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So, lets face it, the Seattle Mariners have not been very good over the past few season despite the fact they have King Felix pitching and the consistency of Ichiro at the plate. Although Ichiro does not scare anyone with his ability to jack to ball, he is hard to stop when he gets on base. Lets take a look at the Seattle Mariners for 2012, shall we?
Pitching: Rotation
1. Felix Hernandez – We all know that there is a reason that Hernandez is called King Felix. He came up to the big club in 2005, and has been nothing
less than spectacular since then. In 7 seasons with the Mariners, Felix has an ERA of 3.23 with 1264 strikeouts to just 424 walks. He is the type of pitcher that one thinks of when they hear the phrase “ace of the staff. He is, in my opinion, one of the best pitchers going in the game. He has already pitched in 2012 thanks to that weird, Japanese two game series between then A’s and the Mariners, and he looked good, pitching 8 innings while giving up 1 earned run. King Felix will be King Felix, but at least the Mariners only have one of him. He is their biggest challenge when facing the Mariners.
2. Jason Vargus – There is a big drop off between Felix Hernandez and Jason Vargus, but that does not mean Vargus is not good. Jason had a pretty good 2011, recording 10 wins while striking out 131 batters (career high for him) and walking 59 (also a career high for him). Jason has a career ERA of 4.50, and in 2011 that ERA was 4.25. In his one start this season so far (that is still so weird to say for me) he had a very good outing, and if he can pitch anywhere close to that for a whole season, he may be a force this season. He went 6.1 innings, giving up 1 run on just two hits. His 2012 ERA so far is 1.42. Vargus is a guy who has been hit and miss against the Rangers in the past, having some shut down games against them and then also having some really bad outings. I look for Jason to be more of the same in 2012.
3. Hector Noesi – Hector does not have a lot of work at the major league level to look at, and that is usually a bad thing for the Rangers. He started two games for the Yankees in 2o11 as well as coming out of the bull pen for them, and had a record of 2-2 with a 4.47 ERA. Unless the Rangers vastly improve their ability to hit a guy they have never seen before, look for them to have trouble with Hector the first time they see him in the 2012 season. He began pitching at the AAA level in 2010, and he was 1-1 with a 4.82 ERA in 18.2 innings pitched. In 2011, he went 1-1 with a 3.28 ERA in 24.1 innings pitched. He has a good fastball but poor command accord to some scouting reports, and a tendency to walk people, which should be good for this patient Ranger offense.
4. Blake Bevan – This is a name that may just sound familiar to most Rangers 
fans out there as a former top prospect for the Rangers. He was traded away in the Cliff Lee deal along with Justin Smoak. Blake is 1-1 with a 2.35 ERA in the spring this season. Blake was a great prospect for the Rangers and they did not want to let him go, but as we all know, bringing Lee to Texas helped them get to the first of two straight World Series. In 2011 Blake started 15 games for the M’s, and he won 5 of those starts while losing 6. He had an ERA of 4.27. Blake was prone to the home run ball last season, giving up 13 long balls over just 15 starts, but lets face it, he is still a pretty good pitcher. I expect to see Bevan improve on last seasons numbers but still go through some growing pains as he matures at the major league level.
5. Kevin Millwood – now if you do not remember Bevan as a Rangers fan, I know you remember this guy! Kevin was with the Rangers from 2006 until 2009, and he was the opening day starter for the Rangers in the last 3 of those seasons. He was a good pitcher for the Rangers, and I always liked Milly. He is, however, on the downside of his career now. He is now 37 years old and I just do not know if he has a full season left in him. If he does, he can be a very good pitcher, and a great fit for the rather young rotation that the Mariners are running out there this season. Milly has a career ERA of 4.10 (3.98 in 2011), but he only started 9 games for the Rockies last season. It will be interesting to see how long he is in this spot.
Bullpen
The Mariners pen is not the best, or anywhere close to the best, but they do have a pretty good closer in Brandon League. Names like Charlie Furbush (4-10 with a 5.48 ERA in 2011), Hisashi Iwakuma, George Sherrill (3-1 with a 3.00 ERA in 2011) and Tom Wilhelmsen (2-0 with a 3.31 ERA in 2011) do not exactly strike fear in the hearts of Rangers fans, pitching is usually the strong point for the Seattle Mariners, and I see no reason what that will not be the story in 2012. Look for this to be a fluid bull pen with the Mariners bringing up some guys from AAA ball to help out during the season.
Offense
The 2011 Seattle Mariners were awful when it came to offensive production in 2011. They ranked last in batting average (.233), last in Slugging Percentage (.348), second to last in home runs (109, only the Twins were worse with 103), last in runs scored (556, the Rangers scored 855), and last in strikeouts (1280). Basically, they were not good. Now, they have some young guys that can hit and will be good in a few years, but I am not sure that this is the year for all of them. Smoak had some injury problems last season, look for him to be better. Also, look for Ichiro to be back in form in 2012. I would not expect him to have back to back disappointing seasons by his standards. Other than that, I think they will come close to being as bad in 2012 as they were in 2011. I look for them to flirt with 100 losses again (I say 92-96 losses) and to be in 4th place in the AL West in 2012. They have a lot of work to do to be back in contention in the AL West.
