Peter Gammons A Pearl Jam Oct. In Seattle Peter Gammons Gammons Daily

Peter Gammons: A Pearl Jam October

March 13, 2015 by Peter Gammons 1 Comment

PEORIA, Arizona—The season had been one of stops and starts, of constant reminders from the runaway Orioles that the Mariners really did once trade Adam Jones and Chris Tillman for Erik Bedard. On the one hand, they’d given up fewer runs than any team in the American League, yet they’d had losing streaks of eight, six and five games, and through all that, were still there on the final day of the regular season September 28 a game behind Oakland.
Both teams prepared for the possibility, that with Felix Hernandez pitching for the Mariners, they could end up in a tie and they could play a playoff game the next day. And the Athletics knew what one of their advance scouts had written in his report: “We’d better get in before this game, because Taijuan Walker will start.”
They did not want to see Taijuan Walker.
Sonny Gray won that final day, so while King Felix also won, the A’s were off to face the Royals in the play-in game and for the 13th straight year, the Mariners were not in the post-season.
But now we are zeroing in on the Ides of March, 2015, and Walker is, in the words of Lloyd McClendon, “blowing people away. It’s scary how athletic he is.” One scout I know saw him play hoops in high school, recalled him taking off at the foul line for a one hand slam and saying “that’s where ‘SkyWalker’ comes from.” James Paxton will be ready to open the season, and where last season their two big young arms made 18 starts, this year they’re expected to make 50 to 65 behind Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma. In a great place to mature as a pitcher, Safeco Field.
To a lineup McClendon admits “had a tough time in the one, two and four holes,” they have Austin Jackson leading off and returning to his game, slapping the ball instead of thinking RBIs, stealing bases and scoring runs out of the leadoff spot, where the M’s had a .287 OBP.
They acquired Seth Smith and Justin Ruggiano to split right field and the two hole; last year, Seattle was .225/.260/.345 in the two hole, where Smith was .270/.359/.455 against righthanders, Ruggiano .305/.333/.532 against lefties.
And in the cleanup position, behind Robinson Cano, where they slugged .319, they signed Nelson Cruz, 40 homers. And added Rickie Weeks to split left field with Dustin Ackley. “It is a very different feel,” says Cano. “We’re just a very different team. Look, I am very thankful to be here in Seattle. To get a ten year deal has given me peace of mind, and made me a big part of Seattle, as the Mariners are a big part of me. But now what I want is to win championships for the team and the city and, to be honest, for myself. That’s what it’s about. I know what it means to win (as he did with the 2009 Yankees). I know what it means to play beside Derek Jeter, and what he meant to the New York Yankees.
“I want it to be that way in Seattle. I think it can happen.”
Cruz, as well, has the money his career has earned him. “I loved it in Baltimore, and thank them for the opportunity,” he says. “But what I want is to win a World Series. That opportunity is here. I know what it’s like to be really close, but close isn’t enough.” Close, to Nelson Cruz, means being one strike away from it all twice in the 2011 World Series.
These Mariners are a fascinating team. “I think about what might have been had we beaten out Oakland and played Kansas City in a one game playoff and where they went,” says Cano. “Get into the playoffs and a lot of things can happen. I give the Royals a lot of credit.”
Get around the Mariners and one is quickly reminded that this is not a team built around Cano and Cruz, period. “Kyle (Seager) has made himself into one of the best players in the league,” says shortstop Brad Miller. “His will, his determination is fierce.” Coaches refer to Seager’s drive as “a monumental chip on his shoulder,” although he happens to be one of the game’s nicest persons. At North Carolina, he was a very good player who lingered in the shadow of Ackley and pitcher Alex White, who went second and seventh in his draft, while Seager was a third rounder. He has the great lift swing, his production has improved every year, his 5.5 WAR actually topped Cano’s 5.2. He won the Gold Glove.
While hitting coach Howard Johnson believes if he played in Yankee Stadium he’d be Graig Nettles, McClendon just says “he comes every day to beat somebody. He’s really tough.” Must be something in the genes, because when Kyle talks about growing up with two younger brothers (Justin, in the Seattle system, and Corey, the Dodgers’ 20-year-old prodigy), he remembers they were so competitive Justin and Corey fought one another in every basketball and football game they ever played, and Corey says their father banned them from basketball at one point.
One looks at Mike Zunino behind the plate, Ackley, Seager, and what they hope will be a breakout year from either Miller or Chris Taylor at short, and there is the combination of experience and youth.
And, after the starting pitching, down at the end is a bullpen in the league’s Big Three with the Royals and Yankees.
Fernando Rodney is the closer, but they run out one 95-98 guy after another. Tom Wilhelmsen, Dominic Leone (with the Mariano cutter), Danny Farquhar and Yoervis Medina from the right side. Charlie Furbush from the left. “At times, Lloyd had eight relievers down there,” says Furbush, 81 strikeouts in 71 innings. “But he handled that bullpen brilliantly. No one got worn down or tired. Ask McClendon, and he says he learned from coaching for Jim Leyland, whom he calls, “the best.” And now they have two more 95-98 MPH lefties in Rule V pick David Rollins and rookie Tyler Olson.
It will be different this year, because with platoons at two positions, the Mariners cannot carry an eight man bullpen.
Those of us who love the Pike Place Market and the Dungeness crabs and the salmon and Elliot Bay and the Hendrix Museum and remember what it was like in the Kingdome when Junior Griffey scored on Edgar Martinez’s shot down the line to beat the Yankees in the ’95 ALDS, what it was like when they won 116 games, the All-star Game. It’s been awhile, a long 13 years, but as Seager and Cano and the first group of hitters were taking BP Friday morning, Pearl Jam’s “Better Man” was playing over the PA system, and it got me starting to think about a Safeco October, and the Mariners thumbing their way back home.