elpablo21
Supporter
- Feb 11, 2008
- 106,581
- 196,348
Diaz
10 over in May, hitting rock bottom any moment now
10 over in May, hitting rock bottom any moment now
**Seattle Mariners 2024 Season Thread ** | ELIMINATED |
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by elpablo21,
- Start date
- Oct 9, 2006
- 57,743
- 29,792
Felix in a bit of trouble already.
CrownRoyalDaddy
formerly tdoggy57
- Nov 12, 2015
- 4,729
- 2,985
Whats good with felix...seems like every other start we lose the game in the first inning
elpablo21
Supporter
- Feb 11, 2008
- 106,581
- 196,348
Kind of what I'll expect from Felix going forward, very volatile season. Hopefully he can get his ERA down to around 4, idk if thats asking too much at this point
A couple local sports radio heads are in hysteria over Tyler O'neil's hot start
A couple local sports radio heads are in hysteria over Tyler O'neil's hot start
- Oct 25, 2006
- 12,137
- 13,274
Marco Gonzales is serviceable though and you guys need a starter more than you do another outfielder. When healthy, Dee, Haniger, and whomever is a decent outfield. You guys can put up runs, the issue however is not allowing them. See Marco's start in comparison with to Felix' start.
elpablo21
Supporter
- Feb 11, 2008
- 106,581
- 196,348
Yeah it doesn't bother me, this is just sports radio needing to fill airtime
elpablo21
Supporter
- Feb 11, 2008
- 106,581
- 196,348
Trade incoming
edit:
edit:
Last edited:
- Oct 25, 2006
- 12,137
- 13,274
Good gracious Paxton.
- Oct 9, 2006
- 57,743
- 29,792
Solid pitching.
CrownRoyalDaddy
formerly tdoggy57
- Nov 12, 2015
- 4,729
- 2,985
With the recent rash of injuries and suspensions our lineup def took a hit. I havent liked the Oneil trade since day 1. I dont like a lot of stuff diopoto has done because i always have an eye on the future. Hes reckless. We could be looking at the worst team in the league long term here shortly.
This trade isnt as bad though with the Rays.
This trade isnt as bad though with the Rays.
- Oct 9, 2006
- 57,743
- 29,792
Check out that cannon on Mitch!
Mike Z with a seed to end the top of the 12th.
Mike Z with a bomb to end the bottom of the 12th.
Mike Z with a seed to end the top of the 12th.
Mike Z with a bomb to end the bottom of the 12th.
Last edited:
- Feb 14, 2018
- 370
- 316
Killer combo. Was sitting with my buddy and told him that wouldn’t show up on Sportscenter even though it should.
elpablo21
Supporter
- Feb 11, 2008
- 106,581
- 196,348
+13 run differential to boot
elpablo21
Supporter
- Feb 11, 2008
- 106,581
- 196,348
Yikes @ Felix and Diaz
CrownRoyalDaddy
formerly tdoggy57
- Nov 12, 2015
- 4,729
- 2,985
Hey ill give diaz one bad game for every 15 or so he pitches lol
At this point, going about .500 for the remainder of the season would give us a decent shot at the playoffs. Im along for the ride
At this point, going about .500 for the remainder of the season would give us a decent shot at the playoffs. Im along for the ride
- Oct 25, 2006
- 12,137
- 13,274
Asesome article on The Athletic about the trade that just went down. Front office culture seems pretty cool in Seattle:
https://theathletic.com/373523/2018...l-off-the-trade-that-might-save-their-season/
How two 23-year-old first-year employees helped the Mariners pull off the trade that might save their season
By Corey Brock May 30, 2018
17
It was an unusually warm evening last July when David Hesslink, standing atop a pitching mound in Hillsboro, Oregon, experienced an epiphany.
A left-handed reliever for the Everett AquaSox, Seattle’s short-season affiliate in the Northwest League, Hesslink entered the game in the eighth inning, tasked with protecting a seven-run lead.
“I was facing a left-handed hitter, and I threw him my best fastball. It was on the inner-half (of the plate),” Hesslink recalled. “It should have jammed him or broke his bat, but he hit a home run right down the line.”
Right then and there, Hesslink realized his dream of reaching the big leagues would remain just that – a dream.
“I sort of realized right then that if that was the best bullet I had … then I should probably look into a different line of work,” Hesslink said.
For the longest time, Skylar Shibayama’s dream consisted of being the next great pitcher or second baseman for his hometown Mariners, but that hope faded not long after he failed to make the varsity team at Yale.
