Lookout Landing on the trade deadline

[Donn Beach]

Okay, so we have gone from him being the hottest thing on the market to bailing for whatever they can get. I don't think that be our 3rd baseman of the future

Don't be a drama queen. He's gone from being a great target to being a good target that will still bring a significant return if he is traded.

It might be more like a "Mitch Haniger" level talent in return than an Acuna Jr., but that's exactly the point of doing it.

Haniger ended up being worth 7 WAR over his first two seasons here, made it sting a lot less to give up Taijuan Walkers production.

If he brings a good return then everyone is happy aren't they? I equate it to the Paxton situation. I was told what a great trade chip Paxton was but in the end the return seemed underwhelming. The difference with Haniger is he has value to the Mariners going forward.

[Juliooooo]

I hate articles like this. Written by a political science major who barely played D3 baseball at Lewis and Clark College and some chick, God knows her credentials other than I guess writing about sports for a long enough time that eventually people just hand you the reins. I swear it takes nothing to write for these SB Nation team dedicated web pages.

Why use 1,000 characters to say so little about what the M's will do at the trade deadline? It takes so little imagination to say: "don't trade Haniger," "maybe trade Fraley," "trade Bauers." *barf* ... or "maybe trade for some young,controlled starting pitching" where you may need to unload Kirby or Hancock (who are never going to be available in any trade unless it's for a bonafide superstar). It's just so lazy to me.

How about you name a player you think the M's should go after and propose a trade to get it done. Nobody will hold you to the actual trade, but holy fuck it would be much more entertaining to read.

And the forever theme of Mariners fans across the globe: "WE MUST, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE EVER, PAY MONEY TO REALLY GOOD BASEBALL PLAYERS!"

Oh and to this forum... I HATE this trade Haniger for our 3B of the future who isn't currently a Major Leaguer nonsense... God damn if the lot of you aren't in the pockets of the M's front office... MAN THEY MUST JUST LOVEEEEE MARINER FANS.

We got Haniger in exactly the type of trade most of us want to use to turn his 1+ year of control into 5+ years of control.

Haniger, France, Torrens and Crawford...

[D-train]

Here's a classic LL piece. Believe it or not this supposed to about a baseball game.

Narratives shape our experience of the world in ways that supersede our conscious understanding of physical reality, whether they be spiritual, superstitious, political, or linguistic. We enter each moment with our heads full of stories that allow us to contextualize every passing event, stories that are grounded in our cultures, our adopted or engrained ideologies, our own shared or personal pasts.

Devotion to a sports team is no different, of course, as the actual events that play out on a baseball diamond, a gridiron, a court, or a pitch take the backseat to the stories we form out of those athletic undertakings. John asked us to put the memories of the so-called Deadgar weekend to rest several days ago, noting that the narrative he helped shape is nothing but that: a story.

The Mariners themselves implored the same of us this series. Set aside your dearly-held preconceived notions, let them rest where they belong. Let the dead bury the dead.


Returning home from a giant-toppling roadtrip to the field where they set the reigning American League champions to rest just over a week ago, they demanded of us the hardest thing a person or a group of people can be asked: let your past be past, and let the world say “no” to your narratives. Forget Lollablueza, lay down the pain Mariners teams of years gone by have caused you, ignore the run differential. Give the present moment its chance to show you something you have not yet seen.

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

Isaiah 43:19

Certainly, a rocky 7-2 loss stood in between the walk-off thriller and the romp we witnessed today, but the result speaks for itself, whatever narrative you choose to ascribe to it: the Seattle Mariners stand just barely outside the two Wild Card slots in early July.

You can devise any number of reasons for, say, Chris Flexen’s success at home or Luis Torrens’ post-demotion resurgence, and any one or a number of them may be correct. The fact of the matter is that on short rest, Flexen carved up a lineup (admittedly a poor one) with a confidence he has forged from his own narrative, not ours.

The battle raging in the heart of Luis Torrens is beyond any of our comprehension, no matter the numbers we see on FanGraphs or Savant. Which story does he have to tell himself to find the power he has in his capacity since returning from Tacoma? If you believe, sincerely, that you can find it in his Statcast percentiles, you may be too far gone.

Let this team be what it is, good or bad. Let them emerge triumphant where Mariners past have found nothing but their own failure reflecting back at them. Let Mariners departed, dearly or not, find success elsewhere.

The stories we tell ourselves about games, seasons, franchises, and players are nothing but shadows of the truth, shadows that reflect our shapes between the light and the wall of the cave. Rejoice with each victory, suffer with each loss. Sports offer us nothing but this.

[IStillLoveTheMs]

I'm in the camp where I'm not sold on trading Haniger. I'm not against giving Haniger an extension if it means he can hit to a .800 or so OPS and lock down an OF spot w. a veteran presence in the clubhouse. Lets say 5 years $75 million following 2022.

I'm not a huge fan of trading away solid, veteran production when there's still so many questions surrounding what we've got.

Kelenic, JRod, Raleigh, White, Hancock, Kirby, Williamson, Trammell, Moore are so far from proven that it's sort of comical that most are just assuming all will fall into place... we truly have no idea because none of those guys have proven close to anything yet.

[D-train]

Okay, so we have gone from him being the hottest thing on the market to bailing for whatever they can get. I don't think that be our 3rd baseman of the future

Don't be a drama queen. He's gone from being a great target to being a good target that will still bring a significant return if he is traded.

It might be more like a "Mitch Haniger" level talent in return than an Acuna Jr., but that's exactly the point of doing it.

