Series Preview: Seattle Mariners at San Diego Padres
It was nice to see the Mariners lastly play as much as their potential for a complete weekend. That it got here at the expense of the Astros makes it all of the sweeter. Between the odd fourth sport towards Houston on Monday, the fast three-game highway journey to San Diego in the midst of this week, and a fast second collection towards the Rangers again at house this weekend, I’m unsure what the MLB schedule makers had been pondering with this week.
The Mariners received the inaugural “official” model of the Vedder Cup final yr, taking 5 of six video games towards the Padres. The final time San Diego received this regional rivalry was again in 2021.
The Padres have been some of the entertaining groups over the previous couple of years. They’ve received tons of famous person expertise on the massive league roster and have not been afraid to make aggressive strikes to remain aggressive. Years of these win-now strikes have depleted the depth in San Diego’s group, which makes this roster fairly prime heavy and doubtlessly very fragile. When everyone seems to be wholesome and issues are working as they need to be, this staff is nearly as good as another within the National League.
While the Padres’ pitching workers is not at the moment at full power, the lineup is firing on all cylinders. Built round a quartet of stars, the offense mirrors the development of the complete roster: extraordinarily prime heavy. Fernando Tatis Jr. hasn’t been in a position to replicate the MVP-type manufacturing from earlier in his profession earlier than his bike accident in 2021, however he is nonetheless been among the finest gamers in baseball during the last three years. Manny Machado is the iron man of the group; he is performed in lower than 150 video games in a season simply thrice in his 12-year profession and a kind of instances was his rookie yr when he was known as up midseason. He’s been some of the constant producers in baseball as properly, the metronome within the coronary heart of the Padres lineup. I’m unsure Xander Bogaerts will ever get again to the extent of manufacturing he loved in Boston, however he performs glorious protection at a premium place. The star with the most important query marks is Jackson Merrill; he took a step again final yr after a improbable debut in 2024, though he is nonetheless solely 23 years previous and nonetheless has an especially excessive ceiling.
Michael King seemed like an ace in his one lone full season within the beginning rotation again in 2024. He had made the swap from the bullpen throughout the earlier yr, however his observe up marketing campaign after his breakout was stuffed with accidents. I missed about two and a half months of the season final yr with a shoulder damage and one other two weeks in August with knee irritation. He by no means actually seemed settled final yr and his ERA and FIP actually suffered. He’s received a few strong pitch pairs to assault batters on each side of the plate; four-seam-changeup towards left-handers and sinker-sweeper towards right-handers. With his low-slot supply, he will get a ton of horizontal motion on his secondary pitches, whereas nonetheless staying fairly vertical along with his fastballs.
Randy Vásquez has spent the previous couple of seasons as a dependable, innings-eating back-end starter for the Padres. Between 2023 and ’24, he had the bottom strikeout price amongst all certified starters, though his ERA was a good 4.27. All of a suddenhe is throwing two ticks tougher this yr and he is greater than doubled his strikeout price. The further oomph on his pitches is clearly nice, nevertheless it’s notably useful for Vásquez due to his seven-pitch repertoire. Discerning which of these seven pitches is heading in the direction of the plate is rather a lot simpler if you solely have to fret a couple of 93 mph fastball reasonably than a 95 mph warmth. With the specter of a real, bat-missing heater in his again pocket, his complete arsenal turns into more practical as a result of he has so many seems to be he can current to the batter.
I can solely assume that Walker Buehler’s 2019 and ’21 seasons are doing plenty of heavy lifting for his repute as he is bounced between three totally different groups during the last two seasons. He put up 5.1 and 5.6 fWAR in these two campaigns however underwent Tommy John surgical procedure in 2022. He hasn’t been the identical since and he was legitimately one of many worst pitchers in baseball final yr. His four-seam fastball was among the finest in baseball at its peak nevertheless it’s misplaced a ton of its carry and simply is not an efficient pitch anymore. He’s tried to regulate by deepening his repertoire and mixing in all of his secondary pitches much more typically. It did not work in Boston final yr, however the Padres desperately wanted beginning pitchers this spring, so that they’re giving Buehler one other shot to see if he can determine issues out.
