You can’t make this stuff up
Dave · November 25, 2006 at 9:50 am · Filed Under Mariners
The Mariners have made a signing! The offseason has begun. The Mariners have…
signed Willie Bloomquist to a contract extension through 2008.
No, we’re not kidding. We’ve now guaranteed the worst player in baseball two more years in a Mariner uniform, where he can continue to make outs and hurt the team while getting tongue baths from the announcers.
Feel free to commence mocking… now.
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Oh joy. There is a facebook group called “Willie Bloomquist is baseball’s answer to syphillis.” I thought it was appropriate to throw that out there.
Yikes. Yowza. Yakuza.
But I think the M’s have realized the danger you face by letting a player become a FA. You gotta lock these guys up, or it could take upwards of $50M to keep them in the fold.
i’m buying season tickets RIGHT NOW!
Hey the great thing about signing lousy players to extensions is at least we don’t have to worry about him losing his skills.
um, maybe it means they want to be sure to still have that ‘hometown boy’ on the team after they move Sexson? maybe?
Don’t get too worked up yet. We still have the eventual “reaction from Grover” to deal with. That will be an even lower point, as he schools us all in why this bodes well for the Mariners in 2007. Isn’t this fun?
The first line from the sportsticker article:
The Seattle Mariners gave their most versatile player an early birthday present.
Yup. That sums it up.
I can’t mock. I’m too depressed.
if everyone else can figure this out … from Rotoworld:
Mariners signed infielder-outfielder Willie Bloomquist to a one-year extension through 2008. Bloomquist was already due $850,000 next season. He’ll probably make a little more than $1 million in 2008, so extending him through his final year of arbitration eligibility is essentially harmless. It’s the way that Mike Hargrove uses him that hurts the team. Bloomquist can be an asset as a 25th man. When he’s getting 250 at-bats per year, like he has the last two seasons, he’s a problem.
From Rotoworld, passed along without endorsement:
“Bloomquist was already due $850,000 next season. He’ll probably make a little more than $1 million in 2008, so extending him through his final year of arbitration eligibility is essentially harmless. It’s the way that Mike Hargrove uses him that hurts the team. Bloomquist can be an asset as a 25th man. When he’s getting 250 at-bats per year, like he has the last two seasons, he’s a problem.”
obviously, we are all of one mind
Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln defended the signing in remarks to reporters earlier today:
“Well, sure it’s a dumb-shit decision. But, heck, everybody in baseball was making dumbshit decisions this week and at least our’s is a cheap one.”
GREAT JOB blocking the Yankees from offering the Ignitor that 3 year, $28 million deal in 2008, Mariners.
{:/
Yep… the Bloomquist/Hargrove relationship is to the Ms like guns and the government are to people…
I the immortal words of Dale Gribble, “Guns don’t kill people…..the government does”.
…what
I recall you guys saying that the traffic to this site dropped after the Grover signing. Maybe moves like this one where we just flush $1 million a year down the toilet are the reason.
If the Ms don’t give a crap about putting a winning team on the field, if the paid professionals aren’t smarter than a bunch of hacks like us, then why should we continue to care about them? The conversations on this site would be infinitely more satisfying if it were called the U.S.S. Athletics. (Sorry to be such a downer but that is how I feel.)
BTW, I know this is a very small sample size but this year none of my family brought up the Ms over Thanksgiving. Usually they are a big topic of conversation as we discuss hot stove moves. This year . . . nothing.
So we just need to find a way to have Billy Beane hire Hargrove as the A’s manager, and then trade Bloomquist to Oakland for Blanton or Haren.
Calm down, this has no effect on the budget. Once Hargrove is gone he will prove worth the price.
He isn’t really the worst player in baseball. He’s probably not worth a million, but it’s hardly a big deal. Maybe we’ll trade him to another dumbass team.
I don’t even care. I’ve resigned to the fact that there is nothing we can do about the fact that Willie Bloomquist is going to stay a Mariner.
So….how many positions are left on the 25-man roster for BB to fill (with packing peanuts, excelsior, a life-size cutout of The Edgar)?
Calm down, this has no effect on the budget.
Really? They have a special Willie Bloomquist fund that doesn’t count against payroll? Awesome. I wonder why we haven’t heard about this before.
Once Hargrove is gone he will prove worth the price.
If you think the price of a replacement level player is a multiyear deal for nearly $1 million per, you’re wrong.
