Pleased with what this team accomplished

[NWinAZ]

5m[/ame] [URL="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mariners?src=hash"]#Mariners poised to surpass 2 million in attendance for first time since 2010. Enter tonight at 1,990,083.

 

[Msfann]

Time for Seattle to run the table and sweep the rest of the season and win the world series! (and Oakland lose too)

 

[dude82]

To play devils advocate here, in order to be better than the previous year based on the issues of that year you need things to have been the exception and not the norm.

Kuma, Walker, and Paxton all have had injury issues throughout their respective careers. So to say them being out and us having to use below par replacements would be the norm and not the exception. I advocated signing Hughes in the off season and it was meant with objection because we had plenty of pitching. People still feel that way now?

Seager always slumps, like most hitters, so to say that is the exception would again be incorrect. It was the norm. It happened early, but does the timing really matter when results are based on a full year? Does losing a game in April have more or less value than losing a game in September? No of course.

Using multiple players in the OF is also a norm for the M's and probably will be again next year. The only way to get away from that is to sign legit MLB hitting OF's and hope they stay healthy and produce in Seattle. We haven't signed a OF like that since ??????????????

The SS issue has been a norm as well for a decade.

Starting pitching is always needed and we were on a records pace. So to hope we get better there is a tough one to swallow. The names may change, but the output will be hard to match.

1B production, or lack thereof, is also the norm and not the exception.

Ackley has been Ackley for 3 years now. Always looking for more from him, he gives us a solid month to renew hope, and then he returns to what he is. Norm.

My point in all this is that if we want to get better next year, we can't sit back and wish that the faults of this year improve all by themselves because the faults are what they are and will continue to happen with the same players in place. New blood is needed, but new blood is costly. We have little to trade and few hopes of anything from the minors making an impact. Let's face it, it took a $240M signing to get this team above .500. I don't see another one of those coming down the line next year. With Jack at the wheel, I say we regress once again because you can't win getting shutout 20 times a year and being towards the bottom of scoring overall.

I don't expect the M's to sit back and just hope that everything works out better than it did this year. I believe they will try to upgrade at multiple positions and, as good as it's been this year, I still believe that the starting pitching can be better with Iwakuma, Paxton and Walker in the rotation for a full year instead of an uncertain season from Young next year and the combination of junk that we used to fill the other two spots behind Felix, Elias and Young while Iwakuma was out for a couple months. The pitching was surprisingly good under the circumstances, but it's one of those rare cases where the M's actually have better options on the roster.

With Ackley, you never know what you're gonna get, so the M's would be wise to look at that spot as at least a competition spot if not a spot to upgrade. I'm not so attached to Ackley that I'd just hand him the job if an upgrade is available.

With Seager, his first three weeks were absolutely awful. I don't know about you, but while I expect him to slump at times like all players do, I don't expect three weeks stretches that awful from players as good as Seager.

I think Morrison will get the opportunity to be the starting first baseman next year, unless they can get their hands on an upgrade and push him into a DH/corner outfield role. He doesn't have enough of a track record to say for sure that he'll be an upgrade over the combo that we used at first this year, but I like what he's since he started seeing consistent playing time and he's been coming up big in big spots lately too. I know people laughed or were angry at Zduriencik when that deal was made, but it's looking better than anybody thought it would now.

Obviously Zduriencik and the front office will have to actually go out and do some of these things before people will believe it, but I'm optimistic.

 

[cezero]

I wish I was good at looking up historical stats.

Does anybody know if a team before us has ever been shut out 19 times and still managed to end the season 10+ games over .500?

 

[boogiewithstu2007]

Get some hitters next year.... This offense was painful to watch... M's could a easily made the playoffs with even and average offense...

 

[NWinAZ]

Fun weekend, but still not giddy over season. I still expect more. Losers (franchise wise) take solace in these things. To me it is just another lost year of playoffs. If this is your worst season in a decade, then I get it. If it is your best, no silver lining for me.

Just another waste of prime years for Felix and Cano. Only positive for me is ownership/management has to put up or shut up this off season.

 

[blstoker]

I wish I was good at looking up historical stats.

Does anybody know if a team before us has ever been shut out 19 times and still managed to end the season 10+ games over .500?

I'll work on getting the exact numbers, but as I'm looking at it, it appears that last years Braves (96-66) were shut out 17 times, so not too far off.

