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Any of you older amigos remember Barney Google and Snuffy Smif? :- ) One of my all-time fave catch phrases, when one of the characters would panic, gird up their skirts, and run off the comic panel with the signature line. No word, though, on whether Colin Kaepernick is ready to sell his wartime 'brand' to the U.S. Army for 0 dollars and 0 cents. Heh.
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At +5 over .500, in a big pack that is -3 games to the dubious Orioles, the M's are out of time. In a coin-flip mode their chances are 1-in-6. From here they'll need to play very well to ... earn ... a playoff spot. Which brings up another Smif: Smif Barney. They made their money the old-fashioned way: they earrrrnnnnnned it.
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Taijuan will have to locate and throw a second pitch; the bullpen will have to lock down leads with at most 1, 2, blown saves the rest of the year; the offense will have to shake and bake; the Mariners will simply have to be the best team in the WC pack. Can they be? You doubt it. ... I'll watch.
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Edit to add Moe Dawg sez
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A while back, just as we were getting hot, I wrote that at this point any mini-slump (which was always very likely) was going to make it pretty hard for us to get to the Promised Land. I think I mentioned 1-4 & 2-5 type slumps. Well, somebody mean was listenting to me and we've combined the worst of those numbrs to go 1-5. Sigh. But it was really very likely to happen....and it's likely that the teams ahead of us stumble through a 1-4 or 2-5 mini-slump before the season ends. That's MLB baseball. We're still hunting...but now we really can't afford ampther mini-slump. We have to get hot again.....which is a stupidly evident statement, isn't it?
Just so. The M's had dawdled through July, have now botched several more, and the margin for error is gone. Which is to say, the 100+ win pace starts now or is irrelevant.
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REASONS TO BELIEVE .ORG
The offense has been playing under its ability the last 14 days. Cano and Seager are hot, but Nelson Cruz is slugging .358. Seth Smith is .200/.226/.300 and it says here the man is good at hitting. Mike Zunino has not been having the hits fall in -- he's .152 -- but he has taken a tremendous leap up. Here's a fun Sullivan read on the topic, replete with .gifs. Could be we'll go Arena Baseball the next coupla weeks. Could be Tanner McElvoy will go for 800 receiving yards this year. Could be Seattle Sports Insider will bail on the M's. Y'can't take anything for granted.
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James Paxton just got here, to Seattle after rehab, that is. Could be the M's go 6-1 or 7-0 his last seven starts, starting tomorrow. It's worth a simoleon. Watch the game Tuesday! There are worse things in life.
K-Pax is sitting on an 8.1 / 2.0 / 0.6 slash line for the season, leaving his FIP at 2.94 which would lead the American League comfortably over Kluber and Tanaka. But, as you know, this 2.94 includes the debut San Diego start and is a mere shadow of Paxton's true potential which is, what, an 0.94 ERA or lower. Koufax pitched the Dodgers into Game Seven, as did Hershisher in a glorious September run some twenty years later.
Seaver's biography was called "the team that couldn't win and the pitcher who wouldn't lose," or something. Just James Paxton, that by itself, makes the Mariners better than sewing shoes for $1.00 US per day in Saigon.
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Edwin Diaz is rested. That's the big upside of being laid waste by your playoff rivals. Your rookie superstar closer is tanned, rested, and ready to go.
Hey, the Mariners were -70 runs last year. They're +36 this year, without any real transfer market signings by DiPoto this past November. At that rate they'll hit Cubs level in 2018.
That's what was cool about watching the 2012 Seahawks, as they deployed certain young assets to jump from 'bad' to 'real interesting'. You can't say that none of those guys could play, 'cuz some o' them sure as shootin' could.
Baseball Is Life,
Dr D
