With their rotation, Mariners thinking of postseason
PEORIA, Ariz. – Miguel Batista, who has been reading Winston Churchill for inspiration, recognizes that a baseball team’s starting rotation is only as strong as its weakest link.
Well, if Batista is the weakest link, opening the season as the No. 5 starter, the Seattle Mariners just may have a rotation for the ages.
“I don’t like being the fifth starter, but they told me this is part of their smart strategy,” says Batista, whose 16 victories last season led all free-agent starters. “Now, how smart their strategy is, we don’t know. But I do know that with our rotation, we have very high expectations.
“They didn’t just want a balanced rotation, but a perfect rotation that destroys people. They wanted a bullet-proof rotation that doesn’t give anyone a chance. They may have it.
“I won 16 games last year. I led the team in wins. And I’m the fifth starter? How many teams in the big leagues can say their fifth starter finished in the top 10 in wins last year?”
Try none.
“I think that tells you right there,” Mariners manager John McLaren says, “just how good we think this rotation is. I’m not making expectations too high, because we’ve got the bar set high already.”
The Mariners, with the acquisitions of Erik Bedard and Carlos Silva, have put together one of the scariest rotations in baseball. They have an imposing 1-2 punch with Bedard and Felix Hernandez, who combined for a 27-12 record last season with 386 strikeouts. Silva, Jarrod Washburn and Batista each pitched at least 193 innings last season, making at least 31 starts each of the last two seasons.
It may be the finest rotation, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre says, that he may have been part of during his 22-year major-league coaching career, including a 10-year stint from 1996 to 2005 with the New York Yankees.
“We’ve got five starters here that all have a chance to win at least 15 games,” he said.
The Mariners’ biggest acquisition, the starters say, may have been Stottlemyre, who was lured out of retirement. He addressed the pitching staff the first day of camp, Batista says, and told them there was one reason he came to Seattle.
“I want everybody to be watching us in October,” Stottlemyre said, according to Batista.
The Mariners, who won 88 games last year and tied for the fifth-best record in the American League, couldn’t care less that the Angels are the favorites to win the division. They relish the underdog role, even though the Angels’ top two starters, John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar, are opening the season on the disabled list.
“I like the fact that no one is talking about us,” Batista says. “And at the end of the year, I want people to say, ‘Hey, where did those guys come from?’ It’s just like everyone has had their eyes on the Yankees the last seven years. Where did it get them? They didn’t win a World Series.”
Says Washburn: “The Angels are still the team to beat in the division. They were better than us last year and they made improvements. So did we.
“Now, we’ve got to find out if our better is better than their better.”
The Mariners believe their bullpen was fatigued last season, which contributed to their 2-15 collapse Aug. 25-Sept. 11, knocking them out of the playoff hunt. Yet, with everyone but Bedard (182) pitching at least 190 innings last season, and with the pickup of knuckleballer R.A. Dickey as a long man and spot starter, the Mariners’ bullpen may stay fresh.
It has been seven years since the Mariners have been to the postseason, and they’ve never been to the World Series in their 31-year history. They believe the drought will soon end.
“I know we won 88 games last year,” left fielder Raul Ibanez says, “but we’re a much better team than last year. And our rotation is the best I’ve ever seen. If we just do what we’re capable of, how can you not like our chances?”