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Q. The Mariners won 5 of 9 against three of the AL's best teams. So they would play .545 at least, if the season started tomorrow?
A. Actually the Mariners are playing a lot worse than it looks like. For example, check this WAR table -- in the last 14 days, only three Mariners have more than 0.0 WAR (!!), and one of the three is Raul Ibanez.
Check the same table, full season, and you'll see that only one Mariner has more than 1.2 WAR during the entire 2013 season. Prorated, that means that only one Mariner position player will finish the season with even 2.0 WAR, the threshold for an average player. ::ulp:: (Edit to add, Miller and Zunino are special cases as Logan notes below.)
Nick Franklin's trouble with bendy pitches is scaring the spit out of the Mariners. Dustin Ackley, though hot, is hot --- > in a complete absence of home runs. (He's got one -- count it -- 1 homer this YEAR.) How much does a hot streak count for if you have to bunt your way on base every time? Michael Morse seemed like a good idea at the time; Baker says he's playing out the string and won't be back next year.
The M's outfield has combined for -59 defensive runs lost (-14 LF, -30 CF, -15 RF) so you could argue that none of them are actually outfielders. That's not a snide quip; it's a strategic observation -- it's possible that none of the Mariner outfielders qualify to play there. Jesus Montero is now an afterthought: supposing he ever did hit good, he'd probably simply be traded.