Official Mariners arm-chair GM offseason thread

[NWinAZ]

They should have re-signed Randy who wanted to stay, but that is not the Mariners way. I blame Lincoln/Ownership for that one. There is no way a GM would not want to re-sign the best pitcher in baseball. It was purely a money deal.

And they did get a decent return though you never replace a RJ. They also did well in the Griffey trade considering their hands were tied by 'The Kid'...

 

[Tapey]

Bungled the Randy deal? They got Halama, Caros Guillen and Freddy Garcia. Not a bad haul, unless you think that the M's could/would have resigned him.

I would rather have re signed Johnson

 

[mcnabb7542]

John Sickels just released his top 20 Mariners prospects for 2018.

Seattle Mariners Top 20 prospects for 2018

Huh I thought Jerry traded them all away

 

[wazzu31]

Bungled the Randy deal? They got Halama, Caros Guillen and Freddy Garcia. Not a bad haul, unless you think that the M's could/would have resigned him.

Wasn't a bad haul, but Chuck Armstrong thought it was a good idea to make it public about Randy's bad back trying to leverage them into a more club friendly deal. Randy ended pitching like garbage until they traded him and he went Sandy Koufax. They screwed the Randy negotiations and bungled the offering ARod the richest contract in baseball history while negotiationing Junior's deal.

 

[Tapey]

• Right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma has been cleared to begin throwing as he rehabs from 2017 shoulder surgery, according to Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (all Twitter links). Divish was among the reporters on hand when Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto spoke to the media about a wide variety of topics, including health updates on a number of Mariners. In addition to Iwakuma setting out on a throwing program, righty David Phelps and outfielder Guillermo Heredia are expected to be at or very close to 100 percent when Spring Training opens. Dipoto also said that lefty Marco Gonzales, who is out of minor league options, “will be given every opportunity to make our club.” Dipoto has taken some heat from fans for trading prospect Tyler O’Neill to acquire Gonzales from the Cardinals, though O’Neill’s .254/.304/.548 slash and 27 percent strikeout rate in Triple-A following the trade raise questions of their own.

so if Gonzales can turn into like a 3 type pitcher and O'Neil turns into a bust, is Dipoto a genius?

 

[wazzu31]

so hes saying the Mariners are a smaller market than the A's? if so then thats the biggest joke ive ever heard

I'm not completely sure what he meant. Expansion got brought up and he was giving his reasons why Portland would be a bad location for expansion. He more or less said Portland is smaller than Seattle and Seattle is a small market team. I think he realizes his mistake and said the AL West. But not only does Seattle have Oakland beat, but I'd argue Seattle is a bigger market than Anaheim. Sure they got the LA connection but the Angels are like the 15th most popular team in the LA area.

 

[Tapey]

I'm not completely sure what he meant. Expansion got brought up and he was giving his reasons why Portland would be a bad location for expansion. He more or less said Portland is smaller than Seattle and Seattle is a small market team. I think he realizes his mistake and said the AL West. But not only does Seattle have Oakland beat, but I'd argue Seattle is a bigger market than Anaheim. Sure they got the LA connection but the Angels are like the 15th most popular team in the LA area.

MLB 2018 Payroll Tracker

According to that the Mariners are payroll is on the verge of being top 5 in the league, so whatever he meant is pretty dumb all the around

 

[DHoey]

Wasn't a bad haul, but Chuck Armstrong thought it was a good idea to make it public about Randy's bad back trying to leverage them into a more club friendly deal. Randy ended pitching like garbage until they traded him and he went Sandy Koufax. They screwed the Randy negotiations and bungled the offering ARod the richest contract in baseball history while negotiationing Junior's deal.

It was an ugly ending for sure. It just seemed like he was going to leave either way, maybe I'm wrong and he would have stayed longer if we paid him more. That was a time when the Mariners would spend money on players.

 

[SeattleCoug]

Bungled the Randy deal? They got Halama, Caros Guillen and Freddy Garcia. Not a bad haul, unless you think that the M's could/would have resigned him.

He was on KJR the other day and straight up said the Mariners didn’t offer him a contract. Also said they haven’t contacted about his Number being retired but that’s a different story. A Anyway they essentially said he was done because of his back issues and he goes on to win 4
straight CY Youngs and was dominant in the 2001 WS. He was the ace the Mariners didn’t have to get by the Yanks. Well done Ms

 

[DHoey]

He was on KJR the other day and straight up said the Mariners didn’t offer him a contract. Also said they haven’t contacted about his Number being retired but that’s a different story. A Anyway they essentially said he was done because of his back issues and he goes on to win 4
straight CY Youngs and was dominant in the 2001 WS. He was the ace the Mariners didn’t have to get by the Yanks. Well done Ms

Because everyone saw that coming. He was what, 34 years old with over 2k innings on his arm with a bad back.

 

[NWinAZ]

Because everyone saw that coming. He was what, 34 years old with over 2k innings on his arm with a bad back.

The 'bad back' was a PR move by Mariners as stated above. It backfired. Randy always said he let the contract thing get to him on the mound and once traded he could just focus on pitching. He was a media nightmare, but he usually didn't BS people. I would take 5 SP's with Randy's 'bad back' as long as it came with his golden arm. Between him, AFraud, and Griffey, he was the keeper They cheaped out.

 

[NWinAZ]

 

[NWinAZ]

Because everyone saw that coming. He was what, 34 years old with over 2k innings on his arm with a bad back.

Felix pitched 1620.1 innings when he got his extension. They passed on Randy at 1894 innings. & years difference in age, but invested a lot more money in Felix while close to say usage.

 

[DHoey]

Felix pitched 1620.1 innings when he got his extension. They passed on Randy at 1894 innings. & years difference in age, but invested a lot more money in Felix while close to say usage.

I'm not saying that was/is a good move either.

 

[NWinAZ]

Missed this earlier. Brewers are getting it done!

 

[wazzu31]

MLB 2018 Payroll Tracker

According to that the Mariners are payroll is on the verge of being top 5 in the league, so whatever he meant is pretty dumb all the around

It's not even the payroll thing, it's annoying he is even referencing the area being a small market when we have the best growth of any area in the nation. The Seattle Metro area is going to be a minimum of top 10 in population in 2 years. I'm not sure why even put out an excuse like this.

 

[wazzu31]

Felix pitched 1620.1 innings when he got his extension. They passed on Randy at 1894 innings. & years difference in age, but invested a lot more money in Felix while close to say usage.

I'm not sure so I'm just randomly throwing this out there that I think Randy had better innings. Felix had racked up so many innings and pitches before his body had even matured yet as opposed to Randy who had one pitch until 1992 or whenever he developed his slider

 

[NWinAZ]

I'm not sure how many heard the Mariners lunch in but damn that was odd. Stanton says Seattle is a small market team,

Found this from 2016.

There’s no such thing as a small-market team

 

[wazzu31]

Found this from 2016.

There’s no such thing as a small-market team

I've just always associated small market teams with owners who aren't wealthy, don't have the local population or the ability to have big advertiser dollars. The Mariners aren't any of those. Seattle doesn't have the population of NY but from 95-2003 Seattle had fans driving from all over the region which rivals anything the Yankees do. Seattle has two untapped advertisers in Amazon and Expedia that would dwarf anything the Yankees have. Guess that comment bugged me like he is already building a ready made excuse for why they won't win a championship.

 

[NWinAZ]

Guess that comment bugged me like he is already building a ready made excuse for why they won't win a championship.

Spot on.