“Gritty competitor, not the biggest player, but makes up for it by being weak and slow,” Shibayama said, giving an honest scouting report of his playing skills. “No power to speak of.”
While Hesslink and Shibayama – like most of us – fell well short of reaching the big leagues as players, that hasn’t stopped the pair from making an impact at the major-league level. When Seattle completed a trade with the Rays last week to land Alex Colomé and Denard Span, it was on the endorsement of Hesslink, a baseball operations assistant for the club, and Shibayama, a part-time analytics intern. Both are 23 and in their first year working in the organization.
Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto was quick credit the pair for helping to orchestrate what’s easily been the biggest trade in baseball thus far of 2018.
“Skylar and David came up with this very idea: What if we went out and got both Denard Span and Alex Colomé in the same deal … what would that have to look like? So we dreamed about it internally.”
The Mariners did more than just dream in this particular scenario. They acted on the endorsement of Hesslink and Shibayama, who received significant input during the process from analytics intern Forrest Diamond and operations intern Gary Brown.
Welcome to the inner-workings of today’s major-league front office, where general managers no longer sit in ivory towers and wait for plausible trade scenarios to pop into their heads before acting on them.
Today’s game is much more a collaborative process, as evidenced by how Dipoto, a baseball lifer with nearly two decades of front-office experience, has empowered representatives of the analytics and baseball operations departments like Hesslink and Shibayama to share opinions and dream big.
“We all grow through fresh ideas and conversation,” Dipoto said. “Each of us has a different perspective and it’s important to see as many angles as possible.”
Skylar Shibayama (left) and David Hesslink, first-year employees in the Mariners front office, helped put together the trade that landed Seattle Denard Span and Alex Colomé. (Photo by Corey Brock)
The trade between the Mariners and Rays was officially consummated on Friday, but the legwork to get to that point began a handful of days earlier, when Dipoto asked his staff to look for creative ways to upgrade the roster.
“The leadership in our office has done a great job of creating an open atmosphere of being able to throw out ideas in a safe way without being criticized,” Hesslink said. “I think leads to more robust ideas.”
With Robinson Canó sidelined for 80 games due to his PED suspension, and with Dee Gordon moving back to second base to replace him, the Mariners sought an outfielder. They were also shopping for a reliever to strengthen the back end of the bullpen.
“It was sort of posed as an open question,” Hesslink said. “We were looking for creative ways to solve the problem with the resources we had.”
Knowing there would be a meeting with Dipoto on Tuesday, Hesslink, Shibayama and their colleagues gathered Monday in the large, open space in the baseball operations department called, “The Bullpen.”
“We took a big white board in the office and plotted out every single team to list any potential options for us out there and also to get everyone working with the same information,” Shibayama said. “From there, we started to figure out what made sense. It was very collaborative. It was ‘can we get three to five names that might click for our roster?’”
At some point Monday, Jesse Smith, the team’s director of analytics, stopped by and noted the busy collective effort in the middle of the room.
“No one asked them to do that, but I think that’s a big part of why they want to be there,” Smith said. “I actually remember saying something about how I was ‘really jealous of you guys right now,’ because I was so underwater with other things.”
That Hesslink was in the middle of all of the action didn’t surprise Smith at all.
“David’s reputation precedes him in baseball circles. He is really talented, and he’s our ‘everything guy,’” Smith said of Hesslink, who worked as an intern with the Rays while in college. “He’s someone with a huge motor who will take on any task and figure it out.”
How Hesslink ended up working for the Mariners is an interesting story in itself.
Before graduating from MIT last year, Hesslink was a targeted by several clubs to join their analytic departments. He had multiple full-time offers upon graduation, but Seattle came up with a unique offer: They would draft Hesslink (he pitched at MIT) and allow him the chance to pitch professionally, with the caveat that he would eventually transition to a analytics/baseball operations role.
“The Mariners’ offer was impossible to pass on,” Hesslink said.
Seattle selected Hesslink in the 34th round of the draft last June, and he compiled a 5.60 ERA over 15 games for the AquaSox. After the season, he moved into a full-time job in the front office.
Shibayama, who only started working for the team on April 9, spent the last two years as an assistant girls basketball coach for Shorewood High School north of Seattle. He also worked as a data analyst for local school districts before a conversation with Hesslink eventually landed him on the Mariners’ radar.
“Skylar had a connection with David, and when we brought him in, he was very good,” Smith said. “David mentioned that (Skylar) was a talented guy, so we ran him through the process quickly. The one thing that I look for is for people who can hit the ground running, which he has done.”
