Tied for 14th-worst record in baseball, with the Texas Rangers. And, by virtue of the Rangers having a superior record than the Mariners in 2016, that means we win the tie-breaker! Hurrah! We’re drafting 14th!
Hey, it could’ve been worse. Sure, it could’ve been a lot better, but I guess we just HAD to win those three games in the final week!
I have nothing to say about the series against the Angels. I’m just going to run through some numbers. I’ll have a proper End Of Season Recap when I’ve had time to digest everything that’s happened.
78-84 is good for 3rd in the A.L. West, behind the division-winning Astros and the nothing Angels. The Astros were 23 games better than the Mariners. Go ahead and let that sink in.
78-84 is good for 7 games back of the second Wild Card spot. The Twins ended up taking that, as I believe I’ve mentioned before. The Royals, Rays, and Angels all stood in our way as well. Oddly enough, every team out of the playoffs was under .500 in the American League (there were two teams in the N.L. with winning records that failed to make the playoffs).
The Mariners finished 40-41 at home; 38-43 on the road. The Mariners finished with a -22 run differential (by the Pythagorean winning percentage, we should’ve been about 1 win better).
Here are the Mariners’ records by month:
- April: 11-15
- May: 14-14
- June: 15-12
- July: 14-12
- August: 12-15
- September: 12-16
The Mariners’ peak was 3 games over .500, which I believe they achieved twice; the nadir was 8 games under .500. The longest winning streak and losing streak were both 6 games. The Mariners were 7-5 in extra innings games. They were 26-15 in 1-run games.
Here are the Mariners’ final records against their A.L. West foes:
- Houston: 5-14
- Anaheim: 7-12
- Texas: 11-8
- Oakland: 12-7
- Total: 35-41
That means the Mariners were 43-43 against everyone else. Not great, considering every other American League division had a minimum of 2 playoff teams; we really should’ve done a better job cleaning up in our own division.
Jean Segura led the Mariners in batting average with an even .300. Nelson Cruz led the team in OBP with .375, and Slugging with .549 (it would stand to reason, then, that he led in OPS with .924). Cruz led the team in homers with 39, and in runs scored with 91; he led the entire American League in RBI with 119. Robbie Cano had the team lead in hits with 166. Cano and Seager tied for the team lead in doubles with 33. And Ben Gamel took the team lead in triples with 5. Jarrod Dyson was your stolen base king with 28.
The less said about the pitching, the better, but here are a couple of nuggets. You want to know who led the team in innings pitched? Ariel Miranda, with a whopping 160! Paxton led the team in strikeouts with 156 and in wins with 12. Yovani Gallardo led the team in losses with 10. Nick Vincent, naturally, led the team in Holds with 29. And Edwin Diaz finished with 34 saves.
The Mariners finished 7th in the A.L. in runs scored with 750. 8th in ERA with 4.46.
I could go on and on, but I’ll call it a day right there. All told, the offense was worse than I expected, and the pitching was as bad as I feared. Of course, I hoped for the best with the pitching, and it indeed may have been better had everyone not gotten injured. But, overall this is probably the record the Mariners deserved. This is probably the best indication of who these Mariners were. Sure, they might’ve been a bit better with a full season out of Paxton and Felix, and with ANY season out of Smyly, but with their flaws, this was no playoff team. Not now, not ever.
You want to hear something really sad? In two years managing the Seattle Mariners, Lloyd McClendon was 163-161. In two years managing the Seattle Mariners, Scott Servais is 164-160. Over these last two years, the Mariners are exactly 1 game better than they were the previous two years.
God I hate baseball.