Interesting Quote from Leake in Today's Divish Article

[Moe Gibbs]

Once again..Servais took a club that was INFERIOR [outscored] to his opponents and won 89 games.
You attribute that to luck.....
The teams that lost 89 times to Servais' Club took it VERY SERIOUSLY DUDE
You have called this ex MLB catcher A LOSER and A WIMP.
What I'd like to know right now..WHAT IS YOUR CLAIM TO FAME, SLICK...?
Just what is YOUR claim to fame...?
Let's hear it.

Yeah totally... A catcher with a career .681 OPS playing in the heart of the steroid era who put up 3.1 WAR and appeared in one playoff series in 11 seasons where his team got swept is a total winner . In 15 years of professional baseball (11 as a player, 4 as a manager) the guy will have seen the playoffs exactly once going 0-4. That's a winner to you?

Why would any team employ a manager who has never experienced playing for consistent winners? He has no idea what fielding a winning ballclub feels or looks like.

The whole "Oh, are you a professional athlete?" shtick is so tired. As a player and a manager at the major league level, Servais has been largely a failure. He has almost always always been below average - just like the teams he's been on and the teams he's managed. Don't need to have a "claim to fame" to see that.

And yes, he's a total wimp. Bob Melvin gets tossed in the A's loss to the M's arguing a missed strike 3 call from Lou Trivino that led a Vogelbach homerun and cost the A's a win. The A's go on to win 10 of their next 11.

Servais pees himself every time there's a chance to defend his squad and the M's players see it. The whole East Coast trip against the Indians, Red Sox and Yankees was riddled with strike zone issues that benefited the Mariner's opponents and all you ever saw was Servais standing there with a squinty, scared face looking like he was trying to hold in a crap with his arms folded. He's a wimp and this city deserves better.

You wanna know a perfect example of Servais being smoked by a superior manager? Look no further than the 12-inning loss to the Cubs in 2016. The M's had a 6-0 lead going into the 5th inning. Servais's total bullpen meltdown leads to the Cubs tying it 6-6 in the 9th. Cischek was getting crushed and Servais refused to pull him after he threw 7+ sliders 2 feet outside leading to multiple 2-0 counts... the Cubs scored 3 in the bottom half to tie it. The game goes to the 12th inning and with 2 strikes, 1 out and a runner on 3rd... Joe Maddon has John Lester pinch-hit bunt for a game winning sacrifice that the M's had NO IDEA was coming.

It was the most blatant out coaching performance I've ever seen. It was embarrassing is what it was.

Even funnier, Servais was the starting catcher for the Cubs the year Kerry Wood had his 20K game... the kicker? He didn't even catch that game. The backup catcher did. This is just one of the many examples of a man who has found himself overshadowed by superior talent at every step. Sandy Martinez, the catcher who caught that game, had an OPS 150 points higher than Servais that year.

What a total joke of a weak Beta Manlet reply that was. We still don't know what your claim to fame is.
I seriously doubt you made it past the 12 year old league and I am 99.9% certain that you would crap your little poopy pants if you ever had to spend 1 single hour of your life as Servais has done for most of his adult life as a MLB Catcher and Manager.

[DavidGee24]

Not a fan of Sevais, but his teams' records during his playing career have no bearing on anything. By that logic Ernie Banks and Ron Santo are the biggest losers ever. If Servais does indeed suck that isn't why.

We could have Tony Larussa in his prime managing this team and at best be a couple games better and that might be stretching it. It's very rare that a manager straight up loses a game. Even if he makes moves that decrease your chances of winning there's no guarantee that doing something else would have won the game. Playing Mallex Smith in favor of Dan Vogelbach is dumb, that's for sure, but if you do it 25 times you'll probably only cost yourself one game, maybe two. There are too many players with equal chances to contribute, they are who they are, and there's no Popovich/Belichek equivalent in baseball who can elevate players like they can.

[Sexymarinersfan]

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like a trade is coming?

