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His name is Heredia
**Seattle Mariners 2024 Season Thread ** | 47-41 | v. Twins, O's and Jays |
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by elpablo21,
- Start date
His name is Heredia
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And yet, he still got the start today!
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Here we go.
EDIT
Phew.
EDIT
Phew.
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elpablo21
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I wont make it to the end of September at this rate
DeadsetAce
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thanks for beating on NY. always appreciated 
elpablo21
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thanks for beating on NY. always appreciated
Just take care of Bmore and Toronto next month and we wont have any qualms
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Tuesday night ESPN game. Junior will be in the box commentating. Should be a great game.
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Nice little ESPN INSIDER article on the Mariners i'd thought i'd share with ya'll
When a potential general manager interviews for an open position, he or she runs quite the gauntlet. Given the importance of the hire, ownership and upper management have the right to explore in a number of directions in an in-depth manner. Chief among their interests are the short- and long-term plans for the club at the major league level, with particular emphasis on the former.
Yes, the long-term outlook is important, but I'd surmise that the short-term plan elicits more focus from those making the hiring choice. Owners want to win, fill seats and improve their profit margins from television/radio rights fees, advertising and the like today -- not tomorrow. If a team's plight is anything other than an obvious teardown and rebuild, a candidate would be wise to have a plan to contend right away.
When Jerry Dipoto was hired by the Mariners, the rebuild vs. compete dilemma was a tough one. The team had been built to win in the 2013-15 window, but it didn't qualify for a wild-card game. The payroll was top-heavy, with $65 million invested in three slightly past-their-prime players in Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz and Felix Hernandez, and the minor league system was weak, with subpar depth and a sprinkling of high-end talent such as Edwin Diaz, Tyler O'Neill and Luiz Gohara. The team also, amazingly, had absolutely no one capable of playing center field on the 40-man roster. No one would have blamed the new GM for recommending a rebuild, but Dipoto attempted to find a narrow path to a better place.
About that 2013-15 window: In the interest of transparency, I was a member of the Mariners front office as Special Assistant to the GM on the ground in Seattle from 2008-12. I was under contract but not in the decision-making mix in 2013. We had built one of the game's better farm systems but had a hard time developing good prospects into good major leaguers, for a variety of reasons.
Exhibit A is Dustin Ackley. The second overall pick in 2009 rose through the minor leagues while transitioning to second base -- no small feat -- and was summoned to Seattle in mid-June 2011. On the morning of Aug. 7, Ackley woke up with a .309/.377/.544 slash line, 22 strikeouts and 17 walks in 167 plate appearances. He appeared to be a surefire star moving forward. He struck out more than once only three times in his first 41 games. Then, he struck out 57 times in his next 209 plate appearances to end the season at .273/.348/.417 overall. He had 17 multiple-whiff games in his last 49 contests. Adjustments needed to be made, but neither Ackley nor the club were able to make them.
Then there was Mike Zunino. After the Cano signing in 2013, expectations were high. When the poorly constructed, power-at-all-costs, defensively challenged club got off to a bad start, the 2012 No. 3 draft pick was rushed to the majors, despite his accruing only 419 pro at-bats to that point. In 229 Triple-A plate appearances, he batted .227/.297/.478 with a 66/17 K/BB ratio in a hitters' league. Sure, he played great defense, but he was rushed, plain and simple, and it very well could have cost him his career. The new regime might have in fact saved him; he has improved his plate discipline and is hitting to all fields while batting .280/.396/.707 in limited duty in Seattle.
So 2013 slipped away. The club bounced back in 2014, only to miss a wild-card berth by a single game as Endy Chavez played over a healthy Michael Saunders for much of September. The M's disappointed again in 2015, as Cano struggled and team defense was again undervalued.
Enter Dipoto, who set out to raise the floor of the club by making subtle improvements around the edges and focusing on buy-low reclamation projects. He upgraded the defense by acquiring players who could play center field. In a short time, there were four players on the 40-man roster who could function there in a pinch: big leaguers Leonys Martin and Nori Aoki and minor leaguers Daniel Robertson and Boog Powell. Martin has been one of the club's most reliable cornerstones this season.
