2018 Seattle Mariners regular season thread

It will now be 18 years starting next season since the last postseason appearance, longest current playoff drought in all pro sports and counting. Don't expect anything different next year.

The front office has failed. Dipoto's approach of "you can only land impact starting pitching in the offseason" and then neglecting to even attempt to sign a bona fide #3 or #4 (let alone "impact" starting pitching) has made this season a predictable bust.

Servais' asinine decision of keeping Seager and Zunino in the lineup everyday coupled with keeping Felix in the rotation underscores his stubborn ineffectiveness as a manager.

West TX Hawk":3940xsnn said:

It will now be 18 years starting next season since the last postseason appearance, longest current playoff drought in all pro sports and counting. Don't expect anything different next year.

The front office has failed. Dipoto's approach of "you can only land impact starting pitching in the offseason" and then neglecting to even attempt to sign a bona fide #3 or #4 (let alone "impact" starting pitching) has made this season a predictable bust.

Servais' asinine decision of keeping Seager and Zunino in the lineup everyday coupled with keeping Felix in the rotation underscores his stubborn ineffectiveness as a manager.

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Agreed. I knew from the get go that pitching would be the downfall. On paper they were weak there but on the on field performance was even weaker. Dipoto is terrible at acquiring pitching. Oakland was terrible pitching wise in the first half but they made moves to improve it and surpassed the M’s. Diaz was the only bright spot where pitching is concerned.

Ownership was stupid to give Dipoto an extension halfway through the season. It’s no coincidence the M’s started losing after that.

Seattle won their 81st game of the year last night, guaranteeing them a non-losing season. Considering that I penciled them in for 70-75 wins at the beginning of the season they actually exceeded my initial expectations despite teasing us with the possibility of more through the first half of the year.

SeatownJay":1cskci8o said:

Seattle won their 81st game of the year last night, guaranteeing them a non-losing season. Considering that I penciled them in for 70-75 wins at the beginning of the season they actually exceeded my initial expectations despite teasing us with the possibility of more through the first half of the year.

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What a strange year for Mariners fans.

So many calling them out as "pathetic" yet, in the end, they will have greatly overachieved initial expectations.

Yet (again).. they had a chance to do even better and blew it.

And now that they are out of it, they will, in true M's fashion, begin to win games. Costing them draft position.

Not that the M's ever pick anyone in the draft that actually turns into a Trout or Harper.

Okay, okay. A-Rod and Junior.

Twice out of 40-plus years.

0-4 against the padres
3-4 against the blue jays
10-9 against the astros

if you would have told me M's would end up winning the season series against the stros i would say we will make the playoffs for sure. At least we have few pieces in place for next year.

Haniger and Segura is the future.

Cano and Seager will stay.

Everyone else we should find a replacement. I doubt Cruz resigns. Heredia, Zunino gotta go. Span might not want to resign. Gordon will stay unless we try to trade him. Felix entering his final year of his contract. If Felix can prove next season he can be a finesse pitcher then maybe sign him to another contract at seasons end.

Crizilla":r78p4gfh said:

0-4 against the padres
3-4 against the blue jays
10-9 against the astros

if you would have told me M's would end up winning the season series against the stros i would say we will make the playoffs for sure. At least we have few pieces in place for next year.

Haniger and Segura is the future.

Cano and Seager will stay.

Everyone else we should find a replacement. I doubt Cruz resigns. Heredia, Zunino gotta go. Span might not want to resign. Gordon will stay unless we try to trade him. Felix entering his final year of his contract. If Felix can prove next season he can be a finesse pitcher then maybe sign him to another contract at seasons end.

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Almost time to start the off season thread.

I'd try to keep Cruz, he's still producing at a high level, his slash numbers are pretty good. Maybe 2 years + an option.

OF, Haniger (obviously), Gordon, would like to keep Span with Gamel as the 4th OF. Heredia is a decent defensive OF but is still not hitting well.

IF, yeah we're kind of stuck with Cano and Seager, Segura definitely a keeper-great D and O. Healy is better than Volgelbach, but could probably find someone better at the plate. I don't mind his D so much. I think Negron probably wins out over Romine (I kind of like Romine, but it looks like Negron is a better overall player) as the utility guy.

Z is a bit of a special case. He has good rapport with the pitching staff and is a great backstop. You'd expect a catcher to have a better eye at the plate, though. He'll probably stay for his D and his power. Freitas or Herrmann aren't bad as the #2 catcher, either one.

Obviously need at least one more top of the rotation starter. I hope Leake stays as a middle of the order arm. He eats innings like nobody's business with a lot of quality starts. Marco and LeBlanc could hang on as 4/5 if we don't find someone better. We've seen some pretty good bullpen arms lately. We could build a decent group from them with a little outside help.

Felix? Who knows. Right now, he could hang on as a 4/5 guy, or do long relief. He did fairly well the one time he tried that. Like you said, if he could learn to switch to a finesse pitcher, he probably has a couple of years left, but the whole King's Court thing is dead, I think.