[IStillLoveTheMs]

Once again..Servais took a club that was INFERIOR [outscored] to his opponents and won 89 games.
You attribute that to luck.....
The teams that lost 89 times to Servais' Club took it VERY SERIOUSLY DUDE
You have called this ex MLB catcher A LOSER and A WIMP.
What I'd like to know right now..WHAT IS YOUR CLAIM TO FAME, SLICK...?
Just what is YOUR claim to fame...?
Let's hear it.

Yeah totally... A catcher with a career .681 OPS playing in the heart of the steroid era who put up 3.1 WAR and appeared in one playoff series in 11 seasons where his team got swept is a total winner . In 15 years of professional baseball (11 as a player, 4 as a manager) the guy will have seen the playoffs exactly once going 0-4. That's a winner to you?

Why would any team employ a manager who has never experienced playing for consistent winners? He has no idea what fielding a winning ballclub feels or looks like.

The whole "Oh, are you a professional athlete?" shtick is so tired. As a player and a manager at the major league level, Servais has been largely a failure. He has almost always always been below average - just like the teams he's been on and the teams he's managed. Don't need to have a "claim to fame" to see that.

And yes, he's a total wimp. Bob Melvin gets tossed in the A's loss to the M's arguing a missed strike 3 call from Lou Trivino that led a Vogelbach homerun and cost the A's a win. The A's go on to win 10 of their next 11.

Servais pees himself every time there's a chance to defend his squad and the M's players see it. The whole East Coast trip against the Indians, Red Sox and Yankees was riddled with strike zone issues that benefited the Mariner's opponents and all you ever saw was Servais standing there with a squinty, scared face looking like he was trying to hold in a crap with his arms folded. He's a wimp and this city deserves better.

You wanna know a perfect example of Servais being smoked by a superior manager? Look no further than the 12-inning loss to the Cubs in 2016. The M's had a 6-0 lead going into the 5th inning. Servais's total bullpen meltdown leads to the Cubs tying it 6-6 in the 9th. Cischek was getting crushed and Servais refused to pull him after he threw 7+ sliders 2 feet outside leading to multiple 2-0 counts... the Cubs scored 3 in the bottom half to tie it. The game goes to the 12th inning and with 2 strikes, 1 out and a runner on 3rd... Joe Maddon has John Lester pinch-hit bunt for a game winning sacrifice that the M's had NO IDEA was coming.

It was the most blatant out coaching performance I've ever seen. It was embarrassing is what it was.

Even funnier, Servais was the starting catcher for the Cubs the year Kerry Wood had his 20K game... the kicker? He didn't even catch that game. The backup catcher did. This is just one of the many examples of a man who has found himself overshadowed by superior talent at every step. Sandy Martinez, the catcher who caught that game, had an OPS 150 points higher than Servais that year.

What a total joke of a weak Beta Manlet reply that was. We still don't know what your claim to fame is.
I seriously doubt you made it past the 12 year old league and I am 99.9% certain that you would crap your little poopy pants if you ever had to spend 1 single hour of your life as Servais has done for most of his adult life as a MLB Catcher and Manager.

LOL Moe as for my not making it past 12 years old... I had offers to pitch in college and chose to play another sport where I had a higher trajectory on a full ride rather than pitch without a ride. I'm sure I can probably still throw 85+ despite not having throw for a few years.

***cue "Oh you had college offers and you think you know more than Servais! " response that I know is coming.***

Again, it doesn't take being a professional baseball player to see the way this clown manages and team and a ballgame to know he's awful. Save it.

And what kind of an adult uses the term "poopy pants?" But it is rather telling that instead of mounting any real defense, you just go to childish insults. Then again, it is "you're a beta cuck" Moe Gibbs we're talking about here.

[Hanjag]

Was Leake swinging a dead chicken around his head when he came up with that worthless nugget of pseudo-wisdom...?
Every single player we have is performing to whatever level he is capable of and neither Tony Larussa nor Tommy Lasorda could raise this teams batting average a single point with their best Pep Talk.

I don't want Servais fired because I care about this particular team winning. I want him fired because he is the poster child for everything wrong with God forsaken excuse of a franchise.

