The 2021 Seattle Mariners thread

[Hawk-Lock]

I'm trying to remain optimistic with the team. While I'm not a huge Dipoto or Servais fan, they are dealing with a ton of injuries which has forced them to put multiple minor leaguers in the lineup. France is suppose to be back in the next few days, and I believe Shed Long is rehabing in the minors.

The long term outlook hasn't changed much. Only discouraging parts of the team through the start of the season is Kelenic and Gilbert didn't come up and look ready, and Evan White can't hit. Now if those three guys are struggling by the end of the season then I'd be a bit worried about the longterm outlook of the team.

 

[Hawk-Lock]

Young bats getting it done. Two huge HR’s from Lewis and Kelenic. Kikuchi continuing to look great.

 

[sutz]

A lot easier to watch when they play like a real baseball team.

YK with yet another quality start, but leaves with some kind of a back issue. :bitenails:

Bats came a little bit to life scoring 4 runs spread across 3 innings. JK with a dinger. Getting there, I guess.

At least they snapped the losing streak.

 

[Sports Hernia]

Any win over Oakland is a good win, but why are we painstakingly being forced to watch Montero blow games and almost blow games every night? We don’t have ANYONE ELSE in the bullpen?

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Any win over Oakland is a good win, but why are we painstakingly being forced to watch Montero blow games and almost blow games every night? We don’t have ANYONE ELSE in the bullpen?

No. Covid and injuries.

 

[sutz]

Any win over Oakland is a good win, but why are we painstakingly being forced to watch Montero blow games and almost blow games every night? We don’t have ANYONE ELSE in the bullpen?

No. Covid and injuries.

Yeah, right now they're kinda thin out there.

 

[Sports Hernia]

Any win over Oakland is a good win, but why are we painstakingly being forced to watch Montero blow games and almost blow games every night? We don’t have ANYONE ELSE in the bullpen?

No. Covid and injuries.

Put in the random new guy they bring up daily from Tacoma to close it out.

 

[Hawk-Lock]

Of course the Mariners would get swept by the lowly Tigers only to flip the script and possibly sweep Oakland.

Getting France back was huge. The top half of the lineup is pretty respectable now, 7-9 is an issue but should get better when guys get healthy or called up from the minors.

Kelenic starting to settle in nicely. Not sure what to make of Gilbert, he is really struggling. He really needs to work on locating his pitches, too many times he misses right down the middle. If you’re going to miss, better do so outside of the strike zone.

 

[sutz]

Yeah, good to have France back. Hard to hit when both arms/hands are hurting.

Gilbert's FB looks pretty flat to me, not a lot of movement on it. He's too in love with it, too. Needs to work on his secondary pitches, or he'll never get to where he can go through a lineup 3 times. And, yeah, he tends to miss down the heart of the plate too much. Not gonna get away with too many of those in the bigs. So far, so good though. He could have used some more time in AAA, I think, but with our injury situation in the pitching staff, not surprising they called him up. If we get a couple of starters back, I could see him being sent back down to work on his curve/slider/changeup.

 

[sutz]

I swear, nobody can go 0-2 and then walk guys like our pitching staff. :34853_doh: :34853_doh: :34853_doh:

 

[Sports Hernia]

I swear, nobody can go 0-2 and then walk guys like our pitching staff. :34853_doh: :34853_doh: :34853_doh:

Watching pitchers “nibble” after getting ahead 0-2 irritates the living F out of me.
2 game win streak, good run fellas. :sarcasm_off:

 

[sutz]

I swear, nobody can go 0-2 and then walk guys like our pitching staff. :34853_doh: :34853_doh: :34853_doh:

Watching pitchers “nibble” after getting ahead 0-2 irritates the living F out of me.
2 game win streak, good run fellas. :sarcasm_off:

Kind of wish they would "nibble." Wild pitching the runners around the diamond is crazy. :34853_doh:

 

[Jerhawk]

What do you guys think of J.P. Crawford?
Is he our shortstop for the long term, or is he just trade bait for when Izturis Jr gets brought up?

 

[XxXdragonXxX]

Who is Izturis Jr?

JP leads the team in WAR. He had the 2md best BA on the team and is playing platinum glove defense. SS of the future.

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Jp will stay.

 

[Jerhawk]

Who is Izturis Jr?

