Improbable end to today's game. Down 4 to 1 to the Rangers with two out in the bottom ninth, first Jake Fraley, then Chris Mariscal, both non-roster players, jack homers to tie the game. And there may be a lesson there.
As the game wrapped up I was thinking about what I wanted to write. I planned to expand on something GM Jerry Dipoto said in a very informative interview with Brock and Salk on their 710-radio morning show. He told them that his strategy to "reimagine," as opposed to rebuild, the Mariners grew partly out of an exercise he conducted with 16 of his front-office staff towards the end of the season.
He handed out papers numbered 1 through 25 and asked them to fill in the blanks with the names of players they wanted to see on the 2019 roster. He said 16 of 16 wanted some kind of rebuild and in reviewing those nominations he came to his vision of the team we see on the field today. Built, he said, on the foundation of Mitch Haniger and Marco Gonzalez.
These first few games have been a challenge to make sense of who all these reimagined players are, but with each at bat I am struck by their resemblence to Haniger's controlled but aggressive batting style and Marco's cool but aggressve way of pitching. Maybe Dipoto's logic holds up. I don't know how talented these kids are, but like Mariscal and Fraley (and their model in Haniger) they're not afraid to go for the hit. Even down by three with one out left.
Game was called after 9 as a tie.
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