Mariner Talk Chat Forum

Curious to see how folks view Julio as a player entering his 4th year.

Is he a:

a) bust
b) not a star, but will be a solid player
c) will be a star

I don't know why, but when I think about someone not living up to their potential as a home grown Mariner (as Julio is) I think of Dustin Ackley. All the talent in the world but flopped hard. Julio has more speed and more power, but I feel Julio is getting close to that "flopping" mode after 3+ years. Maybe he's not, but man, with all that hype to be hitting .190? I'm a little worried.


Maybe I'm a dumbass and don't know any better

First of all they shouldn't have giving him all that money up front. He still acts like a kid with to much money in bank account. As of right now he should be batting near the bottom of the order. Maybe that might make him pull his head out of ass before he turns into another Kelenic .

So far he's generated $132 million in value and been paid $40+ in salary. The team has an escape clause in 2030 so it's not like Julio has nothing left to play for

His ceiling is Trout/ Ohtani level moon orbit. The floor I think is last year where he’s hurt but still had a decent average didn’t have power. He didn’t steal as much or it could be this year where sure there’s some power there and he’s stealing some bags and he’s walking, but he doesn’t put the ball in play enough

Kinda interesting

. He is the only player in MLB to rank in the 95th percentile or higher in both bat speed and sprint speed

I think that the problem with him is that he's stupid. I mean, look at his at-bats, he frequently swings at first pitches that start out of the strike zone and never enter it. His approach is horrible.

Then there are the dumb things he does on the bases, like in the infamous Yankee series last year when Arozarena threw the bat on strike three and Julio stood in foul territory yukking it up and got picked off third.

I just think of Junior and A-Rod in their first few seasons and it's night and day.

I think the problem is they let these players act like idiots throwing up X's at the fans after every mediocre catch, they prance around on the field like a bunch of sprites after a win, and roll out the red carpet for a select few of these kids, making them think they're special before they've earned anything.

Lack of discipline. Lack of respect for the game. Whatever you want to call it.

We saw it happen with Taijuan Walker.

All of a sudden the "Fresh Prince" showed up looking too cool for school.

They start to believe they're "stars" because they're treated like one, and then they think it's going to come easy. Or, the lazy ones do at least. They didn't even make Julio work for it to become a $20M/yr player.

And then they called that their investment in the team that offseason after ignoring the free agent market. Lol.

I think he's a good player but not quite a great one. I don't think there's a problem with work ethic but I'm not sure he understands how to get better. At the plate, the core issue is with his swing and quality of contact; he just isn't making good contact and squaring up the ball enough. From day 1 in the majors, he would hit these little dribblers that would somehow land for singles, and I think we all sort of shrugged and figured that a hit was a hit and that he would eventually start driving the ball more. But that hasn't really happened.

There's also an approach issue, but I think the problem with his approach and the mechanical issue with the swing are interrelated; two sides of the same coin.

I'm baffled that there's been no progress. With all the resources available at the major league level, including a Spanish speaking hitting coach that was one of the best hitters of the last 3-4 decades, why isn't this recognized and addressed? Is he not receptive? Are they afraid to put pressure on him or even bring these things up?

This series will likely see Julio’s 2,000th plate appearance in the majors. That’s enough sample size to have a reasonable judgment. And yet it seems the jury is out. That says it all.

Someone like that is called Marmite over here. No one ever wants to be compared to Marmite. It has its dedicated and loyal followers but most aren’t fans.

Okay, using the 2,000 PA's sample size, he's hit .273/333/ .462/.795