Chat: 6/23/15 6:28am
Chat: 6/23/15 6:28am
Shouts
<p>On the bright side, we know that Rodney will not be blow a lead today</p>
<p>Last couple weeks they have Been able to keep leads.. that is for sure.</p>
<div class="indented">Reply - mickiholley - 9/1/15 2:21pm<br>a little bit of sunshine peeking through the rain clouds.</div>
<p>Bullpen has been pretty great as soon as they replaced FRE with Smith... Oh well, hopefully Rodney is done blowing saves.</p>
<div class="indented">Reply - mickiholley - 9/1/15 2:24pm<br>took a bit to get out of the rut, but things are looking up...</div>
<p>Well the pen needs help. If Rodney is back smith coukd assist there</p>
<p>Sigh....Carson Smith has been fantastic.</p>
<p>It sucks that Rodney gets to just slide back into the closer role... Smith has TOTALLY earned it and thrived with it! I really hope they are just doing this to showcase that Rodney is back and pitching well so they can trade him... Surely a contender out there needs a closer or setup guy like FRE right?? I am glad that Taijuan is showing what an Ace he will be though! And Brad Miller, Cruz adn Cano all getting hot would be GREAT!</p>
<div class="indented">Reply - mickiholley - 9/1/15 2:25pm<br>smith has the right stuff to be the closer...just another bone-headed move.</div><div class="indented">Reply - Browns8625 - 9/14/15 2:17pm<br>Atleast we see where that got him.. bad decision by Lloyd.. BYE Rodney! GL</div>
<p>Since I will not be watching the game this afternoon but enjoying some delayed Father's Day time with our kids, I predict the Mariners will explode for 23 runs and 29 hits today, belting 6, count 'em, SIX home runs. Of course, that may not provide enough of a lead for Rodney to protect.</p>
<div class="indented">Reply - mickiholley - 9/1/15 2:29pm<br>wishful thinking and great daydreaming!</div>
<p>Yes.. and we all know he has that ability. Historically with closer spot it's a mental thing. I think he will get it back</p>
<div class="indented">Reply - Browns8625 - 9/14/15 2:18pm<br>Welp.. I was way off</div>
<p>Lloyd doesn't think they can win pennant without a successful Rodney as closer. He may be right. Rodney needs to be solid then. Rock solid.</p>
<div class="indented">Reply - mickiholley - 9/1/15 2:31pm<br>he needs to get back into a solid mental state where he knows that he can close it out...that is the only way he will be successful.</div>
<p>My newest prediction is in... Trumbo goes yard vs old team. Mariners 6 LA 4</p>
<p>I honestly feel this team has enough to make a run. Just hafta stop beating themselves</p>
<div class="indented">Reply - mickiholley - 9/1/15 2:33pm<br>they need to feel like a cohesive unit instead of trying to be a one or two man show...</div>
<p>As for Rodney Lloyd says hrs staying w him. He has #History of holding onto closers too long</p>
<p>Ya ..and big ups for pen tonight as they have struggled</p>
<div class="indented">Reply - mickiholley - 9/1/15 6:17pm<br>even bullpens go through slumps and it just frustrates the team and the fans!</div>
<p>Gotta credit Mac tonight for his use of the bullpen.</p>
<div class="indented">Reply - mickiholley - 9/1/15 2:34pm<br>a strong bullpen will carry you far...</div>
<p>Is Rodney returning to closer role tonight? Gulp. - Rick</p>
<div class="indented">Reply - Browns8625 - 9/14/15 2:20pm<br>Boy looking back on the Rodney situation makes me sick.. wth. Glad we moved on</div>
<p>We kinda need Cano to carry this team for a while. He's been OPSing around 1.00 over the last week or so. - Rick</p>
<p>Nice to see Cano jack one.</p>
<div class="indented">Reply - mickiholley - 9/1/15 2:38pm<br>Cano has the talent and the power to be a strong team leader. Now he just has to utilize it.</div>
<p>Mariners 7th. How do you strategize your inning to get a runner on third with less than two out, presumably to be able to score a run with an out if necessary. Then with the bases loaded, #Austin #Jackson takes two pitches for strikes, one an inch off the outside corner and the other in the heart of the plate. Not even a swing, and he's down 0-2. I don't get it. If he's going to do that, why not have Zunino swing away instead of bunt. This team simply does NOT play sound fundamental baseball. It's a joke.</p>
<div class="indented">Reply - mickiholley - 9/1/15 2:39pm<br>indeed a joke, although no one is laughing!</div>