Hey, Everett and Perez are gone. Someone on the roster with a negative VORP has to get significant playing time….. I think its a clause buried in the CBA……..
But isn’t there some value in a guy that can play pretty good D at 7 positions and steal a base in the 8th or 9th? As long as we don’t give him too many ABs, seems ok. Better than carrying an extra no-hit backup at another position. That way we can save an extra spot for a reliever when our awesome starters struggle to make it out of the 4th…
Rick Rizzs is probably next, right?
Well, basically, Willie’s being overpaid by about 450-600K, since the MLB minimum is now 400K.
Is it smart to overpay someone who’s completely replacable (no-hit infielders with decent speed and glove are really a dime a dozen)? No. Is it a huge, colossal mistake in the grand scheme of things? Eh, not really, because the M’s budget isn’t going to be broken by 600K.
Willie’s there for the “aw, it’s our hometown kid we drafted and look at him be scrapy” factor-and while he of course makes the typical noises about wanting to be a starter, one might note he’s never actually had a tantrum about it, and he has to know that in an organization where the 2B, SS and 3B are younger AND better than him, and there’s plenty of OF talent, he has zero chance of being an actual zero chance of being an everyday starter. If he really DID want his best chance to be a starter, he’d want out of the organization, and clearly he doesn’t. Yes, I know, he’s under team control, but I’m pretty sure if he quietly went to Bavasi and said that he wanted a chance to start and needed to leave to do that, that he’s a marginal enough player that it wouldn’t be a big deal.
If Willie Bloomquist is getting almost a million a year for playing baseball at his skill level, I only have one question.
How does one go about getting a tryout for the Mariners?
Eh. I think Bloomquist is slightly above RL (emp. slightly) so the idea of overpaying him by 2-300K isn’t going to bother me.
It’s the overplaying him that’s the problem.
Well, the M’s have to do SOMEthing to keep people interested. Heck, there’s got to be 15,000 ticket-buying people that like Bloomquist in the Seattle area, right?
So, Dave, been meaning to ask you. Who’s more valuable: Bloomquist or Amaral?
In all fairness, I would rather the M’s sign Bloomquist to that extension than Matthews Jr. or Carlos Lee to the contracts each of them received. Sure, the M’s braintrust may be dumb, but that does not put them at a disadvantage to at least 20 other clubs who are equally dumb, if not dumber.
Re-signing Bloomquist is all part of Bavasi’s master plan to trade for Manny, ’cause you know the Red Sox are just aching to add Bloomquist to their lineup. So it’s Willie, Mateo, Fruto, Sexson, Rivera, Blackley, Livingston, Chick, Johnson, Balantien, and a Playstation 3 for Manny. Hooyah!
The Mariners have made a big offseason signing of … Willie Bloomquist!
The only proper response to this auspicious occasion is to be found in the following game thread
Let’s look on the bright side. WFB is the subject of sooooo much fodder, jokes, barbs, etc. on this site that I’m just not sure what we’d do without him. He is by far our favorite punching bag (say hello, C-Rex), and is ready to takes some more hits this year!
You know what I can’t wait for? When WFB buys a car dealership. Its inevitable now, isn’t it? WILLIE BLOOMQUIST DODGE (as in, dodge any consequences of poor play). Perhaps WILLIE BLOOMQUIST SCION (since that’s how the managment treats him). Even WILLIE BLOOMQUIST INFINITI (how long we’ll have to endure him as a Mariner).
Is it a huge, colossal mistake in the grand scheme of things? Eh, not really, because the M’s budget isn’t going to be broken by 600K.
In some sense this is correct. OTOH, if you make a 600K mistake with every spot on the roster, you’re short $15M in talent. Even if you make just a few small mistakes like this, it adds up to $5M. What the best teams do is consistently get as much value/upside for every $ they spend.
Replacement level for a 2B/3B is an OPS of ~.700. Bloomquist has a career OPS of .640, far below replacement level as a hitter. If you adjust for park factors and his stolen bases, maybe he brings his game up to replacement level.
There’s consensus here that Bloomquist is more valuable, the LESS you let him play/hit. Ideally he’d get 75-100 PA/season and get used a lot as a pinch runner. You think a guy like that is worth $1M?
But really I think some of the frustation here is that the payment and usage of WFB is the prime example that the Mariners don’t understand the concept of replacement level. They’ve consistently thrown millions at players who are trivial to replace.