I want Servais fired because he's a loser. He's not a leader. He has no motivational qualities. He promotes mediocrity. He's a wimp. He doesn't hold himself or his players accountable for bad decision making that leads to losing. He views baseball as a game that simply plays itself out - a mantra that has led to 4 straight seasons of around .500 baseball and no playoff births. His belief that the players don't need motivation or the occasional kick in the pants is so wrong. When he talks about a veteran underperforming and say's "oh, he's a veteran, he'll figure it out," it makes me sick. What's the purpose of being a manager of a baseball team if that's the case?

When he says, "that's baseball" it makes me want to throw up. Great managers make baseball what they want it to be. They influence the game in a way that changes the way its played, making the opponent think and in turn, make mistakes. I wan't a manager who takes losing personally. Not some idiot who simply shrugs his shoulders after a 5-21 stretch and lauds every opponent for beating our socks off as if they were "just better than us" today.

Sounds to me like you slapped Lorena on the ass.

[Hy Feiber]

Once again..Servais took a club that was INFERIOR [outscored] to his opponents and won 89 games.
You attribute that to luck.....
The teams that lost 89 times to Servais' Club took it VERY SERIOUSLY DUDE
You have called this ex MLB catcher A LOSER and A WIMP.
What I'd like to know right now..WHAT IS YOUR CLAIM TO FAME, SLICK...?
Just what is YOUR claim to fame...?
Let's hear it.

Yeah totally... A catcher with a career .681 OPS playing in the heart of the steroid era who put up 3.1 WAR and appeared in one playoff series in 11 seasons where his team got swept is a total winner . In 15 years of professional baseball (11 as a player, 4 as a manager) the guy will have seen the playoffs exactly once going 0-4. That's a winner to you?

Why would any team employ a manager who has never experienced playing for consistent winners? He has no idea what fielding a winning ballclub feels or looks like.

The whole "Oh, are you a professional athlete?" shtick is so tired. As a player and a manager at the major league level, Servais has been largely a failure. He has almost always always been below average - just like the teams he's been on and the teams he's managed. Don't need to have a "claim to fame" to see that.

And yes, he's a total wimp. Bob Melvin gets tossed in the A's loss to the M's arguing a missed strike 3 call from Lou Trivino that led a Vogelbach homerun and cost the A's a win. The A's go on to win 10 of their next 11.

Servais pees himself every time there's a chance to defend his squad and the M's players see it. The whole East Coast trip against the Indians, Red Sox and Yankees was riddled with strike zone issues that benefited the Mariner's opponents and all you ever saw was Servais standing there with a squinty, scared face looking like he was trying to hold in a crap with his arms folded. He's a wimp and this city deserves better.

You wanna know a perfect example of Servais being smoked by a superior manager? Look no further than the 12-inning loss to the Cubs in 2016. The M's had a 6-0 lead going into the 5th inning. Servais's total bullpen meltdown leads to the Cubs tying it 6-6 in the 9th. Cischek was getting crushed and Servais refused to pull him after he threw 7+ sliders 2 feet outside leading to multiple 2-0 counts... the Cubs scored 3 in the bottom half to tie it. The game goes to the 12th inning and with 2 strikes, 1 out and a runner on 3rd... Joe Maddon has John Lester pinch-hit bunt for a game winning sacrifice that the M's had NO IDEA was coming.

It was the most blatant out coaching performance I've ever seen. It was embarrassing is what it was.

Even funnier, Servais was the starting catcher for the Cubs the year Kerry Wood had his 20K game... the kicker? He didn't even catch that game. The backup catcher did. This is just one of the many examples of a man who has found himself overshadowed by superior talent at every step. Sandy Martinez, the catcher who caught that game, had an OPS 150 points higher than Servais that year.

What a total joke of a weak Beta Manlet reply that was. We still don't know what your claim to fame is.
I seriously doubt you made it past the 12 year old league and I am 99.9% certain that you would crap your little poopy pants if you ever had to spend 1 single hour of your life as Servais has done for most of his adult life as a MLB Catcher and Manager.

Now wait a doggone minute son, you saying that only posters with More MLB success than Servais can dare criticize?

That would Clear Out This Joint Fast!

In my long career I criticized supervisors when necessary, though I never was one.

[DavidGee24]

Is it okay to criticize if you stayed at a Holiday Inn Express the previous night?

