M's a Mortal Lock to "Combo" the Seahawks Parade
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(The M's have already lost 9 more games than they did in 2001. You think Jeff Sullivan would explain his jokes for you? I think NOT.)
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Esto Es Mi Barrio, dept.
Bring a gold tooth and a sock fulla nickels, if you're going to wander into the AL West. The "Simple Rating System" at baseball-reference.com has these 3 teams as the best out of 30 teams both NL and AL:
- 1 = Oakland
- 2 = Angels
- 3 = Mariners
Would like to know when we saw the 3 best teams in the NFL, NBA or MLB all in one division.
Yes, Egbert, we know that the M's haven't exactly established themselves as the #3 team in all of baseball. ... however, those are also the 3 top MLB teams per the Pythagorean Theorem. Maybe the Nationals are a scant tick ahead of the M's, day-to-day, but most teams are WAY back of the leaders.
But, hey. With the Mariners jelling, and the league differential casting a bit of doubt on the Dodgers, there's nothing far-fetched about the ranking.
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When Kendrys gets rolling, and Austin Jackson, and they get one other guy going, say, Ackley, the Mariners look well capable of winning it all.**
** In the sense that 8 or so teams have that capability. Man, this town toasts my oysters. It sooooo weakens the "read," when the Shtickmeister has to spell out the quid pro quo's like that every other paragraph. At least we ain't Sully vs. the Fangraphs crowd, right? Small favours...
No, Kendrys doesn't have his rhythm yet. He's gettin' there. At least this paragraph is material to the discussion, even if you had forgotten what we were talking about. I know I did.
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Playoff Odds Report
All systems have the AL playoff race as now 6-to-make-5, with the top 6 far ahead of the pack. That's the same as saying it's 3-to-make-2: two of the Tigers, Royals, and Mariners will probably go.
As you know, Dr. Detecto does NOT cosign these playoff odds, and most especially he doesn't /cosign them in late July when there's a tight pack of teams. The computer doesn't take seriously the chance that (say) the Yankee$ or Blue Jays could get hot.
But still. As it boils down... if the Mariners have the #2 run differential in the AL after 70% of the season, then you would project them to win the 2nd-most games the rest of the way, now wouldn't you.
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Just to make LrKrBoi29 happy, we'll remind that No Team Is As Good As They Look In a Winning Streak. Love your enemy, brother. Just not over the weekend series.
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Easy Squeezee Postseason Blueprint
In Detroit, the Mariners get to skip Max Scherzer, as well as Verlander and Sanchez, obviously. As we recall, those three starters went for nice money on roto draft day. As we future-ly recall, the Tigers have er, had the last 4 Cy Young winners, when you count the year 2014.
Felix is not a Cy Young candidate. A Tiger*, or Chris Sale, wins the Cy Young, and Felix wins the exhibition.
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Detroit's other Cy Young SP, David Price, will be cancelled like a stamp by Felix Hernandez. So we're drooling over the toothless Tigers like the Legion of Boom laughing over Peyton Manning end-over-end "passes" on game film. Should gain +5 games in the standings against Detroit this weekend.
After snacking on the Tigers lunchable, the M's get to fricasee three straight feeb opponents over the fires of their dual bullpens. The first feeb, Tejas, has exactly one (1) SP who is not an embarrassment and naturally, he is making a run for the DL border as we speak. Kendrys will definitely "get his timing down" in that series.
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So we'll be +20 games over .500 shortly. However, again in faithful service to LrKrBoi we'll point out that the M's are 37-24 against winning opponents and below .500 against losers. They've "played down to their opponent" all year. Think they're done with that?
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Arrow Lands in Detroit
Rodney tonight revealed that the Arrow is launched in order to --- > let people know the Mariners are coming. Like the flaming arrow over the parapets, Declaring War. No word on whether he'll fire a ballista into Texas to declare a competitive team and a nice night at the ballpark.
Detroit has a full-on panic going; here is an article that screams "The Tigers Are Imploding!" and another one that says "It's Very Likely to Get Worse." I dunno - what's worse than imploding? Like, rupturing? Standing before the King's Court? Knowing that you've got Brian Roberts rather than Robinson Cano?
Ouchie,
Dr D