The Mariners seem pretty good

[T.G.]

How the Angels and the Mets started last year has nothing to do with what the Mariners will do this year.  What the Mariners did last year also has no bearing on what they'll do this year.  Their roster is drastically different   Time will tell how good they are (obviously) - but their offense is legit.  They have some good hitters and they have a lot of speed.  They have a lineup that can put a lot of pressure on teams and they won't be push overs on the offensive side at all.  Don't know if their pitching is good enough - but offensively, they look solid.

[Inside Pitch]

At the other extreme other end of the spectrum...   The Cincinnati Reds!

Some people loved what they did, they got a lot of praise for "going for it".   They traded prospects for one year deals Tanner Roark, Yasiel Puig, Matt Kemp, Alex Wood, and invested in Sonny Gray and Raisel Iglesias long term...   Also picked up Derek Dietrich and Jose Iglesias on minor league deals...   All told they went from the 5th lowest payroll to 15th overall.

So far..  1-8.   The really scary part.... their strength of schedule is .208

They aren't just losing, they are getting beaten by the worst teams in MLB, record wise...

Do they turn it around?  If they can't, how much do those trades hurt long term?

Edited April 9, 2019 by Inside Pitch

[Taylor]

[floplag]

As bad as we were week 1, they were that good.  Will either trend continue, i doubt it. 
Then again they could be this years As who knows but i would be even more surprised to see them do that than i was at last years As. 

[Angel Oracle]

12 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

I've watched about 4-5 of their games, though two of them were when the Halos were in town. They're really impressive. 

A good blend of power, good hitters and a ton of speed. 

Vogelbach , Beckham and Santana are beasts. All three of which had crappy seasons last year. EE hit two bombs tonight and he was pretty quiet during their strong start up until the past couple days. 

They're doing this without Seager too. 

Their weak spot is their bullpen and the back half of their rotation. 

Harkens back to the 1995 Halos?    No rotation that year after Finley and Langston, and the hitting raked until mid-August.    That Halos team did have a better bullpen.  But this M's team has significantly more team speed.

[Claude]

Don’t know how Dipoto did it but so far this season they’re playing pretty good baseball. He dumped salaries which is a good thing for them. Their payroll is below $150M so they probably have some space at the break if needed. 

[VariousCrap]

They look amazeballs.  That said, teams start the season hot every season and then fall apart.  My guess is that will happen to them too because eventually, their average rotation and poor bullpen will catch up to them.

[Taylor]

6 minutes ago, VariousCrap said:

They look amazeballs. 

One of @yk9001's favorite adjectives!

[IIIII]

I doubt they'll be anything like this come season end. A few of their players are playing significantly better than they have over the course of 5+ year careers thus far. Hopefully they cool down a bit by next week or it'll be a tough 4 game series. 

[GrittyVeterans]

Santana was someone I was hoping the Angels would target. Guy rakes. He had a tough year last year because he wasn't going to get consistent playing time after the Brewers brought in Yelich and Cain

[Tank]

3 hours ago, zenmaster said:

I predict 116 wins and a first round bounce from the playoffs.

that would make it . . . 

 

 

. . . a banner year!

[Tank]

40 minutes ago, Taylor said:

One of @yk9001's favorite adjectives!

amazeballs

preggars.

any others?

[SoWhat]

I’m pretty pissed seeing Domingo Santana kill it for Seattle. All offseason I was hoping Eppler would buy low on him in a trade. I still can’t believe Seattle got him for Ben F’n Gamel 

[GrittyVeterans]

11 minutes ago, SoWhat said:

I’m pretty pissed seeing Domingo Santana kill it for Seattle. All offseason I was hoping Eppler would buy low on him in a trade. I still can’t believe Seattle got him for Ben F’n Gamel 

For all the crap Dipoto takes around here (and most of it is deserved), he's made a couple damn good buy low trades in Seattle. Haniger and Santana were great moves.

I actually don't think he's a moron like Reagins was, he just doesn't understand the balance between building the farm and the Major League roster. Which is a fatal flaw to have. I do think he understands evaluating MLB talent to a degree though

[VariousCrap]

2 hours ago, GrittyVeterans said:

For all the crap Dipoto takes around here (and most of it is deserved), he's made a couple damn good buy low trades in Seattle. Haniger and Santana were great moves.

I actually don't think he's a moron like Reagins was, he just doesn't understand the balance between building the farm and the Major League roster. Which is a fatal flaw to have. I do think he understands evaluating MLB talent to a degree though

 

I seem to remember his one good year, he had a super hot first half and then fell to average.  I could be confusing him with another Santana, but I am pretty sure it was him.

[Taylor]

3 hours ago, Tank said:

amazeballs

preggars.

any others?

Firefighters

[Tank]

16 minutes ago, Taylor said:

Firefighters

and lifeguards.

[Lou]

4 hours ago, Tank said:

amazeballs

preggars.

any others?

Trump 

[Lou]

 

12 minutes ago, Tank said:

and lifeguards.

[Taylor]

1 hour ago, Lou said:

Trump 

Own it!

[cez]

i'm just enjoying it while it lasts

8 runs per game isn't going to last too long

the bullpen is as scary as any we had in the mid 90s in the kingdome

this is my first time watching m's games in 2 years, btw. 

[Chuck]

7 hours ago, SoWhat said:

I’m pretty pissed seeing Domingo Santana kill it for Seattle. All offseason I was hoping Eppler would buy low on him in a trade. I still can’t believe Seattle got him for Ben F’n Gamel 

I cannot believe the Brewers gave up on him after one poor season when the season before he absolutely crushed. 

[CDiaz27?]

I still cannot name a single pitcher for them besides Felix 

[Docwaukee]

3 hours ago, Lou said:

Trump 

pensions and patches

I can't believe you guys forgot pensions and patches.    

[Docwaukee]

7 hours ago, GrittyVeterans said:

For all the crap Dipoto takes around here (and most of it is deserved), he's made a couple damn good buy low trades in Seattle. Haniger and Santana were great moves.

I actually don't think he's a moron like Reagins was, he just doesn't understand the balance between building the farm and the Major League roster. Which is a fatal flaw to have. I do think he understands evaluating MLB talent to a degree though

I liked the Domingo Santana, Mallex Smith, Omar Narvaez and Kikuchi moves for them this year.  

The one thing I thought Dipoto did well was to turn around known players for younger, lesser known talent with more control.  

If they keep winning, he's gonna have a real hard time resisting the temptation to trade some prospects for SP and RP help.  If by (somewhat) unfortunate circumstances we are in a position to sell and them to buy, I would love to pilfer Julio Rodriguez from them somehow.  He's gonna be good.