The Mariners scored a measly 671 runs while giving up 811, 754 of which were earned. That's a lot of unearned runs, which is the main reason why new GM Jack Zduriencik has focused on improving the defense this off season.
According to Jim Street of MLB.com, the projected Mariners rotation is Felix Hernandez, Erik Bedard, Carlos Silva, Jarrod Washburn and Brandon Morrow. If these players play to their career averages, then just maybe we'll have a legitimate starter win double digit games.
Hernandez, who led the team with 9 wins, needs to prove he's the ace we've all been waiting for. At 175 strikeouts in 200.2 innings, Hernandez could benefit from improving his control.
While leading the team in strikeouts, Hernandez also led the team with 80 walks. Not to be outdone, Batista came in a close second with 79 with nearly 50 fewer innings pitched.
A career ERA of 4.56, Batista inflated his ERA to 6.26 in 2008. Washburn went from 4.13 for his career but spent 08 losing 14 games with a 4.69 ERA.
The most frighting stat of all however could be hits per nine innings.
After an injury plagued season, Bedard had the fewest hits per nine at a staggering 7.78.
We all know Silva is going to give up hits, probably five before throws his first pitch, but Washburn gave up 10.19 hits per nine, more than a hit per inning isn't going to get you any Cy Young votes.
Just in case anyone has forgotten the joy of watching Silva pitch, Larry Stone wrote a great article last August.
Along with Washburn's gift to hitters, he also gave up 2.93 walks per nine. To fully understand the horror Mariners fans can experience when he walks toward the mound, the opposite team can enjoy at least a hit an inning and a walk every three.
Even with the best defense in baseball, pitchers can't expect to win games if they're allowing that many base runners.
If the Mariners expect to be anything more than a cellar dweller, or the joke of the American League, oh wait that's the Detroit Tigers, then new Mariners pitching coach Rick Adair has a lot of work to do with the rotation.
Luckily for Adair, Hernandez has lowered his ERA each of the last three season while pitching more than 190 innings each year as well as lowering the amount of home runs given from 23 in 2006 to just 17 in 08.
The X Factor in all of this will be Brandon Morrow. Slotting Morrow after Washburn and Silva makes him the stop-gap pitcher. Morrow can handle the pressure of being the pitcher to stop a losing streak, and the hope is that by doing so, it will ease the rest of the staff.
The other bright spot might be in rookie Phillippe Aumont.
Here's to hoping that Silva and Washburn can turn some of those many, many losses into wins.
