Series Thread: M's @ Red Sox; May 26th - 28th

[seahawksfan234]

@WizardHawk I think the optimism is mainly predicated on the fact that the team does have (IMO) playoff caliber talent but has been ravaged by injuries worse than any Mariners team I can ever recall. I believe in the coming weeks we will get Felix, Kuma and Paxton back. Not sure what the ETA is on Haniger's return, but I believe he isn't too far away either and he was playing at an insanely high level.

In terms of who should be on the table if we had a fire sale, I wouldn't move Segura. He is only 27, plays a solid SS defensively and looks like he could be one of the best offensive shortstops for years to come, and is cheap.

I'm not sure if I'd move Seager either. Based on the assumption that most guys start going down hill in baseball in their mid 30s, Seager could be useful by the time the team is rebuilt.

My bigger concern is Cano, Cruz and Felix. Cruz is hitting exceptionally well for a player of his age, confusingly so, and I have to assume is going decline sooner rather than later, but the market for him might not be that big.

Felix and Cano, considering their contracts I imagine will be extremely difficult to move. Even with how well Cano has been playing, I can't imagine many people will want to take on his contract at his age. Felix is done IMO, any team willing to trade for him is stupid.

 

[seahawksfan234]

@PolarVortex

I'd keep Heredia up in the bigs. As you pointed out, he's hitting .240 50 ABs, but he does play a good defense and overall is still hitting .289 on the season.

I wonder when/if we are going to see Leoyns Martin get the call. He currently has a pretty solid line in AAA, which makes me wonder if he has worked through his issues at the plate.

 

[seahawksfan234]

Also what was the deal with that Dyson steal? He was literally pulled off the bag...

 

[Mariners_44]

@WizardHawk I think the optimism is mainly predicated on the fact that the team does have (IMO) playoff caliber talent but has been ravaged by injuries worse than any Mariners team I can ever recall. I believe in the coming weeks we will get Felix, Kuma and Paxton back. Not sure what the ETA is on Haniger's return, but I believe he isn't too far away either and he was playing at an insanely high level.

In terms of who should be on the table if we had a fire sale, I wouldn't move Segura. He is only 27, plays a solid SS defensively and looks like he could be one of the best offensive shortstops for years to come, and is cheap.

I'm not sure if I'd move Seager either. Based on the assumption that most guys start going down hill in baseball in their mid 30s, Seager could be useful by the time the team is rebuilt.

My bigger concern is Cano, Cruz and Felix. Cruz is hitting exceptionally well for a player of his age, confusingly so, and I have to assume is going decline sooner rather than later, but the market for him might not be that big.

Felix and Cano, considering their contracts I imagine will be extremely difficult to move. Even with how well Cano has been playing, I can't imagine many people will want to take on his contract at his age. Felix is done IMO, any team willing to trade for him is stupid.

I agree, Segura should be off the table. To me, he is part of the future for JeDi; he deserves an extension and to be the face of the youth movement.

Seager should be traded IMO. His contract escalates starting next year, and paying someone roughly $20 million a year to hit .255 is a waste of money. He has the ability to hit 25-30 HR, but if we had the chance to sign a Machado it'll take a vacancy at third to do so. Love Seager, but he has to go.

Cruz is one of my favorite Mariners, but he has to go. Probably our most valuable asset at the moment, and clearly not a part of the youth movement at his age. Trade him for a solid SP thats a year or so away.

Cano and Felix, they are ours so no need to imagine anything else. Once Cruz is gone and Robbies defense begins to dip he can become our DH; hopefully he can still swing it at that point. Felix, could he become our closer? Probably crazy to think, but where does he go otherwise?

 

[PolarVortex]

@PolarVortex

I'd keep Heredia up in the bigs. As you pointed out, he's hitting .240 50 ABs, but he does play a good defense and overall is still hitting .289 on the season.

I wonder when/if we are going to see Leoyns Martin get the call. He currently has a pretty solid line in AAA, which makes me wonder if he has worked through his issues at the plate.