Funny thing about our winning record against Houston. A few years ago, right before they started to get good, the Astros had a losing record against every team they played, except for one.

Actually its been a good yr. Of course they blew the huge lead. However this team is gonna win 90+ games. Thats playoffs i believe 90% of the time with 90+ wins and usually the #1 wc.

If we were in al central or NL itd be playoffs.

Uncle Si":2k76jcjk said:

SeatownJay":2k76jcjk said:

Seattle won their 81st game of the year last night, guaranteeing them a non-losing season. Considering that I penciled them in for 70-75 wins at the beginning of the season they actually exceeded my initial expectations despite teasing us with the possibility of more through the first half of the year.

Click to expand...

What a strange year for Mariners fans.

So many calling them out as "pathetic" yet, in the end, they will have greatly overachieved initial expectations. Yep

Yet (again).. they had a chance to do even better and blew it.

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A's deserve a lot of credit. They went on, and maintained, one helluva run. If I'm remembering correctly I think they were 37-7 over their last 44 games at one point in August. That's pretty nuts.

Shanegotyou11":2k76jcjk said:

Actually its been a good yr. Of course they blew the huge lead. However this team is gonna win 90+ games. Thats playoffs i believe 90% of the time with 90+ wins and usually the #1 wc.

If we were in al central or NL itd be playoffs.

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Agreed.

Yankees just tied the M’s home run record. 2 more games left. Should break it.


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Shanegotyou11":3m1dbwf0 said:

Actually its been a good yr. Of course they blew the huge lead. However this team is gonna win 90+ games. Thats playoffs i believe 90% of the time with 90+ wins and usually the #1 wc.

If we were in al central or NL itd be playoffs.

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Well not quite as it turns out. We finish short of 90 wins and 90 wins is what it took for the NL this year. And we didn’t even surpass the Rays in the standings. A winning season but anything short of the postseason is yet another disappointing chapter.

One can only hope Dipoto makes multiple attempts at landing “impact” starting pitching this offseason and not place all his marbles in one Ohtaniesque move. We badly need a legit 1 and a 2. With Paxton’s inevitable annual DL stint, he’s really only a 3. And 3B and C need to be addressed-we cannot go another full season with .220 and .200 there.

M's finish the season with 89 wins. If you had told me at the beginning of the year that this team would win that many games I would have called you an idiot.

West TX Hawk":3sxeq1ly said:

Shanegotyou11":3sxeq1ly said:

Actually its been a good yr. Of course they blew the huge lead. However this team is gonna win 90+ games. Thats playoffs i believe 90% of the time with 90+ wins and usually the #1 wc.

If we were in al central or NL itd be playoffs.

Click to expand...

Well not quite as it turns out. We finish short of 90 wins and 90 wins is what it took for the NL this year. And we didn’t even surpass the Rays in the standings. A winning season but anything short of the postseason is yet another disappointing chapter.

One can only hope Dipoto makes multiple attempts at landing “impact” starting pitching this offseason and not place all his marbles in one Ohtaniesque move. We badly need a legit 1 and a 2. With Paxton’s inevitable annual DL stint, he’s really only a 3. And 3B and C need to be addressed-we cannot go another full season with .220 and .200 there.

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I agree with most of what you posted. I think we can live with Z since he’s a good defensive catcher. You however cannot live with he and Seager. I would love to trade Seager but the M’s would have to eat a large portion of that crappy contract to make that happen, and they don’t like to eat contracts.

And another Mariners season gone like a wet fart.

On a different note, why in the hell didn't Servais put Sugar out there to claim 2nd place in saves on the year? :34853_doh:

Things like that don't come around every year.

SeatownJay":8q1gtjl0 said:

M's finish the season with 89 wins. If you had told me at the beginning of the year that this team would win that many games I would have called you an idiot.

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Agreed. But if you also told me in early July when the Mariners were 55-31, that we wouldn't reach 90 wins I would have called you an idiot. We went 34-42 after that. Classic Mariners right there.

M's won the season series against every AL West team. So let's see what Dipoto does this off season.

Crizilla":c3fpkq3f said:

M's won the season series against every AL West team. So let's see what Dipoto does this off season.

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This offseason can go one of three ways. He can choose to sell the farm and go for it. He can stand pat and we can have another season like the past couple where we are probably above .500 but don't make the playoffs. He can trade away key pieces and completely rebuild. I hope he either goes for it or rebuilds. No more of being stuck in mediocrity.

sutz":6cbgd2eo said:

On a different note, why in the hell didn't Servais put Sugar out there to claim 2nd place in saves on the year? :34853_doh:

Things like that don't come around every year.

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I think that saves are the dumbest stat people care about in baseball.. so you won't hear me complaining. I just don't care, meh.

So you pitched good enough in one inning to have your team win. So you basically did the same exact thing every other pitcher on your team did innings 1-8 (assuming no extras) but you just happened to go last? People say there's more pressure the last inning so it matters more? Meh, there's pressure every inning. These are the majors. Call me a cynic unno: