clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Series Preview: Seattle Mariners @ Anaheim Angels

Seattle: 18-28
Anaheim: 23-26

MARINERS Δ Ms ANGELS EDGE
HITTING (wOBA)
-40.6(29th) 2.1 -22.2 (25th) Anaheim
FIELDING (UZR) 11.9 (7th) -- -16.3 (28th) Seattle
ROTATION (tRA)
1.1 (18th) 0.9 -13.0 (25th) Seattle
BULLPEN (tRA)
-1.7 (21st) 1.1 -11.1 (27th) Seattle
OVERALL(RAA)
-21.7 (23rd) 4.1 -62.6 (27th) SEATTLE






 

Wooo! A sweep! If we keep it going and take all three in Anaheim, we would claw to within a half game of the Angels. That isn't as absurd a suggestion as it might seem given each team's actual production to date. The Mariners are unlucky to be where they are; the Angels have been bad.

Possibly even more impressive than a two game sweep of the Tigers, the Mariners improved in every category over that span. Hooray for no red! Sort of. I have switched the fielding rating back to just UZR when it had been an average of UZR and DRS. There seems to be something wonky with DRS numbers having a collective sum well above zero for the league and UZR now has a pretty decent sample size to work with when we're talking about entire teams. The Mariners UZR number is higher though this week than it previously was.

Fri May 28, 19:10: Cliff Lee* vs. Scott Kazmir*

Sat May 29, 13:10: Ian Snell vs. Jered Weaver

Sun May 30, 12:35: Felix Hernandez vs. Joe Saunders*

There's a chance that with the off days this week that Felix's start will get bumped up to Saturday and Doug Fister could take his Sunday spot, skipping Ian Snell in the turn through the rotation. It doesn't appear to be on the horizon, but it's certainly a feasible option for Wakamatsu. 

Given the success of the lineup in the sweep over the Tigers, it saddens me to see two lefties on the docket. That makes it far less likely that we get to see either Michael Saunders or Ryan Langerhans in those games and the one righty we face is Jered Weaver who is pretty good. 

Have you really looked at Cliff Lee's pitch profile below? He throws every pitch sans his curve for an extreme amount of strikes. And he uses that curveball to get grounders so it's not like it doesn't have its place either. Cliff Lee is wonderful. That he works fast, smiles a lot and is dreamy looking are like little pieces of Reese's mixed in with delicious ice cream.

Cliff Lee Ian Snell Felix Hernandez
Pitch % Sp K BB GB
Fastball 59% 90 70 80 45
Change 14% 83 55 75 55
Sinker 12% 90 45 80 40
Curve 8% 76 55 50 75
Slider 6% 85 35 80 45
Overall -- -- 55 80 45
Pitch % Sp K BB GB
Fastball 58% 92 55 35 35
Slider 26% 84 70 55 40
Change 14% 84 45 25 50
Overall -- -- 70 45 40
Pitch % Sp K BB GB
Fastball 68% 94 75 60 75
Slider 12% 88 75 65 75
Curve 11% 83 55 45 65
Change 9% 87 70 70 80
Overall -- -- 75 65 80
Scott Kazmir Jered Weaver Joe Saunders
Pitch % Sp K BB GB
Fastball 66% 91 80 65 30
Change 15% 79 55 40 25
Slider 14% 82 50 30 25
Overall -- -- 80 55 30
Pitch % Sp K BB GB
Fastball 45% 90 65 45 20
Change 17% 81 80 80 45
Slider 14% 79 35 30 35
Sinker 13% 89 60 60 25
Curve 10% 73 45 80 30
Overall -- -- 70 65 20
Pitch % Sp K BB GB
Fastball 55% 91 55 45 65
Change 19% 82 55 50 45
Curve 13% 77 25 25 35
Sinker 9% 89 30 65 65
Overall -- -- 35 35 65