I kinda think his issues are as much in the bar as they are at the plate.

 

[seahawksfan234]

I think it's because my WiFi is being super shitty, hence the lack of quotes just FYI.

@Seahawks_3

I agree on Segura. That trade was highway robbery. It will be interesting to see if he maintains the power numbers he put up last year, kind of wondering where the decline is speed is coming from, perhaps conditioning issues. But whatever he did to improve his swing last year, (I believe USS Mariner did an extensive article on it), appears to have stuck with how well he is hitting.

Regarding Seager, we've seen that he tends to be a bit of a streaky hitter. He's above average defensively, and coming off a season where he hit .278/.359/.499 and has shown steady improvement every year. I would say that the year he is coming off of warrants his contract. So I suppose I disagree with you there. Using WAR as a metric, he was at 6.9 last year, which I'd assume is top 5 among 3B.

I agree on Cruz. I will say I was completely wrong about him. I thought we had massively overpaid for him and that he would see a substantial decline upon his first year with the Mariners. Very happy to have been wrong about that. But I still am waiting for that drop off, which doesn't appear to have happened yet. His value is as high as it's going to get right now. It's amazing how much raw power he still has though at age 36 going on 37. If only the rest of the Mariners were on what he's taking.

I think Felix still has a future as a starting pitcher, just not a dominant one. The strange thing with Felix is, in addition to his velocity declining, his control has gotten worse as well.

Cano I believe can have a long career. We will just be overpaying him for a while once he starts to decline.

@PolarVortex

I didn't know Martin had a reputation as a partier. Was that the reason he was DFA'd?

 

[unlvmariners]

Errors in the ninth...

 

[NWinAZ]

It looks like you can pull a guy off base and tag him out now. If you play for Boston.

And keep your foot on top of the base to keep the runners foot from making contact? Why not just lay on the base so they can't contact the bag in any way?

 

[seahawksfan234]

And keep your foot on top of the base to keep the runners foot from making contact? Why not just lay on the base so they can't contact the bag in any way?

My thoughts exactly. What the fuck was that?

 

[seahawksfan234]

He fucking blocked the bag with his foot then when Dyson's foot was on top of it, he basically kicked it off. That was bullshit.

Is that even legal?

 

[WizardHawk]

@WizardHawk I think the optimism is mainly predicated on the fact that the team does have (IMO) playoff caliber talent but has been ravaged by injuries worse than any Mariners team I can ever recall. I believe in the coming weeks we will get Felix, Kuma and Paxton back. Not sure what the ETA is on Haniger's return, but I believe he isn't too far away either and he was playing at an insanely high level.

The problem is the math is seriously against them at this point.

Dead last in the league means no matter what players you get back you have to be better than every other team outside of the division winners the rest of the way.

Whatever you thought of the team coming out of spring training, I'm assuming most didn't think they would be a 95 win type of team. Maybe people thought a solid WC level team? If so, that type of team really isn't built to come from dead last to playoff level.

And that's assuming that they ever actually do get all of those guys back AND don't have more go on injury again. Every team deals with injuries and I'd bet the odds are higher of having to do so as the very long baseball season wears on. Paxton will be back, but for how long? Felix has been hurt now several times over the last season and change. Kuma has had a few issues as well.

I have no faith whatsoever that they can come all the way back and make the playoffs. Sure, the injuries were just very bad luck and no one is to blame, but the damage is done.

As I said, I do expect them to play some better ball in the second half. I would expect to see them wreck a few teams. I just don't think it will be enough to right the ship this season.

 

[NWinAZ]

He fucking blocked the bag with his foot then when Dyson's foot was on top of it, he basically kicked it off. That was bullshit.

Is that even legal?

That is what I kept yelling at the TV...nobody answered back.

 

[Msfann]

Ruiz 3-4 today. Zunino has 13 hits all year.

That's 23% of Zunino's total hits just today.

 

[seahawksfan234]

That is what I kept yelling at the TV...nobody answered back.

That's why we yell on here, so we have someone to answer back to us.