[Moe Gibbs]

Yeah totally... A catcher with a career .681 OPS playing in the heart of the steroid era who put up 3.1 WAR and appeared in one playoff series in 11 seasons where his team got swept is a total winner . In 15 years of professional baseball (11 as a player, 4 as a manager) the guy will have seen the playoffs exactly once going 0-4. That's a winner to you?

Why would any team employ a manager who has never experienced playing for consistent winners? He has no idea what fielding a winning ballclub feels or looks like.

The whole "Oh, are you a professional athlete?" shtick is so tired. As a player and a manager at the major league level, Servais has been largely a failure. He has almost always always been below average - just like the teams he's been on and the teams he's managed. Don't need to have a "claim to fame" to see that.

And yes, he's a total wimp. Bob Melvin gets tossed in the A's loss to the M's arguing a missed strike 3 call from Lou Trivino that led a Vogelbach homerun and cost the A's a win. The A's go on to win 10 of their next 11.

Servais pees himself every time there's a chance to defend his squad and the M's players see it. The whole East Coast trip against the Indians, Red Sox and Yankees was riddled with strike zone issues that benefited the Mariner's opponents and all you ever saw was Servais standing there with a squinty, scared face looking like he was trying to hold in a crap with his arms folded. He's a wimp and this city deserves better.

You wanna know a perfect example of Servais being smoked by a superior manager? Look no further than the 12-inning loss to the Cubs in 2016. The M's had a 6-0 lead going into the 5th inning. Servais's total bullpen meltdown leads to the Cubs tying it 6-6 in the 9th. Cischek was getting crushed and Servais refused to pull him after he threw 7+ sliders 2 feet outside leading to multiple 2-0 counts... the Cubs scored 3 in the bottom half to tie it. The game goes to the 12th inning and with 2 strikes, 1 out and a runner on 3rd... Joe Maddon has John Lester pinch-hit bunt for a game winning sacrifice that the M's had NO IDEA was coming.

It was the most blatant out coaching performance I've ever seen. It was embarrassing is what it was.

Even funnier, Servais was the starting catcher for the Cubs the year Kerry Wood had his 20K game... the kicker? He didn't even catch that game. The backup catcher did. This is just one of the many examples of a man who has found himself overshadowed by superior talent at every step. Sandy Martinez, the catcher who caught that game, had an OPS 150 points higher than Servais that year.

What a total joke of a weak Beta Manlet reply that was. We still don't know what your claim to fame is.
I seriously doubt you made it past the 12 year old league and I am 99.9% certain that you would crap your little poopy pants if you ever had to spend 1 single hour of your life as Servais has done for most of his adult life as a MLB Catcher and Manager.

Now wait a doggone minute son, you saying that only posters with More MLB success than Servais can dare criticize?

That would Clear Out This Joint Fast!

In my long career I criticized supervisors when necessary, though I never was one.

Oh yes, I knew ahead of time that the OP would claim to be at least a college level player. I'll bet he benches 315 and makes $140K a year too...I'VE MET DOZENS OF THESE GUYS ON THE INTERNET
What do you think of a "pretender" like the OP calling Servais a wimp, a loser and trying to build his case against Servais by making fun of Servais' playing career stats...? That is way beyond simple / constructive criticism..especially by a wannabee make believe Prep Star who would crap his pants if he ever had to face live MLB pitching or else do the after game press conferences.
I could track any manager in the game..[let's take Joe Madden for example] and find all sorts of mistakes he has made. Madden is a great example of his Cubs winning in spite of the mistakes he made.
The OP shows exactly how little he knows about baseball by thinking that "great managers" can inspire their hitters and pitchers to outperform what they would otherwise accomplish.
In fact, there is NO WAY to validate that ridiculous nonsense.

[IStillLoveTheMs]

You meet guys on the internet? Color me shocked.













I don't lift 315 pounds nor make $115K a year (hopefully soon on that front). I simply got offers to pitch in college and threw in the upper 80's from the right side w/o much breaking stuff... that's really not that surprising. There were 2 guys on my HS team who threw in the low 90's... both got drafted. There's a number of guys on every high school team in many states who get college offers to play baseball... just because you never could doesn't mean other people didn't.