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<p>For a good cause. Big Ms fan and epic sportscaster icon if you ask me. Plus twitter/ social media.. a klat dream</p>
<p>Walker bouncing back nicely from rough start to year. Shoemaker been regressing. Hope we ain't the ones to get him back on track</p>
<p>Just want to point out the match up shoemaker vs walker tonight :)</p>
<div class="indented">Reply - mickiholley - 9/1/15 6:18pm<br>bet it was interesting!</div>
<p>Well sched about to get a little easier... kinda.,? WORSE records..BUT Long Time Away FROM home</p>
<div class="indented">Reply - mickiholley - 9/1/15 2:48pm<br>long road trips seem to really bring some players down. It is interesting to see how they handle these long spans away from home.</div>
<p>moe, nobody's asking for Zunino to be great offensively. The numbers I put up as what I considered a miminum for Zunino to not give away too much at the plate of what he gives with the glove and his work with the pitching staff, those numbers were .200+/.300/.400+. That's not great. That's bare minimum, and the only reason I put .400 slugging was because if Zunino hits .200 he WILL slug .400 or better. This is not a binary argument. The bottom line is that all...season...long...Zunino has been a constant escape hatch for opposing pitchers. The M's mount a rally, it seemingly always ends up with Zunino at the plate and two outs. 50% of the time the result is a strikeout, and 90% or thereabouts the result is an out of some kind. End of rally, and as it usually turns out end of Mariners chances to win that game. The accuracy of the exact percentages do not matter. What matters is the consistency of the phenomenon. We don't need Zunino to be great, but we can't tolerate the deep, dense black hole he has become. Recently, it seems, he has ameliorated that a TAD but only with the approach of a singles hitter, which negates his one strength as a hitter. We just need Mike to progress to the minimum levels I mention.</p>
#DaddyO #seattlesportsinsider.com
<p>Zunino can field, yes. But he's a little worse than "not a great bat"...he's an abjectly TERRIBLE one.</p>
#SABR_Matt #seattlesportsinsider.com
<p>Guys, Zunino is a + receiver. THAT isn't broken! If you look at all the tiemsa in the AL with Winning records and exclude McCann (NYY---lousy defense) and Martin (#Toronto) the average OPS is 78. Exclude the Guy in TBR and the average zoooms up to 86. Zunino isn't a great bat....but there aren't great bat great glove great receiving catchers laying around.</p>
#moethedog #seattlesportsinsider.com
<p>All that being said... It may still be that Mike is in a nadir of that curve and soon he will be on an asymptotic rise to super stardom. My hope is that finding a calmer ki, taking a few more pitches, using a singles swing a little more as opposed to the 450 ft swing (especially with 2 strikes) will be the key for him, and so far in June we are seeing his first consistent attempts at that. My main point was to fight this rhetoric that a player can be "ruined" by being promoted to quickly... It is something we love to beat the drum about as fans, but I have never actually seen evidence to support it. It is just a convenient scapegoat for when one of our favorite players is not developing the way we hoped.</p>
#OBF #seattlesportsinsider.com
<p>I DO think that the inherent talent to hit in the major leagues is somewhat binary. Certainly it can be coached up, massaged, etc. Hot zones can be incrementally grown, cold zones shrunk, but I will never learn or train myself to hit a 95 mph inside fastball... It's just not in my DNA... I think eye can be learned a little more than pure hitting, but even then, when was the last time you saw a player fundamentally change his patience? Growth, development, coaching, learning they are all real, but the basic talent bases is what it is, and that learning and growth can happen in the majors just as easily as in the minors... all I was suggesting is that unless Zunino is very mentally weak, him being "rushed" did ruin him, it just moved his growth curve into his major league seasons, and it also doesn't limit or even slow that curve.</p>
#seattlesportsinsider.com<div class="indented">Reply - mickiholley - 9/1/15 2:50pm<br>rushing a player that is not quite ready can damage them for sure. It takes patience and great coaching ability to bring them to the level that they will perform the best. Mentally weak players will crumble before it is all said and done.</div>