The Seattle Mariners offense is surprisingly succeeding in one advanced metric

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – JUNE 1: Taylor Trammell # 20 of the Seattle Mariners on bat against the Oakland Athletics. (Photo by Steph Chambers / Getty Images)

The Seattle Mariners’ crime has been tough, and that could be an understatement. If you look at the MLB’s statistical leaderboards, you might get torn apart, but there is surprisingly one stat where the Mariners actually do well.

But before we get to the good, we always have to start with the bad.

The Seattle Mariners offense was almost non-existent

So the Seattle Mariners no longer reach below the Mendoza line (.200), but they’re still at the bottom of the league. As a team, Seattle beats 0.208, which is actually very close to the second worst team quick cut owned by the Milwaukee Brewers (0.211). The funny thing is that the Brewers actually take first place in their division despite having the second worst batting average in the MLB.

The Mariners are also last in OBP, wOBA and xBA. You fight with slugging, wOBACON, hard hit rate, exit speed and xWOBA.

Surprisingly, the Seattle Mariners are actually in the top 10 for barrel percentage

But with that said, the Seattle Mariners are in the top 10 for barrel percentage. The M’s have a team share of 9.4% barrel, which is the sixth best in the league. It’s interesting, isn’t it?

Barrels, as defined by Baseball Savant, are “a batted ball with the perfect combination of exit speed and launch angle”. You would expect teams with a good barrel percentage to have a high batting average or xBA, right? But that’s not the case with the Seattle Mariners.

It’s also worth noting that the Seattle Mariners have the largest average starting angle in the MLB at 15 degrees. The starting angle is an important advanced metric, but unless you hit the balls consistently hard, the starting angle means nothing.

The Atlanta Braves are a good example of high starting angles but constant hard contact. They have the second highest starting angle in the MLB, but are also third in the average exit speed, which is the seventh largest xBA in the league.

That being said, a high run rate and high starting angle don’t always produce results when a team is unsuccessful in other areas. But it’s a good sign that the Seattle Mariners offensive is doing some things well, and not nothing. If the team can now hit balls more consistently, we could see a big turnaround.

To be honest, it’s pretty amazing that the Seattle Mariners are 30-31 right now with all the injuries, so I think it can only get better from here.