Monday Morning Mariber is a weekly collection of thoughts on the Mariners week that was, with a focus on the weekend games. It is both late and abbreviated this week, due to travel, work, and family. We apologize. 

Do Not Forget to Remember

It has been 33 years but I still remember the ball bouncing so oddly in the Kingdome corner. It was lashed into the left field corner, low and tailing like a 20-handicap off the first tee, landing just fair. The ball and left fielder disappeared from the view of our $5 300-level seats, down into the corner of the field. 

Only the ball came back out.

All these years later I still don’t know what happened to the left fielder. Maybe he hurt himself. Maybe he was so embarrassed he retired on the spot. Maybe he fell into an inter-dimensional time vortex (you can find out this Friday at the release of Marvel’s new spectacular DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, only in theaters). What I do know is the ball undulated back into view and the crowd roared as 19-year old Ken Griffey Jr. rounded second base and hit a gear he would only ever find again in the 1995 playoffs. He rounded third base, damn near lapped poor old Alvin Davis, and slid into home with an inside-the-park home run.

I was seven. There was no TV broadcast. I do not remember anything else about that game, but I remember so much about that moment. I remember the sound (the Kingdome made even small crowds sound huge when properly motivated). I remember the feeling. I remember, even at that young age, knowing I had seen something deeply special by someone who did things differently than everyone else. I remember thinking to myself I would remember this moment for the rest of my life, and it being the rare promise to myself I did not break. I have remembered it forever, and will. It is the first stop on the rosary of my fandom.

*****

You wanna see some crazy stuff? Here are some batting lines as Seattle Mariners coming into yesterday’s game:

Shed Long Jr. – .216/.284/.376/.660

Abraham Toro – .231/.304/.355/.659

To Don Mattingly this meant that, in a 2-1 game in the 7th inning, it was a good idea to intentionally walk Abraham Toro to get to Julio Rodriguez. Julio had some things to say about that afterwards, but first there was business to take care of. He did so. It was, like seemingly everything he does, different.

I’m not sure what to say about this kid at this point. Hype is exhausting. I’m sick of this organization behaving like there is a straight path between a good farm system and an excellent major league product. But Julio defies all cynicism. He has played one month and one day of major league baseball. His offense has barely begun to flicker to life. If you told me this was the worst offensive month he would have in the next five years I would believe you. He is nonetheless on pace for a 3-win season by fWAR. He does it by being insanely fast, and by somehow holding down centerfield despite being the size of a small ocean liner. He is different than all the rest, like Felix before him. He’s the one. There were young children watching yesterday’s game and saw something they will never forget. They will carry that home run with them forever. 

The Seattle Mariners are defined by their superstars. Over almost half a century of nearly ceaseless losing it’s Junior, Arod, Randy, Edgar, Ichiro, Felix, Robbie, and Nelson that kept us paying attention. We’ve lost that recently, but I’m pretty sure we have it back. 

Praise be to Julio Rodriguez. This is going to be so damn fun. Do not forget to remember it all.

Three Up

J.P. Crawford but Make it Dong

I continue to find myself in the uncomfortable position of looking like an idiot. Fortunately I have plenty of practice. That said, I was not alone in finding it very frustrating when the Mariners went out of their way to make it clear that Crawford was their shortstop, even with a historic class of shortstops available via free agency. All that J.P. has done is start the year at .372/.462/.628 with the fifth lowest K% among qualified hitters.

The BABIP of .372 won’t stick but doesn’t have to. If Crawford’s power surge and offensive ability regress to 80% of their current level he’s one of the best shortstops in the league and still probably Seattle’s best overall player. 

Here’s some fun fWAR small sample size nonsense:

J.P. Crawford = 1.5 fWAR
Trevor Story + Carlos Correa + Corey Seager = 1.1 fWAR

In conclusion, as I’ve always said, building the offseason around J.P. Crawford at shortstop was very smart and good, obviously.

What if Logan Gilbert is Simply Built 100% Out of “That Dog in Him”?

Whatever the hell a Brian Anderson is went and ruined a hilariously weird scoreless start for Gilbert yesterday, but the fact remains that the 9’7” Stetson product has been emphatically the Mariners’ best starting pitcher in the first month+ of the season. The 99.2% left on base rate is, well, probably not going to finish there. I’ll go out on a limb and say Gilbert’s 0.64 ERA will rise before it’s all said and done. That said, the stuff and makeup are all there in a way that makes me think, regardless of whether Robbie Ray finds his 2021 groove or not, that Logan may just be the best pitcher on this team. What a treat.

