OT: Mariners

Detroit's 1-2-3-4 is up there as well.
Scherzer Price Porcello and a healthy Sanchez (hurt currently) is scary for whoever has to face them come october.
I may have to eat my words, but I just don't think detroit can win in the postseason with that bullpen, especially against an oakland who'll make the starters work
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Yeah, Detroit's rotation is filthy if everyone's healthy, but that's not the case right now. I'd take Seattle's or Oakland's over the Tigers at this point.

I wouldn't be shocked to see the Tigers miss the playoffs completely. They're hurting pretty bad.

 
Kansas City may be the favorite to win the division despite a slightly better rotation and much better offense in Detroit.
KC's back end of the pen is nasty, if they have the lead after 6 the game is basically over.
 
Tigers schedule gets rough in a hurry ... 2 double headers in the next 2 weeks isn't good for a team with a shitty pen and 2/5th of its rotation on the DL.
 
Best 1-2-3 Pitching punch in all of baseball.
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Yep. Best 1 in baseball. Best 1-2 in baseball. Best 1-2-3 in baseball. Best healthy 1-2-3-4 in baseball. Best healthy 1-2-3-4-5 in baseball. And best bullpen on top of that.

And the offense has gone from terrible to sort of kind of decent, which should be all it takes to get this team into the playoffs with that elite run prevention. Anything can happen, but they're clearly the best team of those in contention for the second wild card.
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Disagree. Felix is great, but this is also a career year for him. He's the best pitcher in the AL though. Iwakuma is really good too. Young has been maybe the biggest surprise in baseball. Oakland with Lester, Gray, Kazmir, and Samardjza is the best 1-2-3, and 1-2-3-4. Young isn't as good as any of those guys and Paxton and Walker are too unproven. Iwakuma is good, Gray is a legitimate ace and maybe the best young pitcher in baseball. As Cuntwaffle noted, Detroit's 1-2-3 in a playoff series is scary good, but I don't think Verlander is getting it back this season. I'd rank them Oakland-Seattle-Detroit. Shoutout to dhdawg for calling it on the rotation in April. I didn't think they were top 5, but they are.

The offense is still pretty bad. Getting Jackson was a very good move though. The CF's before him were a disaster and now we have an above average to good player out there. If the M's do make the playoffs, it will be the first time I watched them in a real game since 2009. It might be asking a lot for Felix and the starters to keep throwing the way they are. You know they offense will have a couple more droughts where they score 5 runs in 4 games.
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You're right about Oakland's rotation. I was stupidly looking at full year success, which obviously shortchanges the A's since they've upgraded their rotation significantly in season. But I'd rank the pitchers in their rotations like this:

Felix
Lester
Gray/Iwakuma - seriously these guys are basically even whether you prefer ERA or FIP or xFIP or WAR. No idea why you like Gray so much more than Iwakuma, they're a total coin flip.
Samardjza - right there with Gray and Iwakuma numbers wise, but I ding him a bit for spending half his season in the NL.
Kazmir - might be underrating him since he's been so up and down through his career.
Young - heck of a season for him, still not sure he can sustain this level.
Paxton - way too early to get excited, but Paxton's small sample size numbers are better than every pitcher on this elite list other than Felix. If he can stay healthy he should be very good. Huge if. But he's probably already better than Young at least, he just has to stay healthy long enough to prove it.

So yeah, Seattle with the best 1-2, but Oakland with the best 1-2-3 and best 1-2-3-4. But before Lester I'd have given those to the M's.

Definitely agree with your analysis on Jackson.
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I ony said Gray was better than Iwakuma so that Kuma would pitch well last night. Mission accomplished. RoadDawg123 strikes again.

After looking at the stats, Iwakuma has probably been better. I probably overrated Gray because he gets talked about more on Baseball tonight and he had such a great April.
 
Iwakuma is better than Gray right now. Gray is like 24 though and Kuma is 32 or 33.... comparatively speaking Gray will probably eventually be better as he looks like one of the rising AL star pitchers. People tend to forget that Iwakuma finished 2nd in the Cy Young last year because the Mariners were so dreck.

Mariners from a results standpoint are making the case for best 1-5 rotation in the MLB. On paper the Tigers and the A's look better. Paxton has been killing it since he got back and if he can keep up his consistency and pitch deeper into ball games the Mariners definately have the best 1-4. Elias is pretty hit or miss but his past couple starts he has been hit. Elias has a chance to be a fantastic #5 if he can learn not hang so many off speed pitches. When he keeps it at the knees he is lights out.

Of course you have Walker waiting in the wings but I still think he may need another season to grow...he is only 22 and it shows when he chucks the pill. He walks like 4-6 batters a game (which is HORRIBLE, Iwakuma has 12 walks the entire season to put it into perspective) and he always misses his spots. Pitches are nasty but he has serious control issues.

I still don't know if this team really has what it takes to make the postseason. This season is an actual step in the right direction (Jack Z still needs to be fired). They need to go o out in the offseason and try and make the offense mediocre (not even good just OK).

tl;dr Baseball is in my wheelhouse FYFMFE.
 
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the pitching will not be this good next year most likely so I disagree on just making the offense ok in 2015. If the mariners want to beat oakland and laa they need a legitimately good offense.
 
the pitching will not be this good next year most likely so I disagree on just making the offense ok in 2015. If the mariners want to beat oakland and laa they need a legitimately good offense.
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I agree the pitching won't be this good just because it can't be, but I don't know if it will drop off a ton either. There's real potential for it to be even better honestly, if you get a full season out of Paxton (I know, big if). But if all those Maurer/Ramirez starts are given to an above average starter that will compensate for some inevitable regression from Felix, the pen and especially Young.

I think an average offense next year combined with the M's pitching is one hell of a team. The question is can they get to average?
 
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