I was looking at Jason Vargas' numbers after his recent putrid start and noticed that really, he's not all that much different this year than last year. His home run rate is higher and that's about it. Of course, the rest of the pitching league has gotten better, so staying still has just left Vargas further behind, but despite my constant feelings that Vargas is an unstable pile of jello ready to collapse at the slightest touch, he's actually been fine. A few homer-free starts and he'd basically be right back where he was. It's not great or anything, but it's 175 innings of not-bad. And that's not bad.

Tue 23 Aug 10:05
BLAKE BEAVAN	JUSTIN MASTERSON

It's no wonder that Blake Beavan is able to so far pitch consistently into the seventh inning. When you don't strike anyone out and you don't walk anyone, your duels tend to end quickly. Beavan's averaged 3.54 pitches per batter faced as a Mariner. Among starters with at least 200 batters faced, that's the ninth-lowest rate. There's some interesting facts in the pitches per BF realm, but I'm not exactly sure what they mean. The Pirates have the lowest rate among starters and the second lowest among relievers, "bested" only by the Mariners' pen. Is that good? Bad? Unrelated to anything? A research topic for another day. A more rainy day.

Tue 23 Aug 16:05
UNKNOWN	PITCHERS

Hello, new person. Of course you're not actually new since you were already in the organization, but whatever, go pitch. And then sit. And then go pitch some more. Then come back and sit some more. Yep, then some more pitching. This is going to happen a couple times for a couple hours and then you will be free. Sweet sweet freedom.

Wed 24 Aug 09:05
FELIX HERNANDEZ	JOSH TOMLIN

I will be interested if a six-man rotation would include Felix Hernandez or not given the team's stated and carried out desire earlier in the year to keep Felix on a five-day schedule even through off days. The reasoning was that Felix said he felt better pitching on consistent rest, which makes some sense. However, the team has been less fanatical of late in keeping Felix to that. In fact, since early June, more starts for Felix have come on five days rest than four days. Would they let him go to six days rest sometimes? There sure seems little reason to stretch him out near 250 innings like last year.