But sheesh. You're really beta raging right now. Better take some Alex Jones supplements or ur head will explode Moe.

[D-train]

More quotes from the outlaw Josey Wales' doppelganger here.

Long before your first spring-training stretching session, your general manager says that this is going to be a “step back” season for your team. He wants fans to know that the roster overhaul is going to make 2019 a slog, but that it was necessary for success in future years.

This is understandable. Baseball teams do this all the time. Still, when you’re in the middle of it — when you’ve lost 30 of your last 41, as the Mariners have done — can you really accept that your last-place standing is all just part of the plan? And might it be even harder when you have no idea if you’ll be part of the step forward?

This is what I asked several veterans in the Mariners’ clubhouse Monday. Their responses varied in tone and perspective. Some didn’t really want to talk about it. Others said they didn’t think about it much. And then there was starting pitcher Mike Leake, who was as candid as can be.

“I mean, if that’s your approach, and you have an idea of what you’re doing, and it’s an idea that’s moving in a positive direction, then I guess it’s all right,” said Leake when asked about GM Jerry Dipoto’s “step back” plan. ” But being a part of it from my point of view, it’s tough. I mean, there’s days where you wonder, if I’m not part of it, should you trade me to someone who wants me more? Or do you want — “what do you want here?” is kind of the question, but I don’t know.”

Leake, 31, has a five-year, $80 million contract that runs through 2020. Given where the younger players are in their development, it seems unlikely Seattle will blossom into a playoff contender by then.

Boo hoo for the vets? Of course not. They’re all getting massive amounts to play a game, which Leake understands. Still, a will to win is part of the reason MLB players rise to the levels they do, which is why some Mariners might feel trapped.

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“I think it’s a matter of just putting your head down and continuing to do the work and if they ask you for things you give and take a little bit,” Leake said. “When they announce that they’re going to go full rebuild and then we’re in the situation we’re in — it definitely is not a situation that’s good for both sides, I guess you could say.”

It’s hard to know if Leake is speaking for anybody beyond himself. Nobody else I talked with Monday gave answers resembling his. Most essentially said the same thing — that a GM’s approach has no bearing on their mindset.

“What are we going to come in here and say, ‘OK guys, this is a step-back year, we’re just gonna take it easy?’ I don’t think that’s the case at all,” said outfielder/first baseman Jay Bruce. “I don’t pay a lot of attention to it honestly. You could spend energy on it, or feel bad about it, or be mad about it, or have a chip on your shoulder about it, but it doesn’t do you any good.”

“It’s baseball. Struggling is a part of it,” added center fielder Mallex Smith. “I pay little to no mind to what the front office says about what the year is supposed to be. All I know is we got 25-plus guys in here grinding our tails off.”

Infielder Tim Beckham was particularly succinct: “When you play some winning baseball, losing is not fun. I mean, all the other stuff, the front office controls it. I can’t control it.”

Fellow infielder Ryon Healy didn’t dive too deep, either. “I don’t have many thoughts on that, quite frankly. As a player, you gotta have a simple mindset. Prepare to win. That’s our goal every single day. I don’t think it’s our job to have the business mentality of what we’re doing.”

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This was the consensus response around the clubhouse Monday, but it also was the expected response. It’s possible that Leake’s thoughts do echo that of other Mariners.

There wasn’t malice in his voice. He didn’t seem as though he has been punching a lot of inanimate objects lately. He just felt like the filter-less approach to these questions was the best approach.

Is this a topic of conversation among other veterans on the team?

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“Um, I mean, we’re not happy” Leake said. “It’s tough when you work to get, you work to try and establish a career, but when team goals are different than that, or they’re against that grain, it’s difficult to establish yourself and become a professional and have a career.”

When you say guys aren’t happy, do you mean with how you’re playing or…

“How you’re playing,” he said. “It usually makes it worse. It magnifies it. That’s why it’s never good to go on streaks that we’re going on. Maybe we could get back to what we were at the beginning but it’s tough to say, especially where we’re at today. But when you’re kind of veterans left in the dark, it’s tough to know how to lead.”

Hey, Dipoto warned of this months ago. This had the potential to be a long season.

Longer for some, it seems, than others.