I also want to add that it could be worse. Howard Schultz and Wally Walker could be running this team.
I>You think a guy like that is worth $1M?
Well, to quote a noted authority on my posts, me:
Is it smart to overpay someone who’s completely replacable (no-hit infielders with decent speed and glove are really a dime a dozen)? No.
So I’d go with what he said.
And to be honest, compared to, say, renewing Shiggy Hasegawa at 4 million, this is pocket change. At least the mistakes are smaller. And if you add up Rauuuuuuul and Willie, you STILL don’t get Carlos Lee’s contract or Gary Matthews Jr.’s. Would I rather they didn’t have a fetish for the scrappy hometown kid? No doubt (especially since I think you could find a better fielding no hit pinch runner/infield backup than WFB without looking TOO hard). But this is fairly low on the sackcloth and ashes scale, and we can be QUITE grateful that we’re not paying $Texas for Lee or Matthews.
I also want to add that it could be worse. Howard Schultz and Wally Walker could be running this team.
Just to make it clear. Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong are far, far worse than Schultz and Walker. At least Walker was able to somewhat recover for the mistakes he made.
Just to make it clear. Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong are far, far worse than Schultz and Walker. At least Walker was able to somewhat recover for the mistakes he made.
Right, which is why the Sonics are on the verge of leaving the city they’ve been in for 40 years (as Seattle’s original pro sports franchise), now have non-local ownership froma location that would dearly love an NBA franchise and would be happy to give them an arena gratis, and while Walker was here the Sonics won less playoff series wins than the Mariners in this millennium (1 to 2).
That word “recover”, I do not think it means what you think it means…
The poll closed after about 100 votes roughly, and Bloomquist had over 50% of the votes. 2nd place was 19%.
Boy, it feels good to be first place doesn’t it?
Two more years of robbing at bats from Snelling.
wow u really got me goin there!!! and then to tell me its Bloomquist that just hurts.
speaking of big deals… D’backs reportedly get Doug Davis, Dana Eveland, David Krynzel from the Brewers for Johnny Estrada, Claudio Vargas and Greg Aquino.
That’s a fascinating deal on so many levels.
I wonder what the over/under is for how many times next season we’re going to read in the papers that “while Bloomquist doesn’t like to complain, he wishes he had more playing time…”. Or how many at bats he’s going to rob from Snelling in their non-platoon. Or just how many at bats he’s going to receive, period.
Echoing the sentiments above, it’s not that Bloomquist is a terrible player – he can fill in at almost any position, can steal bases, and is essentially a quality 25th man. It’s just he doesn’t deserve the playing time he gets, nor does he deserve any more than half a million dollars a season. It’s these type of management decisions that are impeding the team’s opportunity for success.
#42– yes? aside from the interesting path Estrada’s career has taken…
hey! Tom Verducci thinks the Cubs have had the best off-season so far, which may be further helped by getting their pitching front-runner Meche…
C’mon!! This is great news!!
USS Mariner without WFB would be kind of like Jon Stewart without George W. to kick around. Plus, the worst Wee Willie can do is be an automatic out four or five times a night. He can’t start World War III.
If you are going to carry 12 pitchers (which is stupid), than you need a guy like bloomquist, he is essentially like carrying an extra 1.75 offensive bench player, so he is certainly worth more than your typical replacement player. For each defensive position you play your salary should slightly increase over replacement level.
Re: 46
Honestly, I think this might be the first time in Willie’s career that his offensive contribution was described as being greater than that of any singl othr player
I’m not convinced that Bloomquist is actually the worst player in MLB. Andy Phillips and Choo Freeman are worse defensively and can’t run without bringing any more bat to the table.
That said, $700,000 doesn’t sound like much until you do it ten times and then it’s the cost of upgrading from Garry Matthews Jr. to Carlos Beltran.
#46: You’re missing the point, which is that there are several dozen minor leaguers and free agents who could do exactly what Bloomquist does at the level at which he does it … and would gladly do it for the major league minimum salary.
There is nothing unique at Bloomquist’s skills set. Nothing at all.
So, can we come to a consensus that Bavasi can’t evaluate talent?
Eh, I’m not torn up about it. Sure, it’s inefficient, but the way the team is playing we need a couple “fan favorites” just to keep people in the seats. If for some reason the fans have a crush on a shitty utility guy who still isn’t making all that much money, that’s fine. He sucks, but it’s OK since he’s not that expensive and puts butts in the seats I guess is my rationale.
