2020 Mariners Preview and Predictions: Does a 60 Game Season Bring Any Hope?

 By Gray Kinard

After a few months of uncertainty and negotiations, baseball is back, and with it come the predictions for the season upon us. This year things are going to be quite different. Instead of playing a full 162 games, the season will be shortened into a much smaller 60 game span, leaving many opportunities for teams to do better than expected.

Unfortunately, this leaves many fans with hope that they normally would not have. In this 60-game season all a team must do is get hot at the right time and they can bulldoze their way into the playoffs. It could really be any teams game. As a Mariner’s fan, however, the slight glimmer of hope for this year is also infuriating.

 Last year, the Mariners went an impressive 12-2 through the first 3 weeks of the season. Not only did they somehow do that, but hit an obscene amount of home runs in the process. That little glimmer of hope would not last at all as they would then fall back to their normal level of mediocrity, ultimately finishing the season 68-94 and at the bottom of the AL West.

Now as a Mariners fan I am quite used to this. Every year we get told as fans it is a new season and that anything can happen. Anything but make the playoffs that is. The Seattle Mariners have failed to reach the playoffs for the past 19 years, that appearance being in the 2001 season. We currently hold the longest active playoff drought in North American sports. That is just embarrassing considering some of the talent we have had on our team since 2001.

So, like every new season prior, it is time to predict where this underwhelming team will ultimately finish. Let us start with acquisitions. The Mariners throughout the 2019 season shipped off all players who were performing better than expected. After trading away Edwin Diaz and Robinson Cano to the Mets and one of their best pitchers in recent history, James Paxton, to the Yankees at the end of the 2018 season, it was obvious the franchise was stooping back down to its hope of building a new roster with talent that could get the team to the playoffs. However, they did not get anyone good from those deals. The only noteworthy players were prospect Justus Sheffield and veteran Jay Bruce. Sheffield did not see much action in the 2019 season appearing in only 8 games at the major league level and acquiring a 5.50 ERA. Bruce, on the other hand was playing alright acquiring 14 home runs in the first two months of the season. Not great for the Mariners but definitely serviceable.

So, the Mariners trading away 3 star players for some eh prospects and a veteran who they’d immediately trade away wasn’t great for the season. So, going into 2020 with a roster that has little talent and horrid front office management, their prospects of being a competitive team are not great.

With the season being only 60 games, and the MLB trying to reduce the amount of travel a team must do, the Mariners will be playing a lot more on the West Coast then they would normally do. As far as how hard that schedule is, let us look at it. Out of the 60 games total for the season, 24 of those are against playoff teams from 2019. The Athletics, Astros, and Dodgers were all featured in the postseason last year and they are all projected to get there again this year as well.

As far as the rest of the schedule goes, they will be facing teams that are on the brink, or close to being on the brink of being a postseason contender. The Angles, Padres, and Rangers are all heavily featured on their schedule and all of them either made moves during the offseason or have been acquiring talent the past few years to bolster their rosters.

With a schedule full of teams that try to make their teams better, there is little hope for the season. My prediction is that like last year, the Mariners will finish in last place yet again. As far as their record goes, there is little hope that they will be anywhere close to 500. My prediction is that they win 15-20 games while losing the other 40-45.

As a fan of the team it really hurts to say that they’ll only win 15 games, but with how they’ve played in the past few years and how their roster has shaped up this year, there is little to no hope. However, even with that, I will, as usual, have my fingers crossed that by some miracle they actually play competitive baseball.  

The Clone Wars: A Long-Awaited Ending is Here

*Disclaimer*: *This was written on March 24th and only reflects events that happened up to that point*

By Gray Kinard

 

Star Wars is one of the most beloved and popular franchises ever. With movies, TV shows, and books spanning its universe, it is surprising there are still plot holes that need solving within its walls. This is where The Clone Wars series comes in. Originally airing in 2008 to try and grab a younger audience, this series has become a pinnacle of the franchise, giving fans much needed answers to questions that arose from the movies.

After spanning 6 seasons, The Clone Wars was discontinued in early 2014 much to the chagrin of many fans as it had become overwhelmingly popular in the community. This past February, the 7th and final season was released to cap off the storylines existing within the show. It has so far been received with overwhelming support from fans who both grew up watching it as a kid, and old fans alike.

When looking at the original seasons of the show, viewers could tell that it was targeted to a younger audience. The fighting was toned down, the droids made comedic remarks, and the stories told were toned down. As the show went on and the creators realized how many older fans were watching it, they slowly stepped up the maturity of the show but did not alienate the younger audience.

This has all changed however in this final season. To start off with, the animation style has changed to a gritter graphically detailed style which is in sharp contrast to its originally softer and friendly animations. This difference immediately sets the show apart from the earlier seasons, as it can depict graphic and brutal aspects of the characters and show.

Along with the animation change, many of the characteristics that gave the lent the show to younger audiences are now gone. Gone are the fights where you did not see injuries or harsh violence. Right off the bat you are given heavily scarred clone troopers and long fights. This change only adds to the storytelling the show has.