 

[Dolemite censored]

There are alot positives that came out of the season, but the negatives seem to far outweigh the positives. Such as the offense sucks, the front office's absence during the Montero ordeal, Jack's premature extension, the lack of young talent in the farm system etc. But on a real positive note I do really like Blowers on the mic.

Z's extension was shocking.
What the fuck was that all about ?
He has done jack shit as a GM.

McClendon did a good job holding it together with the talent he had.

 

[wazzu31]

I don't expect the M's to sit back and just hope that everything works out better than it did this year. I believe they will try to upgrade at multiple positions and, as good as it's been this year, I still believe that the starting pitching can be better with Iwakuma, Paxton and Walker in the rotation for a full year instead of an uncertain season from Young next year and the combination of junk that we used to fill the other two spots behind Felix, Elias and Young while Iwakuma was out for a couple months. The pitching was surprisingly good under the circumstances, but it's one of those rare cases where the M's actually have better options on the roster.

With Ackley, you never know what you're gonna get, so the M's would be wise to look at that spot as at least a competition spot if not a spot to upgrade. I'm not so attached to Ackley that I'd just hand him the job if an upgrade is available.

With Seager, his first three weeks were absolutely awful. I don't know about you, but while I expect him to slump at times like all players do, I don't expect three weeks stretches that awful from players as good as Seager.

I think Morrison will get the opportunity to be the starting first baseman next year, unless they can get their hands on an upgrade and push him into a DH/corner outfield role. He doesn't have enough of a track record to say for sure that he'll be an upgrade over the combo that we used at first this year, but I like what he's since he started seeing consistent playing time and he's been coming up big in big spots lately too. I know people laughed or were angry at Zduriencik when that deal was made, but it's looking better than anybody thought it would now.

Obviously Zduriencik and the front office will have to actually go out and do some of these things before people will believe it, but I'm optimistic.

That is the biggest problem is that even if next years pitchers are more talented but there is zero chance the pitching can be as good as they were this year. There were positives in the year but the historically pitching performances have to go down as one the biggest wasted seasons in recent baseball history.

 

[gohusk]

They had a chance to squeak into the playoffs and they responded with a 5 game losing streak. 88 games isn't going to get it done next year and 87 was a reach with this putrid offense. But the FO is going to ram the "great improvement" and how "competitive we were" down everyone's throats and not do jack shit during the off-season because they're so fucking cheap. Call me jaded but I've seen it happen way too many times with this franchise.

 

[dude82]

That is the biggest problem is that even if next years pitchers are more talented but there is zero chance the pitching can be as good as they were this year. There were positives in the year but the historically pitching performances have to go down as one the biggest wasted seasons in recent baseball history.

So you don't think that the clunkers thrown by guys like Maurer, Ramirez, Beavan and the like can be topped by Paxton, Walker and more Iwakuma than we got this year? I understand that it's going to be difficult for Felix to repeat the kind of run he went on for 3+ months, but I don't expect him to drop off too much from those numbers, so with the three guys I mentioned picking up the slack and providing better than we got from the other guys we used this season, I think we can at least come pretty damn close to what we saw from the starting rotation this year, if not better. Where we might see the bigger drop-off is in the bullpen. Those guys were ridiculously good this year, but bullpens in general are notorious for being unpredictable from year-to-year, so we'll see what happens.

 

[wazzu31]

So you don't think that the clunkers thrown by guys like Maurer, Ramirez, Beavan and the like can be topped by Paxton, Walker and more Iwakuma than we got this year? I understand that it's going to be difficult for Felix to repeat the kind of run he went on for 3+ months, but I don't expect him to drop off too much from those numbers, so with the three guys I mentioned picking up the slack and providing better than we got from the other guys we used this season, I think we can at least come pretty damn close to what we saw from the starting rotation this year, if not better. Where we might see the bigger drop-off is in the bullpen. Those guys were ridiculously good this year, but bullpens in general are notorious for being unpredictable from year-to-year, so we'll see what happens.

I get what you are saying, but no I do not believe there is a chance the staff as a whole will put up the numbers they did. Prior to the nose dive in September there were on a historical pace. It's not just the starters but the bullpen as well. They might get more talented but history of baseball has proven those stats are anomalies not a realistic goal....but then again historically the probability of the offense being this bad for this long didn't seem realistic.