Newly acquired outfielder Denard Span is congratulated by his Mariners teammates after scoring a run during the sixth inning of a game against the Texas Rangers at Safeco Field on May 28, 2018. (Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)
That ability to move quickly came in handy last week, as Hesslink, Shibayama and the rest of the group filled the white board with names, some more plausible than others. Hesslink estimates the group mulled over about 100 ideas during their cram session.
“They kicked around everything,” Smith said. “And there were some wild ideas.” This wasn’t just a one-sided hunt for players. The group also considered the package the Mariners would have to part with in order to complete a deal – not an easy proposition due to the dearth of top prospects in the farm system.
“As we brainstormed around the league looking for potential fits, we also looked at what kind of packages we’d have to give in return for each of the ideas floated around,” Hesslink said. “So in that sense we were thinking holistically and considering what might have to go the other way to make these different deal concepts work.”
When Tuesday finally rolled around, it was time for the group to present its ideas to Dipoto and the rest of the staff, including this one: How about Denard Span, Alex Colomé and cash consideration for Tommy Romero and Andrew Moore?
The idea resonated with Dipoto right away.
“It was like a light bulb clicked,” Smith said.
Three days later, after the Mariners and Rays worked through the financial details that came along with pulling off the deal, the team officially shipped minor leaguers Romero and Moore to the Rays for Span, Colomé and cash.
“In the end, it came down to being a fit for both teams,” Shibayama said. “That’s what we’re trying to do: put on the hat of the other general managers in the game and be realistic about what works for both teams.
“But this doesn’t come from David sitting at his desk and just thinking really hard,” Shibayama continued. “It comes from him trying to visualize it and collaborating and working with a lot of people. I think what made it different was the timetable we had. It moved quickly, much more so than a long, offseason conversation.”
While he’s not helping the Mariners win games with his left arm, Hesslink confessed that coming up with such deals is easily the next-best thing. He learned something important along the way, too.
“There’s a relationship between the quality of ideas and quantity of ideas that I didn’t really grasp until we started,” Hesslink said. “I think the reason this idea became a solid trade idea was because it was one of a hundred ideas. It sort of forced us to think broad, think creatively and … to think outside the box. If you knock on enough doors, one opens.
“Hopefully, going through this, makes myself and Skylar better. I think we’ve both learned a lot from this; seeing this from start to finish. It was very much boots-on-the-ground; taking this nebulous thing, one of many ideas, to adding two impact players on our team.”
Working for the Mariners certainly holds a special place in Shibayama’s heart. The opportunity to help the club make this deal – a deal that could help Seattle continue its unexpectedly wonderful start to the season and, potentially, help end a 17-year playoff drought – means everything to him.
“It’s my team,” Shibayama said. “I’ve been a Mariners fan my whole life. I was at the 116th win in 2001. So getting to work here is very special.”
So what does Shibayama tell his friends he does for a living?
“I just tell people that I’m trying to help the Mariners find an edge wherever we can find it,” he said.
Smith, who started with the Mariners as an intern seven years ago, understands the job as well as anyone. At the bottom rung of the baseball’s front office, the hours are long and the pay isn’t great. It’s not a job for everyone.
“First of all, you don’t come into baseball to get rich, and these are really smart young kids who have the aptitude to go and get a six-figure salary out of school,” Smith said. “But they’re here because they want to make an impact. That’s one of the perks of why we all got into baseball.
“I think it’s fantastic.”
https://theathletic.com/373523/2018...l-off-the-trade-that-might-save-their-season/
How two 23-year-old first-year employees helped the Mariners pull off the trade that might save their season
By Corey Brock May 30, 2018
It was an unusually warm evening last July when David Hesslink, standing atop a pitching mound in Hillsboro, Oregon, experienced an epiphany.
A left-handed reliever for the Everett AquaSox, Seattle’s short-season affiliate in the Northwest League, Hesslink entered the game in the eighth inning, tasked with protecting a seven-run lead.
“I was facing a left-handed hitter, and I threw him my best fastball. It was on the inner-half (of the plate),” Hesslink recalled. “It should have jammed him or broke his bat, but he hit a home run right down the line.”
Right then and there, Hesslink realized his dream of reaching the big leagues would remain just that – a dream.
“I sort of realized right then that if that was the best bullet I had … then I should probably look into a different line of work,” Hesslink said.
For the longest time, Skylar Shibayama’s dream consisted of being the next great pitcher or second baseman for his hometown Mariners, but that hope faded not long after he failed to make the varsity team at Yale.