As of now, the show has aired 5 episodes and each one has either given fans closure to previous plots or new insight on how characters will eventually change in Revenge of the Sith. With 7 episodes left, fans cannot wait to see what tie-ins the show has with The Mandalorian, and the way the show will finally be wrapped up.

The Failure of 2019 and Looking Ahead: The Boston Red Sox

*Disclaimer*: *This post was written in October of 2019 and does not reflect the investigation by the MLB or any organization changes after this time.*

The Failure of 2019 and Looking Ahead: The Boston Red Sox

By Gray Kinard

2019 wasn’t kind to the world champion Red Sox. After dominating the 2018 regular season with a league-best record of 108-54, then going on to win the World Series against the Dodgers,  the Red Sox were looking to repeat their success in 2019. They signed ace Chris Sale to a five-year, 145-million dollar extension in March of 2019, right before the season began. Sale dominated during the 2018 season finishing with a 2.11 ERA and fourth in the AL Cy Young Award race. With his track record of being one of the best pitchers in baseball and his performance in 2018, his resigning was expected as the Red Sox wanted to keep their rotation strong. 

The Sox had high hopes of repeating a World Series run in 2019, as almost their entire lineup was the same as it had been in 2018. NBC Sports Boston had reported that the Red Sox were favored +700 along with the Astros to win the World Series. However, it would change very quickly.

Their season got off to a very rocky start against the Seattle Mariners, who had shipped off most of their star players and we're in a rebuilding stage after 2018. With a World Series-winning roster, most experts and fans expected the Red Sox to win their opening series or even sweep the Mariners altogether. The Mariners, however, won three out of four games against the Sox and demolished Sale in the season opener. He would only go 3 innings and give up 7 runs in that time to a team that would finish last in the AL West. 

The Red Sox continued the very slow start, finishing April with a record of 13-17. Many attributed Boston’s slow start to the way Alex Cora, the Red Sox manager, used his pitchers during spring training. During spring, a time when teams get their players ready for the season, Cora instead opted to give his rotation limited innings to save them for the season. This showed as Sale and their new pitching star Nathan Evolodi both had horrendous ERA at over 6.00 at the end of April. 

 

Along with the pitching not working for the Red Sox, their star outfielder Mookie Betts, who won the AL MVP award the previous year, would also slump at the beginning. Through April and May, he hit a somewhat respectable .282 batting average, along with 9 home runs, but not what was expected of him considering he hit .346 during 2018. 

By the time the All-Star break had come around, the Red Sox were 49-41 and sitting in third place in the AL East behind the Yankees and Rays, but still in the conversation for the playoffs. Many fans and baseball analysts were expecting Boston to make some moves to help bolster their team, as the trade deadline was looming ahead. The pitching for the Red Sox had been pretty bad with their staff having a 4.59 ERA in the first half and many were speculating that the Red Sox were going to try to get a star closer as they had lost Craig Kimbrell during the off-season, and were having some serious issues in that part of their bullpen. The hitting had been starting to come around with sluggers J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogarts both hitting above .300 along with up and coming star Rafael Devers producing a lot of offense. On the offensive side, the Red Sox management decided not to make any moves to help their team. 

This message could’ve been taken in two ways. One, we’re confident in our team and we just need to iron out some kinks but we have a good core of players that will get us to the postseason, or two, we have invested too much money and we don’t feel we have a chance of making a postseason run. Manager Alex Cora stuck with the first narrative stating in an interview, “I’m not disappointed ... it’s a group that we trust.” 

Unfortunately, the group that they trusted wasn’t going to pan out in the end. The Red Sox finished the regular season in third place with a record of 84-78 and 12 games out of the wild card. In the weeks leading up to the end of this disappointing season, the Red Sox would fire President of Baseball Operations, Dave Dombrowski.

This off-season will be a big one for the Red Sox. In 2019, they had a payroll of 248.6 million dollars, which was the most in the MLB. Many of their star players’ contracts are up this year, and after their 2019 season, the likelihood of resigning them is very low. The players on the chopping block this year are INF Brock Holt, DH J.D. Martinez (opt-out), 1B Mitch Moreland, INF Eduardo Nunez, 1B Steve Pearce, RHP Rick Porcello, and RHP Tyler Thornburg. In J.D’s case, he could stay if he doesn’t opt-out, but with his production these past two seasons, it’s very likely he will in search of a more long-term and higher-paying deal. Along with these players, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Mookie Betts have contracts ending next year, and with Boston trying to cut costs, it’s likely we will see them leave as well in favor of getting new rookie talent for much less money. 

So what’s next? Will Boston hire a new GM who decides to resign players and try again next season, or will they instead decide to forego signing the players leaving and trade their assets they have locked down right now in favor of them having another run in a few years? With a few teams looking to be contenders next year, the Red Sox could potentially be in a position to come out on top if they traded away some of their star players, in favor of prospects that would help them in the future. With the off-season only a few weeks away, many of these questions will be answered and we will start to see what will happen for the Sox in 2020.