Starting pitching depth was another focus. The Mariners had been spoiled by many years of uninterrupted service from King Felix and were faced with the prospect of losing Hisashi Iwakuma to free agency. Some hard calls had to be made. Promising young shortstop Brad Miller was sent to the Rays for Nate Karns, and young stud reliever Carson Smith was dispatched to the Red Sox for Wade Miley. Neither trade has worked out well, what with Miller gunning for 35 homers or so in Tampa, but no one bats 1.000. The club had a plan and was sticking to it.
As luck would have it, Iwakuma failed his physical in L.A. and came back to the Mariners. A focus on adding starting pitching depth wherever and whenever possible has saved Seattle in this, the season in which they finally lost their Hernandez for an extended period. Journeyman Wade LeBlanc and lefty Ariel Miranda, acquired from the Orioles in exchange for Miley at the 2016 trade deadline, are the latest two keeping the back of the rotation afloat. Dipoto has grasped the concepts of buying and selling simultaneously, keeping one's options open and constantly searching for value.
After Monday's win over the New York Yankees, the M's stood 10 games above .500, 5 1/2 games behind the Rangers in the West and just a single game out of the second wild-card spot. I'm fairly confident they'll participate in postseason play this time around.
Closer Edwin Diaz has helped shore up the back end of the bullpen and should be a boost to the Mariners' postseason chances. Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire
First and foremost, they're a better ball club than the Rangers. How so? Start with run differential. The Mariners have consistently had around a +50 advantage over the Rangers for quite a while. We can also use granular, team-level batted-ball data. In recent weeks, I've done a series of articles at Fangraphs focusing on such data as of the All-Star break. The 90-game sample gives you a pretty good feel for teams' true-talent levels.
At the break, not only did the Mariners' overall average offensive BIP authority exceed the Rangers', but they also bettered their rivals in every BIP type. They hit their fly balls, liners and grounders harder than the Rangers. The Mariners walked more than the Rangers, and the Rangers' only offensive advantage was a lower strikeout rate. From this macro perspective, the M's are clearly the better offensive club.
Shift over to the pitching side, and the difference is even more profound. The difference in BIP authority allowed isn't as significant, but the M's allowed lesser overall fly ball and liner authority than Texas, with the Rangers managing ground ball contact a little better. The biggest Seattle advantages were in team K and BB rates. The Mariners rank in the upper half of the league and the Rangers in the cellar in K rate, and the difference is almost as extreme in walk rate.
The Rangers have a somewhat substantial edge in team defense -- Texas is 10th in team defense per Fangraphs, while Seattle is 23rd -- but the gap is nowhere near as large as it was in recent seasons. Texas has built its divisional lead upon an incredible 27-8 record in one-run games, which has a lot of chance built into it. The Mariners have improved in close contests since shifting rookie flamethrower Diaz into the closer role. Convert all of the above into run values, and the Mariners were a better club than the Rangers by 6 1/2 games at the break.
Now, let's shift back into reality mode and give the Rangers full credit for their sizable lead in the AL West, as well as their not insignificant deadline acquisitions of Jonathan Lucroy, Carlos Beltran and Jeremy Jeffress. The M's might still be better, and they have a puncher's chance to take the division, but their real focus should be the wild card.
Seattle's biggest advantage down the stretch might be the schedule. After they wrap their current series with the Yankees, 13 of the Mariners' remaining 36 games will be against the A's and Angels. Toss in another three with the Twins, and almost half the remaining games are against bad baseball teams playing out the string. The only teams on the schedule that appear destined for the postseason are the not-as-good-as-advertised Rangers (seven games) and the Blue Jays (three). Meanwhile, the Jays, Red Sox and Orioles must battle it out with a much tougher intra-divisional schedule in the East.
Long-term, the Mariners still have some issues. Kyle Seager is their only above-average, in-his-prime position player, the core is still aging and expensive, and the farm is still thin. A playoff berth, even of the one-game variety, could awaken the club's long-slumbering fan base, a sleeping giant that regularly drew more than three million fans per season in the days of Griffey, A-Rod, Randy Johnson and Edgar Martinez, who is now a big part of the current club as hitting coach.
Attendance of that level -- plus the recent finalization of a new ownership structure, which should streamline and simplify decision-making moving forward -- could make the Mariners a $200 million payroll club in the near future. Big money combined with sound processes could extend the Mariners' window of contention.
