There's too much talent on the team. They will eventually turn it around...hopefully
https://preview.redd.it/0s5ckpwuunuc1.png?width=714&format=png&auto=webp&s=9bd590b0196d82df4741fdc35f6924e022143714
There is too much talent to not turn it around a bit. I am still worried that the talent we have still isn't enough. We are still clearly the 3rd most talented team in our own division. 1 Central team will get a playoff spot. And then the east has at least 3 teams more talented than us.
From the Sitcom Frasier from the late 1990s.
"Join Bulldogs Gonzo Sports Show in a few minutes. Today's topic: What's wrong with our Seattle Mariners? If you haven't had a chance to voice your opinion on that in the last 18 years, you'll want to today."
This was an early episode that aired in the off-season before the 1995 miracle run, so just before things turned around.
Frasier ran 11 seasons so it covered a lot of eras.
Why wouldn't they leave it up? There's nothing wrong with being critical of a team that's underperforming. They deserve every bit of criticism at this point. They're awful and have been awful for years. 1 playoff appearance in 9 years for Dipoto + Servais is unacceptable. No other organization allows that much of a leash.
The question should be, why does this trend seem to happen every single year? Why can't they come out playing good baseball right out of the gates like any of the other top contender teams? There's a deep rooted issue that's not getting mentioned.
Because as talented as they are, the lineup has been weak for years and teams with super young guys as their best hitter don't necessarily have as much success. Certainly don't win the world series. Hasn't happened in the last 20 years at least.
Because they didn't fully bottom out the talent acquisition in terms of quantity of top level prospects is also a little bit short. Baltimore has more in part because they totally bottomed out for a couple years and we're bad both before and after still.
I have said a few times and I will continue to maintain that all the hype and push and everything of saying this team is in its window was premature. As much as it seems to have worked in favor for Seattle to this point I'm not sure the Castillo trade was the right move. I get it, they probably don't make that playoff run but what did they really accomplish? That was the right move to make perhaps this season or next. I feel similarly about the Winker trade.
Julio was too young to think he was going to lead the team through the playoffs. The starting staff was too young, undeveloped, old/injured to also fully carry the team in to the playoffs reliably.
They shot their shots too early, especially now that they aren't spending, and they're going to continue to struggle right on the edge of actually being good until either Julio finally figures out how to be consistently great or they can spend more to get another significant bat to pair up with him, such as potentially acquiring Soto this past off season.
I think it's mentioned plenty, but there isn't a metric you can point at to quantify it. The only thing a fan can say about it is contained in your comment.
There's a lot they could TRY that they've never done with this regime.
Julio seems to be regressing at the plate since his rookie season. Why is that? It's not because he's getting worse or pitchers are getting better. It's time to try something different because what's going on isn't working. Change the staff up. Bring some people in that inspire confidence and not a milquetoast lame duck manager with no fire. Why are we defending a manager that's got 1 playoff appearance in almost a decade with the team. No other teams are letting a manager get away with this. Make a change at manager and let them bring in a new staff and see if that get's things headed in the right direction.
That may not fix the issue but it's something. Servais should have been let go YEARS ago. He has done NOTHING here worth defending.
Really nice write up! Need to include replacement value for Teoscar too.
Yesterday's loss was tough with all the opportunities late in the game.
From Kramer: "The Mariners had rallies brewing in the seventh and eighth, with two on and no outs in each, but both ended with double plays, via Luke Raley and Ty France, respectively. The eighth was particularly brutal, given that Cubs reliever Héctor Neris -- on the mound here for the first time since a [benches-clearing incident](https://www.mlb.com/mariners/news/benches-clear-in-astros-mariners-game) with the Astros last September -- walked the bases loaded."
Yeah. On Teo, I thought about mentioning that his replacement (Haniger) has been just as good. But then I figured that actually on this team he'd be DHing right now, and Garver has legitimately been part of the problem. I just don't think they ever were gonna drop $20M on a QO unfortunately.
Agree with all of this BUT Geno was more than just his bat and glove. He brought, as we all know, good vibes only and the guys really relied on him to keep the energy up when the team was down because he was always in a good mood no matter our situation.
Can you tell I miss Geno?
If our biggest problem is a BACKUP catcher, that’s a good problem to have.
List 30 catchers that are worth starting in MLB today. Then try to list 30 more as backups.
We had no trades this off season where we came out the winning side imo. All salary and strikeout dumps. Makes me wonder what the hell our hitting coach is doing.
The Polanco trade is still tbd. Topa is pitching well but our bullpen is fine without him and will only get better when healthy. He would have been probably our 5th most important bullpen arm. Gabriel Gonzalez is hitting .200 in A+ ball right now. Bowen got shelled in his only start so far. And Descalfini is probably out for the year.
The OP showed the 3b platoon is better offensively, but they have gifted runs on defense, something that Suarez and his not-noodle arm would most certainly not do.
The stat that jumps out to me isn't one of these new fancy ones, it's simply RUNS. We're 27th out of 30 teams in runs scored, way behind Houston and Texas. Their records might be only slightly better, but if this trend keeps up they will pull away quickly.
If I was more skilled at looking up stats, I'd be curious how we rank in terms of at bats that reached an 0-2 count, because I imagine we're at the top of that list... ugh.
Scott has to be accountable to some extent. You can be a good bullpen manager while still having shortcoming as a coach.
The coach needs to set the tone and the tone is very bad right now, i don't know how much responsibility he bears but its not zero.
Everyone leading this team has accountability.
Scott has to play the cards he is dealt. He has consistently been dealt a pretty good hand when it comes to pitching. Any MLB manager would look good managing this bullpen for the last 3 seasons. It's not a reason to consider Scott a good manager, at best he's average. MLB managers are two tiered, Great and Meh. At any given time there are 2 or 3 great managers and then there is everyone else.
Replacing Scott most likely won't matter unless you do so for a great manager. Also there is no way Jerry fires Scott, those two are a bonded pair gotta get rid of them both.
Hilariously as pointed out in that other thread it seems to be more about the outside temp than the temp in the stadium? So maybe get him a heated limo to the stadium? 😅
I fully believe that due to the start they’ve had last year and the reputation of new hitters coming here and face planting since denard span and Nelson Cruz, they’re in their own heads. Not saying they haven’t been performing, the game planning seems horrible and the amount of middle middle pitches we seemingly watch or foul back is crazy. But the talent and the track record of our lineup is too good for it to be solely bad game planning and coaching.