Haniger ended up being worth 7 WAR over his first two seasons here, made it sting a lot less to give up Taijuan Walkers production.

If he brings a good return then everyone is happy aren't they? I equate it to the Paxton situation. I was told what a great trade chip Paxton was but in the end the return seemed underwhelming. The difference with Haniger is he has value to the Mariners going forward.

Of course he does. If you can trade him for more then that expected value then you do it. If not, then you don't. Pretty simple.

[bpj]

Okay, so we have gone from him being the hottest thing on the market to bailing for whatever they can get. I don't think that be our 3rd baseman of the future

Don't be a drama queen. He's gone from being a great target to being a good target that will still bring a significant return if he is traded.

It might be more like a "Mitch Haniger" level talent in return than an Acuna Jr., but that's exactly the point of doing it.

Haniger ended up being worth 7 WAR over his first two seasons here, made it sting a lot less to give up Taijuan Walkers production.

If he brings a good return then everyone is happy aren't they? I equate it to the Paxton situation. I was told what a great trade chip Paxton was but in the end the return seemed underwhelming. The difference with Haniger is he has value to the Mariners going forward.

That has nothing to do with what you originally said, Shifty.

We got Juan Then for Edwin Encarnacion and everybody acted like it wasn't enough lol.

They won't give Haniger away. Everybody can agree on that. If they trade him it will be because they like the return.

[Donn Beach]

At some point you have to value competing. All this value we assume Haniger has is to a team intent on competing. When are the Mariners going to be that team

[IStillLoveTheMs]

I hate articles like this. Written by a political science major who barely played D3 baseball at Lewis and Clark College and some chick, God knows her credentials other than I guess writing about sports for a long enough time that eventually people just hand you the reins. I swear it takes nothing to write for these SB Nation team dedicated web pages.

Why use 1,000 characters to say so little about what the M's will do at the trade deadline? It takes so little imagination to say: "don't trade Haniger," "maybe trade Fraley," "trade Bauers." *barf* ... or "maybe trade for some young,controlled starting pitching" where you may need to unload Kirby or Hancock (who are never going to be available in any trade unless it's for a bonafide superstar). It's just so lazy to me.

How about you name a player you think the M's should go after and propose a trade to get it done. Nobody will hold you to the actual trade, but holy fuck it would be much more entertaining to read.

And the forever theme of Mariners fans across the globe: "WE MUST, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE EVER, PAY MONEY TO REALLY GOOD BASEBALL PLAYERS!"

Oh and to this forum... I HATE this trade Haniger for our 3B of the future who isn't currently a Major Leaguer nonsense... God damn if the lot of you aren't in the pockets of the M's front office... MAN THEY MUST JUST LOVEEEEE MARINER FANS.

We got Haniger in exactly the type of trade most of us want to use to turn his 1+ year of control into 5+ years of control.

Haniger, France, Torrens and Crawford...

Yeah we also traded Ketel Marte to do it.

Torrens is a backup catcher.

Unless France hits to an .800+ OPS I'm not sure how much value he brings given that he's a pretty mediocre fielder... .767 isn't good enough and won't be good enough.

Crawford seems like he's bombing off his traditional June high yet again... I've said this many times, Crawford left June of 2019 hitting .310 and finished .220something by year's end... his last 7 games he's gotten pull happy, he's swinging at ball 3 in 2-0 counts, and he's hitting .214/.290/.286/.576... last 15 games? .657 OPS.

None of the trades we've made have amounted to much of anything yet given what we've traded away.

[Juliooooo]

We got Haniger in exactly the type of trade most of us want to use to turn his 1+ year of control into 5+ years of control.

Haniger, France, Torrens and Crawford...

Yeah we also traded Ketel Marte to do it.

Torrens is a backup catcher.

Unless France hits to an .800+ OPS I'm not sure how much value he brings given that he's a pretty mediocre fielder... .767 isn't good enough and won't be good enough.

Crawford seems like he's bombing off his traditional June high yet again... I've said this many times, Crawford left June of 2019 hitting .310 and finished .220something by year's end... his last 7 games he's gotten pull happy, he's swinging at ball 3 in 2-0 counts, and he's hitting .214/.290/.286/.576... last 15 games? .657 OPS.

None of the trades we've made have amounted to much of anything yet given what we've traded away.

He had 1 bad series and now he's "bombing". LMAO and I'm the one who goes crazy over a small sample? Marte sucked ass for 2 years on the Mariners before he was traded. It would be like trading Trammell right now.

[IStillLoveTheMs]

Haniger, France, Torrens and Crawford...

Yeah we also traded Ketel Marte to do it.

Torrens is a backup catcher.

Unless France hits to an .800+ OPS I'm not sure how much value he brings given that he's a pretty mediocre fielder... .767 isn't good enough and won't be good enough.

Crawford seems like he's bombing off his traditional June high yet again... I've said this many times, Crawford left June of 2019 hitting .310 and finished .220something by year's end... his last 7 games he's gotten pull happy, he's swinging at ball 3 in 2-0 counts, and he's hitting .214/.290/.286/.576... last 15 games? .657 OPS.

None of the trades we've made have amounted to much of anything yet given what we've traded away.

He had 1 bad series and now he's "bombing". LMAO and I'm the one who goes crazy over a small sample? Marte sucked ass for 2 years on the Mariners before he was traded. It would be like trading Trammell right now.

A small sample?

The sample through out his career is that he's hit like a Hall of Famer in June and like a total shitter almost every other month:



^^^ That's 1200 plate appearances, not a "small sample."