When the season opened it was clear this was going to be a re-building year. They started off with only four wins in their first 15 games. Then things started to turn around and by June 19th the Mariners were only a half a game out of first place in the West and two games above .500.
I had hope that it might be more then re-building season. The Mariners had a good starting pitching staff with Felix Hernandez, rookie Michael Pineda and even Erik Bedard was contributing wins. The bullpen looked strong with Brandon League stepping up to fill the closer roll left open by an injured David Aardsma. I was starting to believe they had a chance to win the West.
Then came the month of July, with the Mariners having a 17 game losing streak that brought me back to reality. So with my hopes of a winning season dashed that left the only reason to watch the games was to follow the development of their rookie players. Eric Wedge used 18 rookies this season with some success like Michael Pineda, Dustin Ackley and Mike Carp.
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Through out the season Eric Wedge changed the line-up over 150 times. Not to mention their starting rotation changed with the trades of Erik Bedard and Doug Fister. The biggest shock of the season came just a month in when they dumped Milton Bradley even though it met eating his salary.
The Mariners have some things to figure out during the off season. The catching situation, Miguel Olivio was our best offense but his catching skills left something to be desired with all his pass balls. Who are they going to start in left field? They had a rotation of rookies out there with Treyvon Robinson starting to look comfortable out there.
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Then Eric Wedge and Jack Zduriencik are going to have to answer these questions: What will they do with Chone Figgins? Can they find a big bat to sign in the off-season? Will they keep Ichiro batting lead off?
My notes on the 2011 Mariner season:
* All the rookies that made their debut this season and getting to see their first hits and homeruns in the major leagues.
* The April 11th, come from behind win over the Blue Jays. Mariners scored eight runs in the last 3 innings to beat Toronto 8-7.
* Rookie Michael Pineda made his first All-Star appearance.
* It was the first season without Dave Niehaus. The Mariners could not have had a better tribute to their former announcer with his statue out in center field. http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/sea/ballpark/niehaus.jsp
* It took until July 21, when Miguel Olivio hit the Mariners first grand slam of the season. Hearing Rick Rizz pay tribute to Dave Niehaus with his famous grand slam call, "get out the rye bread and mustard grandma it is grand salami time", was worth the wait.
* Ichiro missed having his 11th straight 200 hit season by 16 hits.
It has only been a week and I already miss the Mariners. I get use to them playing six days a week. This season I attended nine games including one road game, the bad part is they lost every game. The Mariners were 0-9 with me in attendance. That still won't stop me from attending games next year even with friends and co-workers calling me a jinx.
I already have March 28, 2012 circled on my calendar. That is the start to the Mariners 2012 season when they take on the Oakland A's in Tokyo, Japan. I already have my heart set on the Mariners making a play off run all the way to the World Series.