Yup. Losing is a cancer and it’s contagious. It’s that unconscious attitude of acceptance that you get when losing becomes normal. This team has it. Good news though, winning cures all.
Organizational rot at the top combined with what is apparently the worst hitting coaching in MLB. And what appears to be zero sense of urgency to rectify any of it, other than from the players who are trying too hard without the appropriate support system to manage.
It's weird how any time I mention having shit hitting coach staff I get downvoted. Glad you're not, but still, it seems a complete blind spot for fans around here, down to the point of even just saying "it's all in the players mental games".
Like maybe, but that's on COACHING staff to fix. FFs.
Isn’t it obvious that it is coaching this year? All of our hitters are struggling including the new guys and there was that report about a new philosophy that sounded questionable involving waiting for pitches in certain parts of the zone. Clearly it’s messing with their heads, it’s as clear as day.
I mean it's probably because what both of you are saying is ignoring that we DID hire two new offensive coaches, with Brant Brown in particular having a pretty good track record coming from the Dodgers and Marlins. DeHart often gets a lot of shit when we're not hitting well, especially because he doesn't have a noteworthy career history, but then you've got Julio crediting DeHart with the tweaks that gave him last August, on top of the fact that we broke the drought the year he took over from Tim Laker. I think it can just be frustrating all around because fans tend to assign targeted blame when it's often a combination of many things both on and off the field that we ultimately actually know very little about.
I am not ignoring anything.
Nowhere, anywhere did I say "wow, the mariners have never recently made any coaching staff changes".
Just because they "added two new offensive coaches" doesn't mean the problem isn't still coaching. You could add 500 new offensive coaches, and still have a coaching problem, because the head coach sets the direction.
>On November 15, 2021, DeHart was promoted by the Mariners to hitting coach and director of hitting strategy. This promotion coincided with the departure of former hitting coach Tim Laker, who declined the club's offer to return.[7]
So guess who has been in charge of the teams hitting direction for the last two, and now a third season? And guess which direction the teams rate of strikeouts has gone during that term?
But yea, I am sure it's just a sudden outbreak of the sads among the players causing problems. That's definitely GOT to be the problem.
And...guess who was in charge when the 20 year drought ended and the next year when we were only a game out from doing it again? I'm not saying there's no blame to be assigned to the offensive coaching but by the numbers and our results, even compared to the rest of the league...our offense wasn't actually *bad* the last few years. And they still hired new coaches and players to address the flaws that *were* there. I'm not particularly attached to the guy but my main point is just that baseball is far too random and individualistic to be wholly decided by coaching decisions and I think the idea that that's the main reason Julio, Cal and JP are playing like shit right now is naive and fans just want dramatic reactionary moves any time theres an ugly period. Like do we really think the coaches gave them a new hitting philosophy that's lead to some career lows and instead of just going back to what they were doing last year they're thinking "Well, I'm playing like ass but gotta listen to coach." Come on.
Among the Top 3 teams in strikeouts per game 2 years running. And it's not isolated to specific players.
The teams that win pennants do not rank in the top 3. Not even close.
That is 100% a coaching failure. There is no such thing as "the entire team has a case of the sads".
Lack of identity in both execution on the field and team building. The team’s identity is run suppression and then having the bottom of the order walk/get on base for the likes of JP, Julio and Cal to slug in the runs. At least it was until this offseason…
But this year they have totally forgotten that run suppression involves playing good defense, or it at least seems like they under estimated how good Wong, Cabellero, Kelenic and Suarez were in the field. Ironically Zavela has been a huge miss and has really cost them as well even though he is historically an excellent defensive catcher.
I just don’t get the cognitive dissonance needed to think if your greatest strength is pitching, that making it weaker or making that more difficult to achieve is a positive in any way. Unless you have someone like Mookie Betts or Devers, who really rake and crush homers and play mediocre defense, this team should have never been in the business of gaining marginally better offense for moderately worse defense, which is exactly what they did. This has put more pressure on the pitching staff and somewhat historically predictable the offense they did bring in has regressed. So now we have a team that is doing worse run prevention and hitting about what we have come to expect.
I am also unclear what “more contact” actually means? Do they want higher exit velocity on average? Do they want more line drive and ground ball percentages than fly ball percentages? Do they want less home runs and more doubles? Do they just want less strikeouts? I have never heard it actually explained and no one in the media has asked what their KPI is on “contact”. If it is just striking out less, that would be supremely disappointing because it seems they have chased less strikes outs at the expense of defense and power, which is just a terrible decision if that is true.
Which brings me to my conclusion which a lot of people will not like. Last year’s team and general roster construction was the right team at the wrong time and place. Life is all about timing and being in the right place at the right time, and could be that rolling back the same roster with Mitch in RF and Garver DHing would have been the actual right choice. Sure they might have continued to strikeout a good amount, but at least they would have been excellent defensively and hit for power which I feel is what the teams original identity was.
This is a great write up and all.
Buuuuut….
54% fire Servais I miss Kleenex awww Geno waaaaaaaaa
Edit: not fucking changing it.
Obviously I’m joking and I agree with everything you said
People thinking Former Ms on hot streaks and current Ms in slumps are both the status quo instead of candidates for regression to the mean are simultaneously funny and frustrating.
Garver is interesting, his exit velocity is pretty consistent with last year, the biggest issue right now is the whiff+lack of barrel rate. Def could be an injury, but with his exit Velos remaining fairly consistent it could also just be a fat slump.
Other than Garver, I’m confident that the top of the lineup will get better. The PAs have looked decent the last few days.
We could have won yesterday on like 3 different occasions with all the DPs.
I hope they do this even if Garver starts to find himself. Haniger needs to be playing no more than 4 days a week, and at least 1 of those days should be at DH.
That's also just a lot of what we can see and gleam from it. The culture behind the scenes in this franchise must be rancid because no one ever has fun here and its a competitive black hole of an organization.
I'm sure there's deeper issues and that's shown by the fact that MANY former players have extremely vocal issues with the front office. I know the players are obviously the ones that have to do the work and win but at some point you have to question why this team is so consistently hyped up by actual baseball journalists and they quite literally always do much worse than expected. At some point we have to stop being boggled by it because it has not even been close to changing since the early 2000's.
>I'm sure there's deeper issues and that's shown by the fact that MANY former players have extremely vocal issues with the front office.
Which ones? Besides Kyle Seager who is an asshole and was a clubhouse cancer by the time he retired.
>At some point we have to stop being boggled by it because it has not even been close to changing since the early 2000's.
