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Mariners Team Records That Stand To Fall In 2011

This is not an exhaustive list of records, but it is an exhaustive list of records tracked by Baseball-Reference, so don't be surprised if I've left some things out. I only ever know as much as Baseball-Reference wants me to.

  • Hits. As of now, Edgar Martinez is the all-time Mariners leader in hits, with 2,247. However, Ichiro lurks just behind him with 2,244, and he stands to pass Edgar by the time I'm done writing this paragraph. Something I found interesting is that Ichiro's career Mariners OPS+ of 117 places him between Bret Boone (116+) and Bruce Bochte (118+), which makes him sound decidedly unimpressive, but we all understand that OPS+ is an imperfect statistic, just as we all understand that statistics leave an awful lot of the whole Ichiro experience out. I've seen it remarked in a number of places that Ichiro might conclude his career as the Japanese Juan Pierre, but the difference between Ichiro and Juan Pierre is that, even if Ichiro starts hitting like Juan Pierre, he'll still be amazing.

  • All-Star Games. Ichiro is currently tied with Ken Griffey Jr. for the Mariners lead in All-Star Game selections, with ten. That's good for ten times as many All-Star Game selections as Shigetoshi Hasegawa. Another difference between Ichiro and Juan Pierre is that, even if Ichiro starts hitting like Juan Pierre, he'll still make the All-Star Game.

  • At Bats. Ichiro is 434 at bats behind Edgar, and the lowest at bat total of his career is 639. That said, he's 1,333 behind Edgar in plate appearances. Man, Edgar drew a lot of walks. So lazy.

  • Strikeouts. Jay Buhner holds the Mariners' lead in strikeouts with 1,375, but Miguel Olivo currently checks in at 104, so this should take no time at all.

  • Wild Pitches. As you'd expect, it's Randy Johnson in the lead with 66. Back in 1992, Randy walked or beaned 162 batters over 210.1 innings, giving him an opponents OBP of .344 to go with an opponents slugging percentage of .307. The guy was wild. However, just behind him is Felix Hernandez, with 60, which puts him in good position to assume the all-time lead by July or August. The temptation is to blame Rob Johnson, and Rob Johnson most assuredly deserves a lot of the blame, but let's not forget that all of our catchers are defensively terrible. So while it's largely Johnson's fault that Felix is where he is, it'll be someone else's fault when Felix leaps to #1. Maybe he and Olivo can share a special bro-y moment.

In case you were curious, Felix already holds the franchise lead in ERA and ERA+ among pitchers with at least 500 innings. Lower the threshold to 100 innings, though, and the nod goes to one Cliff Lee. Never forget.