8/18 Mariners Sniffing 9 Games Over, Again vs. Rangers Game Thread

[D-train]

This tweet made no sense until I saw the communist Banner he is rolling with.

[Juliooooo]

Just make certain you learn Portuguese Portuguese and not Brazilian Portuguese. Totally different animal!

What's wrong with Brazilian Portuguese?!

And why would he learn it in Portugal??

I'm joking. I was in Brazil for 2 years. My Portuguese is crap now.

[D-train]

What's wrong with Brazilian Portuguese?!

And why would he learn it in Portugal??

I'm joking. I was in Brazil for 2 years. My Portuguese is crap now.

Is it different? I talk to my Colleagues in Brazil every few months but thankfully they speak pretty good English as do all my ESL colleagues around the globe. I took two years of Spanish in high school and I can barely order a Taco in Spanish.

[Juliooooo]

And why would he learn it in Portugal??

I'm joking. I was in Brazil for 2 years. My Portuguese is crap now.

Is it different? I talk to my Colleagues in Brazil every few months but thankfully they speak pretty good English as do all my ESL colleagues around the globe. I took two years of Spanish in high school and I can barely order a Taco in Spanish.

I don't know. I never spoke to anyone from Portugal.

[TraderGary]

Yeah, no reason not to learn Portuguese. The attitude that kids pick up a language easier than an adult is a misconception. An adult just has different tools to attack it with

Just make certain you learn Portuguese Portuguese and not Brazilian Portuguese. Totally different animal!

What's wrong with Brazilian Portuguese?!

I fail to understand why everyone here is automatically anointing Toro as the next star for the M's or even an above average player. Yes, he had a couple impressive weeks. But as Captain pointed out, he's come back down to earth and has struggled a bit lately. The fact is, none of us know what we have in him. How many times have we seen a player come up, rake for a couple weeks, and then fall off a cliff barely to be heard from again.

As an M's fan, of course I hope he does well. But the fact is, no one knows what we have in him yet, and you all are making him sound like the 2nd coming. You haven't seen this scenario play out enough times to be a little more objective?

[bpj]

I don't t think anybody expects any of these guys to be much more than they are now.

That's why we want to add a couple good players in free agency or trade, because we need a couple plus players to push us over the top.

What Toro is, I believe, is a player than can be average at 2B or 3B the next couple seasons at minimum wage, one less black hole that needs to be filled in free agency/trade.

[D-train]

Just make certain you learn Portuguese Portuguese and not Brazilian Portuguese. Totally different animal!

What's wrong with Brazilian Portuguese?!

I fail to understand why everyone here is automatically anointing Toro as the next star for the M's or even an above average player. Yes, he had a couple impressive weeks. But as Captain pointed out, he's come back down to earth and has struggled a bit lately. The fact is, none of us know what we have in him. How many times have we seen a player come up, rake for a couple weeks, and then fall off a cliff barely to be heard from again.

As an M's fan, of course I hope he does well. But the fact is, no one knows what we have in him yet, and you all are making him sound like the 2nd coming. You haven't seen this scenario play out enough times to be a little more objective?

Does he speak Brazilian Portuguese? lol

[D-train]

Not fan of Churchill the human but he does a great job of articulating the value of Toro here. Flexibility as they strategize around the off season it gives them Options. Good options.

[TraderGary]

I don't t think anybody expects any of these guys to be much more than they are now.

That's why we want to add a couple good players in free agency or trade, because we need a couple plus players to push us over the top.

What Toro is, I believe, is a player than can be average at 2B or 3B the next couple seasons at minimum wage, one less black hole that needs to be filled in free agency/trade.

So then that begs the question, if we have a lineup full of average players, minimum wage or not, how is that going to help us contend next year, which is and has been the stated goal by the Mariners organization. If we're filling all our holes with "average" players like you believe Toro to be, logic would dictate that we're going to be an "average" team again next year. How does that make us better?

[bpj]

I should have clarified, his floor, in my opinion, is average.

It helps us because what he's replacing, Moore, was not being average, and yet here we are, 8 games over .500.

Almost every one of these guys has the potential, if not the likelihood, of being better next season than this season.

Could make a good case for France and Haniger having topped out, but the rest of these guys? There is room for growth.

We're sitting 8 games over and we got here with our backups backups. It's not a stretch to see improvement even by not doing anything.

Dipoto "raising the floor" of the club doesn't mean the floor is a .500 team. We'll see as the year finishes out what type of team we are.

Almost there, is how I'd describe our team.

Add 1 impact bat at any infield position and it's easy to see a playoff lineup imo.