Yes, the long-term outlook is important, but I'd surmise that the short-term plan elicits more focus from those making the hiring choice. Owners want to win, fill seats and improve their profit margins from television/radio rights fees, advertising and the like today -- not tomorrow. If a team's plight is anything other than an obvious teardown and rebuild, a candidate would be wise to have a plan to contend right away.
When Jerry Dipoto was hired by the Mariners, the rebuild vs. compete dilemma was a tough one. The team had been built to win in the 2013-15 window, but it didn't qualify for a wild-card game. The payroll was top-heavy, with $65 million invested in three slightly past-their-prime players in Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz and Felix Hernandez, and the minor league system was weak, with subpar depth and a sprinkling of high-end talent such as Edwin Diaz, Tyler O'Neill and Luiz Gohara. The team also, amazingly, had absolutely no one capable of playing center field on the 40-man roster. No one would have blamed the new GM for recommending a rebuild, but Dipoto attempted to find a narrow path to a better place.
About that 2013-15 window: In the interest of transparency, I was a member of the Mariners front office as Special Assistant to the GM on the ground in Seattle from 2008-12. I was under contract but not in the decision-making mix in 2013. We had built one of the game's better farm systems but had a hard time developing good prospects into good major leaguers, for a variety of reasons.
Exhibit A is Dustin Ackley. The second overall pick in 2009 rose through the minor leagues while transitioning to second base -- no small feat -- and was summoned to Seattle in mid-June 2011. On the morning of Aug. 7, Ackley woke up with a .309/.377/.544 slash line, 22 strikeouts and 17 walks in 167 plate appearances. He appeared to be a surefire star moving forward. He struck out more than once only three times in his first 41 games. Then, he struck out 57 times in his next 209 plate appearances to end the season at .273/.348/.417 overall. He had 17 multiple-whiff games in his last 49 contests. Adjustments needed to be made, but neither Ackley nor the club were able to make them.
Then there was Mike Zunino. After the Cano signing in 2013, expectations were high. When the poorly constructed, power-at-all-costs, defensively challenged club got off to a bad start, the 2012 No. 3 draft pick was rushed to the majors, despite his accruing only 419 pro at-bats to that point. In 229 Triple-A plate appearances, he batted .227/.297/.478 with a 66/17 K/BB ratio in a hitters' league. Sure, he played great defense, but he was rushed, plain and simple, and it very well could have cost him his career. The new regime might have in fact saved him; he has improved his plate discipline and is hitting to all fields while batting .280/.396/.707 in limited duty in Seattle.
So 2013 slipped away. The club bounced back in 2014, only to miss a wild-card berth by a single game as Endy Chavez played over a healthy Michael Saunders for much of September. The M's disappointed again in 2015, as Cano struggled and team defense was again undervalued.
Enter Dipoto, who set out to raise the floor of the club by making subtle improvements around the edges and focusing on buy-low reclamation projects. He upgraded the defense by acquiring players who could play center field. In a short time, there were four players on the 40-man roster who could function there in a pinch: big leaguers Leonys Martin and Nori Aoki and minor leaguers Daniel Robertson and Boog Powell. Martin has been one of the club's most reliable cornerstones this season.
Starting pitching depth was another focus. The Mariners had been spoiled by many years of uninterrupted service from King Felix and were faced with the prospect of losing Hisashi Iwakuma to free agency. Some hard calls had to be made. Promising young shortstop Brad Miller was sent to the Rays for Nate Karns, and young stud reliever Carson Smith was dispatched to the Red Sox for Wade Miley. Neither trade has worked out well, what with Miller gunning for 35 homers or so in Tampa, but no one bats 1.000. The club had a plan and was sticking to it.
As luck would have it, Iwakuma failed his physical in L.A. and came back to the Mariners. A focus on adding starting pitching depth wherever and whenever possible has saved Seattle in this, the season in which they finally lost their Hernandez for an extended period. Journeyman Wade LeBlanc and lefty Ariel Miranda, acquired from the Orioles in exchange for Miley at the 2016 trade deadline, are the latest two keeping the back of the rotation afloat. Dipoto has grasped the concepts of buying and selling simultaneously, keeping one's options open and constantly searching for value.
After Monday's win over the New York Yankees, the M's stood 10 games above .500, 5 1/2 games behind the Rangers in the West and just a single game out of the second wild-card spot. I'm fairly confident they'll participate in postseason play this time around.
