Here's Why The Mariners Are Terrible

Saturday’s By the Numbers column was about the Mariners’ stunning inability to develop major-league hitters.

Think about it: When was the last time Seattle came up with a good hitter? On the current roster, the best hitter developed by the franchise is Jose Lopez. And he’s a terrible hitter.

As far as I could tell, the only player developed by the Mariners who is a good hitter right now is Shin-Soo Choo. And he played all of 14 games with Seattle before being traded.

Adam Jones could still develop into a good hitter, and whether he does or not, he could have a long and successful career. But he has 70 strikeouts and nine walks this year, which indicates a clear regression in his hitting.

Anyway, the Mariners’ inability to develop hitters has been really shocking. Not that they’ve done much better with pitchers, aside from signing Felix Hernandez.

Overall, Seattle’s lack of player development has been a pretty good formula for putting a dreadful team on the field.