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Last night, Mark Trumbo took over first base from Logan Morrison.  This created a bizarre situation in which we had a really dangerous offense, and that offense did in fact score 7 runs on the AL West leaders.  You didn't notice it, but the Seattle Blinkin' Mariners September 2015 just now fielded eight (8) solid hitters plus the catcher:

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Let your eyes swim down that OPS+ column as if it were a new 72-inch HD you got going just in time for the Raiders game tomorrow.  Like a platter of nachos, here are some tasty little jalapeno-bearing chips we devour in consequence:

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The offense is fixed already.  A GM comes in here to fix the offense ... he's in great shape to make a cosmetic change at 1B, and then bow to all four corners of the winds on the hitting.

The Mariners are, right now, what we dreamed they would be in March.  Three stars hitting 3-4-5, and then five more guys who are Seth Smith-solid.  We supposedly only WANTED a 100 offense, to go with 2014's earned run average of 3.14 or whatever it was.

No, I know :- ) you don't want to presume anything.  We get that.  We're just pointing out, the incoming GM is walking into a pretty sweet situation.  Everybody thinks he's walking into a condemned shack that has been used for a toilet by the transients.  In reality he's walking into something rather different.

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Edgar Is Good.  Stop resisting the implications.  Let's say that YOU took over a dismally failing Starbucks, the only one with spiders in the windowsills and no line at the drive-up.  And 60 days later it was the shining light of all Starbucks Washington, highest sales, fewest refunds, smilingest little chickadee baristas.  You think you'd want the customers grousing that it was because of something other than you?

Edgar took over an offense that was hauling in a whopping 3.4 runs per game.  Since then it has been the #2 offense in all of baseball, second to the Toronto Blue Jays.

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M's personal favorite: a Tommy Gun

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Sure, it's hard to prove that Edgar caused this turnaround, like it's hard to prove that TV violence causes desensitization and more violence in a circle.  But gimme a pitching coach change that creates similar results, worst to first, and I'll be okay wit' dat too.

All that logic aside, I personally think Edgar is a model of what a technical sports coach should be.  Simple fixes that actually work.  Drills that actually change muscle memory.  Radiates a sense that everything will be okay.  Doesn't grab for credit when the athlete gets going - what does Edgar need with self-justification?  And so on.  Like we said, the only problem with George Brett as hitting coach is that usually you cannot get him to do it.

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Pull the plug on LoMo.  This was his pivotal season, his age-27 season.  Dr. D wondered whether he'd been a "camouflaged" talent.  He's now proven that he was just a guy who showed you his best stuff when he was called up.  Those guys are NOT rare.  James estimates them at 20%, 30% of all players who land with an impact.

When LoMo plays 1B, there are two players whose OPS+ is below 100.  The catcher, and him.  He plays first base, you know.  If Dr. D is GM, one thing that is a given:  Logan Morrison isn't here in 2016.

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Don't take Klat for granted, you feebs.  (This is an important part of the GM picture for 2016.)  Maybe you remember that in 2008, Dr. D had retired from writing M's, had retired for about a year.  Seattle was a ghost town for anybody who wanted Think Tank baseball discussion, as opposed to sports bar baseball discussion.

Be aware that Grant, Josh, and co. are really good guys.  Like Silentpadna / Spec level nice guys.  Dunno about you, but I feel bad when I grab a clump of mud and chuck it into the eyes of --- > a guy like Silentpadna :- )

Anyway, during retirement from hobby blogging, Dr. D hooked up with Klat -- nobody seems to get what we're saying here, but the search engines do not want me to spell it out because then they would assume, absolutely wrongly, that this is not a real baseball community, and lower the search priority for the site.  Dr. D wrote for Klat on 20+ different subjects including dance and dentistry, and Grant said, "Hey, you know what?  That was a good Mariners post the other day.  You'd be better off just writing Mariners than trying to write about tango'ing."  ... come to think of it, you can bury him for THAT lapse in judgment if you care to ....

Klat's technical agenda?  Please click the links at the bottom of the page.  But it's a tribute to their courtesy towards our community that you had been presuming that they're all about baseball its ownself.  When they do something in the Shout Box that inconveniences M's fans, be aware that it's important technically.  No, it's remarkable that most people just assume this site is under Dr. D's administration.  That's how free a hand we've had.

Said all that to say this:  the site works great for me, admittedly on a desktop.  But if something frustrating were going on, I'd say something like "Hey amigos, could you take a look at X?  Thanks mucho!"  Or if you want a refund, dial 1-800-THERAPY.  But that's just me.  We're here 'cause Klat's here.  Hey, YOU offer something totally free for a few years and then see how much dinero you want to put into customer complaints booth :- )

I honestly think they're doin' a great job.  Would cheer me to see the SSI spirit of harmony extend to the admins who tile the floor for us.  As always, that's just a suggestion; I could be wrong...

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Mark Trumbo is now doing what Jack Z thought he'd do:  batting .300/.360/.535 A.E. (after Edgar, or since July 4th).  Included in this was, first, a blizzard of hard-hit balls up the middle and the other way, and, later on, some moon shots off the train in Houston.  

Before that, he'd been .139/.171/.190 with a 3:24 EYE in (exactly) his first month with the M's.  In other words, he was a huge embarrassment to himself and everybody else, and then Edgar gave him the low-away tee drill, and now he's .... the 2012 Mark Trumbo.

Mark Trumbo will now be a byword for everything that Jack Z overemphasized, in the minds of sabertistas.  "Trumbo'ing" will mean batting .240 with twenty home runs and few walks.  Dr. D the GM does not bring Trumbo back in 2016.  But for a team that was scoring 3.4 runs a game, the move was logical.  The early 2015 M's couldn't hit, and Mark Trumbo could.  No point is using the big red foam-rubber bat on Jack Z for this one.  Like most his failed moves (but not the Fister one) it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Enjoy,

Jeff