Hello Seattle Mariners fans!
We have been away, and ill, as two of our fearless podcast hosts have come down with the ‘Rona over the past week. We collectively remind everyone to get boosted if you can, mask up, stay healthy, because being sick is neither fun nor fiscally beneficial. In the interim, the Mariners finished off a good stretch of play by dropping a series to the Angels in pitiful fashion. There has been real anger and discontent amongst the fan base, and whispers for change (read: firings) have grown louder as the team has tumbled. Kate digs into her article about the Mariners leadership and the persistent faith we have in Scott Servais as a manager. We touch on Abe Toro, Jesse Winker and some of the other Mariners who have most underperformed so far, and perhaps what can be done about it. We try to understand just where we are, how we got here, and what a path forward looks like. Full disclosure, this is a deeply sober podcast, reflective of some tangible disappointment with the team. Yet even in the darkest hours, there remain reasons for true and honest optimism: Taylor Trammel’s hitting, Cal’s hitting, Julio’s everything, Logan’s command, George’s entourage. Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint and there are miles left to run. Are the Mariners still “in it”? Not reasonably, no, but they remain one of the youngest teams in the league with more baseball in front of them than behind. Last year Ryan Divish was on the podcast about this time and the parallels were made between the 1995 and 2021 Mariners squads. If that was the case, 2022 has some resemblance to the step back of 1996 before the team truly came into its own in 1997. Development is rarely linear, and in the midst of this current struggle, it is important to recognize how far we have come as a team, an organization and a fan base.
If Cal Raleigh can hit anything is possible.
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