6 questions facing the M's per LL

[D-train]

Are Justin Dunn and Justus Sheffield MLB-level starting pitchers capable of anchoring the middle of the Mariners’ rotation starting in late 2020/2021?
They reference Keith Law saying that Dunn will be a reliever. Given Law's opinion I am pretty sure Dunn will start at least 300 games in his career.

Is Scott Servais the right steward to lead a young team through this rebuild on and off the field? Of all the things to complain about and they are worried about a 52 yo's age. And I am not just saying that because he is only a few weeks older than me.

One point to discuss regarding Servais is his age, especially as the average age of the team dips lower and lower. For a club that prides itself on being at the forefront of MLB trends and thinking outside the box in making hires, Servais is right smack at the average age for MLB managers. Major League majors currently range between ages 38 (Tingler, Baldelli) to 65 (Maddon). Servais, at 52, rests almost exactly in the middle of that range, at just a shade over the average managerial age of 51. The Mariners have shown a tendency to mix ages and experience levels in their MiLB coaching staffs: at Modesto in 2019, 49-year-old MLB veteran Denny Hocking was balanced by 41-year-old hitting coach and MiLB vet Jose Umbria along with 28-year-old pitching coach Rob Marcello Jr., who never played above the college level. 24-year-old pitching strategist Max Weiner is younger than many of the players he coaches. We don’t expect Scott Servais and his years of experience in MLB to go anywhere, but wouldn’t be surprised to see him surrounded by some support staff who might be those more out-of-the-box hires.

Who will be the pitching coach? I honestly don't care.


If Kyle Seager falters or get injured again in 2020 or 2021, what’s the back up plan for third base? (This is mostly hypothetical because Kyle Seager will never say die) They say that the main reason that he will be on the team is because he is untradeable. This is lazy BS. He could be traded if they wanted to even with the poison pill. I would be shocked if they did though given the death of 3Bs in the system that they do mention.


With Daniel Vogelbach’s rough second half, is DH open for auditions for 2020 or is the role Vogelbach’s to lose still?
Sorry Vogey—this roster spot is very much open for auditions. Daniel Vogelbach was a great story, and he still is. We, unabashed Daniel Vogelbach stans, hope that he can turn it around and see his production settle approximately between his first-half and second-half levels in 2019. Vogelbach’s abysmal 2019 BABIP of .232 points to possible positive regression.

The Mariners, however, need to evaluate the flexibility—or lack thereof—created by rostering Vogelbach. Vogey can only play DH, and that lack of positional flexibility would have hurt the M’s had they actually been in contention in 2019. With a pure DH on a roster, you’re limited to rostering one fewer backup infielder or outfielder. If someone goes down, the lineup can quickly look ugly; hello, Mac Williamson.

Successful teams in the American League like the Yankees or Astros have primary DH’s like Yordan Alvarez and Edwin Encarnacion that can shift to other positions in times of need. Even Encarnacion can hold his own at first base. Vogelbach can’t, and for that reason, he doesn’t just need to pull his own weight; he needs to do even more to justify that roster spot. (ZG) Once again they just parrot back fairy tales instead of looking at the analytical data. Vogey was 12th of 44 in UZR/150 with 300+ innings. Unbelievably his glove was better than his bat in the second half Check out who is #1.

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx? ... &sort=25,d

If the Mariners are 3-5 wins out of a playoff spot at the 2020 trade deadline, what kinds of moves will the team be willing to make? If a playoff opportunity presents itself, how hard would the team push so early in its hopeful contention window?

They wasted one of 6 questions on a hypothetical with almost no chance of happening.






https://www.lookoutlanding.com/2019/11/ ... -vogelbach

[Bil522]

Here is my question....if Marcello is the pitcher whisperer, why on God's green earth would you have him doing that job in the PCL?

[D-train]

Good question. I was wondering if were going to get back to the present with our discussions. Not that ancient history isn't interesting.

[Double Mocha Man]

Good one! Does a pitcher whisperer whisper with his glove in front of his mouth?

