{"id":3173,"date":"2018-11-30T22:13:21","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T22:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=3173"},"modified":"2018-11-30T22:13:21","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T22:13:21","slug":"trader-jerry-is-close-to-making-trader-lane-look-like-a-piker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=3173","title":{"rendered":"Trader Jerry is close to making Trader Lane look like a piker"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

TERRY MOSHER<\/p>\n

Our cat made do this. Sorry. But I don\u2019t get Seattle Mariners\u2019 general manager Jerry Dipoto trading off key pieces of the team\u2019s roster. What is going on?<\/p>\n

Dipoto has already traded his ace pitcher, James Paxton, to the Yankees, which should make the Yankees even more difficult to catch in the 2019 season. Before that he had traded catcher Mike Zunino, which makes some sense because Zunino couldn\u2019t hit his w ay out of a wet paper bag and was a zero in the lineup.<\/p>\n

And I can see\u00a0 trading Jean, Jean, the hitting machine Segura because he\u2019s a bad dude in the clubhouse, and now there are serious reports out there that he is trying to rid himself of Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz, the closer with the 100-mile an hour heater and a team record 57 saves this past season.<\/p>\n

I guess I (and my cat) dislike all the trades Dipoto has made since he became the Mariners GM before the 2016 season. I think you should have a plan and stick with it. But it seems like Dipoto likes to trade just to trade, although one could make the case that this off-season he seems to be intent on shedding payroll. If he can get rid of Cano\u2019s $24 million salary for each of the next five years, I guess he\u2019s achieved most of that idea.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible, maybe even probable, that Dipoto is now trying to get on board the recent baseball trend to play younger guys that teams have more salary control over and ditch talented veterans who demand huge salaries like Cano\u2019s. If that is what is happening, I guess that is good.<\/p>\n

But, man, make up my mind. Quit rebuilding every year. Build up the farm system and keep guys on the roster that are producing. Allow your fans to get used to guys so they can root for them.<\/p>\n

I guess, though, we have the reincarnation of Frank Lane with Dipoto. I don\u2019t know if you remember Frank Lane, or the nicknames he accumulated over the years as a baseball GM, most famously for the Chicago White Sox where he made 241 trades in seven years (and over 400 all together with stints with St. Louis, Cleveland and the Milwaukee Brewers) and earned names like \u201cWheeler Dealer\u201d, \u201cFrantic Frank\u201d, \u201cTrader Frank\u201d and \u201cTrader Lane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lane traded such stars at Roger Maris, Rocky Colavito, Norm Cash and future Hall of Famers like Red Schoendienst, Early Wynn and Enos Slaughter. \u00a0He even traded his Cleveland Indians manager Joe Gordon for Detroit\u2019s manager Jimmy Dykes.<\/p>\n

Dipoto, who has earned the nickname, \u201cTrader Jerry\u201d had made 60 trades at the start of this year involving 129 different players from 22 teams. He has yet to trade with just seven teams \u2013 Angels, Nationals, Reds, Mets, Astros, Rockies and Tigers. That may be reduced to six soon because a deal that would send Cano and Diaz to the Mets is being considered.<\/p>\n

What does this all mean? Well, if you are thinking the Mariners will contend for a playoff berth in the 2019 season, you need to see a doctor to explain your hallucinations and flights of fantasy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m done here.<\/p>\n

Be well pal.<\/p>\n

Be careful out there.<\/p>\n

Have a great day.<\/p>\n

You are loved.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TERRY MOSHER Our cat made do this. Sorry. But I don\u2019t get Seattle Mariners\u2019 general manager Jerry Dipoto trading off…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-column","category-mosher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3174,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173\/revisions\/3174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}