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The TNT has a good piece on the Mariners' crowded outfield, and exactly what Servais intends to do about it.
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Playing time in the outfield is a premium commodity since Mitch Haniger returned last Sunday from the disabled list and reclaimed his job in right field after missing nearly seven weeks. Club officials view Haniger as a cornerstone of their future, and his performance to date, though still a small sample size, continues to validate that view.
When Haniger suffered a strained right oblique muscle on April 25 in Detroit, the Mariners plugged in Ben Gamel, who quickly established himself as a lineup fixture.
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Juicy tidbit. Scott Servais brought up the idea of Ben Gamel getting time at 1B in the long term. That's intriguing on a lot of levels, first of all what it says about the M's evaluation of Gamel, a speed type of corner outfielder. ... wait! We see Gamel played some 1B in the game Friday. (Didn't see the game myself.)
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Also at the TNT, Bob Dutton
relays the M's high optimism over all three TOR starters they're missing. They expect Felix to hit the ground running with a quality start next week. They see Hisashi Iwakuma as ready to go, and he's one of those master craftsmen who gets people out as long as he can raise his elbow above his shoulder. And we hope nobody has forgotten about Drew Smyly's WBC flash:
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"If I didn't know about his injury," Stottlemyre said, "I would never know that he had anything wrong…We’re going to do another bullpen, and we’ll bump up the intensity."
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Oregon Sports News
has a little blurb as to how we project the Mariners' playoff chances ... it will probably take 86-92 wins, Fangraphs gives it a 17% chance, etc. In reality, you can do it in one of two ways. One way is to create a bunch of season simulations based on ZIPS type preseason projections and get at least 10 variables into your formly. The other way is the Mainframe's: watch to see if the M's start playing their best.
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Enjoy,
Dr D
