The MLB is breaking for All-Star Week, and the Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles are coming off of 10+ game winning streaks. And they say baseball is predictable.
I am always a fan of teams that have routinely finished under .500, or have been uncompetitive as of late, having winning streaks or climbing the standings, and I especially prefer it when it happens to small market teams that haven't won in a while. The Orioles and Mariners are perfect examples, because both have had great recent teams fall on terrible luck, and both are using younger players to build for future dynasties.
I will say that of the two, the Mariners had the more predictable ascent. They were good in April, they just fell apart after Haniger got hurt, and now that they have people back and surging they're winning 14 straight and going after Houston. The Orioles, though? I never would have guessed that.
I mean, the team finishing over .500, yes, I would have predicted that. The last time I wrote a post on the Orioles, the top 12 WAR finishers all had over 1.0, and it included a tight knit group of people like Cedric Mullins, Jorge Lopez, Austin Hays, Trey Mancini and Tyler Wells who were all playing well. And now that group has expanded to include performers like Ryan Mountcastle, who has 14 home runs and a team-leading 46 RBIs, and Ramon Urias, who, along with Jorge Mateo, is having an incredible defensive season. For the first time in several years, you can go down the lineup with Baltimore without finding too many truly bad players. Yes, there's still people like Rougned Odor and Robinson Chirinos who harken back to the 'whoever's available for cheap can play 120 games' strategy for the last few years, but they do have replacements on-board and upcoming.
And also...Adley Rutschman's hitting now. Took him a little bit, but now he has 34 hits, 15 RBIs and 5 homers, and is heating up more and more as he gets used to the majors. I was worried it'd take a little more trial and error, like Jarred Kelenic, but Rutschman seems to have the right idea, and I'm so happy to see it.
At the same time...look, I kid this team's lack of name recognition, but having a pitching staff consisting of Jordan Lyles, Tyler Wells, Spenser Watkins, Dean Kremer and Austin Voth, and not having any of them with ERAs higher than 4.50...that's a pretty good sign. While Wells and Kremer have been the more highlight-worthy starters, Lyles has been a very nice veteran at the head of the rotation, and in the wake of John Means's injury departure, he's doing just fine for himself.
It's gonna be interesting to see how this team, and the Mariners, does after the ASG break. They have so much momentum right now, and they're only 1.5 games back from the Red Sox, and therefore are slowly closing in on the rest of the AL East pack. Could they actually get something done this year? And at the same time, could the Mariners stave off competition from the Rays, Red Sox, Blue Jays and now Orioles to get a wild card spot? These are the kind of developments I love about baseball, and I can't wait to see how they turn out.
Tomorrow, we start doing ASG week customs.
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