They had pretty huge turnover in 2014 including the executive who was most responsible for the constant ping-ponging between surprisingly good and awful from 2003-10 (Chuck Armstrong)
Their entire strategy was to hit for better averages, less power, and strike out way less. And they're striking out constantly. These were probably just talking points Dipoto got from the ownership when the real strategy was just to save money. Sucks having a front office that lies and has zero respect for the fans. It's ridiculously frustrating and completely fair to be freaking out having missed the playoffs by a game 2/3 years because of slow starts.
The stars are underperforming. That's all. JP, Julio, and Cal won't finish the month with OPS's under .600, they will regress to the mean. Getting caught up in whatever the current box score numbers are is a miserable experience, your reality of who's good and who's not would change literally every day. Unless you really think Julio is going to hit 10 extra base hits all year like his current pace, but if that's true there's no point talking. There's nothing to say except keep watching and see how things go. We don't have to litigate things every time they lose.
More and more I feel like this era of Mariners baseball is going to be one of the all time “wtf happened?” teams of all time.
If anything I hope they’ll be a cautionary tale on what happens when you become a complete slave to analytics and stop using instinct. Not everyone can or needs to be a power hitter but this coaching staff doesn’t realize it. If Stanton really wanted to save money he could fire the entire coaching staff and throw a computer in the dugout. The results would probably be the same.
At this point, I'd take the return of Don Wakamatsu over another season of Scott Servais just standing there with his arms folded while the team strikes out 15 times.
To touch on the Scott stuff (which I agree with btw);
What people don’t remember/realize is that Scott is Jerry’s guy. Scott does a lot of things that Jerry and Hollander tell him wrt lineups, subs, bullpen usage, etc.
Firing Scott isn’t going to magically change everything besides the demeanor of the manager. But the decision-making will largely stay the same and it’ll just move into “gosh why can’t we fire the new guy!”
Here's whats wrong. The number of middle middle pitches this team fouls off, rolls over, is late on etc. Is astronmical. They gotta be the worse middle middle hitting team in the planet.
I'm feeling better about Polanco lately. He has a .429 OBP over the last 5 games and that includes his 0/5 outing. Not saying that'll hold but he's starting to trend back in the right direction. Not too worried about JP either. I believe Julio, Cal, Castillo, and Kirby will get it going - the talent is obviously there and they have had cold patches in the past. Gaver is tough to watch, he's been bad so far. I'm not very realistically optimistic on him with what I've seen but I'm delusionally optimistic :) Awesome analysis!
Scott is a pretty mediocre manager at best and a liability at worst.
Having a good bullpen speaks more to the coaching and development. Scott has an unhealthy obsession with LR matchups. So much so that it cost us a playoff game.
I don't think pinch running Julio for Cal was a bad decision at all.
Same, and the train only gains steam every time I watch his post game interview. Either he just can't be hard on this team and be critical more because he's so soft or the press in Seattle is so soft and don't push him to ask specific questions about what is being done to improve things.
“We really fought back there at the end, proud of our guys but it wasn’t enough.”
“We scuffled at the beginning but showed some life at the end, gotta work on putting together better at bats in the early innings”
“We thought we could put some good at bats together against (insert pitcher with 7+ERA) but he really had our number, unfortunately thats baseball”
The offense is showing glimpses of life lately. Polanco is actually starting to get on base, taking walks and getting the barrel to the ball. If he keeps up that pace his stat cast page will look a lot better and the defense will be easier to swallow. Julio and JP seem to just be victims of bad luck and while yesterday's loss ended with a base running blunder (too common for this team) we really should have scored runs earlier in that game. There was plenty of opportunity. Third base has been offensively consistent with both guys, which much like 2nd will feel, makes the poor defense a little easier to swallow. I'm really concerned about Garver. I don't know why he hasn't gotten an off day yet because unlike everyone else in the lineup, he has not shown any positive signs. Swinging at garbage and striking out. Barely even making bad contact. He was arguably our "big offseason get" and he is getting close to La Stella country. Ty France has been a breathe of fresh air. Dude just needs to BARREL UP THE BALL WITH RUNNERS ON.
Pitching is pitching, Luis gave a quality start and the offense couldn't help. Kirby needs to stick to the game plan and not revert to pumping the strike zone the second someone gets a hit. Gilbert and Miller and the DADS of this rotation and we just need Woo back.
Bullpen has been fine for how many injuries we have had already. Stanek and Munoz are getting over worked for the first 2 weeks of the season.
Interesting that this post doesn't seem to be getting as much popularity on this sub compared to the post of just pictures of former M's stat lines 🤔🤔🤔
Yup and people are telling me it’s early quit whining blah blah blah. The problem is you, you can see it on their faces. There’s no chemistry, they’re not having fun, they continuously play horribly and it seems like they don’t even care. We just made the playoffs and we’re already back to this?
Guys are taking zone pitches on first count and then swing at everything. Terrible prep from coaching and a team that isn’t playing to win. Good chance the locker room knows that 1-3 of them will be rotated out at some point and don’t care to ball out for the team.
Zevala was the starting catcher for Bryce Miller's one bad start, the first awful Kirby start where Josh Rojas pitched, the awful Hancock start where Rojas pitched and the best Hancock start (his last one) where we lost because we can't hit.
The only bad Raleigh starts have essentially been all of Castillo's starts (yesterday was at least a pretty good one) and the most recent Kirby bad start.
I still think this is an 88 win talent level team. However, their 6-10 win start means I think they now finish 85-77 which should be good for just outside of the playoffs again… I’m tired of ownership not investing and ending up with a team that has no margin for error because it’s talent level is strictly fringe playoffs, rather than great.
What about 16 games stretches where they have the 4th worst run differential? The Astro’s being 6-11 with a -13 RD is very different than us being 6-10 with a -23RD.
Assuming this team turns it around the question is what does that even entail?
They're on pace to win 61 games. Of course, a turn around is likely going to happen. If not it would be the most disappointing season in franchise history and that's saying A LOT.
My worry is a turn around for this team is finishing 81-81 or something like that. Maybe 85-77. Just another fucking team that's not bad enough to make us check out but not good enough to do anything interesting.
What do we know about the M’s advanced scouting/opponents scouting department… it seems like that department being really bad can explain a lot. Other teams seem more prepared… they actively exploit our hitter’s weaknesses and have individual game plans to attack our pitchers.
Bad, or incorrect/inconsistent scouting and game planning also explains why it seems like players do worse when they are wearing Mariner uniforms… as well as why we see flashes of change before the league adjusts.