If Willie were making 10 million a year, that would be a problem, but for a million bucks, it’s fine to keep him around. Inefficient, but whatever.
So Willie Boom-Boom gets 1 million a year to be fast and keep 5 different gloves within reach at all time.
Seems reasonable……sigh
There is nothing unique at Bloomquist’s skills set. Nothing at all.
I disagree.
49 I really dont think it is that easy to find a minor leaguer who is fast/and steals bases, and plays ok D at six positions. Maybe 2 minor leaguers add up to that but its not that easy to find a Minor leaguer who does that. Plus he more than makes up for the extra half a million by being a crowd favorite.
The only thing unique about Willie Bloomquist’s skillset is that he’s from Port Orchard.
To me, it looks like the team is essentially putting a $600,000 price tag on the fan support generated by Willie, since that’s what he’s making over a league minimum scrub with equal talent. Does the fans’ Willie-Love (Bloomsterbation?) add up to $600,000 over the course of a season? I have no idea, but my hunch says yes.
I have no problem with that, nor do I have a problem with the 600,000 dollars it takes away from the team’s payroll. When you have a 90 mil payroll, that’s more or less a drop in the bucket.
What I do have a problem with using him beyond the pinch running and spot starts due to injury that he’s really suited for. The money’s not a huge issue to me, it’s the way he’s used.
WOO HOO!
I love Bloomquist!
53 – Care to explain how you disagree? It’s totally obvious to me. Bloomquist is the worst offensive player in baseball for the number of at bats he gets. The Ms would be better off letting their pitchers bat there instead of Willie.
If Willie wasn’t from Port Orchard and Seattle sports fans weren’t so tragically devoted to overrating local players we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Every at bat given to Willie is an at bat wasted. He should be a pinch runner, no more.
Really? They have a special Willie Bloomquist fund that doesn’t count against payroll? Awesome. I wonder why we haven’t heard about this before.
It’s a terrible deal, but would you rather have the M’s blowing 2/2 on Suckquist or 8/136 on Alfonso Soriano?
Given that they’re spending nothing in this insane free agent market, I’m OK with this deal if it means Suckquist is playing in Milwaukee this summer after Hargrove and Bavasi are axed.
37 – Apples and oranges. In case you hadn’t noticed, Wally Walker hasn’t been Sonic GM for years.
The main reason this irks me is that if Willie is used the way that he SHOULD be used, people will ask “why are we paying this guy 1 mil per year to ride the pine”?
So the two options are:
1) Give WFB far too much playing time to help justify the salary he’s being paid, quantifiably making the 2007 Mariners a worse team;
2) Use him as his talents merit, and get raked over the coals in the local media for not using him enough.
The Mariners have put themselves in a no-win situation with this contract.
Care to explain how you disagree? It’s totally obvious to me. Bloomquist is the worst offensive player in baseball for the number of at bats he gets. The Ms would be better off letting their pitchers bat there instead of Willie.
Ummmmmm…no, not so much. Actually, the opposite of that.
Granted, this isn’t a high bar to go over, but Irrational Bloomquist Hatred isn’t any better than an Irrational Bloomquist Fetish.
You really think that 17 pitcher at-bats is a significant enough sample size to reach a conclusion one way or another?
I really dont think it is that easy to find a minor leaguer who is fast/and steals bases, and plays ok D at six positions.
Joe Thurston, Rey Olmedo, Norris Hopper, Reggie Willits, Hiram Bocachica, Joe McEwing, Josh Wilson, John Nelson, and Adam Hyzdu say hello.
I bet Charles Gipson still has something left in the tank as well.
Bloomquist is a non news item in my opinion. So he gets a little more than he’s worth, what 30-40% more. That seems like a reasonable overpay in this market. No he’s not good offensively aside from stealing bases, but it’s not that easy to find a player who can play close to league average defense at 7 or 8 defensive positions. I know he’s the third option for Catcher, but I have no idea how he is defensively there. That makes him an incredible insurance clause to plug in for an injured player short term until either they can come back or a longer-term replacement can be acquired. I can’t see any reason he should be getting 250 or even 150 AB, but I think he’s worth close to the money he’s getting if he’s used properly.
