The French Connection

 

In fairness to the Mariners, who have begun the season 1-3, I wouldn't do well against Shohei Ohtani in his prime either.

Look, people have made the joke for years 'Mike Trout hit 5 homers and Shohei Ohtani broke a 100-year-old record as the Angels lost', but the tide, at least in April, seems to be turning, as with a better rotation and with both Ohtani and Trout healthy, the Angels are tough right now. And even if you're the Mariners, who people predict are gonna do big things this year, that's hard to combat.

And it's not like the M's are doing particularly badly, either. Pretty much everybody's been hitting something, and the big guns like Julio Rodriguez, Ty France and Cal Raleigh are performing as they should. You also have Luis Castillo and Logan Gilbert, the two starters that the Mariners were hoping for the biggest things from, already looking fantastic after one start. The problem is that it's gonna take a little while longer for some of the contact guys, like Kolten Wong, J.P. Crawford and, well, Jarred Kelenic, to start hitting.

It's also a little scary that we have this whole power core built up with France, Eugenio Suarez and Teoscar Hernandez, and only France is hitting well so far, with 3 RBIs and an Opening Day homer. Yes, it's week 1 and they'll likely catch up, but if you don't show up against the Angels, who might be a good team, who will you be there for?

Also discouraging is the fact that Robbie Ray, one start into his season, is going on the IL. Something about throwing hard for like 4 full seasons in a row sort of tires the arm out, I dunno. If they didn't have Chris Flexen around to start games in his place, I'd be more worried, but Robbie Ray was Mr. Consistency for them last year, and hopefully they'll be still alright without him. Yes, Logan Gilbert and George Kirby are also consistent, but...I dunno, this worries me.

I want to see how the Mariners fully develop over the course of the month, and what pieces start working. I want this team to compete, and outdo their 2022 selves, and I want them to convince me that they can.

Coming Tomorrow- The guy that hit 3 homers the other night.