The Battle for Grass Creek Series Preview (with Dave Cameron Interview)

General:

Record 34-47, 4th in AL West

Pitching

Suspected starters for the series:

The Mariners Starters Stats (This will be Erik Bedard's first start of the season since coming off the DL):

I have included the wXX/C value from Fangraphs.com to show which pitches the starter throws and the productivity of those pitches. The prefix "w" in front of any of the pitch types denotes runs above average. When the pitch type trails with "/C" it denotes per 100 pitches. wFB/C would be fastball runs above average per 100 fastballs. A positive value is good, negative value is bad. A value of 3 means the pitch is getting great results.

Projected Mariner's Lineup

Hitter stats:

Defense Stats:

Injury news:

Apathy and frustration, mostly. So many guys are performing far below any reasonably expected level, especially on offense, that the team ended up wasting tremendous years from their starting pitchers. Everyone gave up on the season a month ago, so at this point, the results of the games have stopped mattering, and we're all just rooting for things like development from Michael Saunders now.

Can you tell us a little about the starters in the series (Hernandez, Rowland-Smith, Fister)?

Note: At the time I requested the interview Rowland-Smith was the scheduled starter.  Erik Bedard is now the scheduled starter for game 2.

Felix is awesome, but he still battles inconsistent command. When he's throwing his fastball for strikes, he's as good as anyone. When its diving out of the zone, he gets in trouble.

Rowland-Smith is your classic no-stuff, good command, flyball lefty, only this year, he hasn't had command, which is kind of a problem. He's got a good change-up, but he doesn't throw it behind in the count much, and so when he's missing with his fastball, he's a batting practice pitcher.

Fister is a Jon Garland type - tall and skinny, but below average velocity and no outpitch. He throws a lot of 88 MPH fastballs, but when he's going good, he spots them well. He's struggled since coming off the DL.

What would team's greatest weakness/need?

Offense. Chone Figgins, Milton Bradley, and Jose Lopez were all supposed to be average or better hitters this year, but all three have been awful. That has essentially sunk the team's chances of scoring runs.

Are there any young players in the pipeline we might see in the majors within a couple of years?

Dustin Ackley, last year's Strasburg consolation prize, is in Double-A and should be ready to take over at second base in 2011. Michael Pineda, the team's top pitching prospect, was just promoted to Triple-A.

What are some of your fansite's inside jokes? Who do you laugh at? What do you make fun of?

Rob Johnson, the team's regular catcher, can't catch, which inspires a lot of mocking. Sean White is perhaps the worst pitcher in Major League Baseball, so he gets a good amount of scorn. Wakamatsu uses the phrase "belief system" all the time, which was more likable when he was making good decisions and the team was winning.