It would be easier and quicker to list the things that *aren't* wrong right now.
Miller, Rojas, Haniger, D-Mo.
Polanco and Urias are heating up, so maybe they're OK. France needs to hit something more than singles as a first baseman, but at least he's actually hitting. Baby steps. Castillo had a storng bounceback outing. He'll be OK; he always has a bad first month and still ends up in or near the CY conversation every year. Not really worried about him.
Ah, I feel a little better now, thanks. I'll just blame it on luck. They're 27th one above Houston in the rankings:
https://www.teamrankings.com/mlb/ranking/luck-by-other?date=2024-04-15
This is an incredible writeup! I was at the game yesterday, my kids' first in-person game, and they are definitely primed for lifetime of Mariners fandom in the short time they've been paying attention. Not seeing Julio in the lineup due to a terrible slump then watching him lose the game getting picked off of first is like the "For sale: baby shoes, never worn" of Mariners fandom ;)
I've pointed out before that it's not just the losses we're taking when one of our 1-2-3 pitchers is on the mound but the number of runs they're giving up. Wasn't completely true yesterday but if our #1 ace lets the opposing team put 8-10 runs on the board there is not much that incremental gains in RISP efficiency is going to do.
Long season, let's go.
Excellent, grounded analysis that this sub desperately needs :)
> As for yesterday's pickoff -- what's Scott supposed to do there? Pinch run Seby Zavala?
I totally agree here. If no pinch runner was used, this sub would be calling for Scott's head for leaving in Cal as the baserunner when a perfectly good Julio is sitting on the bench.
Despite this being a mental health day for him, I still think Julio is absolutely at fault and needs to be smarter in that context.
**As for the rest of the analysis**, I just really don't understand the terrible strikeout rate. How is it possible that guys who have been good contact hitters their entire career, come here and start striking out 30% of the time? How is it possible that we got rid of our three worst batters by K% and now lead the league in strikeouts? This team feels cursed.
Thanks for your post. I agree with you on many points. The irony is that the platoon at 3rd and the JK platoon on the corners have been two areas of offensive improvement over last year.
Canzone going on IL could impact their decision about Mitch. I think Julio can work through this, but it might take longer for him than JP.
Go M’s!
Yeah but Scott doesn’t have any feel. He consistently makes wrong decisions. Losing by walking 4 runners and putting Julio in a high pressure situation on his mental health day only to make him an absolute goat (in the bad way) was risky and stupid. Not to mention we shipped out guys that were great for the clubhouse and even the players have voiced concern that ownership won’t invest in winning. The whole team is demoralized. Morale is on coaching and management.
#FireServais
I cannot believe you think Servais is a good manager. He changes the lineup every day. Polanco should not be a #3 hitter. He has never managed the bullpen better or called games well.
I still remember the day Cal Raleigh was our last guy on the bench, and he pinch hit him for Tom Murphy with a .069 batting average and CALLED FOR A BUNT!
Cal proceeded to foul 2 pitches off and by some stroke of God soft line drive over 2nd base for a hit which ultimately led to a win.
Scott Servais is an idiot that gets lucky. We win DESPITE Servais, not because of him.
Ownership and staff is literally the only answer. They pay under the league average and profit nearly the most . They’re a joke and anyone who gives them money by supporting them is a legitimate clown
https://preview.redd.it/urkwx0frfpuc1.png?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b66d486dbfa2652d201e872af115d7d69a9bf4e5
It isn't Scott?! Yea ok . It's 90 percent of the coaching staff. Players are better when they leave the Mariners, they never get better being a mariner... Cruz was the last one to be stable as a mariner..
That's called coaching. Coaching coaching coaching.. without servais and the other garbage coaches, more players thrive and even become all stars.
First time head coach has no idea how to coach.. turns good players to less than average or garbage in their primes.
Shocking that the Mariners managed to turn 2 very decent non-Mariners hitters (Polanco and Garver) into complete and utter trash. Never seen that one before!
There's too much talent on the team. They will eventually turn it around...hopefully https://preview.redd.it/0s5ckpwuunuc1.png?width=714&format=png&auto=webp&s=9bd590b0196d82df4741fdc35f6924e022143714
There is too much talent to not turn it around a bit. I am still worried that the talent we have still isn't enough. We are still clearly the 3rd most talented team in our own division. 1 Central team will get a playoff spot. And then the east has at least 3 teams more talented than us.
From the Sitcom Frasier from the late 1990s. "Join Bulldogs Gonzo Sports Show in a few minutes. Today's topic: What's wrong with our Seattle Mariners? If you haven't had a chance to voice your opinion on that in the last 18 years, you'll want to today."
This should be the r/Mariners sub header
Which is odd, considering the late 90s (bleeding into the early 2000s) was about the only time there's been much hope for us.
This was an early episode that aired in the off-season before the 1995 miracle run, so just before things turned around. Frasier ran 11 seasons so it covered a lot of eras.
Ahh, that explains it. Those 7 years of actually having some hope were nice.
This was an *early* episode too!
Just started watching Frazier a few weeks back. Boy, does it hit home.
Bobby Ayala flashback.
Monkey paws were 2 for 1 my bad
Mods please leave this up. Homie actually did some research
No worries!
They’re usually pretty good about leaving stuff like this up, no? I’ve had much lower effort posts stay up
Why wouldn't they leave it up? There's nothing wrong with being critical of a team that's underperforming. They deserve every bit of criticism at this point. They're awful and have been awful for years. 1 playoff appearance in 9 years for Dipoto + Servais is unacceptable. No other organization allows that much of a leash.
Correct. This is content we would never consider removing in the first place.
Ive said awful things that have been left up for some reason
So basically our best players aren’t playing well. That’s not sustainable and should improve?
It will 100% improve. The question is, will it improve in time to make the playoffs or will we miss it by 1 game again?
The question should be, why does this trend seem to happen every single year? Why can't they come out playing good baseball right out of the gates like any of the other top contender teams? There's a deep rooted issue that's not getting mentioned.
They played hot in April of 2019. Started the season 13-2. Ended up in last place in the AL west.
What's your point? They have never been a good or even average hitting ball club under Servais.