***Eponymous…Wally Walker was hired in 1994 so in 95-96 when they beat the Kings, Rockets and Jazz to get to the NBA finals (an equivalent the M’s have never reached) they surpassed the 2 playoff series victories you said the M’s have had under Lincoln/Howard. He would also get credit for the Sonics beating the Suns in 96-97, the Timberwolves in 97-98 and then had to take care of some mistake contracts on an aging roster and decided to rebuild. I might point out that they went into full rebuild mode, rather than try to cheat it and rebuild, but win now. I think that shows a little more intelligence than trying to squeek it out the way Howard/Lincoln did. After working on a rebuild that saw them in the playoffs a few times without getting out of a series, they beat the Kings in 04-05. That brings the total for Walker to 6 series in 12 years, not great but not horrible. Walker also pulled off a lot of good trades to fix his problems rather than keeping those problems far too long. Vin Baker was the last player the Sonics had way too long and he even got good return for Baker (who btw was acquired via trade getting rid of another mistake). Trading Gary and Desmond the way he did was one of the biggest coups in NBA history. Regardless of whether fans wanted to see Gary stay, his relationship with management had soured beyond repair and he was gone. That trade (3 months of Gary + Desmond Mason) got the Sonics Ray Allen, ‘Flip’ Murray and the pick that landed Luke Ridnour as well as a couple role players that did well for the team. This last year they had to get rid of a few players that were unhappy with roles and playing time and again the return was good. They were all traded as well, not one dissident voice was left. Although they’ve made mistakes the Sonics-Post Baker has been run very well. They have 3 very athletic 20 year old centers among a great core of players and are far less frustrating to watch work on roster improvements. I’ll take the Sonics fromt office over the M’s any day.
IMO the reason the Supes are looking at leaving is because legislation here has already passed taxes for stadium subsidiaries for the 2 other sports franchises in the city against public support. At least King county has realised it’s mistakes, but in conversations I have with people about the Sonics leaving it’s repeatedly brought up that taxes were put in without public support and people seem to blame the Sonics for this. The Sonics have never benefitted from it, on the contrary they’re now the whipping boys for something they had nothing to do with. Aside from hockey (before the depression) the Sonics and Storm have brought the only professional championships to this city. Understandably since those championships weren’t last year the people of this fairweathered sports city don’t care if they stay. By the way there’s no way David Stern wants to see a team move from the 11th largest market (Seattle) to the 45th largest (OK C)
Adam Hyzdu can play the infield?
That should read Lincoln/Armstrong not Howard/Lincoln…Need more caffiene…
Also they only signed Bloomquist through his Arb. eligible years and will become a FA after the contract. One less thing to deal with next year.
In 21 sb attempts throughout his career Hiram has 13 sb and 8 cs….in 58 career sb attempts Willie has 50 sb’s and 8 cs’s…also Hiram has played 25 games at 2nd base, 10 games at 3rd base, and the rest in the OF. I do not consider him a relevent comparison.
#50– I think we know that Bavasi knows exactly what WFB is and can do. He is not the only one making decisions.
Hyzdu has played 1b and the of and in parts of seven seasons he has exactly 1 sb…….I will reiterate my pt that it is hard to find guys that can play nearly every position (esp ss and cf) and are valuable pinch runners.
but he has a cool name.
I was trying to remember when he left the Bucs, and so did a search– gotta love the way google will compress an entry: “Full name is Adam Davis Hyzdu (pronounced HIGHS-doo)…Adam and his wife Julie have 2 sons: … Vladimir Guerrero, 2272. Barry Bonds, 2082″
72: You have to look at Minor League stuff, though. Bocachica primarily played IF in the minors, but al t he teams he’s been on have had more need in the OF. I was wondering if Hyzdu was an IFer in the minors at some point.
But Boca is a capable infieldre.
#46: No. If you’re going to carry 12 pitchers, you don’t need WFB at $850K in ‘06. You need a guy like Ryan Freel (.271/.363/.399; VORP: 16.4; 37 SB) as $1.3M roster glue……
Once again I’m praying for him to shatter his wrists or something. Any injury that will preclude him ever starting again, but that will leave him able to pinch run so he’s not a total waste. I guess a total vocal cord removal would be nice too.
I will reiterate my pt that it is hard to find guys that can play nearly every position (esp ss and cf) and are valuable pinch runners.
I’ll reiterate my point that you’re wrong.
Also, you really need to stop valuing certain types of performances. We hear this all the time with Sexson too. “How are you going to replace his 38 home runs?” You don’t have to. You can replace them with 20 home runs, another 10 doubles, better defense, and spending the extra $8 million on the rest of the roster.