[Donn Beach]

Casual fans might not recognize his name, but Modesto pitching coach Rob Marcello’s fingerprints are all over this organization. Marcello was working with top pitching prospect Logan Gilbert at his academy in Florida before he had even been hired by the Mariners, and continued his work with the lanky righty when Gilbert reached Modesto before ascending right on up to Double-A Arkansas in his first pro season. Probably the greatest testament to Marcello’s work is the rate of attrition for pitchers in Modesto; under his tenure, Ljay Newsome, Logan Gilbert, Ian McKinney, Sam Delaplane, Joey Gerber, Scott Boches, Jake Haberer, and Kyle Wilcox were all promoted to Double-A Arkansas at some point in the season; however, the strikeout numbers the staff posted are pretty gaudy, as well. Modesto was one of two teams that broke a decades-old California League record for strikeouts, and while they were beaten to the mark by Dodgers affiliate Rancho Cucamonga (who also beat them in the season total for strikeouts, by five), Modesto’s pitchers did it while walking over one hundred fewer batters than Rancho, with a WHIP of 1.3 to Rancho’s 1.4. But the most important testament to the work Rob does is to listen to what the players themselves say about him; they speak about him in tones respectful bordering on reverent, and at least one player is on record crediting Marcello with saving his career. It’s one thing to work with a top draft prospect like Logan Gilbert and see improvement; it’s another thing to coax career-altering results out of players who had been released by other organizations (McKinney), came from indy ball (Haberer), were undrafted (Ray Kerr, who was scraping triple digits by the end of Modesto’s season) or were picked in rounds 20 and up (Newsome, Delaplane, Boches, Collin Kober, basically most of Modesto’s staff). Dear Mariners: pay Rob Marcello whatever it takes to keep him a member of this organization, thanks good talk.

[D-train]

Casual fans might not recognize his name, but Modesto pitching coach Rob Marcello’s fingerprints are all over this organization. Marcello was working with top pitching prospect Logan Gilbert at his academy in Florida before he had even been hired by the Mariners, and continued his work with the lanky righty when Gilbert reached Modesto before ascending right on up to Double-A Arkansas in his first pro season. Probably the greatest testament to Marcello’s work is the rate of attrition for pitchers in Modesto; under his tenure, Ljay Newsome, Logan Gilbert, Ian McKinney, Sam Delaplane, Joey Gerber, Scott Boches, Jake Haberer, and Kyle Wilcox were all promoted to Double-A Arkansas at some point in the season; however, the strikeout numbers the staff posted are pretty gaudy, as well. Modesto was one of two teams that broke a decades-old California League record for strikeouts, and while they were beaten to the mark by Dodgers affiliate Rancho Cucamonga (who also beat them in the season total for strikeouts, by five), Modesto’s pitchers did it while walking over one hundred fewer batters than Rancho, with a WHIP of 1.3 to Rancho’s 1.4. But the most important testament to the work Rob does is to listen to what the players themselves say about him; they speak about him in tones respectful bordering on reverent, and at least one player is on record crediting Marcello with saving his career. It’s one thing to work with a top draft prospect like Logan Gilbert and see improvement; it’s another thing to coax career-altering results out of players who had been released by other organizations (McKinney), came from indy ball (Haberer), were undrafted (Ray Kerr, who was scraping triple digits by the end of Modesto’s season) or were picked in rounds 20 and up (Newsome, Delaplane, Boches, Collin Kober, basically most of Modesto’s staff). Dear Mariners: pay Rob Marcello whatever it takes to keep him a member of this organization, thanks good talk.

Awesome stuff. I now care who the next pitching coach is. Nice to hear our development seems to be light years ahead of where it has been.

[bpj]

Agreed, the only things I disagree with the Mariners on at this point are

1) Waiting to try and win
2) letting Mallex Smith continue to play
3) letting Dee Gordon continue to play for us

[D-train]

Agreed, the only things I disagree with the Mariners on at this point are

1) Waiting to try and win
2) letting Mallex Smith continue to play
3) letting Dee Gordon continue to play for us

If Gordon isn't gone I will have lost all faith in the rebuild. Sadly I think we are going to have to endure more Mallex.

[bpj]

Agreed, the only things I disagree with the Mariners on at this point are

1) Waiting to try and win
2) letting Mallex Smith continue to play
3) letting Dee Gordon continue to play for us

If Gordon isn't gone I will have lost all faith in the rebuild. Sadly I think we are going to have to endure more Mallex.

The only way it makes any sense is as a 4th outfielder. But, with how often Servais uses his terrible bench players, that would still be way too much playing time.

[D-train]

Agreed, the only things I disagree with the Mariners on at this point are

1) Waiting to try and win
2) letting Mallex Smith continue to play
3) letting Dee Gordon continue to play for us

If Gordon isn't gone I will have lost all faith in the rebuild. Sadly I think we are going to have to endure more Mallex.

The only way it makes any sense is as a 4th outfielder. But, with how often Servais uses his terrible bench players, that would still be way too much playing time.

I can see not having starters throw 300 innings a year any longer but when you consider what Cal Ripken Jr. did in the not so distant past, I also can't fathom why a baseball player needs a day off from playing baseball every few games. How is the being a position player any different now that it was during Cal's streak???