“Gritty competitor, not the biggest player, but makes up for it by being weak and slow,” Shibayama said, giving an honest scouting report of his playing skills. “No power to speak of.”
While Hesslink and Shibayama – like most of us – fell well short of reaching the big leagues as players, that hasn’t stopped the pair from making an impact at the major-league level. When Seattle completed a trade with the Rays last week to land Alex Colomé and Denard Span, it was on the endorsement of Hesslink, a baseball operations assistant for the club, and Shibayama, a part-time analytics intern. Both are 23 and in their first year working in the organization.
Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto was quick credit the pair for helping to orchestrate what’s easily been the biggest trade in baseball thus far of 2018.
“Skylar and David came up with this very idea: What if we went out and got both Denard Span and Alex Colomé in the same deal … what would that have to look like? So we dreamed about it internally.”
The Mariners did more than just dream in this particular scenario. They acted on the endorsement of Hesslink and Shibayama, who received significant input during the process from analytics intern Forrest Diamond and operations intern Gary Brown.
Welcome to the inner-workings of today’s major-league front office, where general managers no longer sit in ivory towers and wait for plausible trade scenarios to pop into their heads before acting on them.
Today’s game is much more a collaborative process, as evidenced by how Dipoto, a baseball lifer with nearly two decades of front-office experience, has empowered representatives of the analytics and baseball operations departments like Hesslink and Shibayama to share opinions and dream big.
“We all grow through fresh ideas and conversation,” Dipoto said. “Each of us has a different perspective and it’s important to see as many angles as possible.”
Skylar Shibayama (left) and David Hesslink, first-year employees in the Mariners front office, helped put together the trade that landed Seattle Denard Span and Alex Colomé. (Photo by Corey Brock)
The trade between the Mariners and Rays was officially consummated on Friday, but the legwork to get to that point began a handful of days earlier, when Dipoto asked his staff to look for creative ways to upgrade the roster.
“The leadership in our office has done a great job of creating an open atmosphere of being able to throw out ideas in a safe way without being criticized,” Hesslink said. “I think leads to more robust ideas.”
With Robinson Canó sidelined for 80 games due to his PED suspension, and with Dee Gordon moving back to second base to replace him, the Mariners sought an outfielder. They were also shopping for a reliever to strengthen the back end of the bullpen.
“It was sort of posed as an open question,” Hesslink said. “We were looking for creative ways to solve the problem with the resources we had.”
Knowing there would be a meeting with Dipoto on Tuesday, Hesslink, Shibayama and their colleagues gathered Monday in the large, open space in the baseball operations department called, “The Bullpen.”
“We took a big white board in the office and plotted out every single team to list any potential options for us out there and also to get everyone working with the same information,” Shibayama said. “From there, we started to figure out what made sense. It was very collaborative. It was ‘can we get three to five names that might click for our roster?’”
At some point Monday, Jesse Smith, the team’s director of analytics, stopped by and noted the busy collective effort in the middle of the room.
“No one asked them to do that, but I think that’s a big part of why they want to be there,” Smith said. “I actually remember saying something about how I was ‘really jealous of you guys right now,’ because I was so underwater with other things.”
That Hesslink was in the middle of all of the action didn’t surprise Smith at all.
“David’s reputation precedes him in baseball circles. He is really talented, and he’s our ‘everything guy,’” Smith said of Hesslink, who worked as an intern with the Rays while in college. “He’s someone with a huge motor who will take on any task and figure it out.”
How Hesslink ended up working for the Mariners is an interesting story in itself.
Before graduating from MIT last year, Hesslink was a targeted by several clubs to join their analytic departments. He had multiple full-time offers upon graduation, but Seattle came up with a unique offer: They would draft Hesslink (he pitched at MIT) and allow him the chance to pitch professionally, with the caveat that he would eventually transition to a analytics/baseball operations role.
“The Mariners’ offer was impossible to pass on,” Hesslink said.
Seattle selected Hesslink in the 34th round of the draft last June, and he compiled a 5.60 ERA over 15 games for the AquaSox. After the season, he moved into a full-time job in the front office.
Shibayama, who only started working for the team on April 9, spent the last two years as an assistant girls basketball coach for Shorewood High School north of Seattle. He also worked as a data analyst for local school districts before a conversation with Hesslink eventually landed him on the Mariners’ radar.
“Skylar had a connection with David, and when we brought him in, he was very good,” Smith said. “David mentioned that (Skylar) was a talented guy, so we ran him through the process quickly. The one thing that I look for is for people who can hit the ground running, which he has done.”
