Mariners confident their rebuild is working

[Bil522]

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.

The M's ownnership will never publish what their hard cap is because they don't want to be percieved as cheap. Problem is they are cheap bastards and so, while they will spend more than Oakland, they will never spend correctly.....as we have seen time and time again for the last 41 years

[Moe Gibbs]

The M's ownnership will never publish what their hard cap is because they don't want to be percieved as cheap. Problem is they are cheap bastards and so, while they will spend more than Oakland, they will never spend correctly.....as we have seen time and time again for the last 41 years

Only about 1% of their paying customers really want to know . Publishing the expenses "shames" the weaker teams..but the real shame is no matter how much more the weaker teams try to spend, the wealthier teams will just spend more.
Wow..I guess I sound like a Commie Pinko Socialist Bastard...

[D-train]

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.

The M's ownnership will never publish what their hard cap is because they don't want to be percieved as cheap. Problem is they are cheap bastards and so, while they will spend more than Oakland, they will never spend correctly.....as we have seen time and time again for the last 41 years

42.33 years

[Dr Naysay]

As much as I like to have a pop at the owners this whole "the owners are so cheap" mentality is unfair at times, we had the 8th highest salaried team last season above the Yankees and a few other playoff bound teams(till the trade deadline) even now in a tear down season season we are still in the top half of payroll and still above the league average and above teams like the Braves, Indians, Brewers and Rays. I would not accuse the owners of not stumping up money but I would accuse them of consistently putting the wrong people in charge of building a team.

[DavidGee24]

I was just checking out the Padres to see how their rebuild is going. Despite being a couple years or so further along, and with their fertile farm system and several top prospects already in their first, second and third seasons, plus Manny Machado, they're presently sitting at 50-57. In theory, at this point they should be doing a LOT better than that.

And why? Because while they've developed some studs, they've also developed a good number of duds, and that's weighed them down. This is what plagued the Mariner organization from 1977 - 1994, the eighteen-year youth movement. For every Phil Bradley there was a Manny Castillo and Darnell Coles. For every Erik Hanson there was a Jim Converse and Roger Salkeld. This is why the Astros (very smartly) went out and bought top pitchers. If the Padre organization doesn't do likewise, their big rebuild might at best barely get them over .500 and the Mariner organization needs to employ the Astro blueprint as well.

[Hy Feiber]

How can a highly rated farm system even inspire hope in a Mariner fan these days given the organization's track record at developing players with raw talent into successful major leaguers? Fool me once...

Excellent points.

I still can’t pull up Jerry D’s initial press conference where he said, “after 100 trades, I guarantee we will be competitive in 6 years.”

So despite my generally being an optimist, After so many years, Dip’s track record leaves me skeptical.

Snake Oil?

[AT Funchal-Madeira]

Curious - is the claim of having a ‘top 10’ farm system corroborated anywhere else, or is that just license ?

We have the 8th strongest farm system according to the MLB rating system of top prospects with 225 points just above the Tigers and just below the Twins. The White Sox are second and the Padres with over 400 points are first. We do have the strongest rated farm in our division which hasn't happened for a long time.

https://www.mlb.com/news/2019-top-30-pr ... son-update

[AT Funchal-Madeira]

I was just checking out the Padres to see how their rebuild is going. Despite being a couple years or so further along, and with their fertile farm system and several top prospects already in their first, second and third seasons, plus Manny Machado, they're presently sitting at 50-57. In theory, at this point they should be doing a LOT better than that.

And why? Because while they've developed some studs, they've also developed a good number of duds, and that's weighed them down. This is what plagued the Mariner organization from 1977 - 1994, the eighteen-year youth movement. For every Phil Bradley there was a Manny Castillo and Darnell Coles. For every Erik Hanson there was a Jim Converse and Roger Salkeld. This is why the Astros (very smartly) went out and bought top pitchers. If the Padre organization doesn't do likewise, their big rebuild might at best barely get them over .500 and the Mariner organization needs to employ the Astro blueprint as well.

Yeah, I generally agree with that approach and the M's have been gathering arms via the trade route. I want to spend my early picks in the draft of high school position players and trade for pitching.... I am still pissed we did not take Nolan Gorman a couple years ago, St. Louis did and he is their top prospect right now. We would have had a developing power laden third baseman.... something missing in our system right now.... but it's getting better.

[D-train]

Thankfully we took Gilbert instead of Gorman as opposed to another Hultzen. Gorman is a great prospect but is only 19. Gilbert will be pitching in the bigs next season. I think Gilbert has Ace potential.

[Bil522]

I was just checking out the Padres to see how their rebuild is going. Despite being a couple years or so further along, and with their fertile farm system and several top prospects already in their first, second and third seasons, plus Manny Machado, they're presently sitting at 50-57. In theory, at this point they should be doing a LOT better than that.

And why? Because while they've developed some studs, they've also developed a good number of duds, and that's weighed them down. This is what plagued the Mariner organization from 1977 - 1994, the eighteen-year youth movement. For every Phil Bradley there was a Manny Castillo and Darnell Coles. For every Erik Hanson there was a Jim Converse and Roger Salkeld. This is why the Astros (very smartly) went out and bought top pitchers. If the Padre organization doesn't do likewise, their big rebuild might at best barely get them over .500 and the Mariner organization needs to employ the Astro blueprint as well.

Which is why we go out and sign Gerrit Cole for 6 yrars at $200mill. He is what we don't have anywhere in the organization