Who are the most pleasantly surprising and disappointing acquisitions in Mariner history?

[Donn Beach]

High wattage surprises: Cliff Lee, Nelson Cruz, Floyd Bannister, Iwakuma, and Munoz

High Wattage disappointments: Jesus Montero, Sterling Hitchcock, Justin Smoak, Heathcliff Slocumb, and Jose Mesa.

Constant/ongoing major disappointment: Mariners ownership the past 49 years.

Lee was a top pitcher and Cruz was a top hitter, those two shouldn't be on the list. Nor Munoz who was highly regarded. Iwakuma was a top pitcher in Japan but even so he definitely exceeded expectations for us. Bannister was definitely a big surprise, he struggled early in his career pitching for the Asstros and you'd figure that going from the Astrodome to the Kingdome would be a death sentence but the opposite happened.

Solcumb shouldn't have been a surprising disappointment, he was already a terrible pitcher when we made that stupid trade for him.

there was a nice trade, it was like the Ray, Haniger trade in reverse. Andres Munoz, Ty France, Taylor Trammell, and Luis Torrens, for Austin Nola, Austin Adams, and Dan Altavilla. Munoz was recovering from TJ surgery so he probably got overlooked.

[Hy Feiber]

High wattage surprises: Cliff Lee, Nelson Cruz, Floyd Bannister, Iwakuma, and Munoz

High Wattage disappointments: Jesus Montero, Sterling Hitchcock, Justin Smoak, Heathcliff Slocumb, and Jose Mesa.

Constant/ongoing major disappointment: Mariners ownership the past 49 years.

Add Russ Davis.

Chone Figgins

Scott Spiezio. Out of 12 years in his career, the only time he really stunk was his 1 year in Seattle.

As soon as he left Seattle, he went to the Cardinals and was solid.

I almost thought I was going to be the First one to mention Figgins. Can't believe he survived until page 3.

Figgins was a stud for years, then crashed in Seattle.

[Pharmabro]

Disappointed with Geno so far. I suppose we should’ve expected it when he got hit in the hand right before the trade.

[Michael K.]

Disappointed with Geno so far. I suppose we should’ve expected it when he got hit in the hand right before the trade.

It was my fear. I know it was right before the All Star break, so he got a longer rest even though he only missed a game...but that type of play usually results in much more missed time. At least that is the way it seems to me. Might have been why they were willing to take what seems like less than market value for him?

I always liked Geno...I felt we gave up on him for no reason. I'd like to see us use this as a way to get him to stay for a few more years. Naylor too. I just don't see this being a major league lineup next year if those two walk and we just bring up kids from the farm to replace them.

[DavidGee24]

Add Russ Davis.

Chone Figgins

Amazing that we traded Tino Martinez and Jeff Nelson for Davis and Sterling Hitchcock. Hitchcock was nothing special even on a prospect level and even though Davis was well-regarded, but really, who in their right mind thought he'd make up for losing Tino? And how did our management not know that he had a hacked-up pizza pan for a glove? I get the feeling Tino was traded purely to save money.

And Figgins...Ichiro and he were supposed to be 1-2 on-base machines and we ended up getting Figged.

[Michael K.]

I get the feeling Tino was traded purely to save money.

Yep, and to do it after the way this city reacted to the way 1995 finished was disgusting. Just the beginning of several major disappointment to how a horribly run organization responded to success. Instead of capitalizing on it on the field, they tried to maximize the amount of money they made.

It's why I am over reading and hearing about budgets and money. This organization lost the opportunity to use that as an excuse a long time ago. They have pinched pennies and cried poor for decades. Fuck them.

They either cry poor or pretend the kids on the farm are the next biggest things ever and are untouchable in trades. All so we could make one playoff appearance in two and a half decades, and blow the opportunities we had in the late 90s and early 2000s.

[D-train]

High wattage surprises: Cliff Lee, Nelson Cruz, Floyd Bannister, Iwakuma, and Munoz

High Wattage disappointments: Jesus Montero, Sterling Hitchcock, Justin Smoak, Heathcliff Slocumb, and Jose Mesa.

Constant/ongoing major disappointment: Mariners ownership the past 49 years.

Lee was a top pitcher and Cruz was a top hitter, those two shouldn't be on the list. Nor Munoz who was highly regarded. Iwakuma was a top pitcher in Japan but even so he definitely exceeded expectations for us. Bannister was definitely a big surprise, he struggled early in his career pitching for the Asstros and you'd figure that going from the Astrodome to the Kingdome would be a death sentence but the opposite happened.

Solcumb shouldn't have been a surprising disappointment, he was already a terrible pitcher when we made that stupid trade for him.

Totally agree on Lee and Munoz but Cruz massively exceeded expectations. Having you 3 best seasons age 34-37 isn't normal unless you are Edgar or Cruz.

[DavidGee24]

I get the feeling Tino was traded purely to save money.

And to do it after the way this city reacted to the way 1995 finished was disgusting. Just the beginning of several major disappointment to how a horribly run organization responded to success. Instead of capitalizing on it on the field, they tried to maximize the amount of money they made.

It's why I am over reading and hearing about budgets and money. This organization lost the opportunity to use that as an excuse a long time ago. They have pinched pennies and cried poor for decades. Fuck them.

They either cry poor or pretend the kids on the farm are the next biggest things ever and are untouchable in trades. All so we could make one playoff appearance in two and a half decades, and blow the opportunities we had in the late 90s and early 2000s.

We actually can stay on topic with this. Not only did the Mariners make that dumb trade thinking that Hitchcrock would help the rotation, but the following pitchers were available in free agency:

Kevin Brown
David Cone
Chuck Finley
Al Leiter
Curt Schilling

The Mariner organization made NO effort to go after a TOR starting pitcher. Instead, this is what they went with:

Johnson
Chris Bosio's corpse
Hitchcrock
Bob Woolcot
A combination of guys I don't even remember

We talk about how this past offseason was the most disappointing in franchise history, but 1995/1996 might have been worse.

[DavidGee24]

High wattage surprises: Cliff Lee, Nelson Cruz, Floyd Bannister, Iwakuma, and Munoz

High Wattage disappointments: Jesus Montero, Sterling Hitchcock, Justin Smoak, Heathcliff Slocumb, and Jose Mesa.

Constant/ongoing major disappointment: Mariners ownership the past 49 years.

Lee was a top pitcher and Cruz was a top hitter, those two shouldn't be on the list. Nor Munoz who was highly regarded. Iwakuma was a top pitcher in Japan but even so he definitely exceeded expectations for us. Bannister was definitely a big surprise, he struggled early in his career pitching for the Asstros and you'd figure that going from the Astrodome to the Kingdome would be a death sentence but the opposite happened.

Solcumb shouldn't have been a surprising disappointment, he was already a terrible pitcher when we made that stupid trade for him.

Totally agree on Lee and Munoz but Cruz massively exceeded expectations. Having you 3 best seasons age 34-37 isn't normal unless you are Edgar or Cruz.

What was even trippier was he declined in his final season with us, went to Minnesota and was even better than he was with us. Just remarkable.

[Michael K.]

We talk about how this past offseason was the most disappointing in franchise history, but 1995/1996 might have been worse.

The way 97 ended though? I was driving home from a softball game when sports radio was breaking down the trades. We got three relievers, non of them very good, to give up Lowe, Veritek and Cruz Jr. I just never understood....it was almost like a middle finger. You fuckers want us to do something at the deadline...well here you go!

So, you know it was the excuse for only adding Al Martin later on. Or the year we added Joey Creek, or what ever his fucking name was. It's been just one fucking buffoon move after another.