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Quite a few new amigos who have pulled up a chair around the pipestove.  They've been throwing good-sized potatoes into the hobo stew.  Not that being interesting is a prereq for joining the conversation!, as the lead author has demonstrated many times.  Still:

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SODIUM RANCH SEZ

Is this wishful thinking?  As re. comps; do I see a little bit of Cliff Lee? 

Disclaimer being that I'm a fan of Smyly's for some reason, and am thrilled at the get.

Can someone with a keener eye for Pitcher Families bring me back down to earth or should i just go ahead and order the jersey?

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Visually I can see what you're getting at.  Smyly's motion does remind you of Lee's, somewhat.  And the demeanor on the mound.  

In the original Bill James Families, I think he had a family for spit-and-polish lefthanders.  Madison Bumgarner is probably the successor to Cliff Lee's throne.  The idea was, it seems like this guy could do EVERYTHING right, and on a good day "I don't see how this bum ever loses."  ... could be remembering it wrong.

Personally think that Smyly's game is more straightforward, almost in a Jarrod Washburn style; Cliff Lee and his ilk murdered souls with any of four or five different weapons.  But one thing they may have had in common was that Lee took off when he started using a cutter ...

Thanks for the interesting thought Sodium :- )

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FUNGINEER SEZ

No Tony Zych in the bullpen?  Interesting that they list Steve Cishek even though he underwent serious surgery to repair a torn hip labrum in October that will require 4-6 months of recovery and is very unlikely to be ready for spring traing.  However, there's no mention of Tony Zych who also had surgery around the same time but for a procedure (shoulder biceps tendon transfer) that should mean recovery by spring training as apparently it doesn't involve the rotator cuff or capsule in the shoulder.

Perhaps for Zych there's a quicker recovery time but fewer guarantees of success or return to previous performance levels, hence the omission?

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Our resident Physician Assistant (G-Money) can correct me if I'm wrong, but my IMPRESSION was that Zych's injury leaves him in no man's land.  In other words, 96 MPH?  We'll believe it when we see it...

Zych figured it out in Tacoma 2015, came up at the end of 2015, and was elite right from the jump.  He ever throws the ball like that again, he's a top setup guy, end of story. Big if, isn't it?  Or not...

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MOJICIAN SEZ

Make the Shout Box great again

Way to hit the ground running, Mojician.  Wherever you come from.

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SLURVE SEZ

[In response to G-Money panning our int'l free agent signs] Carlos Triunfel will pan out any moment now ;- )  Smyly was still worth 2 WAR in his worst pitched season to date. Dipoto sees upside we'll see if he can tap into that.

And PHOENIX GUY SEZ

Smyly's long been one of my guys. His gopheritis should be a little more controllable as a lefty in Safeco and I love the pushing forward of the Gohara chip into this current championship window. It might not work, but this at least makes sense.

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To which I guess we'd better post the Money-man's precedent idea:

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Dipoto is just hacking at the minor-league tree ... Vargas was signed for 1.7 million, and considering our 7-figure international babies almost never work out it's hard to get worked up about that right now. Yarbrough was IMO a lefty pen arm, while some people liked him as a starter.  He has a nice arm, but DiPoto isn't worried about replacing that sort of arm.

It's Gohara and filler for Smyly, unless Vargas turns into David Arias.  Even if he does, it'll be well after DiPoto is gone if none of this works, so what does he care?

I'd rather have more years on that Smyly deal, but Seattle only has a couple of prime years of their MOTO left, if that, and Felix's arm isn't getting any fewer miles on it. I don't mind a win-now mentality.  To start last year Smyly was hammering the zone and getting lots of Ks - and giving up lots of hits, especially power shots.  In the second half the hits and power shots went down, along with the Ks falling a little, as he got easier outs.  We'll see if that continues, and how much protection Safeco gives those fly balls - although it wasn't the home park that was the problem last year.

Looks like that should close most of Seattle's major shopping. How y'all feeling about the rotation and the lineup?

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You regret buying a car not because of what you paid for it, but because it developed a rattle at 8,000 miles and a leaky window at 21,000.  Make sure you're happy with what you buy and you won't mind paying a bit extra.

What I THOUGHT I had heard was that the Mariners didn't have the trade goods to get Smyly.  At least without giving up Lewis and/or O'Neill.  So Dipoto does give up his #3 minor leaguer but he brings back the SP he wanted AND NEEDED.  Put yer best team out there Opening Day; sufficient unto the morrow is the evil thereof.

By the way, Smyly is due to make what, about $7M next year?  In terms of the ownership loosening the belt buckle, the 2-year salary commitment is eerily reminiscent of last year's late Iwakuma pounce.

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JEDI SEZ

“I’ve probably spent more time throughout the course of our offseason trying to acquire Drew Smyly than any other thing that we’ve done,” Dipoto said.

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And if he's gotta use Other People's Players he's okay with that too.  Hey, is it nerdy to just say Way To Get 'R Done.  Nice GM'ing, dude. 

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BABVA,

Dr D