USSM Fan Night

Last weekend on Saturday September 4th both Matt and I went to a Mariner’s fan night hosted by USS Mariner and Lookout Landing (for those of you that don’t know these are two great Mariners blogs). The event was awesome. It started with a Q&A with four authors from the blogs. After about 20 minutes of that, GM Jack Z showed up with Amateur Scouting director Tom McNamara and Special Assistant to the GM Tony Blengino. As GMZ fielded questions about the M’s we were treated to getting to watch the mariners batting practice. After all that everyone headed to a mixer where we got t-shirts and a chance to hang out and talk baseball with like minded fans.

There were several highlights through out the night. For me the best part had to be getting to have a small group question and answer session with Tony Blengino. To my surprise both Tony and Mac headed to the mixer along with the fans. Neither made it inside the gated area though as the Mariner’s faithful surrounded each of them to ask some burning questions. About ten of us huddled around Tony and fired off Mariners related questions which he was very happy to answer. It was really cool to get to hear someone with so much insider information talk about the Mariners, something he is obviously passionate about.

With all that said here is a list of some of the interesting things we heard and saw during our time at the event.
• When asked about this season GM Z described it like flipping heads on a coin 25 times in a row. Basically every single player on the team has underperformed this year (Felix excluded). He is still confident in the direction the team is headed.
• Tacoma Rainier’s Outfielder Greg Halman is a very unique player. The Mariner’s front office thinks he has all the tools to be successful but as a young player has not developed them enough yet. Halman’s two most striking skill sets are his power and ability to strikeout. The power is something the Mariners could use dearly. Halman hit 33 dingers in AAA this year. However, he is currently striking out 39.9% of his at-bats. This is a staggering high rate. When asked about it Tony B said with a laugh, “at least he isn’t making two outs.”
• During our time with Tony B, someone asked a question about the Yankees and other teams that tend to out spend everyone. Tony’s response was reassuring. He stressed to the crowd that the teams that win do it with home grown talent and only use free agents to supplement a few weak positions. He highlighted teams like the Phillies (Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Cole Hamels) and the Red Sox (Kevin Youkillis, Dustin Pedoria, Jacoby Ellsbury). The Mariner’s plans are to focus on developing a strong farm system that will allow them to succeed for years to come.
• When asked about the draft, Tom McNamara mentioned that he prefers hitter to pitchers, but will also take the best available player regardless of position.
• All three team exec’s gushed over Felix Hernandez. Basically the Mariners know how absolutely blessed they are to have a pitcher of his caliber on their team for so long. When describing Felix Tony B said, “he is the man” and “the guy has four plus pitches.” On top of that they are all impressed with Felix’s character. That is really good. Hopefully he spends his whole career here.
• When asked if the team had any bright spots this year other then Felix, Tony B talked about Josh Wilson and Michael Saunders. It sounds like with Josh Wilson the current regime envision a player something like Mark Mclemore or Willie Bloomquist, a super sub. The team is really high on Saunders, specifically his progress at the plate this year.
• Everything you read about Ichiro’s hidden power is true. During batting practice he launched 4 or 5 consecutive homers, none of them cheap shots.
• The conversation with Tony B didn’t stay on baseball the whole time. Some how he got talking about Brett Favre. Apparently baseball front office types are sickened by the whole drama surrounding number 4 as well. He told a funny story about his shock at the level of Brett Favre love in Wisconsin. Before he worked for the Brewer’s Tony lived in Philly. As many people know the fans there are famous for being terrible. Tony described them as, “eating their young.” When Tony first got to Milwaukee it was still at the height of Brett’s Packers career. Every weekend, during football season, all of the Wisconsin media would run 10-12 hours of Brett Favre worship. This was straight Brett Favre talk to, nothing focused on the Packers, just Favre. This came as a huge shock to someone used to Philadelphia media.
• Tony’s B thinks Mariner’s have a shot at making the playoffs soon, even as early as next year. He explained his rationale. Every team in the division has weak spots. Even this year’s current leaders, the Texas Rangers, don’t have a clearly strong team next year. The Mariners have a lot of high variability players. On top of that since the AL West is the only division with 4 teams they all have a better shot at making the playoffs every year. Those things added together mean if the coin flips go the other way next year the Mariners could have a chance. Of course this is a big if.
• Tom McNamara is really impressed with Nick Franklin. Currently a shortstop in AA, Franklin set a team record for homeruns this year. He is still really young and a few years away, but McNamara sees the tools for him to put it all together at the major league level.
• Tony B said something about Yuniesky Betancourt being one of the best 700 baseball players in the world. The list is still being calculated but we have gone through 664 players so far and he isn’t on there.