What to do about our incredible pitching staff

[AZOldDawg]

Basically nothing I suspect. Our Tacoma staff is even worse and the youngsters need to stay down and develop. I don't see anybody out there willing to give up a first rate pitcher. When we start unloading it's going to be for prospects for sure and good ones are hard to come by. Our draft position will probably improve so there's so hope there but only for the future. This was what I expected going into the season although I would have to believe we could have put together a more competitive bullpen. So I would expect it's going to be more of the same . . . competitive against the other "bottom feeders" and scary when we venture into the deep end. 2020? I seriously doubt it yet we do have a chance to be a real baseball team in 2021 with a bit of luck, development and good decision making.

[DavidGee24]

It looks like we're just going to have to grin and bear it through the rest of 2019. The crummy pitchers will weed themselves out and will be ultimately replaced by pitchers who are better...and there's a lot of room to work with.

Can you believe that we presently have EIGHT pitchers with ERAs of nine or worse? Ten if we count our backup catcher and utility infielder. This has in all likelihood never happened. Even the Colorado Rockies have never pulled that off. Plus we have four others over 6.50.

Amazingly, there are two staffs (Orioles and Rangers) with worse ERAs right now. Considering that our "ace" is Kikuchi and our "closer" is Elias, I don't know how anyone else could possibly be worse.

I wonder how much the defense has to do with it. I believe they're still on pace to be about the worst in MLB history and that certainly can't help the pitching.

[rockycola]

News of the day regarding two of the Incredibles.

Date Transaction
05/22/19 Seattle Mariners sent RHP Mike Wright outright to Tacoma Rainiers.
Seattle Mariners sent RHP Nick Rumbelow outright to Tacoma Rainiers.

They both cleared waivers.

[roosevelt]

Well, we're screwed.

[D-train]

News of the day regarding two of the Incredibles.

Date Transaction
05/22/19 Seattle Mariners sent RHP Mike Wright outright to Tacoma Rainiers.
Seattle Mariners sent RHP Nick Rumbelow outright to Tacoma Rainiers.

They both cleared waivers.

So two wrongs do make a Wright.

[rockycola]

Couple of pitching tidbits

Mike Curto Retweeted
Greg Johns
- Verified account ... @GregJohnsMLB
20h20 hours ago
Reliever Sam Tuivailala has been pulled off his rehab stint in Tacoma to work with Mariners training staff after dealing with some shoulder tightness. He's on long road back from Achilles surgery.

Thank God tidbit:

from mibtr - By Jeff Todd | May 31, 2019 at 12:54pm CDT

The Reds have claimed righty Ruben (R.J.) Alaniz off waivers from the Mariners, per an announcement from the Seattle club. It’s not yet clear what the M’s will do with the open 40-man slot.

I don't miss Alaniz already.

[bpj]

If they expect to contend mid-season 2020 then it means they need to be busy looking for long term answers NOW.

We may see Dipoto add a prospect that doesnt fit our future plan into a veteran trade to get back the prospect he wants.

The Haniger and Santans returns may not be over. We need a 1B and 3B of the future unless we believe in Seager for the long haul.

Also, if they believe like I do that a player needs a half of a season to acclimate after a trade then they have this trade deadline and next offseason to lock down a starting team. None of this cobbled together platoon guys like they're a Little League team that has to play all 25 guys.

[Hanjag]

Basically nothing I suspect. Our Tacoma staff is even worse and the youngsters need to stay down and develop. I don't see anybody out there willing to give up a first rate pitcher. When we start unloading it's going to be for prospects for sure and good ones are hard to come by. Our draft position will probably improve so there's so hope there but only for the future. This was what I expected going into the season although I would have to believe we could have put together a more competitive bullpen. So I would expect it's going to be more of the same . . . competitive against the other "bottom feeders" and scary when we venture into the deep end. 2020? I seriously doubt it yet we do have a chance to be a real baseball team in 2021 with a bit of luck, development and good decision making.

The starters have Marco and Kikuchi that can fill #2, and 3 spots.
Logan Gilbert has the size and stuff to be a #1. He has dominated in his 1st 2 stops up the ladder. He could be up by next year.
Sheffield has had control issues but has had better results lately. I have seen him get the #3 label from prospect evaluations. Even if he is something like the Kikuchi-Marco range of good #3 but has some up year I will take it.
Dunn Justin: He has 9 starts only 2 HR given up. The ERA is ok at 3.53. K rate is really good 54 in 43 innings.
After that the starting pitching get to be iffy: Sam Carlson should be good but is probably an AFL rehab guy. Casetta Stubbs is a long way off, Swanson.

If you took a quick mover like Logan Gilbert with Ace potential you could see them up by late 2020 and ready for 2021.

[bpj]

They shouldn't count on Kuchi or Gonzales to be a 2 in my opinion.

They should treat those guys as filling the 3 and 4 slots and act accordingly.

Gilbert, Sheffield and Dunn, let's call them The New Big 3 and realize they won't all pan out so we let them fight for spot #5.

They need to be signing or trading for a 1 and 2, then if those other guys over perform we have a better than expected team.

We won't get any better by just filling in BEHIND them, in my opinion. The Red Sox had David Price, THEN went and got Chris Sale. Like a winning team with some pride and expectations from their fan base would do.