The 2016 Seattle Mariners (Official season edition)

[Hawk-Lock]

In the back of my head I wonder if Felix is slowing down. Last season was his worst statistically. I know a lot of his numbers got inflated from a few bad outings, but you can't ignore the fact he has a lot of innings under his belt and he just turned 30. I think he will be very good still, but I'm not sure he will be a top 3 pitcher in baseball anymore. Two years ago he was always in the conversation for best pitcher, but if I had to choose now I would probably take 5-10 pitchers ahead of him.

 

[Uncle Si]

In the back of my head I wonder if Felix is slowing down. Last season was his worst statistically. I know a lot of his numbers got inflated from a few bad outings, but you can't ignore the fact he has a lot of innings under his belt and he just turned 30. I think he will be very good still, but I'm not sure he will be a top 3 pitcher in baseball anymore. Two years ago he was always in the conversation for best pitcher, but if I had to choose now I would probably take 5-10 pitchers ahead of him.

They said the same thing about Maddux as he got older. Felix is a very adaptable pitcher. And while he's not hitting mid 90s on his fast ball anymore he still has a ridiculously hard change up, a cutting curve and can brush an insects eye lid with his 91 mph fast ball.

He may not be the same Felix. But I think he will be as effective.

 

[Tech Worlds]

Karma. They should have supported vacating Occidental Ave like it was vacated for them.

Karma

 

[CPHawk]

Karma. They should have supported vacating Occidental Ave like it was vacated for them.

Karma

Why are they waiting time pissing off Sonic fans anyways? I doubt basketball comes back anytime soon, so it seems to be a waiste on the Mariners part.

 

[Tech Worlds]

Karma. They should have supported vacating Occidental Ave like it was vacated for them.

Karma

Why are they waiting time pissing off Sonic fans anyways? I doubt basketball comes back anytime soon, so it seems to be a waiste on the Mariners part.

They don't want the competition. Remember that the mariners were the ones that recommended the Clay Bennett group to Schultz when he was looking to sell. They played a major part in helping to remove the Sonics, and thus competition for sports dollars, out of Seattle.

Can't support them till ownership and leadership changes.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

In the back of my head I wonder if Felix is slowing down. Last season was his worst statistically. I know a lot of his numbers got inflated from a few bad outings, but you can't ignore the fact he has a lot of innings under his belt and he just turned 30. I think he will be very good still, but I'm not sure he will be a top 3 pitcher in baseball anymore. Two years ago he was always in the conversation for best pitcher, but if I had to choose now I would probably take 5-10 pitchers ahead of him.

A lot of ranking sites don't even have Felix in the top 10 of starting pitchers anymore.

But Felix has 3-4 above average pitches, so it's not like he's going to drop off a cliff because he relies on his fastball 90% of the time like a lot of power pitchers. He'll just have to transition in his 30's to a more finesse style relying on his accuracy and off speed pitches.

Which IMO he already has been doing over the past 2-3 years.

Bottom line for me, I'm not worried about Felix for a while, he's been a workhorse his entire career, so he should continue to be a 15+ wins a year ace.

 

[Uncle Si]

Karma. They should have supported vacating Occidental Ave like it was vacated for them.

Karma

Probably not your thread then...

 

[Hawk-Lock]

In the back of my head I wonder if Felix is slowing down. Last season was his worst statistically. I know a lot of his numbers got inflated from a few bad outings, but you can't ignore the fact he has a lot of innings under his belt and he just turned 30. I think he will be very good still, but I'm not sure he will be a top 3 pitcher in baseball anymore. Two years ago he was always in the conversation for best pitcher, but if I had to choose now I would probably take 5-10 pitchers ahead of him.

A lot of ranking sites don't even have Felix in the top 10 of starting pitchers anymore.

But Felix has 3-4 above average pitches, so it's not like he's going to drop off a cliff because he relies on his fastball 90% of the time like a lot of power pitchers. He'll just have to transition in his 30's to a more finesse style relying on his accuracy and off speed pitches.

Which IMO he already has been doing over the past 2-3 years.

Bottom line for me, I'm not worried about Felix for a while, he's been a workhorse his entire career, so he should continue to be a 15+ wins a year ace.

