Ackley

[hawkfan1073]

no worries, hawkfan

i apologize for being so condescending

i'll just say again that barring a downright miraculous remainder of the season for ackley, i'll be very sad if the m's are so bad next year, they're still carting him out to play cf or 2b. That will mean one of two awful things: (1) Franklin is so bad the rest of this year and spring of next year that Ackley is back at 2B. Please no. (2) The FO didn't care enough to find a legitimate and competent center fielder. Fuck that, too.

Logically, there is a 3rd option that Ackley would be on the team.
How about this scenario.... Ackley has figured out his issues and made the adjustment and continues to have an OBP of .400+, the M's keep Franklin at 2B and Ackley in CF(which he really hasn't played that bad defensively for how little he has played) Move Ackley to leadoff and drop Franklin to the 6 hole since he has more pop in his bat.
I like that scenario if he continues to hit well...if not...I agree, fuck that.

 

[cezero]

Logically, there is a 3rd option that Ackley would be on the team.
How about this scenario.... Ackley has figured out his issues and made the adjustment and continues to have an OBP of .400+, the M's keep Franklin at 2B and Ackley in CF(which he really hasn't played that bad defensively for how little he has played) Move Ackley to leadoff and drop Franklin to the 6 hole since he has more pop in his bat.
I like that scenario if he continues to hit well...if not...I agree, fuck that.

I just don't know if aug-sep is enough for me to believe ackley has figured much out unless his play is profound and consistent. we'll see, i guess.

 

[dude82]

Man, i wish I would have just said this.....lol

What some folks don't get, too, is that if these young players are given up on by management the way they're being given up on by some of the fans, it means starting all over... again, which just adds to the time it'll take to be a winner again. The Mariners don't have the money that teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Angels, Phillies and other bigger market teams have to speed up the rebuilding process. If you can't buy a winner, you have to build one and building one takes a lot longer. It sucks, but that's what we're dealing with. Rushing it or giving up on it is just going to make it take longer in the long run.

 

[cezero]

What some folks don't get, too, is that if these young players are given up on by management the way they're being given up on by some of the fans, it means starting all over... again, which just adds to the time it'll take to be a winner again. The Mariners don't have the money that teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Angels, Phillies and other bigger market teams have to speed up the rebuilding process. If you can't buy a winner, you have to build one and building one takes a lot longer. It sucks, but that's what we're dealing with. Rushing it or giving up on it is just going to make it take longer in the long run.

Rebuilding requires 3 things:

drafting
trading
signing free agents

They're equally important, especially at this point in the Mariners' rebuilding process.

It's a sign of an incompetent and/or oblivious staff to just stick by drafts regardless of their performance. And I'm sorry, but keeping anybody with an OBP below .300 for a year falls into that category.

A competent rebuilding team knows when to get rid of the garbage they drafted, and up the effort on the trading and signing free agents side. That doesn't mean just stop drafting, it means acknowledge what didn't pan out.

The thing people have to understand is that most top draft picks don't play above league average ball. Many of them end up playing sub-league average ball their entire careers. It's part of the game, and it's 100% incompetent to fail to acknowledge when a player is of that ilk, and immediately attempt to remedy it with trades or acquiring FA, or by calling up more talent from the farm, if available.

It remains to be seen whether Ackley's 3/4 of a month of competence takes him out of the category of miserable failures by top draft picks. If he continues this level of play through the rest of the season, it's going to be interesting to see the decisions the FO makes.

Also, on a side note, the M's just signed a deal to basically own their own regional sports network. That's a a guaranteed uber millions revenue boost. They've never been a real small market team, and they're worlds from it now. We'll see soon enough if ownership really gives a damn about articulating a winning team.

 

[johnfree63]

Rebuilding requires 3 things:

drafting
trading
signing free agents

They're equally important, especially at this point in the Mariners' rebuilding process.

It's a sign of an incompetent and/or oblivious staff to just stick by drafts regardless of their performance. And I'm sorry, but keeping anybody with an OBP below .300 for a year falls into that category.

A competent rebuilding team knows when to get rid of the garbage they drafted, and up the effort on the trading and signing free agents side. That doesn't mean just stop drafting, it means acknowledge what didn't pan out.

The thing people have to understand is that most top draft picks don't play above league average ball. Many of them end up playing sub-league average ball their entire careers. It's part of the game, and it's 100% incompetent to fail to acknowledge when a player is of that ilk, and immediately attempt to remedy it with trades or acquiring FA, or by calling up more talent from the farm, if available.

It remains to be seen whether Ackley's 3/4 of a month of competence takes him out of the category of miserable failures by top draft picks. If he continues this level of play through the rest of the season, it's going to be interesting to see the decisions the FO makes.

Also, on a side note, the M's just signed a deal to basically own their own regional sports network. That's a a guaranteed uber millions revenue boost. They've never been a real small market team, and they're worlds from it now. We'll see soon enough if ownership really gives a damn about articulating a winning team.

You could also add that the M's get a piece of the huge TV deal that MLB signed. There is going to be no excuse for not going after the higher level talent.