Former Seattle Mariners Pitcher Explains the Importance of Players Like Dylan Moore

The Seattle Mariners enter play on Friday at 22-14 overall and in first place in the American League West. Leading by three games, Seattle is trying to win its first division title since 2001.

Part of the reason that the M's are playing so well is that they are getting contributions from up-and-down the roster Rowdy Tellez, Miles Mastrobuoni, Dylan Moore have each had their moments over the first 36 games, proving to be extremely valuable to what Seattle is doing.

Former M's pitcher Paul Abbott helped the Mariners get to the ALCS in both 2000 and 2001, where he played with valuable utility players like Stan Javier and Mark McLemore. Speaking on a recent edition of the Refuse to Lose podcast, Abbott spoke to the importance of "glue guys" like Moore.

"Both (Javier and McLemore) were easily starters on a lot of other teams. Experienced, ​professional. ​It ​used ​to ​be ​when you ​could ​be ​on ​a ​team ​and ​you ​see ​(Ken Griffey) Jr's, not ​the ​lineup, ​and ​you'd ​see who's ​playing ​center ​field, ​you're ​like, ​'ah, ​okay' , but you see Gold ​Glover Ichiro's not in the lineup and Stan's out there, ​it was nothing ​at ​all. ​You see he's ​going ​to ​play ​great ​defense, ​he's ​going ​to ​get ​quality ​abs. ​You ​didn't ​lose ​much, ​you ​know, ​and ​they're ​not ​going ​to ​make ​mistakes. ​They're ​veteran ​players...."

Abbott spent parts of five years with the Mariners from 1998-2002. You can listen to the full interview with Abbott in the player below. He's now the pitching coach for the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators.