LeBlanc Slate

Wade LeBlanc pitching for a team over .500. Who'd have thought?

Wade LeBlanc was one of those rookies for the 2010 Padres that everyone thought would end up panning out, along with the rest of that team. Him and Kyle Blanks. And we all know that Kyle Blanks certainly ended up winning batting titles and not as a perennial bench player for the Giants for a few years.

LeBlanc had us all worried there as well, taking a couple of seasons as a reliever ping-ponging between teams that didn't need him. Eventually he wound up in Seattle, on a Mariners team that had way too few starting options. And so...they used LeBlanc as a starter, and he did pretty damned well for them, providing a constant, powerful presence that nobody else that wasn't Marco Gonzales could seem to supply this year.

The Mariners have tried to develop a team that could withstand injury, slumps, and general bullshit this decade, and it hasn't really happened. Even with Cruz hitting homers, and the one-two of Jean Segura and Dee Gordon, there's still been the James Paxton injuries, Robinson Cano's suspension, and the July skid. It hasn't really been fun since the A's took hold of the WC spot, and while I'd like to say I didn't see it coming...I kinda did. This team's imperfections have sort of been there since April, and it was only a matter of time until the bottom fell out.

Next year should be an improvement...I hope...

Coming Tonight: Another 'got injured while his custom was backlogged' guy...also kinda indicative of his team's plight.