Julio, Again. Deal With It

Look I’m just saying the kid’s whole deal coming up was “he’s gonna have to really really hit but the offensive ceiling is so high you have to be excited about him.” He hasn’t hit, barely at all. He has a 93 wRC+ and striking out way way too much. He’s still fourth on this team in fWAR because he decided to be the most threatening base stealer in the game. His primary issues on defense are inexperience and the fact that he runs so god damn fast he appears to overrun the ball at times and have trouble downshifting.

He’s already a very useful big league player while basically having no idea what’s going on the majority of the times. He barely knows where his locker is, and will be stepping into brand new environments and experiences literally the entire year. I truly have trouble visualizing how good he could be once the offense settles near his talent level, but I truly think his ceiling is somewhere in the “best player in the game” tier. 

Just sign him now to whatever he wants and get it over with. This is the player to carry this franchise into the next era.

Three Down

Jarred Kelenic is in the Bad Place

Let’s talk about some good stuff for a second. After being a raging torrent of poop in centerfield last year JK has looked much better in right field this year. His athleticism and arm strength are well served at the position, and there’s no reason to think he can’t be an above average defender out there for years to come. Ok, that’s the good.

The offense is so bad! It’s SO BAD! Kelenic is hitting .141/.211/.297 with a 40.8 K%. That brings his career line to .175/.257/.342 in 450 PA! This is not a small sample size in which Kelenic has been among the worst hitters in baseball! The Mariners have started pinch-hitting late in games for Dylan Moore, who is also generally quite bad at the task of hitting major league pitching! None of this is good in fact I have decided it’s bad! I don’t like it! Neither does Jarred! He’s making up new curse words to belittle himself with in right field between at-bats! I don’t want to know what they are they will just make me sad!

Just send the kid down to Tacoma for a while. There’s no rush (NOTE: There is kind of a rush because the Mariners didn’t bother to sign any MLB outfielders this year. OH WELL). Kelenic’s path to a quality major league career is still very easy to see but if the team is going to be pinch hitting him for players with a career wRC+ of 94 it’s clear their confidence in him, at least for 2022, is waning. Let him destroy some scrubs in the PCL for a bit. 

Mitch Haninjured? Mitch Houchiger?

I have nothing long or thoughtful to say here. I love Mitch. Mitch is over 30, generally cranky, and cares a lot. I’ve decided we have similar personalities despite never meeting him and thinking projecting ourselves onto athletes is deeply toxic and silly behavior. 

Mitch got Covid. Then Mitch came back from Covid and immediately hurt himself swinging a baseball bat, which is kind of an important part of his job. Now Mitch is on the IL. He’s a real good baseball player whose body seems to hate him very much, and it makes me sad.

Bob Ray You are Cool and Good but We Kind of Need You to be Amazing

We’re a month into the only real big-money contract the Jerry Dipoto Mariners have ever successfully gotten a player to accept and uh, well, it’s not been super great so far. Ray has been far from a disaster but when you’re running a K-rate 30% or so off your career rate and your fastball velocity is a tick and a half down it’s uh, not the coolest feeling in the world.

We made a big deal before the season about how many players the Mariners were counting on to repeat career years. For the most part that’s actually worked out fine. Ray though has looked more the Diamondback than the Blue Jay version of himself thus far. That’s ok. Diamondback Robbie Ray is a perfectly fine pitcher. The Mariners need more though, and I’m sure he’d agree with that. It’s very early and we’re 1-2 high strikeout starts from everything starting to look fine.

Mostly I just cannot handle the thought of the team’s one actual free agent investment being a bust. They wouldn’t sign another guy for a decade. Please start striking people out Robbie.

The Weekly “Mariners Tweet that Made Me Laugh Most Embarrassingly in Front of My Family” Award

It’s been a tough road trip but the Mariners are still fine. Let’s whip the lastros and come back to the weird nickname for T-Mobile that Jesse Winker and a large number of people seem to really like but I kinda don’t but whatever I’m old so who cares? Goms.

You can follow Nathan on Twitter at @nathan_h_b. Additionally he appears on the Ian Furness show on Mollywhop Mondays on KJR 93.3 FM every Monday at 1:10 PM with Chris Crawford and Kevin Shockey. Please be nice, he is going his best.