Naylor = Winker

[HawkandMariner88]

Too much reliance on fastball. Woo is so FB heavy. Lean into your secondary stuff. What makes guys like Hunter Brown & others different from our guys. Is coaching, ballpark, mental, all of the above?

[Captain 97]

Whats wired to me is that Gilbert, Woo and Kirby have all been all-stars recently in an M's Uniform and Miller has had success as well. They are all still young and should be improving as they move into their physical prime. How is it possible that all 4 of them could regress simultaneously. Is it a scouting thing and teams have figured out how to attack the M's approach?

[Michael K.]

How is it possible that all 4 of them could regress simultaneously. Is it a scouting thing and teams have figured out how to attack the M's approach?

I'm not sure you couldn't say this about everyone but Randy, and maybe Cole Young. It has to be an issue in the Clubhouse, right?

[GL_Storm]

Whats wired to me is that Gilbert, Woo and Kirby have all been all-stars recently in an M's Uniform and Miller has had success as well. They are all still young and should be improving as they move into their physical prime. How is it possible that all 4 of them could regress simultaneously. Is it a scouting thing and teams have figured out how to attack the M's approach?

I think about this a lot. Part of the answer, I think, is that year to year variance in performance is a thing for all pitchers on every team, and I see that in particular with Gilbert and Kirby. Both have been largely healthy in their careers, but did have some issues in 2025 that slowed them down. Both pitchers this year have worked to reinvent themselves to some extent, and Gilbert's had more success with that than Kirby has. Kirby's big change this year was moving to a lower arm slot, but the results have been mixed. We all know he isn't a big stuff guy, and that continues to hold him back. It baffles me though that he can be as good as he is, playing at the highest level of the sport, and he still can't develop a plus pitch.

With Miller, I think it's probably a health issue. In 2024 he had three plus pitches but in 2025 and 2026 he's had none. We know there's an elbow issue. They've been trying to manage it but he probably should have had the work done last offseason.

With Woo, I think it's simply a case of under-developed secondaries. His changeup has been pretty good this year, and that's a big piece of the puzzle vs. lefties, but he needs another pitch vs. all hitters. That's probably a slider or sweeper but we'll see.

[Southpaw773]

Yall. Everyone sucks this year. Even rookies who come up mashing fall on their face. It’s a culture and motivation problem in the clubhouse. That’s 75% of the problem. The rest is the stupid stadium and dumb management.

[HawkandMariner88]

Yall. Everyone sucks this year. Even rookies who come up mashing fall on their face. It’s a culture and motivation problem in the clubhouse. That’s 75% of the problem. The rest is the stupid stadium and dumb management.

Who can fix that?

[bpj]

Personally I think the team saw their window was wide open and then Dipoto pumped the brakes.

Instead of adding players to put the team over the top, Dipoto kicked it into cruise control. Watched Geno and Polanco walk and replaced their bats with Brendan Donovan, Rob freakin Refsnyder, and Cole Young...

It was obvious from day one the pressure was on Raleigh, Naylor, and Julio.

They didn't handle it well. Because even they know they're not the stars this team needs.