David may well be right, but let’s be honest — giving the M’s more draft picks is like giving a twenty to a drunk bum you meet in the malt liquor section. The team’s only going to blow any picks they pick up this off-season on tall left-handed high school pitchers.
The free agent rankings from the Elias Sports Bureau are here, and they’re as wacky as ever. The best player in the American League this year; Roy Halladay. Yep, this is our system.
Anyways, this is what matters to Mariner fans. Type A free agents, if offered arbitration, will net the Mariners a compensatatory first round pick and either a 1st round pick (if the signing team picks 16th-30th) or a 2nd round pick (if they pick 1st-15th). Type B free agents are like Type A’s without the compensatory pick (which is why the Diamondbacks got the Mariners selection so we could sign Greg Colbrunn…). Type C’s bring lesser compensation, usually a 3rd round pick.
M’s free agents:
Type A:
Edgar Martinez. But he’s not leaving, and we don’t want him to.
Mike Cameron. They have to offer him arbitration, and probably won’t bring him back. Hello compensation.
Shigetoshi Hasegawa: Please let someone else sign him. Two high draft picks for a middle reliever? This is theft!
Arthur Rhodes: I want him back, but won’t weep if he leaves and the M’s reap the benefits.
Armando Benitez: Won’t be offered arbitration, so this point is moot.
Type C:
Rey Sanchez. If they offer him arbitration, I’ll burn something down.
No Compensation:
Mark McLemore. Shocking, I know.
John Mabry. Elias knows what Gillick did not; this guy sucks.
Pat Borders. Helping Freddy Garcia is not part of the formula.
In the end, I’d expect the Mariners to end up with extra picks from whoever signs Cameron and Hasegawa. I think Rhodes and Martinez will be back, and Benitez will be non-tendered. As long as we don’t get crazy in the offseason, we should have an extra 2-4 picks in the first two rounds of next years draft.
By the way, Bartolo Colon is officially insane. I can’t imagine anyone will give him more than the 3 year, $33 million dollar contract the White Sox offered, especially considering that Colon will almost certainly be a Type A free agent and cost the signing team a draft choice as compensation.
Here’s to hoping that Texas decides that Colon is the savior of that rotation and throws oodles of money at him. He would go well with Chan Ho Park in the “remember when we thought this guy was actually good?” rotation.
Oh, and Jon Wells of the Official Unofficial Mariner Program of the U.S.S. Mariner, the Grand Salami, emailed us this gem:
—
At the Mariners very own website — the truth about the ’03 payroll. Not even close to $92 million…
Q: Where did the Mariners rank in total payroll in 2003? Thank you very much for the information.
— Von Lammers
A: According to USA Today, the Yankees began the 2003 season with a $152,749,814 player payroll, followed by the Mets ($117,176,429), Braves ($106,243,667), Dodgers ($105,872,620), Rangers ($103,491,667), Red Sox ($99,946,500) and Mariners ($86,959,167).
—
What’s the over/under on how long that question stays up? A day? A week?
Actually, I’ll just be reporting that every free agent has agreed to join the Mets, then post a retraction 3 days later. Live by the source, die by the source.
I must agree with Derek yesterday, by the way. Our readers do rule. We have so many people interested in attending the U.S.S. Mariner Feed, we have to look into renting a conference room to hold all you folks. We’ve got a few ideas, including one potentially very cool one, but if any of you know of inexpensive facilities willing to house our little shindig, drop me a line. Also, we’ve still got room available, so if you’d like further information, email us with Feed Information as the subject and be sure to let us know how many people you might be bringing with you.
Also, if you’re annoyed I haven’t been posting long diatribes in the evening, when you’d expect them, please accept this explanation — when I turned my computer on, I heard a loud ‘snap’ and smelled a really nasty acid burned-plastic smell. Closer inspection revealed that a connector on my motherboard actually blown apart. Like seriously had exploded. I’d like to thank Computer Stop (no link for you), who sold me the memory stick (now almost certainly dead) that I just installed which is the almost-certain cause of the problem. I’ve got parts shipping now, but it’s likely going to be the weekend before I update the GM Scorecard. I’m sorry… but you know who should be sorry (shaking fist)…
Just popping in to note that by publishing reader email, it looks like we scooped the AP story on Matsui by a couple hours. Look for more rumor-mongering and wild speculation in the future — in fact, Jason, Dave and I are going to co-operate on predictions, whereby I will take the affirmative, Jason will take the negative, and Dave will argue why it won’t happen either way. Then later we’ll take credit for whichever prediction came right (this is the “Rush Limbaugh” guaranteed-predictive method).
For instance:
Derek: Mike Cameron will return to the Mariners
Jason: Mike Cameron will not return to the Mariners
Dave: Mike Carmeron will retire and join the Mariners as a defensive coach
(or something)
In fact, I’m thinking of going to a USSMARINER REPORT web page, with really bad organization and strangely-formatted breaking news headlines. Yeahh…
There’s a new hitting instructor candidate in the house: soon-to-be Hall of Famer Paul Molitor, he of 3319 career hits. I’ll echo what Dave said a few days ago about how the hitting instructor probably doesn’t make much difference except for in a few special cases, but you can’t argue with Molitor’s playing resume. It remains to be seen how this would translate to coaching, but he sure could hit.
In other news, Armando Benitez, Mike Cameron, Mark McLemore and Arthur Rhodes have all filed for free agency. Personally I don’t really expect to see any of those four back, with the possible exception of Cameron. Potentially left to file are Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Pat Borders, Rey Sanchez, Edgar Martinez and John Mabry (assuming the club doesn’t pick up his option, which there’s no reason they should). Again, it wouldn’t be a big shock if none of these nine free agents aren’t back with the team next season… mmmm, roster turnover.