Same thing with Bloomquist. You don’t have to find a guy who can steal bases at the same rate if the other guy does other valuable things better.
Also they only signed Bloomquist through his Arb. eligible years and will become a FA after the contract. One less thing to deal with next year.
Wouldn’t Ballgame have been a FA next year? Maybe I’m mistaken, but I thought it was his “walk” year. I might just be wrong.
78: Didn’t play enough in ‘02 to count as a season.
With Sexson, the question is how are we going to replace his 150 strikeouts.
Bloomquist has value playing his multiple positions, but he’s not an everyday player. Should he be making $1M as the 25th man? No. But it could be much worse. I mean, look at what the Cards gave Scott Spezio for 13 HRs and dyeing his goatee red.
I don’t want to stir the pot or anything, but Jeff sure tried to find a silver lining to Willie Bloomquist.
I also want to add something: those of you who think Willie’s a worse ballplayer then Joel Pineiro should slap yourselves. Hard. Willie at least has SOME use. Replacement level use, but use. Joel doesn’t even have that.
I hate Willie Bloomquist with every fiber of my being. Let’s get that out of the way.
However, to get angry about this deal is crazy. Willie is a fine 25th man, especially with our penchant for carrying 8,000 pitchers. Besides that, sure, maybe you could find some guys out there who can do what Willie does for the league minimum, maybe less, but there are other considerations.
These guys aren’t robots. We’re not playing a video game. The team likes Willie, countless moronic fans love Willie, and the coach really likes Willie. Does this make him any better? No, but it certainly makes him somewhat valuable. As much as I hate to say it, the ticket that Idiot Soccer Mom from Bothell buys costs the same price as all of yours. And she wants to see Willie.
If we have more pitcher’s, I’d be inclined to believe that the remaining bench players would need to cover more. I don’t mean we need someone who can play seven positions poorly, but rather play four or five decently to well, hit at least enough to be useful batting, and hopefully be able to steal at times too. To a team with less spots available on the bench for position players (and one necessarily taken by Dobbs), I feel the latter would be infinitely more important.
Willie isn’t a good defender at any of his positions, and although he’s better than leaving the spot open, a better defender at a few less positions would be of much more benefit because he would be useful. If he were then just a decent runner who could hold his own when getting on, and was good enough to get on with some consistency, that player would actually be of use to the M’s.
If only my grammar didn’t suck today.
The problem with Willie Bloomquist is that he’s overvalued, overpaid, local, and loved by numerous casual fans — especially those of whom who’re widowed and living in a retirement home — which makes him an easy target.
Instead of being praised for his grit and championed for a spot in the lineup, Bloomquist should quitely sit alongside Rene Rivera and Mike Morse on the bench and be relatively ignored by journalists, columnists, and radio hosts.
Moreover, Bloomquist’s monetary value is approximately $400,000, which is less than half of the amount he’ll earn in 2007. In addition, he shouldn’t have a guaranteed roster spot; instead, he ought to have ample competition for the position of utility man.
Lastly, the aura homerism that casual fans bestow upon Bloomquist causes most of the erudite fans to loathe him.
I’m not arguing that casual fans should love Willie. They do, and nothing’s going to change that. And it sucks, but it’s the truth.
As much as I hate to say it, the ticket that Idiot Soccer Mom from Bothell buys costs the same price as all of yours. And she wants to see Willie.
This assumes that Bloomquist has a significant “marketability above replacement level.” ISMfB wants to see Willie because the M’s keep telling her what she wants to hear about Willie. It shouldn’t be difficult to market your utility infielder as a nice guy off the field and a gritty hustle-maniac on the field. Being a local boy has some marginal marketing value, but his inability to hit a pitched baseball far outweighs that.
But hey! The Mariners just hit themselves in the thumb with a hammer. They could have sawed their hand off with the table saw. I guess I just prefer working at an accident-free construction site.
This is a waste of a valuable roster spot and a very strong signal that they are absolutely going to keep giving WFB significant playing time. I don’t know how you could care about this team and NOT be really, really upset about that. Even if he makes up for the $ in T-shirt sales so the team breaks even financially, he is going to kill us on the field with his pointless at-bats. Good teams do not simply forfeit a roster spot and 250 ABs a year without trying to improve. This is colossally depressing if you ask me.
