The Mariners rotation coming into the 2009 season was considered one of the top in all of baseball. But back then the Mariners rotation look like this. But this was before the JJ Putz trade and what came of that which also included trading Heilman.
1) Felix Hernandez
2) Erik Bedard
3) Brandon Morrow
4) Jarrod Washburn
5) Ryan Rowland-Smith/Carlos Silva
Now its a little bit different after the two major trades that took place of the offseason. The Mariners acquired the following pitchers in the JJ Putz trade. Jason Vargas, Maikel Cleto and Aaron Heilman. The rest was hitting.
Now Aaron Heilman was the biggest part for the Mariners next to Gutierrez. Over 10 teams were interested in Heilman but he wound up being packaged to the Mariners.
About two weeks later the Mariners made a trade with the Chicago Cubs. Heilman for SP Garrett Olson (who was acquired the day before in exchange for OF Feilx Pie) and SS Ronny Cedeno. So that gave Seattle three great young pitching prospects in Olson, Vargas and Cleto.
Now during spring training Brandon Morrow decided to throw away the last eight months that he'd been training to become a starting pitcher and requested to become a CL. And sadly enough his request was granted. SO that left Seattle down one SP.
At the end of spring training former independent league pitcher Chris Jakubauskas made the final 25 man roster which was a huge surprise to a lot of Mariners fans. He was put in the bullpen because the rotation was already set.
However Roy Corcoran was placed on the DL which created the Jason Vargas call up and when Carlos Silva was placed on the DL Garrett Olson was called up. So as it stands today this is what the Mariners rotation looks like.
1) Feilx Hernandez-5-3
2) Erik Bedard 2-2
3) Jarrod Washburn 3-3
4) Chris Jakubauskas 3-4
5) Jason Vargas 1-0
Now the main point of this article is to reflect on how well the young arms are doing. That only includes Vargas and Chris Jakubauskas. So lets go over both of them.
Jason Vargas: Vargas, over his last three starts he has a 1.29 ERA. Though he hasn't recorded a win or a lose he's still done very well.
He went five innings vs. Texas giving up one and SO three. He went five innings vs Boston giving up one run and SO one. His last start against the SF Giants was by far one of his best games of his entire career. He went seven innings, throwing a two hitter, allowing one run and SO seven. But he didn't get the win, thanks to mark Lowe.
Chris Jakubauskas: Jakubauskas is the innings eater and not one of the SO type of pitchers for the Mariners. Jakubauskas has won his last two games and his best start, just like Vargas was his most recent on against the LA Angles.
Jakubauskas pitched six innings giving up one run on two hits. But he only have one SO and two BB. Not the best but that's what the Mariners are asking out of him.
Both can be great in this rotation behind Felix and Bedard. And when Ryan Rowland-Smith gets off the DL he'll be a great addition to the rotation as well. Then the Mariners will look to trade Bedard, possibly to the Brewers or Cardinals.
Probably the Cardinals because they could get back Brett Wallace and a few low-A players. Wallace would be the key and the Mariners 3B next year to replace Beltre.
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