Love the M's! But ... it's tough to win the race without the horses, and this road trip showed us what's really in the stable. I will always question replacing Ben with a rental Geno, who has always been an up-and-down swinger, when the $$ could have been spent on a Jhoan Duran. We strike out too much, especially with men on base. The Skipper may morph into the second coming of Walter Alston, but it's a journey he's just starting. And you are quite right when you say to expect the rotation's excellence last year to continue ad infinitum is chasing butterflies. Matt Brash reminds me so much of the early Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn. Love your column ... Go M's! Anything can happen in a string of short series!!
I could be wrong and this is based mostly on a hunch, combined with some firsthand knowledge of how trades can take time to come together, but I don't think the Duran thing led them to pivot to Geno.
To put it simply: the Mariners could've had both and the reason they don't is that the Twins liked the Phillies best offer better than what the Mariners put forth.
And yeahhhhh. I know Scott Servais had a bit of a learning curve himself when he was, like Dan now, a guy completely new to managing and managing at this level....but I feel like it wasn't this dire? It makes me wonder if the front office has less of a say in on-field operations like bullpen strategy.
Either way, thank you for reading. Greatly appreciate it. Go M's.
Love the M's! But ... it's tough to win the race without the horses, and this road trip showed us what's really in the stable. I will always question replacing Ben with a rental Geno, who has always been an up-and-down swinger, when the $$ could have been spent on a Jhoan Duran. We strike out too much, especially with men on base. The Skipper may morph into the second coming of Walter Alston, but it's a journey he's just starting. And you are quite right when you say to expect the rotation's excellence last year to continue ad infinitum is chasing butterflies. Matt Brash reminds me so much of the early Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn. Love your column ... Go M's! Anything can happen in a string of short series!!
I could be wrong and this is based mostly on a hunch, combined with some firsthand knowledge of how trades can take time to come together, but I don't think the Duran thing led them to pivot to Geno.
To put it simply: the Mariners could've had both and the reason they don't is that the Twins liked the Phillies best offer better than what the Mariners put forth.
And yeahhhhh. I know Scott Servais had a bit of a learning curve himself when he was, like Dan now, a guy completely new to managing and managing at this level....but I feel like it wasn't this dire? It makes me wonder if the front office has less of a say in on-field operations like bullpen strategy.
Either way, thank you for reading. Greatly appreciate it. Go M's.