Scott Servais' Tenure
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Just another week or two before we get some material to hash over. Dr. D thinks he can say without fear of contradiction that it has been a tepid offseason, this 2017-18 winter, and he thinks he can follow that up by saying it's even more so in Marinerland. It's been a long, cold, boring winter in Seattle. Once the game start, we can start ping-pong'ing our impressions as to whether:
1) "Wolf Pack" pitching is going to leave the Mariners ahead of the (100-year) curve on more relief pitching rather than less
2) Whether Mitch Haniger is going to become a .530-SLG'ing beast in right field
3) Whether Scott Servais is going to make a 7-WAR impact by yanking BOR starters three games earlier or later, whether he deploys his RP's to advantage, and so forth
4) Whether Dee Gordon's speed is going to translate into mediocrity in CF, into apparent whizbangery in the popcorn-popper air current, or what
5) etc
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In the meantime, we make do with gnawing chicken wings. In this weekend's crop of Hey Bills we get this controversial assertion:
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First of all: this is a fairly straightforward rejection of something I would have taken to be self-evident.
Second of all: if it is true, it's probably due to personality conflicts between the GM and manager.
Third of all: I've never noticed that the 1977-2017 Seattle Mariners have failed to give their managers fair opportunities. Way TOO fair in almost all cases.
Fourth of all: it is Dipoto himself who is on the hot seat in my book. This is the year that Haniger and Segura and Vincent and Ramirez and, in fact, the entire philosophy, has a swing of outcomes from "look what a genius this guy turned out to be" to something far, far less.
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James' last sentence, it really holds up here, though. I thought Scott Servais would have been under a lot of pressure after his 78-84 season, but instead Dipoto gave him a 100-megawatt sunny smile and rearranged the coaching personnel AROUND him - not even changing much of the weaponry on the field.
Yet one more manifestation of Jerry Dipoto's remarkable confidence. He's a very nice man, but right now his self-image is running way ahead of his results.
BABVA,
Dr D