SB celebration opening night at Safeco

[seahawksfan234]

Call me a delusional optimist still drunk off that Seahawk Superbowl Koolaid, but I don't think the Mariners are that far away from playoff contention as many of you guys seem to think

There's a chance that Brad Miller might play really well this year. There's a chance Mike Zunino will continue to further develop. I'm on the very few but I'm still a believer in Smoak and Ackley. I think Ackley will be a solid .280 hitting cf for us that will eventually use his speed to steal more bases. I think Smoak will be a 20-25 hr guy for us with a good obp.

That plus Cano who is a guy who hits for power and is also capable of winning the batting title.

I think we are going to win 86-90 games this year and have a chance at the wild card

Our future playoff contention depends primarily on how the FO plays this upcoming offseason. I believe we are currently looking at around .500 team for 2014. If Walker and Paxton continue to progress and the Mariners add another starting pitcher while retaining Iwakuma and adding someone who can play outfield at a reasonable level I believe we could contend next year. All of that is asking for a lot though.

I hope I'm wrong. I'd love to see baseball fever hit Seattle again.

 

[cezero]

Call me a delusional optimist still drunk off that Seahawk Superbowl Koolaid, but I don't think the Mariners are that far away from playoff contention as many of you guys seem to think

There's a chance that Brad Miller might play really well this year. There's a chance Mike Zunino will continue to further develop. I'm on the very few but I'm still a believer in Smoak and Ackley. I think Ackley will be a solid .280 hitting cf for us that will eventually use his speed to steal more bases. I think Smoak will be a 20-25 hr guy for us with a good obp.

That plus Cano who is a guy who hits for power and is also capable of winning the batting title.

I think we are going to win 86-90 games this year and have a chance at the wild card

I agree that if all of those players do well, the M's might get to 75 wins. If they all pull it together simultaneously, it would be pretty amazing. However, "there's a chance" is what has kept Z his job for far too long. The "chances" are not very good. That's not pessimism, that's a long hard look at reality.

The Seahawks success is because they have an ownership group and front office that cares about winning a championships, and a staff that can draft and sign players and develop them in such a way to accomplish that goal. The M's have zero in common with them, and have shown no indication that they're a franchise that will ever have commitment to those kinds of goals.

My prediction is that by the middle of this season, it will become even more clear that buying Felix and Cano for mega contracts was an investment opportunity, nothing more. There will be no supplemental FA signings of any value (bargain basement stuff with the likes of Corey Hart will continue), Jack Z will be fired, and the FO will hire another GM who promises he can build a team from the ground up with little to no financial support. Wash, rinse, repeat until we get new owners.

With $2 billion in guaranteed revenue from the TV deal, the profit they'll make from Felix and Cano is just a little bonus for the ownership group/CEO/President.

 

[cezero]

Our future playoff contention depends primarily on how the FO plays this upcoming offseason. I believe we are currently looking at around .500 team for 2014. If Walker and Paxton continue to progress and the Mariners add another starting pitcher while retaining Iwakuma and adding someone who can play outfield at a reasonable level I believe we could contend next year. All of that is asking for a lot though.

I hope I'm wrong. I'd love to see baseball fever hit Seattle again.

There isn't a single part of the team that isn't weak right now outside of the infield, defensively.

Cano isn't going to get much to hit unless Seager and at least one other bat click really well this year to hit in front of and behind him. It was pretty funny that Cano didn't figure it out until a whole week into spring training.

The outfield is terrible, offensively and defensively. The bullpen is frightening.

That's a bunch of pieces that need addressing before we can hope to contend for anything. .500 in the next few years would be amazing.

Please do not bring up spring training. The M's and Royals were at the top of spring training last year, and the world series teams were collectively 1 game over .500 after spring was over.

I want the M's to prove me wrong.

 

[cezero]

I agree that if all of those players do well, the M's might get to 75 wins.

*85

 

[wazzu31]

I agree that if all of those players do well, the M's might get to 75 wins. If they all pull it together simultaneously, it would be pretty amazing. However, "there's a chance" is what has kept Z his job for far too long. The "chances" are not very good. That's not pessimism, that's a long hard look at reality.

The Seahawks success is because they have an ownership group and front office that cares about winning a championships, and a staff that can draft and sign players and develop them in such a way to accomplish that goal. The M's have zero in common with them, and have shown no indication that they're a franchise that will ever have commitment to those kinds of goals.

My prediction is that by the middle of this season, it will become even more clear that buying Felix and Cano for mega contracts was an investment opportunity, nothing more. There will be no supplemental FA signings of any value (bargain basement stuff with the likes of Corey Hart will continue), Jack Z will be fired, and the FO will hire another GM who promises he can build a team from the ground up with little to no financial support. Wash, rinse, repeat until we get new owners.

With $2 billion in guaranteed revenue from the TV deal, the profit they'll make from Felix and Cano is just a little bonus for the ownership group/CEO/President.

Which is why I have issues with them piggy backing the Seahawks and the Mariners stupid promotions. The Seahawks care about winning and catered to their hardcore fans to make them profitable as oppose to the Mariners who cater to the fan who might attend one game a season.