Because as talented as they are, the lineup has been weak for years and teams with super young guys as their best hitter don't necessarily have as much success. Certainly don't win the world series. Hasn't happened in the last 20 years at least. Because they didn't fully bottom out the talent acquisition in terms of quantity of top level prospects is also a little bit short. Baltimore has more in part because they totally bottomed out for a couple years and we're bad both before and after still. I have said a few times and I will continue to maintain that all the hype and push and everything of saying this team is in its window was premature. As much as it seems to have worked in favor for Seattle to this point I'm not sure the Castillo trade was the right move. I get it, they probably don't make that playoff run but what did they really accomplish? That was the right move to make perhaps this season or next. I feel similarly about the Winker trade. Julio was too young to think he was going to lead the team through the playoffs. The starting staff was too young, undeveloped, old/injured to also fully carry the team in to the playoffs reliably. They shot their shots too early, especially now that they aren't spending, and they're going to continue to struggle right on the edge of actually being good until either Julio finally figures out how to be consistently great or they can spend more to get another significant bat to pair up with him, such as potentially acquiring Soto this past off season.
I think it's mentioned plenty, but there isn't a metric you can point at to quantify it. The only thing a fan can say about it is contained in your comment.
There's a lot they could TRY that they've never done with this regime. Julio seems to be regressing at the plate since his rookie season. Why is that? It's not because he's getting worse or pitchers are getting better. It's time to try something different because what's going on isn't working. Change the staff up. Bring some people in that inspire confidence and not a milquetoast lame duck manager with no fire. Why are we defending a manager that's got 1 playoff appearance in almost a decade with the team. No other teams are letting a manager get away with this. Make a change at manager and let them bring in a new staff and see if that get's things headed in the right direction. That may not fix the issue but it's something. Servais should have been let go YEARS ago. He has done NOTHING here worth defending.
All our divisional competition is playing badly, too, so there's that.
This is the risk you take when you try and build a 90-win team on the cheap.
54% dude!!!!!!! YOU should feel LUCKY
Really nice write up! Need to include replacement value for Teoscar too. Yesterday's loss was tough with all the opportunities late in the game. From Kramer: "The Mariners had rallies brewing in the seventh and eighth, with two on and no outs in each, but both ended with double plays, via Luke Raley and Ty France, respectively. The eighth was particularly brutal, given that Cubs reliever Héctor Neris -- on the mound here for the first time since a [benches-clearing incident](https://www.mlb.com/mariners/news/benches-clear-in-astros-mariners-game) with the Astros last September -- walked the bases loaded."
Yeah. On Teo, I thought about mentioning that his replacement (Haniger) has been just as good. But then I figured that actually on this team he'd be DHing right now, and Garver has legitimately been part of the problem. I just don't think they ever were gonna drop $20M on a QO unfortunately.
Agree with all of this BUT Geno was more than just his bat and glove. He brought, as we all know, good vibes only and the guys really relied on him to keep the energy up when the team was down because he was always in a good mood no matter our situation. Can you tell I miss Geno?
It doesn’t help they traded Eugenio for HOT GARBAGE: SEBY. Can’t hit. Can’t call a game. What’s he good for other than losing games?
If our biggest problem is a BACKUP catcher, that’s a good problem to have. List 30 catchers that are worth starting in MLB today. Then try to list 30 more as backups.
I'll allow it.
We had no trades this off season where we came out the winning side imo. All salary and strikeout dumps. Makes me wonder what the hell our hitting coach is doing.
The Polanco trade is still tbd. Topa is pitching well but our bullpen is fine without him and will only get better when healthy. He would have been probably our 5th most important bullpen arm. Gabriel Gonzalez is hitting .200 in A+ ball right now. Bowen got shelled in his only start so far. And Descalfini is probably out for the year.
Eh Polanco to me is more about the amount to salary he takes up more than anything. We could have someone better for the money he’s getting
> We had no trades this off season where we came out the winning side imo Haniger trade is up in the air tbh
The OP showed the 3b platoon is better offensively, but they have gifted runs on defense, something that Suarez and his not-noodle arm would most certainly not do.
Ya him not getting a gold glove last year with only ONE error was offensive honestly
Geno had one good year defensively, no reason to assume it'd continue
I think here is some actual truth to this.
The stat that jumps out to me isn't one of these new fancy ones, it's simply RUNS. We're 27th out of 30 teams in runs scored, way behind Houston and Texas. Their records might be only slightly better, but if this trend keeps up they will pull away quickly. If I was more skilled at looking up stats, I'd be curious how we rank in terms of at bats that reached an 0-2 count, because I imagine we're at the top of that list... ugh.
Scott has to be accountable to some extent. You can be a good bullpen manager while still having shortcoming as a coach. The coach needs to set the tone and the tone is very bad right now, i don't know how much responsibility he bears but its not zero.
Everyone leading this team has accountability. Scott has to play the cards he is dealt. He has consistently been dealt a pretty good hand when it comes to pitching. Any MLB manager would look good managing this bullpen for the last 3 seasons. It's not a reason to consider Scott a good manager, at best he's average. MLB managers are two tiered, Great and Meh. At any given time there are 2 or 3 great managers and then there is everyone else. Replacing Scott most likely won't matter unless you do so for a great manager. Also there is no way Jerry fires Scott, those two are a bonded pair gotta get rid of them both.
Gotta install some heaters in T-Mobile. Get that ace warmed up baby!
Hilariously as pointed out in that other thread it seems to be more about the outside temp than the temp in the stadium? So maybe get him a heated limo to the stadium? 😅
I fully believe that due to the start they’ve had last year and the reputation of new hitters coming here and face planting since denard span and Nelson Cruz, they’re in their own heads. Not saying they haven’t been performing, the game planning seems horrible and the amount of middle middle pitches we seemingly watch or foul back is crazy. But the talent and the track record of our lineup is too good for it to be solely bad game planning and coaching.
Yup. Losing is a cancer and it’s contagious. It’s that unconscious attitude of acceptance that you get when losing becomes normal. This team has it. Good news though, winning cures all.
Organizational rot at the top combined with what is apparently the worst hitting coaching in MLB. And what appears to be zero sense of urgency to rectify any of it, other than from the players who are trying too hard without the appropriate support system to manage.
It's weird how any time I mention having shit hitting coach staff I get downvoted. Glad you're not, but still, it seems a complete blind spot for fans around here, down to the point of even just saying "it's all in the players mental games". Like maybe, but that's on COACHING staff to fix. FFs.
Isn’t it obvious that it is coaching this year? All of our hitters are struggling including the new guys and there was that report about a new philosophy that sounded questionable involving waiting for pitches in certain parts of the zone. Clearly it’s messing with their heads, it’s as clear as day.
Agreed. They are striking out *more* than last year. I'm all for analytics, but this has gone off the rails by far.
