Mariners Mailbag: Tuesday April 11

Panic seems to be setting in for many Mariners fans after back to back walk off losses. Let's take a look at some of your concerns and questions.

With things seemingly falling apart in Mariner fandom, I take a look at some of your questions in advance of today’s middle game against the Chicago Cubs.

I understand that we have to "protect" Jarred from lefties, is there a point where you feel comfortable with him against lefties even if the matchup isn't exactly favorable? - @hamswaggerty69

Yes, I think that time will come, but it isn’t right now. Seattle’s goal with Kelenic right now is to try to get him in a groove off right-handed pitchers and use A.J. Pollock to protect him.

In the past the Mariners had nobody to protect Kelenic, leading to some really tough matchups with some tough lefties. This time around it is clear they want to build him up and let him have some success before they would attempt to expose him further.

Jarred has had some real struggles and has never really had prolonged success at the big-league level. Every time he has been called up he has struggled at the plate, which took a toll on him mentally, causing him to adjust his approach and set up constantly through the first two years in the big leagues.

He spent a ton of time working with Robert Van Scoyoc working on the “Mookie Betts” swing he has right now, and I think the Mariners want him to stick with it and find long-term success before dumping too much on his plate.

The Mariners aren’t going to rush this, especially with how intense Jarred has been and how much of a tinkerer he has shown to be. They showed this yesterday by sitting him against a relatively average lefty in Drew Smyly.

With that being said I really do think Jarred can hit lefties, and by mid-summer we could see him doing so much more often. For now, it is more important to make the road as smooth as possible and help the kid grow some confidence early in the season.

I know some people hate psych questions but how much of this is due to pressing and choking under pressure? Some of the mistakes I've seen would get a little leaguer a round of laps. - @collinchlarson

Honestly Collin I would say not much of it. Some of Matt Brash’s struggles the last few days could be due to lack of experience pitching in save situations, but other than that I don’t see it as an issue.

This team has basically lived in close game situations in the past few seasons, and they know how to win these games. This bullpen has been good so far, even with the revolving door of relievers already.

From my eye it seems that it takes Scott Servais a while to find his groove with how to deploy the relievers, and eventually the true bullpen will reveal itself. Remember how long it took them to find the group they ended last season with? I expect them to do that again this year, and when they do this team will be running on all cylinders in close games once again.

As for the defensive and offensive struggles in big moments, I am not sure. The defensive struggles have been extremely uncharacteristic of this team, but I’m not sure it is anything to be concerned about yet. Early season sloppiness isn’t uncommon, but for this group it feels very out of character.

The plate apperances with runners in scoring position need to be cleaned up, and a lot of that could be aided with better performance from the offseason additions. This will get cleaned up once Wong and Hernández find their groove.

What do you think of Kolten Wong’s ax handle bat? - @Moves_Like_Judy

Thanks for the question, Scott. I love it, in fact, I used one for the last three years of my college career. I had a wrist issue my sophomore year and ended up going to Driveline where I was introduced to them and never turned back.

Axe is a great company, and the handles are truly revolutionary. They fit the natural handshape of a player much better than a traditional knob, even though they are typically uncomfortable when a player first tries it.

Wong has mostly been using a “hockey puck” knob, at least to my eyes. Jarred Kelenic has been using one as well, which I noticed several players using down in Peoria in the cages.

These bats are designed to put a little more weight in the knob of the bat, making the counterbalanced weight of the bat snap through the zone quicker.

These are the handles I have seen from Kelenic and Wong mostly (Image from DoveTail Bats).

Most of these guys choose their bats for analytical reasons, as they can do bat fitting sessions to find the one that produces the most bat speed, hand speed, and force delivered. If I had to guess this is why Wong chose to use the bat, but it may just be for the feel of it.

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