w/r/t post-season rosters: I don’t think that’s the case. I believer you can put anyone on the post-season roster as long as they were on the 25-man before September 1st. So if you put Mateo on an optional assignment right now, you could still stick him on the post-season roster.
And did they close the Battlin’ Bobby Wolcott Memorial Post-Season Roster Loophole yet?
If the Pirates were asking for a ton before the deadline (take Kendall, bring us delicious coffee, etc), enh, no big deal… but for the team to not claim Giles when he went through waivers — that’s insane. The Pirates were trying to move him, they’re willing to give him up for some magic beans now: the M’s should have claimed him and snagged a OF-L that would have hugely improved the team, or failed to make the deal, keeping him in Pittsburgh.
I suspect this was a back-room deal: that since it was between two teams way out of contention, everyone else agreed not to hassle them. But that’s a load. The Mariners need Giles more than they need to improve Gillick’s already cozy friendships with the league at large (excepting Mets-Reds).
Of course, whoever you removed from the 25 man roster in order to make room for Heredia would then become ineligible for the postseason roster. So, the point is still the same. But overall, the criticism is valid. Also, Brian Giles was reportedly sent to San Diego today and Jason Kendall wasn’t included in the deal. So, theoretically, he was available before the deadline. Unless he really did exercise his no-trade to Seattle, we should be very unhappy that he’s not a Mariner.
In other management related news, the Angels let go of scouting director Donny Rowland, who would be a vast improvement over Frank Mattox. The dismissal of Rowland is strange at best, stupid at worst.
New Big Board.
Your point about the roster spot is valid, but I’d counter that it’s already August 26th. You’d only have to send a guy down for five days before the rosters expand to 40, and now you’ve got Heredia and he’s eligible for the post-season roster. I don’t expect that he’ll have a huge impact, but it would be nice to have a guy you could use early in the game — the 6th or 7th inning, I mean — to get out a left-handed bat or two, leaving yourself Rhodes for later on. Assuming Rhodes turns things around. He hasn’t exactly been what I’d call “good” recently.
I guess I’m just more upset that they’ve been talking about needing a left-handed reliever for two years now, and then when one comes available they pass. If they didn’t want one in the first place, that’s fine… I just wish they wouldn’t talk this up — as well as Gillick talking up the waiver wire — only to sit on their hands once again.
Not that I should be surprised at this point, but hey, I’m a sucker that way.
For what its worth, Heredia has a $400,000 buyout in his contract for next year, which is why the Reds were willing to let him go for nothing. He’ll only get $100,000 for the next month, but the Yankees will end up paying him $500,00 for his time served.
Is Heredia useful? Maybe. But who does he replace? Mateo and Soriano are the only two with options left, and they’re better than Heredia. Sasaki, Benitez, Rhodes, and Hasegawa aren’t going anywhere. You could go to 12 pitchers, but the bench is already too thin. When the playoffs roll around (if we get there), you’re booting Franklin from the rotation anyways, giving us 7 relievers as is. So, Heredia would have been the 7th arm out of the pen for a month and the 8th arm out of the pen in the playoffs. Not exactly the kind of return you hope for for a half million bucks.
In case you missed it, the New York Yankees picked up lefty reliever Felix Heredia on waivers from the Reds. The Yankees have the best record in the AL, meaning every other AL team — including your Seattle Mariners — had a chance to claim Heredia before they did. Heredia isn’t the greatest left-hander ever, but he has held left-handed batters to a .276 OBP this season and is allowing just over 1.2 baserunners per inning (again, not great but not bad either).
Isn’t there a certain baseball team in the Pacific Northwest that’s been needing a lefty reliever for the past two seasons? Heredia’s certainly better than the guys the M’s have tried recently: Doug Creek, Matt White, Steve Kent, etc. And they could have had him for free. Was salary a concern? Perhaps, but it shouldn’t have been. Heredia makes $600,000 this season, meaning the money he’s owed the rest of the way is roughly $125,000.
Asleep at the switch again, Mr. Gillick? Or perhaps just catching a commuter flight back from Toronto…
Remaining games, season match-ups and their totally irrelevant predictive value
Tampa Bay: 6 games each. Oak and Sea are both 2-1 so far, push.
Baltimore: 6 games each. Oak is 3-0, Sea is 1-2. +4 Oak
Texas: 7 games Sea, 6 games Oak. Sea is 7-6, Oak is 9-4. 4 wins for Seattle, 4 wins for Oakland
Anahiem: 6 games Sea, 7 games Oak. Sea is 8-5, Oak is 7-6. 4 wins for Seattle, 4 wins for Oakland
Head-to-head: 6 games. Sea leads the series 7-6. Call it one game to Seattle.
Total = Oakland wins division by 3 games.
Bright side: Oakland’s down Mulder for the season. Still, Hudson-Zito have had good years.. but the rest of their rotation’s been crap. Harden’s got potential, sure, but… plus, their offense still is bad, like 20th in the league or so.
Shady side: Mariners are playing like crap, crap, crap, and there’s no reason to believe that Gillick’s going to be able to swing any kind of deal to upgrade one or more of their gaping holes.
Here’s the other problem: the A’s, if they’re smart, might toss a chum starter (Halama, for instance) against Texas/Anaheim so they can run Hudson-Zito out against the Mariners: They’ve got 3 games at home in Oakland, and then 3 in Texas, and three here in Seattle to end the season. Throwing a chum starter against those guys, they’re taking their chances that they’ll still be able to beat a scrub pitcher (or that they’ll lose and the M’s will lose too), and that throwing one of their big men against the Mariners is a game in the division race. Right now, after Mulder’s injury, the rotation went Hudson-Lilly-Harden-Zito-Chum, which as I project it out runs to
Seattle 5 Chum
Seattle 1 Hudson
Seattle 2 Lilly
Texas 3 Harden
Texas 4 Zito
Texas 5 Chum
(off-day)
Seattle 1 Hudson
Seattle 2 Lilly
Seattle 3 Harden
But tweak it a little — move the rotation after Hudson up a spot after the off-day, you get Hudson-Harden-Zito in the last series. More tweaking, it’s possible to get at least Hudson-Zito in both series.
And if I can think of it, I have to believe it’s occurred to the A’s.
A big welcome to those of you finding us for the first time today, thanks to this article in today’s Tacoma News Tribune. Thanks for checking us out, and we hope you’ll stick around for awhile.
I wanted to point out that for a player to be eligible for the post-season roster, they have to be on the M’s roster by August 31st, before the September call-ups. So if the team’s shopping for a Matt Stairs or whatever, they need to get one and right quick. The other option, of course, is cheating, ala Francisco Rodriguez — if MLB’s not going to enforce roster rules, maybe the team can pick up some pieces in mid-September and use them in the playoffs.
How long of a leash does Gil Meche have? At some point, don’t the M’s have to say that something isn’t right and we’re going to try something else. Running him out there against teams who can hit simply isn’t working. Pat Gillick prides himself on not reacting to events and not letting your emotions force you into a bad choice. At some point, though, you just have to hit the panic button. This team stinks right now.