FanPost Friday: Across the line, and into the unknown
The trade deadline has come and gone, and Seattle’s division destiny remains in their hands. But do they have what it takes to grasp it?
‘Ello there! Get comfortable, cozy up, and welcome to this week's edition of FanPost Friday! The Seattle Mariners are tied with Houston for the American League West division lead, and in the last week went 4-2 on a mixed laundry road trip that saw them sweep the White Sox and take one of three from the Red Sox.
In a trade deadline that saw a lot of movement, but no true superstars change teams and no Top 100 prospects being dealt (meaning Seattle still has all of theirs), Seattle was actually one of the more active teams at the deadline and added in a few different spots, if not the targets and amount most fans were hoping for. The lineup received reinforcements in the form of some mf’er named Randy Arozarena and Justin Turner, and the bullpen was shored up with Yimi García and the return of J.T. Chargois. We’ll get to some polls and taking of the temperature of the room in a moment, but first, last week’s results.
Overwhelmingly you all approved of the Randy Arozarena trade. It’s hard to say why the 3% who voted no did, perhaps still desiring more trades, perhaps they were big fans of departing prospects Smith and Hopkins, or maybe they just really don’t think Arozarena will cut it at T-Mobile, but whatever their reasons they were in a slim minority.
Overwhelmingly you voted a desire for more trades, with results much more scattered for what that might look like. The closest answer to being right on the additional trades after Randy would be the 19% of you that predicted an above replacement level bat and a pitcher. Justin Turner is currently posting an 0.3 fWAR and 0.4 bWAR on the year, putting him just slightly above replacement level. If that is a narrow margin then perhaps that is made up for by the fact they added not one, but two pitchers. Of course they also subtracted Ryne Stanek from the bullpen as well, so I will leave it up to you to decide just how much adding and subtracting of value really occurred there.
Also of note from the results were that of the many dreams fans had of Vladdy and Yandy, Robert and Rooker... none of them became Mariners, and in fact none of them ended up traded at all.
There is still a long way to go before we truly know just how the reality stacks up against this poll’s results, but for now we do have one gloriously small sample size of one week to overreact to. Randy has appeared in five games and 23 plate appearances as a Mariner, and is rocking a 179 wRC+ so far. He has a line of .316/.435/.526 and an OPS of .961, with a wOBA of .419. That is buoyed some by the “playing the White Sox” and “Fenway Park”, so a real test of his fit will come this week with series this homestand against the Phillies, Tigers, and Mets.
Now, for this week’s polls!
Don’t just let the poll results speak for you, sound off in the comments below! How are you feeling about the new guys? Who of the players that were traded do you feel the Mariners missed out on? How do you feel about the rest of the Mariners season, and are there any particular series you are looking forward to or plan to attend? Let us know!