xgeoff":2qfl53bo said:
Overall I'm not a fan of the roster re-work. The first move that I feel really hurt the team was the Mike Montgomery trade for Dan Vogelbach at the end of last year. I would have made Montgomery a core piece of my bullpen. Having a lefty middle reliever who could also give you quality starts when a starter gets injured is an amazing asset. To give him up for a platoon 1b who is a defensive liability is foolish.
Moving on to the rest of the needs that the Mariners had, I would have put them in this order:
-- 1b
-- starting pitching depth
--Corner Outfielder
I don't think Danny Valencia and Dan Vogelbach are the answer. I'm not even sure they are an upgrade over last year's platoon.
In terms of pitching depth, I was vehemently against the Taijuan Walker trade. This gave us a huge hole in the rotation and although I like Jean Segura, I am not convinced he will replicate his numbers from last year. If he doesn't, then he's not a huge upgrade over Marte and O'malley. I would have stuck with O'Malley, personally. The kid brought great energy to the team, made things happen on the base paths and was excellent defensively.
The Smyly acquisition is ho-hum to me. I see him as this year's nathan karns. Gallardo has more potential in my opinion. Is also a wait and see. All in all, I am very worried about the backend of the rotation. I think Felix will bounce back, Kuma will be steady, Paxton should excel. The rest, I'm worried about.
On the corner outfielders, I like Jarrod Dyson. I think that was a great trade. Karns was a huge disappointment and the fact we got a quality outfielder for him was a steal. Haniger looks good, but does not look differentiated from from Ben Gamel and Guillermo Heredia to me. So I love that we now have 5 fast defensive outfielders but not at the expense of the starting rotation. And we still need help at 1b.
Catcher has been a bit baffling to me. Frankly, I was pretty excited about how well Jesus Sucre played at the end of last year. Pairing him with Zunino would be a good combo IMO, at least as good as Iannetta and Zunino last year. And better than that piece of crap Clevenger. And better than Carlos Ruiz as well. Sometimes I just shake my head at what the Mariners do, and getting Ruiz and optioning Sucre is one of those moves.
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As a Mariner fan who has seen everything not work for almost two decades now I understand the jaded attitude.
Im not sure what DP saw in Vogelbach, I hope he can rake. We need a 1b that can actually hit.
I think you're underselling Smyly a bit. He has great stuff. I think putting him in Safeco is going to turn him into a border line 2.
I think the outfield "run prevention" is something people aren't giving credit to. Last year how many times did Aoki or Smith mis play a ball? For as much work as Leonis did the other 2 outfielders were sub par. Now all 3 are elite athletes. That should help alot.
Also hopefully Segura is a better defender then Ketel? Who seemed to shrink when the lights were their brightest. Who had the perfect game late that he screwed up with a easy play boot???
I think the lineup looks good. Last year we scored runs, we just fell off the cliff in the Pen and rotation. I like the way the rotation looks right now at Felix, Paxton, Kuma, Smyly, Gallardo, Miranda
The pen is still a huge question mark, but honestly thats kinda the way the pen works in the big leagues unless you are a big spender. So hopefully some kid we never heard of that has a cannon shows himself and we can pair him with Diaz.