Completely agreed with everything you said. Felix has shown the ability to adapt his game ever since his velocity fell off a couple years ago. I think he will be very effective pitching into his mid 30's. While he is still an ace, I just don't think he is a top 5 ace anymore. Like you mentioned, he probably isn't a top 10 starting pitcher anymore, but he is still better than most aces out there.

 

[sutz]

Well, if 'Kuma can stay healthy (I know, big if) we still have a pretty solid 1-2 punch at the start of our rotation.

Felix had one bad inning, made worse by two errors, one by one of our best infielders, which gave up 2 unearned runs. Sure, it sucks, but I can't give up on them yet. As was said above, it would be nice to finish April and not be 15 games back already. I don't even care if we have a winning record in April. If we can be within a couple of games of .500 come May 1, I think I'd be ecstatic.

Felix has dropped off a bit, sure, but how many times will he give up 3 walks in one inning going forward? I'd bet a bunch that it won't happen that often.

 

[Hawk-Lock]

What is the deal with Paxton? How come he didn't make the rotation? I've always been really high on him. When he's been healthy, he's been a really good middle/back-end of the rotation guy. His main problem is he can never stay healthy. It's hard for me to get excited for Miley, he has been an average pitcher for the past 3 years now. I doubt much changes with him, he's nothing more than a innings eater. And to be honest, I doubt we would have brought Miley in had we known Iwakuma would fail his physical with the Dodgers and come back to us.

 

[SeatownJay]

FYI, today's game is Yahoo's Free Game of the Day.

 

[Hawk-Lock]

M's are crankin it right now. Hah, we're serving up our old friend The Bartender. Poor Whilhelmson.

Edit: And to make things worst, Wilhelmson just pegged Iannetta and got thrown out the game. Things got pretty chippy, I liked the grit I saw from Iannetta.

 

[bevellisthedevil]

Mariners bats finally break loose against the "Bartender." I bet the Mariners will only be able to beat up on former Mariner pitchers

A little testy now that the Bartender plunked Ianetta. If the Mariners show this much spunk, they may keep my interest this year.

 

[Atradees]

Its a good strategy.....Our failed closers can only go to another team in the division. :th2thumbs:

What I liked:

The manager knows how to platoon the hitting with pinch hitters.

The bullpen with Montgomery and the new cast seems like it could be really good.

Will Paxton soon join the ranks as a closer or middle relief?

Iannette, Sandinas, Martin, SSmith, Cano, Cruz, Seager, Aoki......

Off to slow starts: Kmart, Gutierrez, and Lee were swinging at pitches in the dirt.

It just seems to me that the baseball minds at play here are better than in recent times. For example the PH and acquiring more pitching talent.

To be seen: The consistency of the rest of the pitching order. For all the talk over the years of great Mariners pitching staff it seems to always fall apart. How long have we been talking about Paxton and Walker?

Tuesday's longest home runs

All distances calculated by ESPN's Home Run Tracker:

1. Corey Dickerson, Rays - 453 feet
2. Paul Goldschmidt, D-backs - 445 feet
3. Trevor Story, Rockies - 436 feet
4. Robinson Cano, Mariners - 432 feet
5. Nelson Cruz, Mariners - 425 feet

 

[Hawk-Lock]

The team is well constructed. We finally got guys who can play defense, and most importantly get on base. Through two games we have been pretty patient at the plate and trying to get on bases however we can. I think the bullpen will be the big surprise this year, I think it will actually be stronger than our starting rotation. I'm curious to see how the back-end of the rotation shakes out. After Felix and Kuma we don't exactly know what we have. I think Miley will be an innings eater, but will probably have an ERA north of 4. The two big questionmarks are Karns and Walker. The good thing is that if one slumps, we can always bring up Paxton who IMO will be a starter sooner than later this season.

 

[Trenchbroom]

Bullpen is looking better than I expected and the "control the zone" mantra seems to be paying off for the most part. So for now, two games in (LOL!) I am quietly optimistic.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

Cano goes deep for third game in a row. VERY good harbinger for his season and by extension, the team.

 

[Hawk-Lock]

Pretty much what we can expect from Miley. Innings but will give up 3-5 runs. Got a feeling he flames out of the rotation and Paxton replaces him.

 

[Hasselbeck]

I'm guessing Cano wants to hang out in Texas a little longer. Dude is hitting the crap out of the ball right now

 

[kearly]

Hype. Always a year too early, or a year too late.