Mariners confident their rebuild is working

[D-train]

All any team that is getting less than optimum results from their expensive but underachieving / aging payroll has to do is to claim that they are "sellers" or in a "rebuild".
Our management might as well say that until the most powerful teams "flame out" it just doesn't make any sense to pay top dollar for a 81 to 89 win club.
My hopes rested with Paxton, Pineda and Walker becoming a trio of Aces with a better version of Old Felix tagging along . It was just too much to hope for ALL of it to come true..but basically none of it panned out.

Being a fan is about hope. All teams are do is selling hope. A few years ago the hope was in Paxton/Walker/Hultzen/Zunino/Ackley etc... The last few years it was in Cruz, Cano, Seager, Felix, etc... Now its in the young guys.

Chances are, it won't lead to a title, but you have to be able to find some joy in the process. Right now the joy isn't with the Mariners, so I'm enjoying the success and hope that the minors bring. I'm sure I'll be let down in a couple years, but have some hope that I won't. Look at cubs fans and Red Sox fans, how long did they have to wait to finally win the WS...

The Mariners have spent nearly two decades feeding us nothing but “hope.” Sorry, but I am sick and tired of hope. At least the Red Sox managed to get to the playoffs during their curse.

Yes, you definitely have awesome alternative of just being miserable available to you.

[Happy as hell]

Yep, you can stay in the Matrix and be happy or you can take the reality pill and be miserable. Sigh.

[D-train]

My hope lies in the fact that this is the first time in his career that JD has been able to implement any sort of rebuild and ownership has agreed and has been "relatively" hands off and it seems to be going pretty well. I actually have far more hope now than I did when the team was fielding the rotting core with additional minor scraps mixed in and somehow putting up a mirage of being a playoff team.

[Sibelius Hindemith]

It's about doing one's part to build that little snowball of discontent into such a massive flaming ball of rage and misery that it triggers some sort of 'event' that leads to meaningful change (or just sufficient carnage to satiate the bloodlust of the long-suffering, much-abused fans).

[Dr Naysay]

We are in that, we could have kept all our pieces that we traded last summer, added the usual scrubs and eeked out a 82-80 record(whilst missing the playoffs) and kept doing that for 3-4 years. At least we have Di Poto's neck on the line and pretty much a proper tear down.

[Donn Beach]

It's about doing one's part to build that little snowball of discontent into such a massive flaming ball of rage and misery that it triggers some sort of 'event' that leads to meaningful change (or just sufficient carnage to satiate the bloodlust of the long-suffering, much-abused fans).

hey, how about an act of self immolation on Edgar Martinez drive...that might do it

[Captain 97]

Its still a big crapshoot and I am no where near as confident as BPJ. Especially since our top prospects are still in A ball. We had a top 10 farm system during the early years of Jack Z's rebuild when we had Ackley, Zunino, Pineda, Hultzen, Walker, Paxton etc. in the minors and that didn't turn out so great.

[Donn Beach]

the thing about the Mariners farm is its got some talent but its thin, success rides on a few players hitting it big. I was struck by that FG ranking, it has the M's eighth but at the same time it indicated the Rays system is twice as deep. The M's have a lot invested in a few players, we shall see how it works out

[Sibelius Hindemith]

It's about doing one's part to build that little snowball of discontent into such a massive flaming ball of rage and misery that it triggers some sort of 'event' that leads to meaningful change (or just sufficient carnage to satiate the bloodlust of the long-suffering, much-abused fans).

hey, how about an act of self immolation on Edgar Martinez drive...that might do it

No thanks, but i'll provide the starter fluid if you'd care to.

[Moe Gibbs]

Being a fan is about hope. All teams are do is selling hope.

Selling off the fans favorite players [imagine being a 10 to 15 year old fan of Nelson Cruz] and then telling the fans that "We are rebuilding just wait 2 to 5 years for results" does damage to the recruitment of future loyal fans.
I'd like to see this issue attacked at the other end with a hard ceiling for what a team can spend on salaries and player development.