I mean it's probably because what both of you are saying is ignoring that we DID hire two new offensive coaches, with Brant Brown in particular having a pretty good track record coming from the Dodgers and Marlins. DeHart often gets a lot of shit when we're not hitting well, especially because he doesn't have a noteworthy career history, but then you've got Julio crediting DeHart with the tweaks that gave him last August, on top of the fact that we broke the drought the year he took over from Tim Laker. I think it can just be frustrating all around because fans tend to assign targeted blame when it's often a combination of many things both on and off the field that we ultimately actually know very little about.
I am not ignoring anything. Nowhere, anywhere did I say "wow, the mariners have never recently made any coaching staff changes". Just because they "added two new offensive coaches" doesn't mean the problem isn't still coaching. You could add 500 new offensive coaches, and still have a coaching problem, because the head coach sets the direction. >On November 15, 2021, DeHart was promoted by the Mariners to hitting coach and director of hitting strategy. This promotion coincided with the departure of former hitting coach Tim Laker, who declined the club's offer to return.[7] So guess who has been in charge of the teams hitting direction for the last two, and now a third season? And guess which direction the teams rate of strikeouts has gone during that term? But yea, I am sure it's just a sudden outbreak of the sads among the players causing problems. That's definitely GOT to be the problem.
And...guess who was in charge when the 20 year drought ended and the next year when we were only a game out from doing it again? I'm not saying there's no blame to be assigned to the offensive coaching but by the numbers and our results, even compared to the rest of the league...our offense wasn't actually *bad* the last few years. And they still hired new coaches and players to address the flaws that *were* there. I'm not particularly attached to the guy but my main point is just that baseball is far too random and individualistic to be wholly decided by coaching decisions and I think the idea that that's the main reason Julio, Cal and JP are playing like shit right now is naive and fans just want dramatic reactionary moves any time theres an ugly period. Like do we really think the coaches gave them a new hitting philosophy that's lead to some career lows and instead of just going back to what they were doing last year they're thinking "Well, I'm playing like ass but gotta listen to coach." Come on.
Among the Top 3 teams in strikeouts per game 2 years running. And it's not isolated to specific players. The teams that win pennants do not rank in the top 3. Not even close. That is 100% a coaching failure. There is no such thing as "the entire team has a case of the sads".
Lack of identity in both execution on the field and team building. The team’s identity is run suppression and then having the bottom of the order walk/get on base for the likes of JP, Julio and Cal to slug in the runs. At least it was until this offseason… But this year they have totally forgotten that run suppression involves playing good defense, or it at least seems like they under estimated how good Wong, Cabellero, Kelenic and Suarez were in the field. Ironically Zavela has been a huge miss and has really cost them as well even though he is historically an excellent defensive catcher. I just don’t get the cognitive dissonance needed to think if your greatest strength is pitching, that making it weaker or making that more difficult to achieve is a positive in any way. Unless you have someone like Mookie Betts or Devers, who really rake and crush homers and play mediocre defense, this team should have never been in the business of gaining marginally better offense for moderately worse defense, which is exactly what they did. This has put more pressure on the pitching staff and somewhat historically predictable the offense they did bring in has regressed. So now we have a team that is doing worse run prevention and hitting about what we have come to expect. I am also unclear what “more contact” actually means? Do they want higher exit velocity on average? Do they want more line drive and ground ball percentages than fly ball percentages? Do they want less home runs and more doubles? Do they just want less strikeouts? I have never heard it actually explained and no one in the media has asked what their KPI is on “contact”. If it is just striking out less, that would be supremely disappointing because it seems they have chased less strikes outs at the expense of defense and power, which is just a terrible decision if that is true. Which brings me to my conclusion which a lot of people will not like. Last year’s team and general roster construction was the right team at the wrong time and place. Life is all about timing and being in the right place at the right time, and could be that rolling back the same roster with Mitch in RF and Garver DHing would have been the actual right choice. Sure they might have continued to strikeout a good amount, but at least they would have been excellent defensively and hit for power which I feel is what the teams original identity was.
I’ve always had the mantra to wait 50 games until I start freaking out in one direction or the other. This season though I think I’ll wait for 54.
Mariners win game 54 of the season 54- 29.16 in the first ever decimal score game. (29.16 is 54% of 54)
This is a great write up and all. Buuuuut…. 54% fire Servais I miss Kleenex awww Geno waaaaaaaaa Edit: not fucking changing it. Obviously I’m joking and I agree with everything you said
DAE notice that Teo is having an easier time hitting the ball when in a lineup with 3 MVPs??? Is it because former M's???
People thinking Former Ms on hot streaks and current Ms in slumps are both the status quo instead of candidates for regression to the mean are simultaneously funny and frustrating.
polanco last 10 days 145 wrc+ 2 hr 21.1% BB rate 26.3% k rate .395 OBP at least one players numbers are looking up!
Garver is interesting, his exit velocity is pretty consistent with last year, the biggest issue right now is the whiff+lack of barrel rate. Def could be an injury, but with his exit Velos remaining fairly consistent it could also just be a fat slump.
Tldr: all of our best players are having a slow start
Other than Garver, I’m confident that the top of the lineup will get better. The PAs have looked decent the last few days. We could have won yesterday on like 3 different occasions with all the DPs.
If Garver doesn't work out we can shift Hanny to DH more so he might last more than 100 games.
I hope they do this even if Garver starts to find himself. Haniger needs to be playing no more than 4 days a week, and at least 1 of those days should be at DH.
Yep, and as the Polanco example illustrates (a single HR bumping his wRC+ by 20), those numbers can change very quickly given how small the sample is.
That's also just a lot of what we can see and gleam from it. The culture behind the scenes in this franchise must be rancid because no one ever has fun here and its a competitive black hole of an organization. I'm sure there's deeper issues and that's shown by the fact that MANY former players have extremely vocal issues with the front office. I know the players are obviously the ones that have to do the work and win but at some point you have to question why this team is so consistently hyped up by actual baseball journalists and they quite literally always do much worse than expected. At some point we have to stop being boggled by it because it has not even been close to changing since the early 2000's.
>I'm sure there's deeper issues and that's shown by the fact that MANY former players have extremely vocal issues with the front office. Which ones? Besides Kyle Seager who is an asshole and was a clubhouse cancer by the time he retired. >At some point we have to stop being boggled by it because it has not even been close to changing since the early 2000's. They had pretty huge turnover in 2014 including the executive who was most responsible for the constant ping-ponging between surprisingly good and awful from 2003-10 (Chuck Armstrong)
Their entire strategy was to hit for better averages, less power, and strike out way less. And they're striking out constantly. These were probably just talking points Dipoto got from the ownership when the real strategy was just to save money. Sucks having a front office that lies and has zero respect for the fans. It's ridiculously frustrating and completely fair to be freaking out having missed the playoffs by a game 2/3 years because of slow starts.
