It turns out that I should go on vacation more often. On August 18, the Mariners lost their seventh-straight game, dropping to 7-18. Since then, the Mariners have made some trades, gone 6-3, and gained zero ground in the race for the AL West championship. I was completely tuned out of pretty much all news for the past week, both in sports and in the greater world, so here are a few casual observations with absolutely zero context to provide any sort of value.

Evan White is still bad.

Yeah, I get it. He has a great glove. Cool freaking beans. Before I left White maybe had 10 hits or so and it looks like he has some more hits, but he is still striking out at a beyond astonishing rate and is hitting about as well as you’d expect someone who completely skipped AAA to hit at the major league level. His wRC+ is trending up, which is a nice sign. Then again, it cratered at around 2 (or something like that), so the only real direction to go was up.

Hopefully, we get something to see soon. White is currently tied for second-to-last in the majors at fWAR amongst first baseman, at -0.3. For funsies, former Mariner Justin Smoak is last at -0.4.

Kyle Lewis is still good.

This season is short and stupid and we aren’t supposed to make some big takeaways from it. I, however, am fully on board with diving into the shallow end to support Kyle Lewis to the moon and back. Guy can absolutely rake the ball and is cutting down on his strikeouts a bit, which makes him that much more fun to follow. Lewis looks like he might actually be the rare Mariner who graduates from an incredibly-hyped prospect to an actually-serviceable MLB player.

This is especially a good sign because as mentioned above, the rebuild plans of Evan White, noted first baseman defensive specialist, should not be set in stone quite yet. White has plenty of time to turn it around, but until he can demonstrate his actual value at the plate, we shouldn’t pencil him in as the de facto heir to the Mariners first base throne. Lewis, on the other hand, is looking to be the most established piece of the rebuilding plan.

LOL the Angels are trash.

We used to call them the Lastros and look where that got us. I don’t think it’ll bite us as much in the rear as it does to maybe referring to the Angels as the Los Angeles AngLOLS of Anaheim or whatever very stupid full name the team already employs. The Angels are the best team to have in your division. They can hit the ball for the most part, they can’t field worth shit, and their pitching is thoroughly middle of the road. In other words, fun fun fun to watch.

This is a team that is a full two games behind the Seattle Mariners, who entered the season finally immersed in a full rebuild mode. The Angels are abysmal, and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving franchise.

Marco Gonzales is making Nathan Bishop look stupid.

I’ll admit, it is difficult to be excited about a pitching rotation that features Gonzales as the No. 1 starter. So far this season, Gonzales is sure making a lot of us look like dum-dums, as demonstrated by spinning another gem last night. On top of his association with the premier university in the pacific northwest, Gonzales is making his generally pedestrian-looking stuff work. The home runs per nine innings have risen a bit, but his xFIP is down from last season. Perhaps most importantly, he has severely cut down on his walks per nine innings. All the while, his strikeouts per nine innings are running a career-best.

On most teams, Gonzales is not your front-end starter. None of that matters at the moment. Gonzales has a four-year, $30 million extension beginning next year, and with the numbers he is putting up, that is a hell of a deal for the Mariners. If the front office can fill in the rotation around Gonzales (on both sides), it’ll look like quite the deal for Trader Jerry.

Dee Gordon has a winning smile.

That is apparently enough to keep him on the team.

The Mariners are maybe fun?

This is the big maybe, but in reality, this is also the big maybe for all of sports. The world is falling apart in every imaginable way and over the past two weeks, I couldn’t but help feel that detaching from it all was a gross use of my own white privilege. In that way, it seems weird to talk about the Mariners being “fun.” But for once, in a long while, there appears to be the minor wisps of a plan in the cloud. Despite the fact that Jerry Dipoto has made approximately seven trades in the past 48 hours, it doesn’t feel as hopeless to pick one of the younger guys on the roster and throw some emotional investment into the mix.

It has been a few years since the Mariners have generated any personal excitement. Go figure, 2020 would be the year that starts to change that.