How serious can we take the Mariners’ exciting start to the season?
Apr 3, 2019, 3:14 PM | Updated: 4:18 pm
(AP)
Mariners fans have been faced with an interesting conundrum just eight games into the 2019 season: What do you do when a team supposed to be taking a step back opens the year with a 7-1 record, the best start in franchise history?
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Bob, Groz and Tom of 710 ESPN Seattle took that question head on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s how the conversation turned out.
Don’t call it a tear-down
At various times during the offseason, experts called the Mariners’ flurry of transactions a tear-down. But as Tom Wassell pointed out, the Mariners’ lineup doesn’t look like those of other teams that have torn down in the past.
“The thing with this team as opposed to the Marlins, which is a true tear-down, and the Astros a number of years ago, these are good players in the lineup,” Wassell said about a Seattle squad that entering Wednesday was tied for third in the MLB with an average of seven runs scored per game. “They’re not washed up. Jay Bruce and Edwin Encarnación, maybe they’re on the back nine (of their careers), but they’re not bad players. Tim Beckham may have just found himself. Mallex Smith and Dee Gordon, these guys are good players. So I’m not sure that I’m counting them out of a playoff run.”
Dave Grosby, despite being the honorary conductor of the Dare to Dream Express, feels different.
“Well I’m counting them out of a playoff run because I don’t think they have the pitching,” he said.
Bob Stelton, meanwhile, doesn’t expect the offense to keep up the same pace.
“The lineup was the least of our concerns coming in. But as far as the lineup goes, I don’t think what they’ve been doing prior to this last game is sustainable,” Stelton said, referencing Tuesday night’s 2-1 Mariners win over the Angels, Seattle’s first game all season where it scored less than five runs. “They’re not going to score 10 runs, eight runs every night. That’s what they’ve been doing – they’ve been knocking the daylights out of the ball, which has been fun, it’s been awesome. But to expect that that’s who they are moving forward? No.”
At least for now, though, the Mariners have Wassell thinking differently about them than he did before the season.
“I’m re-assessing whether or not this is a tear-down. We should have called it a reload if we thought that these players who came in were going to be good. It turns out, it looks like they’re going to be – some of them, anyway. They just lost their closer and we’re still talking about this. It’s crazy.”
It’s very early
As exciting as the Mariners’ start has been, Stelton and Grosby made sure to point just how small a sample size eight games is.
“The declarative statements that are being thrown out after eight games – this isn’t a football season,” Stelton said. “You need two more games for it to amount to one football game.”
Added Grosby: “Even if they lose the next two games, they’ll be 1-0 in the football context.”
Enjoy the Mariners while this run lasts
Something all three hosts could agree on is to ride the wave of momentum the Mariners are on, whether or not they expect it all to come crashing down at some point.
“It’s fun while it’s going on,” Stelton said. “People can get excited. Go nuts. That’s awesome. I’m glad people are optimistic and you want to feel like hey, everybody was misguided, this team’s completely different after eight games. OK. Just being realistic. We saw it last year. That didn’t feel like an 89-win season. Why? Because of how it ended.”
Said Grosby: “Great performance, and the Mariners off to their best start in franchise history, continuing to illustrate they don’t know what step-back means.”
The conversation starts just before the 26-minute mark in the player embedded in this post. You can also download the podcast at this link.
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