{"id":36040,"date":"2011-03-17T10:54:46","date_gmt":"2011-03-17T17:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.capperspicks.com\/blog\/?p=36040"},"modified":"2023-02-07T07:38:18","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T15:38:18","slug":"odds-2011-seattle-mariners-predictions-gambling-preview-17311","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/mlb-baseball\/odds-2011-seattle-mariners-predictions-gambling-preview-17311\/","title":{"rendered":"Seattle Mariners Predictions | 2011 Season Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

2011 MLB Team Preview: Seattle Mariners<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Hard to believe, as some of us still have VERY cold temperatures outside, that the Boys of Summer are almost back. But it\u2019s true; teams have started reporting to 2011 Major League Baseball training camps and it\u2019s time to start our team-by-team baseball gambling<\/a> previews for the year. <\/p>\n

SIGN UP TODAY With MySportsbook.com – 10% Sign UP Bonus – 10cent Baseball Lines – Gamble On 2011 MLB Future Odds and 2011 World Series Championship Lines<\/a><\/h3>\n

Mariners Calender<\/strong><\/p>\n

FEB. 1-18, 2011 – Salary arbitration hearings
\nFEB. 14, 2011 – Voluntary Spring Training reporting date for pitchers, catchers and injured players
\nFEB. 19, 2011 – Voluntary Spring Training reporting date for non-pitchers and catchers
\nFEB. 26, 2011 – Mandatory Spring Training reporting date for all players<\/p>\n

There was egg on plenty of pundits\u2019 faces \u2013 including my own \u2013 after the much-hyped Seattle Mariners flopped horribly in 2010. The outlook is far different for 2011. Simply put, it\u2019s bleak. Seattle sucks. But will its crop of prospects at least be a silver lining?<\/p>\n

SEATTLE MARINERS<\/strong>
\nWorld Series odds: +10000<\/p>\n

The Mariners\u2019 cupboard of prospects is totally bare. They have a few youngsters to get excited about entering 2011. The problem is that they\u2019re all unproven and perhaps too many of them are cracking the lineup at once. Left fielder Michael Sunders, second baseman Dustin Ackley and first baseman Justin Smoak all look like they\u2019ll be Opening Day starters. The problem is that they\u2019ve had little to no success at the major-league level and nothing suggests they\u2019re ready to change that yet. Ackley, the second pick in the 2009 draft, hasn\u2019t even played a game in the bigs.<\/p>\n

The rest of Seattle\u2019s lineup is laden with capable but underwhelming veterans. Franklin Gutierrez is among the best defensive outfielders in the game but seems to have hit his (somewhat mediocre) offensive ceiling. Jack Cust has power and patience but doesn\u2019t hit for average; Chone Figgins\u2019 production plummeted last season and, at age 33, he\u2019s no guarantee to bounce back. Jack Wilson? Gross. Miguel Olivo has good pop for a catcher but struggles to get on base.<\/p>\n

That leaves the one hitter resembling a star in Seattle: Ichiro. While he probably deserves to be a Hall-of-Famer and has been everything the Mariners hoped he\u2019d be and more for a decade, Ichiro arguably isn\u2019t an elite weapon anymore. Or, at least, he doesn\u2019t have the support to be elite. He still hits .300 in his sleep and has wheels to boot but he doesn\u2019t have the A-Rods, Brett Boones and Raul Ibanezes of the world to drive him in anymore. He\u2019s posted back-back career lows in run totals (88 in 2009, 74 in 2010).<\/p>\n

Seattle has the reigning Cy Young Award winner in Felix Hernandez. The phenom turns just 25 on April 8. Scary to think that he can still get better. After King Felix, however, the Mariners rotation is sketchy at best.<\/p>\n

Michael Pineda is a good prospect and whispers suggest he\u2019ll make the Opening Day roster. Even if he does, there\u2019s no guarantee that he\u2019s ready to excel. Even if he does excel, he\u2019d give Seattle just two above-average pitchers. After that, opponents get a delectable diet of Doug Fister, Jason Vargas and possibly Luke French. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It would go a long way toward Seattle\u2019s chances of staying afloat in the American League West if Erik Bedard could find\u00a0 a way to stay healthy. He\u2019s still an ace whenever he pitches but the power lefty has made 30 starts just once in his career, didn\u2019t pitch at all last year and started a combined 30 games in two seasons before that.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be interesting to see what flamethrower Brandon League does in Seattle\u2019s bullpen this season. He\u2019ll start the year as the de facto closer with David Aardsma opening the season on the DL. League is the more talented pitcher, so it\u2019s possible that he\u2019ll claim the role for good.<\/p>\n

2011 OUTLOOK<\/strong><\/p>\n

Look at all the \u201cifs\u201d Seattle has to overcome this season. The saddest thing is that, even if they all come true, that would still make the Mariners just a moderately competitive team. Bedard and Pineda could pitch the whole season and Smoak could hit 30 homers and I still think this team would only win 80 games and change. Seattle looks like a safe bet for last place to me.<\/p>\n

Then again, what do I know? I thought these guys would contend for the Wild Card last year.<\/p>\n

Prediction: 4th, American League West<\/strong><\/p>\n

TEAM BY TEAM MLB PREVIEWS —-><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

View The MLB Cappers Leaderboard For 2010 \u00a0– Picks Packages for 2011 On Sale! \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shea Matthews weighs in with his Seattle Mariners 2011 Team Gambling Preview. Bedard and Pineda could pitch the whole season and Smoak could hit 30 homers and I still think this team would only win 80 games and change. Do your MLB betting with Cappers Picks MLB expert picks in 2011\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":36043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[47076,43915,11962,11432,11222,14240,12448,66513,10729,11965,26821,11966,11967,47077,66497,678,681,11049,11963,11964,47078],"class_list":["post-36040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb-baseball","tag-2011-mariners","tag-2011-mlb-team-preview","tag-al-west","tag-al-west-predictions","tag-al-west-preview","tag-american-league","tag-american-league-central","tag-handicapping","tag-handicapping-baseball","tag-mariners-futures","tag-mariners-mlb-picks","tag-mariners-odds","tag-mariners-predictions","tag-mariners-world-series-odds","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-betting","tag-mlb-gambling","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-seattle-mariners-picks","tag-seattle-mariners-predictions","tag-seattle-world-series-futures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36040"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107880,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36040\/revisions\/107880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}