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Matt sez, in response to the fact that SportSpyder captured some headlines referring to Dr. Martin,

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Want some chatter on Martin.  No...not Leonys. Lorena.

After years of complaining that the Mariners are HORRIBLE at keeping players both healthy and maximally productive for their ability, the Mariners are trying something new and bringing in a guru in combining sports psychology, sports performance analytics, and training science into a big-data-driven department to oversee player conditioning, mental skills training, and conditioning science.

She wrote a book...any of you want to read it and tell me how she thinks? :)

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The first half of David Laurila's fine interview sounded, to many of us, a little too much "I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you," especially in view of Seattle's 30-ish run differential over the last two years combined.  The second part of that interview was more specific:

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On pitching philosophy and park effects: “(Pitching coach) Mel Stottlemyre, Jr. has a great plan with his pitchers. More importantly, they have trust in him. This is the guy you want to go into battle with. He’s a trenches guy. Stot has been on major league mounds almost since he was born. He grew up in a great baseball family. His dad was not only a great major league pitcher, but then a fantastic major league pitching coach.

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Our pal Diderot especially has asked re Stot, "What have you done for me lately, or less recently, or in fact at any time."  LOL.  Noncomittally, we could reply, "any Mariner who did good over that time," such as Zeus or such as Erasmo's cutter or such as half our guys, but we suspect Diderot would point (with some resonance) to the possibility of these good things happening whoever was pitching coach.

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At Fangraphs, David Laurila did this entrance interview of Dipoto and how he would differ from Zduriencik.  Looking back with the advantage of 24 months' evidence into the hopper:

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Jerry Dipoto has a plan. Importantly, he also has the autonomy to implement it. Free from the shackles of Anaheim, he’s now able to do his own thing, with his own people, in Seattle. That’s good news for Mariners’ fans.

Dipoto shared his vision for the team during this week’s GM meetings in Boca Raton.

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DiPoto on the organization’s change of philosophy: “The philosophy I’m bringing over here is pretty different. I respect Jack Zduriencik – he’s had a wonderful baseball career and I’m sure he’ll continue to have one – but we’ll do things differently than he did. We see things through a different lens. I’m not going to tell you exactly how, because then it’s no longer an advantage, but it is significantly different. Regarding [the Angels], it would be fair to say that this is a different environment for me.”

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thescore.com has Jerry Dipoto on record, confessing as to the WORST trade he ever made:  Chris Taylor:

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"It's clearly the worst deal I've ever made," DiPoto told Matt Calkins of the Seattle Times. "And it resonates every time he hits a home run."

... "I whiffed. There’s no other way to categorize it," DiPoto added. "He’s young, he was under club control - that was one I wish I could undo."

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Wellllll .... when we say "How could I have gone so WRONG?" there are definitely your Darren Dreifort contracts out there.  But the irony here is that Dr. D was just about to write up a post EXONERATING Dipoto for most of this one, the Chris Taylor deal.

Before Dr. D goes off on his /rant he will first remark on this curious aspect of MLB GM'ing.  Since Broglio-for-Brock it's customary for every GM to wince upon the pain of every single Brock stolen base.  The worst pain George Steinbrenner could ever suffer, it seemed, was watching Jay Buhner bounce sliders off the ambulances out beyond the left-center wall.  That's whether or not the Mariners are losing 100 while the Yankee$ are winning 100 ....