Mariners Sign Third Base Coach

On Tuesday November 10 the Seattle Mariners officially signed third base coach Manny Acta.

I don’t have much familiarity with Acta though I do know that he managed the Washington Nationals and the Cleveland Indians along with being a third base coach before that. Also, I know that general manager Dipoto has worked with him along with Scott Servais. In fact Servais and Acta played and coached together before so very familiar with each other.

I read that President and general manager Daniels of the Texas Rangers said that the Mariners are already an improved team because of discipline that Dipoto and Servais bring over to the Mariners and I am sure that Acta fits right in with their thinking and doing things as well. The major improvement the Mariners need to make over last season is running the bases. The team was very bad at it including several blunders by veteran infielder Robinson Cano who even walked off the bases a couple times without knowing how many outs were at the time. We would expect that out of rookies; however, several veterans besides Cano did the same thing. I am sure the time Servais spends speaking with Cano and Nelson Cruz during his trip to the Dominican Republic will be talking to set an example to the younger players by not making so many mental errors. I am sure Cano had some errors because of his injuries last year but it does not excuse those mental errors. I am sure we will see a better Cano the first half of the season next year like he had the second half of this last season. Also, the Mariners need to see a better first half out of Kyle Seager as well along with Mark Trumbo.

I believe the discipline that we hope to find during spring training will allow the Mariners to start off well in April. Over the last several years the Mariners have started out poorly to say the least in April. This will need to work for the pitchers as well. They need to come out of spring training as good fighting machine. If the Mariners can have a .500 record or a little over in April it certainly will be an improvement what they have had these last few years.

Along with better decisions running the bases we hope to have more aggressive running as well like more first to third, and getting home from third too. I see a major discipline is for the batters to improve on hitting with runners in scoring position and getting runs home from third with at least a sacrifice fly. Another improvement the Mariners need to do so this can be accomplished is to have fewer strike outs by the batters especially those in the bottom of the batting order.

I am sorry Chris Woodward who did a fine job as first base and infielder coach did not decide to return to the Mariners. I hope the Mariners will find some place to use him in the organization. He did a great job with the young infielders and Kyle Seager. We can only hope that the Mariners can find a veteran coach who has worked with infielders. One possibility would be to promote Tacoma Rainier Manager Pat Listach who is a former major league coach and infielder. Also the Mariners will be looking to add a bullpen coach to the mix as well. It would be nice to find someone who is familiar to the Mariners or at the very least has worked with Servais as well.

This week is the General Manager meetings and we hope that Jerry Dipoto can pull of another trade or transaction. I am sure he is looking to add an athletic outfielder to the mix to either play one of the corner positions or center field. The Mariners could use one that has some power along with being athletic; however, there is not many of them out there without costing an arm and a leg. Most likely the Mariners will get an outfielder who can hit with speed.

It will be interesting to see what follows in the next several weeks when it comes to improve the roster. I would not be surprised that the Mariners will have a large turnover especially in the bullpen. I hope the Mariners will have one of the corner outfield positions being shared by Seth Smith and Franklin Gutierrez. Of course, they have to resign Gutierrez since he is a free agent. So Dipoto give us a surprise or to this roster. Go Mariners!