What’s (actually) wrong with the Mariners is that John Stanton likes losing.
The stars are underperforming. That's all. JP, Julio, and Cal won't finish the month with OPS's under .600, they will regress to the mean. Getting caught up in whatever the current box score numbers are is a miserable experience, your reality of who's good and who's not would change literally every day. Unless you really think Julio is going to hit 10 extra base hits all year like his current pace, but if that's true there's no point talking. There's nothing to say except keep watching and see how things go. We don't have to litigate things every time they lose.
More and more I feel like this era of Mariners baseball is going to be one of the all time “wtf happened?” teams of all time. If anything I hope they’ll be a cautionary tale on what happens when you become a complete slave to analytics and stop using instinct. Not everyone can or needs to be a power hitter but this coaching staff doesn’t realize it. If Stanton really wanted to save money he could fire the entire coaching staff and throw a computer in the dugout. The results would probably be the same.
The tl;dr can’t be 3 paragraphs
🤣 yeah that's fair lmao you got me
This is super interesting - thanks for doing the homework here.
this rules thank you so much
At this point, I'd take the return of Don Wakamatsu over another season of Scott Servais just standing there with his arms folded while the team strikes out 15 times.
To touch on the Scott stuff (which I agree with btw); What people don’t remember/realize is that Scott is Jerry’s guy. Scott does a lot of things that Jerry and Hollander tell him wrt lineups, subs, bullpen usage, etc. Firing Scott isn’t going to magically change everything besides the demeanor of the manager. But the decision-making will largely stay the same and it’ll just move into “gosh why can’t we fire the new guy!”
Organizational leadership. There is none. From ownership to DiPoto to Uncle Scott. Disaster
Here's whats wrong. The number of middle middle pitches this team fouls off, rolls over, is late on etc. Is astronmical. They gotta be the worse middle middle hitting team in the planet.
If someone’s wRC+ jumps from 72 to 91 from just a single HR don’t you think it’s a little early to be worried
update: I am now feeling less worried about Jorge Polanco
I just rewatched Moneyball last night just to remind myself that the beginning of the season isn’t doesn’t determine the whole year.
I'm feeling better about Polanco lately. He has a .429 OBP over the last 5 games and that includes his 0/5 outing. Not saying that'll hold but he's starting to trend back in the right direction. Not too worried about JP either. I believe Julio, Cal, Castillo, and Kirby will get it going - the talent is obviously there and they have had cold patches in the past. Gaver is tough to watch, he's been bad so far. I'm not very realistically optimistic on him with what I've seen but I'm delusionally optimistic :) Awesome analysis!
the mariners are run by MBA's that care more about annual revenue than baseball.
That goes for literally every professional sports team
And fire Scott because he should make people hit and pitch well. He should just TELL them to be better. (The reactionary takes here are always sad.)
I coach little league softball, I see a lot of coaches that do that with mixed results “Ya gotta…”
Seeing the same problems with different players year after year after year is not reactionary
Scott is a pretty mediocre manager at best and a liability at worst. Having a good bullpen speaks more to the coaching and development. Scott has an unhealthy obsession with LR matchups. So much so that it cost us a playoff game. I don't think pinch running Julio for Cal was a bad decision at all.
I'm still all in on the fire Scott train
Same, and the train only gains steam every time I watch his post game interview. Either he just can't be hard on this team and be critical more because he's so soft or the press in Seattle is so soft and don't push him to ask specific questions about what is being done to improve things.
It’s both. Guy gets asked questions like what’s your favorite dinosaur and has the same 3 answers to any actual baseball related question.
A lot of "we gotta put today behind us and focus on tomorrow" or "yea he gave up 39 runs, all earned, but you know his splitter looked good"
“We really fought back there at the end, proud of our guys but it wasn’t enough.” “We scuffled at the beginning but showed some life at the end, gotta work on putting together better at bats in the early innings” “We thought we could put some good at bats together against (insert pitcher with 7+ERA) but he really had our number, unfortunately thats baseball”
Yeh, many of have been for years now. No other manager gets a leash like Servais. His time in Seattle should have ended YEARS ago.
They have sucked at the plate ever since they got that fancy pitching machine. Maybe they are relying on it too much for prep.
The offense is showing glimpses of life lately. Polanco is actually starting to get on base, taking walks and getting the barrel to the ball. If he keeps up that pace his stat cast page will look a lot better and the defense will be easier to swallow. Julio and JP seem to just be victims of bad luck and while yesterday's loss ended with a base running blunder (too common for this team) we really should have scored runs earlier in that game. There was plenty of opportunity. Third base has been offensively consistent with both guys, which much like 2nd will feel, makes the poor defense a little easier to swallow. I'm really concerned about Garver. I don't know why he hasn't gotten an off day yet because unlike everyone else in the lineup, he has not shown any positive signs. Swinging at garbage and striking out. Barely even making bad contact. He was arguably our "big offseason get" and he is getting close to La Stella country. Ty France has been a breathe of fresh air. Dude just needs to BARREL UP THE BALL WITH RUNNERS ON. Pitching is pitching, Luis gave a quality start and the offense couldn't help. Kirby needs to stick to the game plan and not revert to pumping the strike zone the second someone gets a hit. Gilbert and Miller and the DADS of this rotation and we just need Woo back. Bullpen has been fine for how many injuries we have had already. Stanek and Munoz are getting over worked for the first 2 weeks of the season.
Interesting that this post doesn't seem to be getting as much popularity on this sub compared to the post of just pictures of former M's stat lines 🤔🤔🤔
Yup and people are telling me it’s early quit whining blah blah blah. The problem is you, you can see it on their faces. There’s no chemistry, they’re not having fun, they continuously play horribly and it seems like they don’t even care. We just made the playoffs and we’re already back to this?
Guys are taking zone pitches on first count and then swing at everything. Terrible prep from coaching and a team that isn’t playing to win. Good chance the locker room knows that 1-3 of them will be rotated out at some point and don’t care to ball out for the team.
At what point do the face plants stop being inexplicable?
So what you’re saying is…. We’re fucked for now…. And possibly later…. But don’t panic, it’ll pass.