Baseball's popularity depends on fathers taking their sons to multiple games a season and getting their sons hooked on it but when it's just giving out toys or catering to women it's not going to get lifelong fans. Getting the fans in the gate is nice, but making them want to come back by entertaining them is something nice too...such as how they should've catered to the King's court and give them much better seats. Not basically having a lesbian night then booting women out for kissing.

 

[boogiewithstu2007]

Which is why I have issues with them piggy backing the Seahawks and the Mariners stupid promotions. The Seahawks care about winning and catered to their hardcore fans to make them profitable as oppose to the Mariners who cater to the fan who might attend one game a season.

Baseball's popularity depends on fathers taking their sons to multiple games a season and getting their sons hooked on it but when it's just giving out toys or catering to women it's not going to get lifelong fans. Getting the fans in the gate is nice, but making them want to come back by entertaining them is something nice too...such as how they should've catered to the King's court and give them much better seats. Not basically having a lesbian night then booting women out for kissing.

Well said… We all know winning a championship is not easy… But at the very least JUST be competitive and make it fun… That brings people back and creates enthusiasm with the fans… The M's haven't even sniffed being competitive for over a decade.. It's pathetic.. Seahawks re-gutted there entire roster and were competitive within 2 years of the rebuild process… M's have been rebuilding for 13 years now and there still not competitive… And the ownership truly hasn't shown to care much… That's what's irritating..

 

[dude82]

It's fair to say that the Seahawks ownership/front office cares more about winning than their counterparts with the Mariners do. After that 2003 season when the M's won 93 games in a loaded AL West for the second year in a row, they went from being in denial that their roster was getting too old to attempting to reload the roster with free agent signings and trades that largely bombed to finally figuring out that a rebuild was needed and somehow managing to completely whiff on pretty much everything they tried to do at that point. Had they decided sooner that a rebuild was in order and not let the minor league cupboard go bare in the process of being in denial that one was needed (and done so with a more competent front office), we might have seen a better than .500 team more recently and more often than 2009. They've managed to avoid having a winning team several different ways over the last decade.

Having said that, football is an entirely different animal from baseball when it comes to rebuilding in general and drafting specifically. Unless an owner has deep pockets and a willingness to put those pockets to good use, you typically don't see baseball teams decide to do a complete rebuild and then be ready to compete for championships a few years later. Zduriencik no longer has the benefit of the doubt because even the most extensive baseball rebuilds shouldn't take this long to bear at least some fruit, but in football, good or bad, the results of a rebuild tend to show a lot sooner than in baseball.

 

[wazzu31]

It's fair to say that the Seahawks ownership/front office cares more about winning than their counterparts with the Mariners do. After that 2003 season when the M's won 93 games in a loaded AL West for the second year in a row, they went from being in denial that their roster was getting too old to attempting to reload the roster with free agent signings and trades that largely bombed to finally figuring out that a rebuild was needed and somehow managing to completely whiff on pretty much everything they tried to do at that point. Had they decided sooner that a rebuild was in order and not let the minor league cupboard go bare in the process of being in denial that one was needed (and done so with a more competent front office), we might have seen a better than .500 team more recently and more often than 2009. They've managed to avoid having a winning team several different ways over the last decade.

Having said that, football is an entirely different animal from baseball when it comes to rebuilding in general and drafting specifically. Unless an owner has deep pockets and a willingness to put those pockets to good use, you typically don't see baseball teams decide to do a complete rebuild and then be ready to compete for championships a few years later. Zduriencik no longer has the benefit of the doubt because even the most extensive baseball rebuilds shouldn't take this long to bear at least some fruit, but in football, good or bad, the results of a rebuild tend to show a lot sooner than in baseball.

Think it was harsh of me to say they don't care about winning. But they cater to the non fan as opposed to the Seahawks in the early 2000's cater strictly to their season ticket holders and hardcore fans knowing that if they got competitive they will get the bandwagon fans instead of it ass backward of the Mariners losing hard core fans.

Rebuilding is something that is different between the two and the Mariners screwed themselves by hiring a guy like Gillick who leaves franchises to die, then they hired and inexperienced GM who was stuck in no man's land trying to clean up the dog sh*t that was left while trying to appease the owners then hiring a glorified scout. Had a guy like Jack been hired after Pat then the franchise would probably be in better shape in my opinion.

 

[cezero]

Think it was harsh of me to say they don't care about winning. But they cater to the non fan as opposed to the Seahawks in the early 2000's cater strictly to their season ticket holders and hardcore fans knowing that if they got competitive they will get the bandwagon fans instead of it ass backward of the Mariners losing hard core fans.

Rebuilding is something that is different between the two and the Mariners screwed themselves by hiring a guy like Gillick who leaves franchises to die, then they hired and inexperienced GM who was stuck in no man's land trying to clean up the dog sh*t that was left while trying to appease the owners then hiring a glorified scout. Had a guy like Jack been hired after Pat then the franchise would probably be in better shape in my opinion.

Yep. Nintendo has cultivated a new fan base.

And they'll just hire another incompetent GM who promises to never pester them about payroll.