Closer Edwin Diaz has helped shore up the back end of the bullpen and should be a boost to the Mariners' postseason chances. Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire
First and foremost, they're a better ball club than the Rangers. How so? Start with run differential. The Mariners have consistently had around a +50 advantage over the Rangers for quite a while. We can also use granular, team-level batted-ball data. In recent weeks, I've done a series of articles at Fangraphs focusing on such data as of the All-Star break. The 90-game sample gives you a pretty good feel for teams' true-talent levels.
At the break, not only did the Mariners' overall average offensive BIP authority exceed the Rangers', but they also bettered their rivals in every BIP type. They hit their fly balls, liners and grounders harder than the Rangers. The Mariners walked more than the Rangers, and the Rangers' only offensive advantage was a lower strikeout rate. From this macro perspective, the M's are clearly the better offensive club.
Shift over to the pitching side, and the difference is even more profound. The difference in BIP authority allowed isn't as significant, but the M's allowed lesser overall fly ball and liner authority than Texas, with the Rangers managing ground ball contact a little better. The biggest Seattle advantages were in team K and BB rates. The Mariners rank in the upper half of the league and the Rangers in the cellar in K rate, and the difference is almost as extreme in walk rate.
The Rangers have a somewhat substantial edge in team defense -- Texas is 10th in team defense per Fangraphs, while Seattle is 23rd -- but the gap is nowhere near as large as it was in recent seasons. Texas has built its divisional lead upon an incredible 27-8 record in one-run games, which has a lot of chance built into it. The Mariners have improved in close contests since shifting rookie flamethrower Diaz into the closer role. Convert all of the above into run values, and the Mariners were a better club than the Rangers by 6 1/2 games at the break.
Now, let's shift back into reality mode and give the Rangers full credit for their sizable lead in the AL West, as well as their not insignificant deadline acquisitions of Jonathan Lucroy, Carlos Beltran and Jeremy Jeffress. The M's might still be better, and they have a puncher's chance to take the division, but their real focus should be the wild card.
Seattle's biggest advantage down the stretch might be the schedule. After they wrap their current series with the Yankees, 13 of the Mariners' remaining 36 games will be against the A's and Angels. Toss in another three with the Twins, and almost half the remaining games are against bad baseball teams playing out the string. The only teams on the schedule that appear destined for the postseason are the not-as-good-as-advertised Rangers (seven games) and the Blue Jays (three). Meanwhile, the Jays, Red Sox and Orioles must battle it out with a much tougher intra-divisional schedule in the East.
Long-term, the Mariners still have some issues. Kyle Seager is their only above-average, in-his-prime position player, the core is still aging and expensive, and the farm is still thin. A playoff berth, even of the one-game variety, could awaken the club's long-slumbering fan base, a sleeping giant that regularly drew more than three million fans per season in the days of Griffey, A-Rod, Randy Johnson and Edgar Martinez, who is now a big part of the current club as hitting coach.
Attendance of that level -- plus the recent finalization of a new ownership structure, which should streamline and simplify decision-making moving forward -- could make the Mariners a $200 million payroll club in the near future. Big money combined with sound processes could extend the Mariners' window of contention.
CrownRoyalDaddy
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Repped for the article
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Aoki woulda caught that...
elpablo21
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Welp
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How did Walker do?
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Very meh
he showed a fastball tonight, and not much else.
The bats were brutal though. So many swings outside of the strike zone, too many 3 or 4 pitch outs. Not to mention buhner in the booth again...lawd that game was tough to watch
elpablo21
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I can barely remember the ball getting past in the infield most of the game
Should have caught the ESPN feed. Griffey was pretty good in there
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I completely forgot about ESPN broadcast until the bot 7th inning
Seager out of the lineup today due to taking a ball off the foot. This could be a long day
Seager out of the lineup today due to taking a ball off the foot. This could be a long day
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elpablo21
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Stadium seemed packed today. Was fun to be at the ball park but the shut out was just so depressing.
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Ugh, against the Yankees too... welp.
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No Seager again [emoji]128544[/emoji]
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I didn't know Seager was hurting that bad. Thought maybe they coulda put him to DH yesterday but I guess his injury was worse then I thought. He is wearing a boot today in the dug out.
elpablo21
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Wth happened?
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Dawged it/Couged it