Newly acquired outfielder Denard Span is congratulated by his Mariners teammates after scoring a run during the sixth inning of a game against the Texas Rangers at Safeco Field on May 28, 2018. (Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)
That ability to move quickly came in handy last week, as Hesslink, Shibayama and the rest of the group filled the white board with names, some more plausible than others. Hesslink estimates the group mulled over about 100 ideas during their cram session.
“They kicked around everything,” Smith said. “And there were some wild ideas.” This wasn’t just a one-sided hunt for players. The group also considered the package the Mariners would have to part with in order to complete a deal – not an easy proposition due to the dearth of top prospects in the farm system.
“As we brainstormed around the league looking for potential fits, we also looked at what kind of packages we’d have to give in return for each of the ideas floated around,” Hesslink said. “So in that sense we were thinking holistically and considering what might have to go the other way to make these different deal concepts work.”
When Tuesday finally rolled around, it was time for the group to present its ideas to Dipoto and the rest of the staff, including this one: How about Denard Span, Alex Colomé and cash consideration for Tommy Romero and Andrew Moore?
The idea resonated with Dipoto right away.
“It was like a light bulb clicked,” Smith said.
Three days later, after the Mariners and Rays worked through the financial details that came along with pulling off the deal, the team officially shipped minor leaguers Romero and Moore to the Rays for Span, Colomé and cash.
“In the end, it came down to being a fit for both teams,” Shibayama said. “That’s what we’re trying to do: put on the hat of the other general managers in the game and be realistic about what works for both teams.
“But this doesn’t come from David sitting at his desk and just thinking really hard,” Shibayama continued. “It comes from him trying to visualize it and collaborating and working with a lot of people. I think what made it different was the timetable we had. It moved quickly, much more so than a long, offseason conversation.”
While he’s not helping the Mariners win games with his left arm, Hesslink confessed that coming up with such deals is easily the next-best thing. He learned something important along the way, too.
“There’s a relationship between the quality of ideas and quantity of ideas that I didn’t really grasp until we started,” Hesslink said. “I think the reason this idea became a solid trade idea was because it was one of a hundred ideas. It sort of forced us to think broad, think creatively and … to think outside the box. If you knock on enough doors, one opens.
“Hopefully, going through this, makes myself and Skylar better. I think we’ve both learned a lot from this; seeing this from start to finish. It was very much boots-on-the-ground; taking this nebulous thing, one of many ideas, to adding two impact players on our team.”
Working for the Mariners certainly holds a special place in Shibayama’s heart. The opportunity to help the club make this deal – a deal that could help Seattle continue its unexpectedly wonderful start to the season and, potentially, help end a 17-year playoff drought – means everything to him.
“It’s my team,” Shibayama said. “I’ve been a Mariners fan my whole life. I was at the 116th win in 2001. So getting to work here is very special.”
So what does Shibayama tell his friends he does for a living?
“I just tell people that I’m trying to help the Mariners find an edge wherever we can find it,” he said.
Smith, who started with the Mariners as an intern seven years ago, understands the job as well as anyone. At the bottom rung of the baseball’s front office, the hours are long and the pay isn’t great. It’s not a job for everyone.
“First of all, you don’t come into baseball to get rich, and these are really smart young kids who have the aptitude to go and get a six-figure salary out of school,” Smith said. “But they’re here because they want to make an impact. That’s one of the perks of why we all got into baseball.
“I think it’s fantastic.”
CrownRoyalDaddy
formerly tdoggy57
- Nov 12, 2015
- 4,729
- 2,985
Thats dope
Another W tonight
Another W tonight
- Oct 9, 2006
- 57,743
- 29,792
Hoooo boy.
- Oct 25, 2006
- 12,137
- 13,274
Yeah, y’all won the trade with the Diamondbacks...
- Oct 9, 2006
- 57,743
- 29,792
Went to sleep before the game ended... nice to wake up to a walkoff.
- Oct 25, 2006
- 12,137
- 13,274
Y’all first in the AL West though...
- Oct 9, 2006
- 57,743
- 29,792
elpablo21
Supporter
- Feb 11, 2008
- 106,581
- 196,348
- Oct 9, 2006
- 57,743
- 29,792
Ichiro needs to throw BP more often.
elpablo21
Supporter
- Feb 11, 2008
- 106,581
- 196,348
K-Swag
Pax
A dominating win against the Stros
Pax
A dominating win against the Stros