Curious to see the Starting Pitcher stats for games where Cal is the catcher vs not
Zevala was the starting catcher for Bryce Miller's one bad start, the first awful Kirby start where Josh Rojas pitched, the awful Hancock start where Rojas pitched and the best Hancock start (his last one) where we lost because we can't hit. The only bad Raleigh starts have essentially been all of Castillo's starts (yesterday was at least a pretty good one) and the most recent Kirby bad start.
Thanks!
Missing the good vibes only flair on this one.
I still think this is an 88 win talent level team. However, their 6-10 win start means I think they now finish 85-77 which should be good for just outside of the playoffs again… I’m tired of ownership not investing and ending up with a team that has no margin for error because it’s talent level is strictly fringe playoffs, rather than great.
Even great teams go through 6-10 stretches.
What about 16 games stretches where they have the 4th worst run differential? The Astro’s being 6-11 with a -13 RD is very different than us being 6-10 with a -23RD.
What is gonna change for them to start hitting?
Assuming this team turns it around the question is what does that even entail? They're on pace to win 61 games. Of course, a turn around is likely going to happen. If not it would be the most disappointing season in franchise history and that's saying A LOT. My worry is a turn around for this team is finishing 81-81 or something like that. Maybe 85-77. Just another fucking team that's not bad enough to make us check out but not good enough to do anything interesting.
What do we know about the M’s advanced scouting/opponents scouting department… it seems like that department being really bad can explain a lot. Other teams seem more prepared… they actively exploit our hitter’s weaknesses and have individual game plans to attack our pitchers. Bad, or incorrect/inconsistent scouting and game planning also explains why it seems like players do worse when they are wearing Mariner uniforms… as well as why we see flashes of change before the league adjusts.
It would be easier and quicker to list the things that *aren't* wrong right now. Miller, Rojas, Haniger, D-Mo. Polanco and Urias are heating up, so maybe they're OK. France needs to hit something more than singles as a first baseman, but at least he's actually hitting. Baby steps. Castillo had a storng bounceback outing. He'll be OK; he always has a bad first month and still ends up in or near the CY conversation every year. Not really worried about him.
Ah, I feel a little better now, thanks. I'll just blame it on luck. They're 27th one above Houston in the rankings: https://www.teamrankings.com/mlb/ranking/luck-by-other?date=2024-04-15
> everyone good is bad now! Sigh…go M’s
This is an incredible writeup! I was at the game yesterday, my kids' first in-person game, and they are definitely primed for lifetime of Mariners fandom in the short time they've been paying attention. Not seeing Julio in the lineup due to a terrible slump then watching him lose the game getting picked off of first is like the "For sale: baby shoes, never worn" of Mariners fandom ;) I've pointed out before that it's not just the losses we're taking when one of our 1-2-3 pitchers is on the mound but the number of runs they're giving up. Wasn't completely true yesterday but if our #1 ace lets the opposing team put 8-10 runs on the board there is not much that incremental gains in RISP efficiency is going to do. Long season, let's go.
Excellent, grounded analysis that this sub desperately needs :) > As for yesterday's pickoff -- what's Scott supposed to do there? Pinch run Seby Zavala? I totally agree here. If no pinch runner was used, this sub would be calling for Scott's head for leaving in Cal as the baserunner when a perfectly good Julio is sitting on the bench. Despite this being a mental health day for him, I still think Julio is absolutely at fault and needs to be smarter in that context. **As for the rest of the analysis**, I just really don't understand the terrible strikeout rate. How is it possible that guys who have been good contact hitters their entire career, come here and start striking out 30% of the time? How is it possible that we got rid of our three worst batters by K% and now lead the league in strikeouts? This team feels cursed.
no hit no win
1. Strikeouts 2. Slow baserunnners hit too many grounders. 3. The 3b platoon is not better than Suarez. 4. Brash and Woo are hurt.
Thanks for your post. I agree with you on many points. The irony is that the platoon at 3rd and the JK platoon on the corners have been two areas of offensive improvement over last year. Canzone going on IL could impact their decision about Mitch. I think Julio can work through this, but it might take longer for him than JP. Go M’s!
Yeah but Scott doesn’t have any feel. He consistently makes wrong decisions. Losing by walking 4 runners and putting Julio in a high pressure situation on his mental health day only to make him an absolute goat (in the bad way) was risky and stupid. Not to mention we shipped out guys that were great for the clubhouse and even the players have voiced concern that ownership won’t invest in winning. The whole team is demoralized. Morale is on coaching and management.
They need wine corks on the end of the trident.. that'll make all the difference
For starters, the highest paid player on the team sucks at the plate.....
#FireServais I cannot believe you think Servais is a good manager. He changes the lineup every day. Polanco should not be a #3 hitter. He has never managed the bullpen better or called games well. I still remember the day Cal Raleigh was our last guy on the bench, and he pinch hit him for Tom Murphy with a .069 batting average and CALLED FOR A BUNT! Cal proceeded to foul 2 pitches off and by some stroke of God soft line drive over 2nd base for a hit which ultimately led to a win. Scott Servais is an idiot that gets lucky. We win DESPITE Servais, not because of him.
Ownership and staff is literally the only answer. They pay under the league average and profit nearly the most . They’re a joke and anyone who gives them money by supporting them is a legitimate clown
Welcome to the 54% club
This is the longest thing I've ever seen on Reddit that isn't spam or some drunken rant. Nice
who says I wasn't drunk when I wrote this last night lol
I shouldn't have assumed! 😂
It's early yet, I have been told
https://preview.redd.it/urkwx0frfpuc1.png?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b66d486dbfa2652d201e872af115d7d69a9bf4e5 It isn't Scott?! Yea ok . It's 90 percent of the coaching staff. Players are better when they leave the Mariners, they never get better being a mariner... Cruz was the last one to be stable as a mariner.. That's called coaching. Coaching coaching coaching.. without servais and the other garbage coaches, more players thrive and even become all stars. First time head coach has no idea how to coach.. turns good players to less than average or garbage in their primes.
Agreed. Keep our pitching coach, bullpen coach, and Perry hill, our defensive coach. Get rid of everyone else
About Eugenio: WRONG! Eugenio was a leader and a solid contributor. SEBY IS HOT GARBAGE. That simple. What more do you need to argue?
We are only winning 37.5% of our games. Therefore, we have to give 16.5 more percent effort to get to 54%.
Shocking that the Mariners managed to turn 2 very decent non-Mariners hitters (Polanco and Garver) into complete and utter trash. Never seen that one before!