Some SSI'er layed the Over/Under date for Tank to bash his way into Safeco at June 1st.   Ummmmm.....That was me.

Some SSI'er said that Haniger was likely a 110 OPS guy this season.  Wait....that was me, too.

Some SSI'er said, two seasons ago, that Dario Pizzano was a line-drive hitting jessy, with a good eye, and was on his way to being a decent to good Mariner bat. Sunny beaches.....That, too, was little ol' moi.

Pointing out that Gallardo wasn't very good, beyond innings eating, was hardly a failure, Doc.  And the HWMNBN moniker was your best this side of Zeus.

Gallardo remains a 30 start, 180+ innings BoR guy who will  get lit up like a pinball machine on a quasi-regular basis.

No Mea Culpa needed.  Balanced against the fact that, back when he was something like 7 or 8 years old, you were telling the baseball world that James Paxton was soon going to explode on it like a Kershaw or Koufax, a slight faux pas from the good Doc warrants no mention.

Certainly not like that Pizzano thing!*  But, hey.....I was first in line to point out that the Dyson/Martin Plan was a disaster waiting to happen.  I've got that going for me!  :)

It's funny you posted this, btw.  I had been thinking about doing a thread about our best and worst Mariner predictions. You know, the kind we planted our flags in and proudly claimed.  Back when the M's grabbed a AA'er named Mike Carp, winter of '09, I was 1st in line (I think) to say he would be a productive MLB'er.  I sort of got that one right; he was sort of pretty productive for a while, although I have no idea what happened to his bat.  Well, I have an wild idea, but that is it.  Last season he played 8 games in Mexico:  .043-.179-.043!!  I was early in on the idea that Figgins was about to crash, when we got him.  I got that one right.  Liked Ben Gamel from Day 1.  Beat the drum on that one.  But I was pretty hot on Blake Beavan, back in '11, too.  Missed by a mile, there. On one or two others, too.  Cough...Romero...Cough.  Cough...Chris Taylor...Cough.  But my Eric Thames call, this winter, makes up for the Romero gaffe, doesn't it?

Anyway....I was thinking that such an "Ace/Unforced Error" thread might be interesting.

*Still holding out hope, too.  C'mon kid!

BTW:  Romero is at .281-.339-.579 in 15 games/62 PA with the Orix Buffaloes.  5 homers but (go figure) just 3 BB's to go with 15 K's.

One of my favorites was Mike Morse.

Saw him calmly turn around a 101 mph heater in on his hands in a game way back when he was first coming up...I think it was 2006...and confidently predicted he'd be a star hitter in the big leagues if he could field enough to stay in the line-up. Took him a few years to prove me right. :)

Actually, my all-time best pure scouting call for hitting, though, wasn't even for a Mariner. I have a group of friends who grew in the NYC area, most of whom are Mets fans. There was a period of time where I had a 16-game plan with them at Shea Stadium/Citi Field and we'd take in some weekend games in person. Back in the spring of 2009, we went to an exhibition game at Shea right before the start of the season and this young player they had who had no position and no guaranteed line-up spot but who'd had a nice little cuppa in 2008 was the topic of conversation. I took a look at his swing and said: "that guy is going to hit .330+ and develop 20 HR power when he gets it figured out." They laughed at me. That player's name was Daniel Murphy. BTW, when the Mets let Murphy get away in free agency and chose to trade for Neil Walker instead, I told a coworker/Mets fan at the office that he would not be so happy about that parlay in short order, that Walker was a BIG downgrade. He thought the opposite. Murphy is a minus fielder and, at that time, was a solid, but unspectacular hitter by the numbers. My clue was the sudden HUGE drop in K rate. The rest is history. :D

On that same 2009 team, there was this little waterbug outfielder who I said should be leading off instead of Reyes. Reyes got hurt and he went right to the top of the order and was a nifty little sparkplug. That was Angel Pagan, who went on to have some nearly AS level seasons with the Giants and Mets.

In terms of the Mariners, the worst call I've made was confidently predicting that Olerud would bounce part of the way back after 2003 and that Boone would bounce back after 2004. That pair of blunders still smarts.

But I'm sure I'm forgetting other moments of stupidity. Most recently, I thought Zunino was going to break out. Oops.

I've watched most of the pitches Gallardo has thrown this year, he hasn't been blasted.  He's been dipped and dinged; the dude has allowed 6 doubles and 2 homers, and 2 of those doubles have been pop flys.  At .370, he's allowed the 2nd lowest SLG% by Mariners starters.  In fairness, he had a home run and a couple good plays made behind him, but that was in the plan.  What wasn't in the plan was the .333 BABiP Yo is currently running on ground balls, 60 points above his career high.  

I just want to be clear here, he's been unlucky, he's allowed one of the shortest average batted ball distances in the league (157 ft), and average to below average batted ball velocities on contact and has given up a .333 BABiP.  Statcorner has Gallardo losing a career high 17% of his strikers I the zone and receiving a career low 5.1% of calls outside the zone.  His competition hasn't been climate than any other starter, he's faced LAA, Houston, and Cleveland, and he's faced more LHH (77) than RHH (72).  The home runs will increase once he, makes some starts outside Oakland, Cleveland and Seattle, but remember what I said about spending his career in parks that increased home runs while allowing a below average rate of home runs?  The home run denial is a skill, he has a career rate of 9.5% HR/FB on the road, so 6.5% in Safeco is low, by a point, maybe a point and a half.  Also, He's running a 3.33 FIP, a bloop double in Anaheim lead to 1 "earned" run, a botched double play lead to another, and the edge of Ben Gamel's glove lead to another the other night.  Lucky he has not been.

Much as I could have wished too, I didn't believe in Gallardo either. I'm still expecting an implosion when I stop looking. But this is an awfully useful time for Yovani to be holding it all together, that's for sure. He can wait to die on us until we've got Felix-Paxton-Smyly-Kuma-Moore ready to hum along, with Miranda screaming at all of them to give him PT.