Can we define Wakball yet?

Ichiro's move to second

The “new look Seattle Mariners” are a hell of a lot better than the old Mariners. Surprisingly, some of the bad old Mariners, such as Jarrod Washburn, who pitches tonight against Andy Sonnanstine and the Tampa Bay Rays, are showing signs of renewed Major League skills at 2—0 and a .180 ERA on the season. Pitching, however, isn’t the mainspring of Wakball, the game this new Mariners team is playing. The essence of the new style, though, is a kind of small ball that you don’t even see in the National League anymore.

As U.S.S. Mariner pointed out the other day, Don Wakamatsu likes to bunt. The bunt has also come back to bite the Mariners over the weekend, when Detroit countered with its own small ball game. Rule One of Successful Wakball, then, might be “If you bunt, you’d better be able to field a bunt, too.” Bunting, though, is just part of the new game, even if the M’s are currently on track to double or triple the average number of bunts by a team during the year. The team’s continuing defensive development is critical to continuing its early success. 

After watching Yuniesky Betancourt bobble two easy grounders on Sunday, I want to know when Wak and GM Jack Zduriencik are going to make a move to fix the awful hole that has developed between third and second bases. His bat is slightly better than last year, but his defense is downgraded. Time for a change. Would Matt Tuiasosopo be able to move to Shortstop?

Second, Wakball is defined by moving the runner along. Franklin Gutierrez exists to move up a base or to move a runner along. His batting average is .237, which is way up over the weekend, but his Slugging Percentage is .395, which means he’s contributing more than twice as many bases to the team’s progress than times he is getting a hit. Endy Chavez, who has far exceeded his expected production through the first 13 games, is delivering hits (20) with an excellent .293 batting average, but he’s also stealing bases (4) and has a good, though not great, slugging percentage of .471.

But the new ballgame ends there. On a stat-by-stat basis, the Mariners do not stand out in any offensive category. The surprising pitching performances so far this year have given the Mariners the advantage more often than not. My “five runs will win” rule, laid out here, has held true in all but two games in which the team has scored five runs (two of the games in Minnesota), because Seattle pitching has held up so well. Tonight’s Washburn outing will be a keystone to the first half of the season. If Washburn continues his excellent performance, Seattle’s will be far and away the best pitching in the AL West and in the top-five among all Major League teams, which is the recipe for at least .500 ball.

Wakball still needs a couple more foundations, but the outlines are pleasing so far.

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