Hollander promoted to GM

[Vogelbomb]

Good points, it does seem weird to me that Jerry Dipoto was handed the keys to the castle before ever winning anything.

Now they've made the playoffs once, in expanded format, and people are going to act like they actually are the Supreme Commanders of the Universe.

You already see the Servais for manager of the year posts. Yeah, congratulations on getting the bare minimum out of your players to get in while most of your players have underperformed.

We're making the playoffs more because so many other teams were unexpectedly bad (like Boston, Minnesota, and the White Sox) and didn't make it than because we were good.

Yet these guys somehow rule the roost for the foreseeable future now.

It's nice to see them make the playoffs- they should have made it last season also- but they need to start making better personnel decisions.

For example you can't still be putting Frazier and Winker and Toro in the game when they haven't performed by this point in the season.

Their personnel decisions over the last 3 yrs have been about 80 percent positive. For every Abe Toro acquisition, there's been the Andres Munoz/Ty France trade or Luis Castillo trade/contract or George Kirby draft pick. I mean what's their to gripe about? Jesse Winker not performing? Rushing Kelenic. Yeah, fine. Fair. But again, 4 out of 5? I'll take that

[GL_Storm]

I figured this would happen once KC fired Dayton Moore. For now, this is basically job title inflation, but I think it's probably still meaningful to Justin Hollander. It's a way for the organization to reward him and for the Mariners to keep their front office intact a little longer if they can. But if they win again next year and go to the postseason 2 years in a row, I'm sure other teams will come sniffing around. I wonder who they have on the bench just below Justin?

[D-train]

Good points, it does seem weird to me that Jerry Dipoto was handed the keys to the castle before ever winning anything.

Now they've made the playoffs once, in expanded format, and people are going to act like they actually are the Supreme Commanders of the Universe.

You already see the Servais for manager of the year posts. Yeah, congratulations on getting the bare minimum out of your players to get in while most of your players have underperformed.

We're making the playoffs more because so many other teams were unexpectedly bad (like Boston, Minnesota, and the White Sox) and didn't make it than because we were good.

Yet these guys somehow rule the roost for the foreseeable future now.

It's nice to see them make the playoffs- they should have made it last season also- but they need to start making better personnel decisions.

For example you can't still be putting Frazier and Winker and Toro in the game when they haven't performed by this point in the season.

Their personnel decisions over the last 3 yrs have been about 80 percent positive. For every Abe Toro acquisition, there's been the Andres Munoz/Ty France trade or Luis Castillo trade/contract or George Kirby draft pick. I mean what's their to gripe about? Jesse Winker not performing? Rushing Kelenic. Yeah, fine. Fair. But again, 4 out of 5? I'll take that

I don't really have a problem with acquiring a guy like Toro it is giving him almost 350 PAs when he has had a sub 200 BA and Sub 600 OPS pretty much the entire season.

[Coeurd’Alene J]

It’s what they didn’t do that rubs me….We should have fixed our lineup last winter…. Instead JK’s one month allows them to save $30M. It would be nice right now to have that solved right about now……

[bpj]

Good points, it does seem weird to me that Jerry Dipoto was handed the keys to the castle before ever winning anything.

Now they've made the playoffs once, in expanded format, and people are going to act like they actually are the Supreme Commanders of the Universe.

You already see the Servais for manager of the year posts. Yeah, congratulations on getting the bare minimum out of your players to get in while most of your players have underperformed.

We're making the playoffs more because so many other teams were unexpectedly bad (like Boston, Minnesota, and the White Sox) and didn't make it than because we were good.

Yet these guys somehow rule the roost for the foreseeable future now.

It's nice to see them make the playoffs- they should have made it last season also- but they need to start making better personnel decisions.

For example you can't still be putting Frazier and Winker and Toro in the game when they haven't performed by this point in the season.