JP leads the team in WAR. He had the 2md best BA on the team and is playing platinum glove defense. SS of the future.

Izturis Jr was a poor example my bad. Noelvi Marte is rated much higher as a prospect.

https://www.pitcherlist.com/seattle-mariners-2021-preseason-top-50-prospects/

JP is only 26. His fielding is great and hit bat seems to be getting better.
I know I'm sort of answering my own question I just wasn't sure what other Mariners fans felt about him for the long term.

 

[sutz]

I have to believe JP is here for the long term. Can't see any reason why not. Our farm system is getting built up to where we can soon start using them as trade capital. In the next year or so, we could be contending for playoff spots, and trading prospects for key vet upgrades late in the season should be a real possibility. Marte would be a great candidate for that. Hopefully they can do stuff like that judiciously, and not trade everything away like prior FOs have done. Would like to think we're building something long term here.

We'll have to see how these young guys develop, of course, but I'm not disappointed yet. Yeah, they've had some bad spots along the way, but it's a long season and every team has their down spots during the season. They're playing well this week. They're within a couple of games of .500, and have been holding up fairly well so far. We've been playing some of the best teams in the league in the last couple of weeks, and other than the San Diego series, have held their own for the most part.

 

[XxXdragonXxX]

Who is Izturis Jr?

JP leads the team in WAR. He had the 2md best BA on the team and is playing platinum glove defense. SS of the future.

Izturis Jr was a poor example my bad. Noelvi Marte is rated much higher as a prospect.

https://www.pitcherlist.com/seattle-mariners-2021-preseason-top-50-prospects/

JP is only 26. His fielding is great and hit bat seems to be getting better.
I know I'm sort of answering my own question I just wasn't sure what other Mariners fans felt about him for the long term.

Hey did I just see you featured on "where I root"?

 

[Jerhawk]

Who is Izturis Jr?

JP leads the team in WAR. He had the 2md best BA on the team and is playing platinum glove defense. SS of the future.

Izturis Jr was a poor example my bad. Noelvi Marte is rated much higher as a prospect.

https://www.pitcherlist.com/seattle-mariners-2021-preseason-top-50-prospects/

JP is only 26. His fielding is great and hit bat seems to be getting better.
I know I'm sort of answering my own question I just wasn't sure what other Mariners fans felt about him for the long term.

Hey did I just see you featured on "where I root"?

Yes that was me! Lol I'm shocked they put us on there. My dad texted me that we were on there tonight that's awesome.

Great win tonight go Ms

 

[Hanjag]

Not to play Monday Morning QB with all the hindsight 20/20 thing but:

Homegrown arms James Paxton and Tai fighter Walker were both available and both had TOR potential. Both were linked to the M's eventually the M's picked Paxton on a -->
Paxton 1 year 8.5 million contract
vs
Taijuan Walker would sign shortly after James for the Mets on a:
Walker 2 year 10M 2021 and 7M in 2022 with a player option for 6 M 2022 with a 3 M buyout

Paxton kinda skips Spring Training with Visa issues and then pitches 2 innings and blows up and is done for the year. It seems to me he was hiding and injury and f'd the M's.

Walker has been a stud in NY. 9 starts 1.84 ERA and good for a 208 ERA+ (2.61 FIP) so it is not a mirage. He is having a legit CY season and we got nothing from Paxton and from what I have read we could have had Walker. Walker is 28 and so you don't project any fall-off. He would represent an asset that if we were losing this year or next could give you a raid of any team's top 10 for 3 or 4 top prospects. I just don't know how to explain how much of an impact signing Tai Walker could have had.

Throw Walker out front of what we have currently
Walker 208 ERA + (Legit Ace CY) 9 starts 1.4 WAR = about a 5.2 WAR pace
Dunn 125 ERA+ ( He may just be one of those guys who outperform FIP projections) 0.9 WAR = 2.8 WAR season
Kikuchi 98 ERA+ which is decent as-is but he has had a lot of bad luck along the way and should have better results.2.1 WAR projection.

Now the M's have Logan Gilbert, Marco G, Sheffield, Flexen to round it out for competition this year but have a ton of high-end SPs in the pipeline for 2022 and beyond.
Kirby, Hancock, Brandon Williamson and a ton of high ceiling types are 1 + years out.

Anyhow, What if we flipped the coin and it came up the other way?