Mariners outlook for this season and beyond - HadlerT's Blog

HadlerT's Blog

Mariners outlook for this season and beyond

Posted on June 5, 2013 at 05:55 AM.

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The Seattle Mariners went from a game under .500 and in 2nd place in the AL West, back to to the bottom of the division. (If you don't count the LASTros)

Despite this funk, there have been positives. Nick Franklin was recently called up, and had performed much better than Dustin Ackley. Raul Ibanez, Kendrys Morales and Kyle Seager have provided power and run production in the middle of the lineup with Justin Smoak and Mike Morse out with injuries. Felix, Iwakuma, and The Bartender all look like they could represent the Mariners at the all-star game in July. Brenden Ryan got his batting average over .200, and Jason Bay is having himself a quiet comeback season. Take all those positives and add in the fact we have a top-5 farm system, and you're looking at a pretty good 2014-and-beyond for the Mariners.

Next year, I'm hoping our roster is like this:

1.) CF Michael Saunders (progresses into a legit 20/20 guy who hits .300)
2.) 2B Nick Franklin (plays well this year, bats around .275)
3.) 3B Kyle Seager (develops into a .290, 25 HR, 90 RBI guy)
4.) Hoping we can resign either Morse or Morales to play 1B
5.) DH Jesus Montero (comes back with huge power numbers and bats around .275 in AAA/MLB for the rest of this season
6.) C Mike Zunino (gets called up in mid-August or September and wins job in ST)
7.) LF Stefen Romero (see Mike Zunino)
8.) RF ??? (I'm guessing either Peguero, Thames, or Liddi take this spot)
9.) SS Brad Miller (assuming we don't re-sign Ryan

Bench:
Other two of Peguero/Thames/Liddi
Carlos Triunfel
Jesus Sucre OR a veteran backstop

In this lineup we got rid of/demoted Smoak, Ackley, Ryan, Shoppach, Bay, Guti, and Chavez.

Rotation:

Felix
Iwakuma

After the 2nd spot it gets tricky
Any three of these guys:
Danny Hultzen, James Paxton, Brandon Maurer, Erasmo Ramirez, Blake Beavan, or Andrew Carraway

Our bullpen will have probably The Bartender as our closer, Pryor/Capps as the set up guys, and probably a mix of guys we've seen this year (Furbush, Perez, Luetge, Noesi, Medina, LaFromboise, Farquhar, etc. )

If any of you are Mariners fans, and are reading this, I'd love to get some insight on what YOU guys think. Go ahead and post your opinions in the comment section.