Their personnel decisions over the last 3 yrs have been about 80 percent positive. For every Abe Toro acquisition, there's been the Andres Munoz/Ty France trade or Luis Castillo trade/contract or George Kirby draft pick. I mean what's their to gripe about? Jesse Winker not performing? Rushing Kelenic. Yeah, fine. Fair. But again, 4 out of 5? I'll take that

-Evan Whites contract, failure.
-JP Crawfords contract, failure.
-Signing Ken Giles, failure.
-Signing Sergio Romo, failure, but also nearly irrelevant if not for the playing time he was given.
-Not recognizing last season that they could have done exactly what they did this year, and barely make the playoffs, failure.
-Not adding adequate top-down depth this season, failure.
-Then, because he didn't prepare, guys like Justin Upton, Jake Lamb, Jake Bauers, Carlos Santana, etc. get strapped on like bandaids and become failures of their own simply because they got in the game. Sorry Santana, a .700 OPS doesn't cut it at DH, failure.
-Handing extended playing time to Kelenic, Toro, Torrens, Frazier, Winker, etc. when they have done nothing to earn more, failure.
-Mitch Haniger walking at the end of the season and getting nothing in return, failure.
-Sold Vogelbach for cash, probably could use his 126 wRC+ about now.
-Giving Braden Bishop playing time, lol
-Giving Mallex Smith playing time, lol.
-Giving Shed Long Jr. playing time.
-Jake Fraley.

80%... I think not.

Maybe because of the sheer number and most moves being nearly irrelevant.

The ones that matter have been closer to 80% busts.

Even Ray and Castillo could be busts. Castillo could easily be bad-Felix by the end of his extension- which they didnt have to give him- and Noelvi Marte could become something himself. Dipoto's job is to determine who's going to help the team. He hasn't figured that part out fully yet.

[D-train]

Signing Kikuchi to a multi year deal 3 minutes into the rebuild might have been the absolute worst....

[bpj]

Signing Kikuchi to a multi year deal 3 minutes into the rebuild might have been the absolute worst....

And, that!

Not to mention, as I saw Jay pointed out, it's just as much about his inaction in not adding quality players that were readily available while he was trying to get value from many of the bums listed above, costing us the playoffs last season, and a higher seed (earning a Home series) this season.

Robbie Ray and Castillo will both be a year older than Stephen Strasburg is right now by the end of their contracts.

Strasburg went 209 innings at age 31 and has pitched 29 innings across 3 seasons since.

Rays career ERA is 3.94
Marco's is 4.08

Just saying, I don't think Dipoto has it all figured out.

Some of his moves have been exciting. That doesn't mean they have- or will- paid off.

[bpj]

To put Dipotos 7 years as GM in perspective, aside from the Mariners 20 years, the longest current playoff droughts in MLB are:

Phillies- 10 seasons (looks like they're in this year)
Angels- 7 seasons (Dipoto left them in rough shape)
Tigers- 7 seasons
Pirates- 6 seasons
Royals- 6 seasons

So since Dipoto took over the Mariners in 2016, there will be only 2 other teams haven't made the playoffs and he's still making entire lists of bad moves each season as I spelled out in the posts above.

What is there to gripe about? Quite a bit...

[bpj]

Mariners fans have quite a different perspective than most fans.

Consider, after this season, there will be 0 teams that haven't made it to the playoffs in the last 10 years.

Only 7 teams that haven't made the playoffs in the last 5 seasons.

Only 9 teams will have gone more than 2 seasons without making the playoffs.

Mariners fans are like the fat, ugly girl who finally gets some attention.

OH MY GOD, WE MADE THE PLAYOFFS, BUILD JERRY A STATUE.

The MLB playoffs aren't something that rolls around once every twenty years, we just have a fanbase that has grown accustomed to being big, fat losers.

[Donn Beach]

Build him a statue?...I'm pretty satisfied with the direction of the team. Deal is I don't see it as being about just making the playoffs. Think it was in the beginning, he tried to drag the roster he inherited to the playoffs. But to me it's became more just building a team that has now made the playoffs. There is room for growth there wasn't in that original effort