Should Dipoto and Hollander be fired?

[DavidGee24]

Absolutely, and I think their fate was sealed when they took their limited funds and blew most of it on Solano. Just in concept that was an idiotic signing, a 37 year old who doesn't play defense and in playing half his games at T-Mobile MIGHT hit .250 or so with not much power, and as it turns out he'd already reached that same one-year-too-late point that other players we've acquired have reached. What's especially damning is that we all knew how stupid it was and they did it anyway.

Add to that trading Robbie Ray for Mitch Haniger's corpse, and signing Mitch Garver despite the fact he was 0-32 lifetime at T-Mobile. The common thread here is that these were acquisitions that we all knew were stupid. Seriously, WE knew this but somehow they didn't?

This past offseason was probably the worst one in Mariner history given the golden opportunity they had to make themselves the favorites in the AL. Even some of the later picks in the 1976 expansion draft were better than what we got.

[Walla Walla Dawg II]

I don't get into the minutia of baseball as most of you do, but to the average fan, I can tell you what I see.

1. Julio IS NOT a clutch player at the plate. He is great in the field, but then again, any outfielder in the triple-A system is.
2. We need to DFA may players, including: Solano, Garver, Raley, Bliss and Tellez.
3. Piss on the fire and call the dogs on the season and bring up your best prospects to get them experience.
4. Sign a bat that will make a difference!!!!!! I don't care if it's this year or over the off-season, but it would be better this season so they can have some growth with the prospects that I would love to see brought up.

I know it may be hard to watch some of the prospects at first, but I have seen some real growth in Williamson and Young over the last month. I'd love to see similar growth in our prospects this year as well.

[Michael K.]

Not sure it matters, unless ownership decides they care about having a contender. I think they have had a good developmental program, but they don’t have a good culture on the big league because they haven’t been able to bring any good veterans to teach a winning culture.

I used to think that way, but then I look at the amount of money spent on absolute garbage baseball players and I wonder if the guy spending the money knew what he was doing if maybe this team would be better? He has a budget, and instead of using it wisely, he does all kinds of dumb ass shit, then tries to cry poor. Not only that, he is fucking tone def. Take your 54%, add it to your resume and see if you can find a job somewhere else. The guys sucks at his job and he's an asshole. Bad combo.

[Michael K.]

I absolutely HATE the hire of Dan Wilson. Practically nepotism. Give me a fucking break.

Jerry came out recently and said he has the "freedom" and "resources" from ownership to fix a few needs on the club at the trade deadline.

I'm not holding my breath based on his track record.

Agreed - its becoming painful to watch Dan coach the team... he was hired for all the 50–80-year-old fans who still reminisce about the 95 team.

Agreed, but this was a Jerry save his ass move. By not only making him the interim manager, but hiring him for the future as well, he ensured that he wouldn't be fired. A new GM is going to want his own manager, and if Dan already had a job? It makes things harder. Jerry knew what he was doing by giving him the job. Hire him as the interim, then do an actual job search in the off season, and if Dan is the best for the job? Then give it to him. That didn't secure Jerry's job, so he didn't do it.

[Michael K.]

Seriously?? Heck, you could have the greatest manager in the history of baseball be the manager, and they would be in the same boat because the roster construction is/was so bad.

And who constructed the roster? The same guy that hired Dan.

[Seattle or Bust]

Who is coaching a team to a 1 game over .500 record while being forced to play this?

-0.5 bWAR Rowdy Tellez 97 OPS+
-0.6 bWAR Leody Taveras in just 28 games
-0.4 bWAR Donovan Solano 45 OPS+
-0.1 bWAR Mitch Garver 75 OPS+

Miles Mastroboner has seen 134 plate appearances to the tune of a 79 OPS+...

And not to mention 3x top-flight starters being down for a good portion of the season.

To Dan's credit, I think it's a miracle this team is over .500 with the shit show of roster construction forged by Jerry.

[Sibelius Hindemith]

But if Cal wasn't hitting like 1970 Johnny Bench the Ms would be several games under .500. Wilson makes some kind of questionable decision (if not all-out blunder) almost every game with regard to substitutions and bullpen use. He needed to cut his teeth more as a minor league manager but Jerry and John valued name recognition and tractability over experience and toughness.

[Juliooooo]

Not sure it matters, unless ownership decides they care about having a contender. I think they have had a good developmental program, but they don’t have a good culture on the big league because they haven’t been able to bring any good veterans to teach a winning culture.

I used to think that way, but then I look at the amount of money spent on absolute garbage baseball players and I wonder if the guy spending the money knew what he was doing if maybe this team would be better? He has a budget, and instead of using it wisely, he does all kinds of dumb ass shit, then tries to cry poor. Not only that, he is fucking tone def. Take your 54%, add it to your resume and see if you can find a job somewhere else. The guys sucks at his job and he's an asshole. Bad combo.

If he had another 60 million to spend, would he get 10 guys like Polonco at 6 million, or would he actually use it to get 2-3 legit players. I think he’s trying to money ball it because of limited funds, and that whoever is in there would be in a similar place. Unless they are willing to have a top 10 payroll, they simply won’t be competitive, unless they get lucky and a bunch of the prospects hit at the right time.

[Michael K.]

I think he’s trying to money ball it because of limited funds, and that whoever is in there would be in a similar place. Unless they are willing to have a top 10 payroll, they simply won’t be competitive, unless they get lucky and a bunch of the prospects hit at the right time.

Money Ball worked, or no one would ever talk about it. But you have to be smart with how you spend, Jerry is an idiot. You are telling me that you look at the guys we added to this lineup and thought to yourself....yep, that will probably work out! They eliminated power bats, and tried to explain it away as they struck out too much. But the problem is, the bats they added couldn't hit. Who cares if you don't strike out as much if you also don't hit?

David explains it pretty well. And this isn't even over the entire rebuild. There have been others.

.......they took their limited funds and blew most of it on Solano. Just in concept that was an idiotic signing, a 37 year old who doesn't play defense and in playing half his games at T-Mobile MIGHT hit .250 or so with not much power, and as it turns out he'd already reached that same one-year-too-late point that other players we've acquired have reached. What's especially damning is that we all knew how stupid it was and they did it anyway.

Add to that trading Robbie Ray for Mitch Haniger's corpse, and signing Mitch Garver despite the fact he was 0-32 lifetime at T-Mobile. The common thread here is that these were acquisitions that we all knew were stupid. Seriously, WE knew this but somehow they didn't?

This past offseason was probably the worst one in Mariner history given the golden opportunity they had to make themselves the favorites in the AL. Even some of the later picks in the 1976 expansion draft were better than what we got.

[Seattle or Bust]

But if Cal wasn't hitting like 1970 Johnny Bench the Ms would be several games under .500. Wilson makes some kind of questionable decision (if not all-out blunder) almost every game with regard to substitutions and bullpen use. He needed to cut his teeth more as a minor league manager but Jerry and John valued name recognition and tractability over experience and toughness.

Who says Wilson hasn't aided Cal in hitting like 1970's Johnny Bench?

You can't just always detract from the guy by solely pointing out his shortcomings.

Bottom line is that even with Cal hitting that well, this team has no business being over .500 with Emerson Hancock and Logan Evans combining for like 15 starts, some of the worst bullpen depth in baseball, and 5-6 worthless players getting regular playing time.

To some degree you have to credit Dan for this thing not totally falling apart.