Thoughts on the series

[AZOldDawg]

We are not a good enough offensive club to simply rely on “Dr Longball”. We need to play more small ball with our pitching

We still get ourselves out too often with poor plate discipline

We are short a big league reliever to replace Seawald

We have to do a better job dealing with base runners

[Sibelius Hindemith]

Yeah they can't manufacture runs. They all want to be the guy that hits the game winning home run.

[Bil522]

The lack of bunting and manufacturing runs falls squarely on Servais. Remember this interview from when he was hired?

www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/to ... weighs-in/

[TraderGary]

We are not a good enough offensive club to simply rely on “Dr Longball”. We need to play more small ball with our pitching

We still get ourselves out too often with poor plate discipline

We are short a big league reliever to replace Seawald

We have to do a better job dealing with base runners

I agree with you regarding small ball. Problem is, JD built a roster predicated on the long ball. His philosophy is for someone to get on base any way possible and then for someone behind them to hit a HR. Never mind that we play in one of the biggest parks in MLB. Just a moronic way to build a roster, particularly given our home park.

We have very little speed to manufacture runs. Raliegh, France, JP, Saurez, Teo, Murphy, Ford, Pollock (when he was here), and others are all slow runners. The only speed we have is Julio, JK, Moore, Haggerty, and Cabby. I may be forgetting someone but you get my point. Extremely poor roster construction on JD's part. No high OBP or guys that hit for average. Makes it very difficult to manufacture runs that way.

I think JD is one of the worst GM's in the league but I also think he's relatively secure given that he's built a somewhat competitive team on the cheap which is just exactly what the owners want. They want to be just competitive enough to give fans hope so they show up at the park and fill their pockets with cash.

All that said, I do think SS could be more aggressive and do more to manufacture runs. And they absolutely need to do something to address the issues with getting runners in from 3rd with less than 2 outs. They could start by telling guys like Julio to start swinging under control, particularly in those situations. Right now he's the absolute last one on the entire team I want to see at the plate with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs, particularly with the game on the line.

And yes, I wholeheartedly agree on the plate discipline issue as well. For a team that preaches control the zone, guys like Julio and Teo swinging at pitches a foot off the plate is just insane and has gone on far too long.

Losing Sewald was huge. I don't have an issue with them trading high on him. The issue I have is the return, which in my mind was very underwhelming. We kept hearing how it was a huge seller's market and that's the best JD could do for one of the top closers? Damn, what am I thinking. We did get Rojas who JD had to have at all costs.

Dealing with base runners. YES! It's embarassing. Many times we're not even making an attempt to throw a runner out. WTF is up with that? I understand the pitchers need to do a better job of holding the runners. But good lord, don't just give them a free base at will by not even making an attempt. C'mon man!

AZOldDawg, I'm in agreement with everything you said.

[Muri]

We are not a good enough offensive club to simply rely on “Dr Longball”. We need to play more small ball with our pitching

We still get ourselves out too often with poor plate discipline

We are short a big league reliever to replace Seawald

We have to do a better job dealing with base runners

I agree with this, but unfortunately the mastermind behind our offensive philosophy(Dipoto) doesn't. I remember he was asked around the trade deadline and draft about focusing more on contact and hitting basics instead of swinging for the fences with power most times, and his response was that even if he had a roster full of high average contact hitters (like Arraez or Ichiro), the offense wouldn't be as productive as we all hoped it would be.

So basically, he loves swing hard and control the zone hitters up and down the lineup, park factors and pitching talents be damned. (Ya think scratching out one run would help our elite pitching every now and then? nah... SWING batter batter!)

So yeah, I agree with your analysis. But Dipoto's a fucking tool and we're fucked longterm.

We will go on streaks with our insane pitching, but longterm, we're screwed until we get our own head out of our ass. AKA Dipoto wakes up and smells some fucking roses instead of his own taint.

[Pharmabro]

We are not a good enough offensive club to simply rely on “Dr Longball”. We need to play more small ball with our pitching

We still get ourselves out too often with poor plate discipline

We are short a big league reliever to replace Seawald

We have to do a better job dealing with base runners

#1 They have doe some hit and run stuff and the 2X steal but small ball is not really fashionable because bunters are not as skilled as they were 30 years ago. And the math says giving an out away is giving an out away.
#2 everyone agrees.
#3 BP is fine
#4 that is typically a BP guy thing

[Donn Beach]

Terms of base runners, they have been given some advantages. Like to see how it looks compared to MLB in general

[GL_Storm]

Small ball is a myth. No team really does this anymore.

[Michael K.]

Small ball is a myth. No team really does this anymore.

Wasn't that the original thought on the bigger bases? Would make stealing bags easier? Seems to work for teams when they play us, just not the other way around? LOL

[Captain 97]

Bigger bases was primarily for safety. Less chance of collisions and getting stepped on with a bigger bag particularly at 1b.