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Is it just me, or has our starting pitching been as solid as it's been....ever? I mean ever since Silva left, I haven't felt more comfortable with a starting 4 in awhile:

Hernandez
Bedard
Washburn
Vargas

All have ERA's under 4, and have been dubiously consistent for a Mariners staff. What use to be our Achilles in the 90's (we always had a great offense and little pitching outside of RJ), is now our strength? Wow. Imagine if we had an inkling of normalcy from Beltre and Lopez (which, coincidentally, as they've started to hit, we've started to win).

I must give kudos to this staff though.

While in hindsight the Bedard trade will prove costly, we can see why he is one of the top 5 pitchers in the league when he's healthy....

Is there a team with a better starting 4 than us? Hernandez, Bedard, Washburn, and Vargas is about as good as it gets in baseball at the moment.

I can't recall us ever having a better staff. I know that during our 116 win season the starters were pretty amazing with Freddy Garcia and Moyer dominating, but this season has been crazy with how good a collective group has been. Vargas has really surprised me.

I like Vargas, but he's not as good as his numbers make him look. He's a guy who pitches mid-speed stuff to contact without generating many groundballs. When people swing at his pitches they rarely miss. He generates the highest percentage of infield flies on the team...is that due to good pitching or being relatively lucky?

When you give up as many line drives as he does, sooner or later those line drives are going to drop in for hits.

He also has really high numbers for leaving men on base once they are on. I'm not a big believer in that being a controllable skill...there's no magic switch he can flip that ensures he'll be able to strand every baserunner.

Which isn't to say he's a bad pitcher...just that the 2.35 ERA he's sporting is an anomaly. It'll go up, and when it does I hope people don't start thinking he sucks.

Bay_Areas_Finest wrote:Is there a team with a better starting 4 than us? Hernandez, Bedard, Washburn, and Vargas is about as good as it gets in baseball at the moment.

Our pitching and defense is top stuff, just need a little offense!

BlackMamba wrote:

Bay_Areas_Finest wrote:Is there a team with a better starting 4 than us? Hernandez, Bedard, Washburn, and Vargas is about as good as it gets in baseball at the moment.

You know I am (or was) right when I said that though. Talent-wise, there is obviously better rotations, but the front four in the M's rotation is/was producing like none other in the league.

I'm sure things will change down the line though. Wash/Vargas wont keep pitching so well.