Jerry Dipoto discusses the type of team he is trying to create in Seattle:
“One of the things (manager) Scott Servais and I have talked about a lot over the last year or so is the idea that we want to play a fast game. Granted, last year (Safeco Field) was favorable to the home-run ball, but we play in a ballpark that really lends itself to running it and catching it in the outfield and creating activity on the bases — a lot like Pat Gillick’s (Mariners) teams did in the early 2000s.
“People look back on those teams and don’t realize how good they were. And they weren’t really built on power.”
To his credit, Dipoto did not replace his power with speed, he augmented the power with speed, especially for outfield defense.
The Mariners teams of 2000-2003 allowed a .250/.316/.398 slash line at the height of the PED era while hitting .276/.354/.429. Home runs were pretty even on each side of the ball, the Mariners pitching and defense did a great job of shutting everything else down with the hitters did a great job of getting on base. Dipoto’s team might mirror that offense, but at the moment it’s not clear if the pitching can be that dominant.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2iVgTwP
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