2K24: Seattle Mariners

[fuhrdog]

There's no way Zduriencik gets through the meetings unscathed by the media, but will he even be able to get anything done there now?

Sure...Dayton Moore can sell him on Guthrie for Felix or Iwakuma since Guthrie had more Wins last year.

[Don Quixote]

I'm just stunned people went on the record for that. I can't recall the last time I saw people that were trying to get back into a FO go on record to blast a previous employer like that.

I've thought for years (admittedly from thousands of miles away) that Armstrong and Lincoln were not the benevolent guides they were portrayed to be but rather meddling, incompetent a**hats, to use Bodz' term. GMs came and went, managers came and went, front office personnel came and went, but the lack of plan, lack of direction, and mostly lack of results kept on. Those two were the one common thread.

As for going on the record, I suspect that Wedge no longer gives a hoot if he manages again. He may land a consulting role, as he seems to be respected among baseball people, but he's probably more concerned with his health and his family at this point. Blengino may figure that he has to fight back, that he was thrown under the bus big time and that going public to blast Jack Z and the top brass was the only way to tell the baseball community, "Hey, I got screwed".

[Grinch]

Corey Hart a Mariner......
IMO his days in the OF are over.......paging Justin Smoak.....Justin Smoak to the 'you're getting traded' phone.

[Grinch]

Jeez....Now they traded Capps for LoMo!!

Paging Bodz.....Bodz to the 'what the hell???' phone...

[Hornsby]

Jeez....Now they traded Capps for LoMo!!

Paging Bodz.....Bodz to the 'what the hell???' phone...

Both guys can play the OF as well as 1st base...probably not as mobile as they were before the knee surgeries, but certainly well enough to rotate out there in a pinch.

Tell you what, along with Seager, there are now some professional hitters in that line-up. Both new guys can take a walk...

[BuckyBuckner]

They also need someone to DH. Hart makes sense due to his knee injury. A good way to ease him back into playing. They still need to trade Franklin. I wonder if Franklin and Smoak plus a good prospect not named Walker can get them Price. I didn't think so either.

[Bodhizefa]

Love the Corey Hart signing. On a one-year deal, he's low risk with plenty of power upside. I think the Morrison move is interesting, but I don't have a very high opinion of Capps, so it's as much a function of my low expectations of the player we dealt away as it is the player we dealt for. Here's hoping he can remember how to hit a bit.

The LoMo deal is a weird move from a roster construction standpoint, though. The Mariners are flush with left-handed hitters and could use another right-handed bat (even with the Hart addition) in the worst way. None of their switch hitters are worth a damn from the right side, so you've basically got Hart and Mike Zunino, who was 100% rushed to the big leagues and still isn't anywhere close to a big league hitter, and then a bunch of left-handed guys or "switch hitters" (Smoak, Franklin) who should be left-handed only. It's a weird amalgamation of talent, and they definitely need another capable righty outfielder -- someone like Ruggiano or Stubbs -- who can hit lefties well enough and is solid in the field.

Hell, at this point, I'd bench or trade Smoak (who sucks and has never shown much of squat), trade for a right-handed platoon outfielder, and look for another right-handed bat with some power (Cuddyer, Willingham, guys of that ilk). This is an unfinished offense at the moment, and I don't anticipate the M's to stick with what they've got.

I'll be very interested to see what becomes of Nick Franklin at this juncture, too. I still don't think he opens the year in Seattle.

[Bodhizefa]

Take a look at this line-up and tell me how inept the M's would be against southpaws (i.e. there's no way the M's are sitting still for the remainder of the off-season)...

(LH) B.Miller, SS
(LH) K.Seager, 3B
(LH) R.Cano, 2B
(RH) C.Hart, DH
(LH) L.Morrison, RF
(SH) J.Smoak, 1B
(RH) M.Zunino, C
(LH) M.Saunders, CF
(LH) D.Ackley, LF

This is a line-up made to fail. Zduriencik has to have another series of moves up his sleeve, or this off-season is going to end in disappointment yet again. These pieces just don't fit together coherently at all.

[Hornsby]

Corey Hart sure can't take a walk. He's been below average in terms of BB% his whole career. Still, low-risk signing if the $ figures I'm seeing are true ("compares favorably" to Napoli's one year deal last year with the Red Sox.) Clearly Hart has a good deal of power when he's healthy.

I gave up on LoMo a loooooong time ago, myself. Still, he's young (just like, well, Justin Smoak really) so he could turn into something useful maybe.

Not true, his career OBP is .334, while his career average is .276...his lowest walk total in the last 4 seasons is 43. So while he's not the greatest eye in the world, he's certainly not the worst either. And How could you give up on LoMo a long time ago when he's only been in the majors since 2010? Yeah, he's had a ton of injuries, but he's still only 26...he's well worth the low price they paid.

[Hornsby]

We'll agree to disagree about what constitutes a decent eye, even though I'm correct, and you once again are wrong.

I still don't get your irrational feelings for Capps...the history of baseball is littered with guys who could throw hard, yet never amounted to anything. However the percentage of players who hit 23 HR's at age 23 is pretty damn small...they gave up a guy they essentially had no use for to get a potential 20/80 guy if healthy.

[Bodhizefa]

Moreover, I think that Bodz' concerns are pretty legit. Why grab yet another left handed bat, especially one that's so questionable, in order to replace another questionable bat in Smoak? I don't really get that deal from the Mariners' perspective.

It would have made a lot more sense if the M's had dealt for Ruggiano instead (who hammers lefties). Morrison just doesn't fit the roster at all unless Zduriencik has more moves up his sleeve to bring in some right-handed prowess at the plate.

[Grinch]

It would have made a lot more sense if the M's had dealt for Ruggiano instead (who hammers lefties). Morrison just doesn't fit the roster at all unless Zduriencik is still clueless about roster construction.

Fixed

[Bodhizefa]

Fixed

Yessir!

(Although I'm now seeing rumors that both Smoak and Montero are available via trade, so maybe Z won't go with the "All the DH's and 1B will be mine" strategy again. One can hope, anyway.

[Hornsby]

Yessir!

(Although I'm now seeing rumors that both Smoak and Montero are available via trade, so maybe Z won't go with the "All the DH's and 1B will be mine" strategy again. One can hope, anyway.

Again, if healthy, both guys CAN play the outfield...not necessarily well, but they can do it.

[Bodhizefa]

Mariners sign Franklin Gutierrez to a 1-year deal.

I'm not a huge fan. If Guti is an integral platoon mate/4th outfielder, when he gets hurt we lose the only decent defensive option in the outfield plus one of our only strong right-handed bats. Against lefties, when Guti is hurt, we’re going to be in a world of hurt ourselves. For a team with good roster construction, the Guti move makes sense, but we’re not that team. We have a whole roster of DH/1B types, and Guti is our only capable defender out there at the moment.

I love Guti and I love the Mariners, but for a team relying on its 4th outfielder to make a substantial contribution both offensively and defensively, this seems like an ill-suited fit.