Y’all are acting like they added prime Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez at the deadline while we sat on our hands and did nothing. It wouldn’t surprise me if Correa has better numbers than Suarez rest of season. Sanchez has an OPS above .800 against RHP. Regardless, we just got Pena back and are about to get several more key contributors back over the next month. They’ve been healthy.
I did not and am not criticizing your post. While Diaz is capable of being an elite hitter, and he currently isn't an elite hitter, he is a good bat for a catcher and sometimes is a good bat regardless of position. He had a terrible start (sub 500 ops) but has been progressively getting better and the last month has been one of the best hitters in baseball.
Yeah, I would bet on Correa. Cal Raleigh has also been coming down to earth for awhile now…big surprise there. He’s got a .181 average his past 30 games while striking out a ton. There’s obviously a decent chance Yordan doesn’t return but I would take our lineup over theirs if we do get him back.
How many of us are going to watch at 3:40 today and hoping that Spencer is the number 3 pitcher we need? DD
He’s got elite bat to ball skills… god-given talent/instinct/hand-eye coordination. He can crush the mistakes. The issue is if/when teams really decide to focus/game-plan on him…. You throw breaking stuff, out of the zone, and make him swing at it. He’ll never be somebody who walks a lot… but the concern is his ability to recognize when they’re intentionally trying to get you to swing at the crap stuff. That does somewhat limit him to being in the upper half of a lineup on a good team. But he’s extra dangerous elsewhere (and even more so with guys on base when the pitcher can’t afford to try and get him to chase as much). Guys can improve their approach with work/dedication. Peña’s amazing year this season is a 2 year + work in progress which started with his ability to better recognize sliders out of the hand. Not everybody can do what he did, but its absolutely elevated him into an upper echelon trajectory as a hitter.
Plenty will be either printing WS tickets if he has a good game…. Or go into full-on panic mode if he has a bad one… those are the only guarantees in life.
There were some here (or on X) thinking Suarez is a young, about to hit FA hitter in his prime…. He’s 34. I’ll take 3 years of Correa AND Sanchez, and that’s before looking at the intangibles regarding defense (CC) and leadership. There’s also these two’s marked improvement above who they were replacing.
@TheRealist137 declared the Mariners to be in the driver's seat to win the division in the prior series thread after their impressive 8-8 record in the past 16 games.
Suarez's season is a fairly large outlier - .754 OPS/106 OPS+ the previous five seasons; .897/142 prior to the trade. He had an incredible three-year run with the Reds during his age-25-27 seasons - and that run wasn't as good as this season. So, yeah - the idea he might regress is very much on the table (.540 OPS thus far in Seattle). And honestly? Josh Naylor was (slightly) overperforming, too. He's younger than Suarez, so he might be settling into his prime.
The Mariners literally salary dumped Suarez two off seasons ago. He’s an incredibly streak hitter that strikes out with the best of them. His numbers hitting in Arizona, one of the best places to hit, are significantly better than his road numbers. When you factor in his terrible defense, there’s a reason teams weren’t willing to overpay for him at the deadline.
Let's not overlook the Astros adding Jeremey Pena, in addition to Correa, Sanchez and Urias, on 8/1. Astros were 13-14 without him. If they get healthy Yordan back + Arrighetti or Javier healthy and pitching well.... it is fair to argue that no team is anywhere close to the Astros, in terms of additions post-deadline.
Still holding out hope the number 3 pitcher we already have in Walter makes his return given he’s throwing. If Arrighetti comes back strong and he returns, we’ve got 4 great options for a 7 game series.
Walter is a number 4-5 pitcher, IMHO, we need at least 3 good to great starting pitchers so we need one to two of Arrighetti, Garcia, Javier, McCullers, France to come back and be their old self. I like Walter, but he is just ok. With this offense we need elite.....or very good at least. Framber and Brown are the only 2 currently starting that are good enough. We need two more to pull away and 1, to have a real chance in the playoffs. DD
