Today Monday Oct. 26
the Seattle Mariners new manager Scott Servais held a news conference with
General Manager Jerry Dipoto. He made the rounds to different radio and TV
stations in Seattle to answer questions on what he planned to as the new
manager. His news conference was at 10:30 am and lasted over 30 minutes.
I found him to be very
pleasant, and he was full of a lot of confidence. This was echoed by hitting
coach and Mariner legend Edgar Martinez. Both he and Dipoto said that there
previous experience working helps thinking along the same path which I agree. I
mentioned before they could have the same similar arrangement that Seahawk head
coach Pete Carroll and General Manager John Schneider who work real well together;
like we know with the Seahawks that has not always worked between coach and
general manager. Of course, Lou Piniella did not always get along with
management so manager doesn’t always have to work together general manager;
however, it really helps in this case since Servais has never been a manager
before. He feels having no experience as a manager won’t hurt his chances of
doing a good job and he plans to rely on his coaches especially bench coach Tim
Bogar who originally was the front runner for manager before Servais made known
he was interested in the position. Also, named Mel Stottlemyer, Jr as pitching
coach; he previously worked for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He took the position
to be closer to his father Mel Stottlemyer, Sr who pitched for the New York
Yankees as well as their pitching coach along with being one with the Seattle
Mariners under Lou Piniella. Stottlemyer, Jr became interested in the position
to be closer to his father who is battling cancer and lives in Washington
State. The Mariners are still looking into hiring a third base coach, and
bullpen coach. There is a possibility that Dan Wilson could be named as a coach
as well as Raul Ibanez. In the case of Ibanez he could be hired for a front
office job as well.
What I
see now is that the success of the Mariners will be how all these guys work
together as a team, and they bring in the players that would fit into their
projections. We can see they plan to have more of an athletic outfield.
According to Servais they will try to have Nelson Cruz be designated hitter
more often than he was this last season. He is aware the Cruz hit better in the
field but knows to that his health is the most important thing to stay in the
lineup. If he is on the team Mark Trumbo likely will play first base along with
occasion time at designated hitter; he may play once in a while in the
outfield.
Servais said to that
he plans to work with catcher Mike Zunino who was the best player in the
country while at college. He knows Zunino is quite the defensive catcher but
must hit better to stay in the lineup. We can hope that he will be help Zunino
in the same manner he did with Nelson Cruz while working for the Texas Rangers.
In other baseball news
the World Series starts on Tuesday Oct. 27 between the Kansas City Royals and
the New York. Neither team is favored in the series so it is a tossup who will
win. What makes this a great series is that the Royals and Mets have not won a
World Series in many years though the Royals played in the series last year. I
would not be surprised outside of New York that many people will be rooting for
the Royals. Though the Mets are not the Yankees it is still New York. It will
be really great series if it can go seven games. No other baseball news will be
happening during the series because there is a media blackout outside of
reporting on the series itself.
We look forward to see
what happens with the Mariners as soon as the World Series ends. The off-season
maybe one of the most interesting on record; we can hope on at least one free
agent signing besides Iwakuma and several trades. Go Mariners!
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