I just woke up from 13 hours of sleep. I’m as sick as I’ve been in 10 years. I had horrible night sweats, nausea and a foreboding sense of terror.
And I wake up to this. Coincidence?
But what you have to remember is, as much as the casual fans like Willie, they also hate anyone who leaves the team for more money.
So offer Willie $400k. If he leaves for another team, he’d be crucified.
Problem solved.
And you know what else this means?
Another year of Willie on KJR radio, essentially saying: “I’m not going to complain about not getting more playing time … but, well, here I go again, complaining that I’m not getting enough playing time” to a chorus or eagerly sycophantic talk-show hosts.
To clarify something, because I come off as an enormous Willie-basher:
I love the passion he plays the game with. I love his effort. I love his willingness to at least TRY to be the best possible asset to the team he can be. I’m sure he’s a really nice guy, to boot.
He just simply isn’t very good at playing baseball.
#93: I think it’s understood by most that we’re not bashing Willie, we’re bashing the team for not recognizing — and acting — on what Willie is, and isn’t.
I’ve talked to Willie several times, and he’s aware that he gets based a lot — even by me — and he couldn’t give a shit what we think.
Which is exactly as it should be.
“An enormous Willie basher”, now THERE’s a thought to play with…
Isn’t that just a long-winded way of saying “huge wanker”?
We hear this all the time with Sexson too. “How are you going to replace his 38 home runs?” You don’t have to. You can replace them with 20 home runs, another 10 doubles, better defense, and spending the extra $8 million on the rest of the roster.
Don’t forget fewer K’s, meaning more balls in play, which, unlike K’s, at least have the chance to turn into hits.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Also, re: the new poll… I had to go with Dobbs over Bloomquist, because while Willie is a supremely terrible hitter, he can at least run the bases with speed and fill in at 6-7 positions.
Dobbs doesn’t even give you that. Not only is he a poor hitter (with a swing as sweet as his performance is sour) but he’s only usable as a fielder at the corners.
Really guys, it’s not that bad. They spent what? An extra 600K on this guy? And their budget is around 92 million? So that’s ~150th of their budget?
99 This is such an obvious thought that most people would have…Know you and I will both be ripped to pieces and called idiot fans…bc we don care about a few hundred grand….These Free agent deals are being made over many millions of dollars..not a couple hundred of grand
whoa boyz
listenin to yall you think this guy been given a (gaaaak aaaak) carlos lard contract.
if this utility guy is the popular guy who gets seattle fans into baseball, well, that is actually worth something, no matter if he is not a good player.
if he can actually play good D at 7 positions and be a good baserunner/basestealer, well, that’s pretty darn good.
i promise you joe mcewing can NOT play D at 7 positions. or run good neither. we’ve got eric bruntlett on the astros who can play ok D at 6 positions (for some reason he really sux at first) but is not what you call fast or a basestealer.
it is kinda like my stros insisting on playing biggio full time and in away games.
look at it like this – is willie the one guy keeping yall from winning? i disbelieve that. so he is basically entertainment for a losing team.
it could be worse – yall coulda signed one of them estupido mucho soriano/matthews/pierre/lee contracts.
count your blessings
in the glowing firmament of lights around here
No matter how much you try to cast this as an “us against them” thing, it’s not.
We’re simply cognizant of two things that you, seemingly, aren’t:
1) Bad contracts aggregate over time and, when taken as a whole, make it harder to build a quality team in future years;
2) Bad contracts demonstrate a lack of ability to evaluate talent on the part of the team’s decision makers.
Is paying Willie Bloomquist $1mil per year going to single-handedly destroy the Mariners? No, and none of us are saying it will.
It’s just a symptom of a larger problem.
At least that should not increase the price if the Ichirolls? He-hee!
102:
1) a 2/2 contract just isn’t going to bring the M’s down. If they need to reach down deep and come up with another million to contend, they’ll do it.
2) well no shit, but didn’t you notice that when they were signing Jarrod Washburn? Did you wake up this morning thinking the M’s front office was full of baseball geniuses, and now your hopes are crushed?
1) a 2/2 contract just isn’t going to bring the M’s down. If they need to reach down deep and come up with another million to contend, they’ll do it.
Can they reach into their pockets and buy another roster spot while he’s out there playing half the time? How about another out every time Willie Ks with the game on the line? Maybe a re-do when he misses a routine ball in center?
Then consider that Jeff Nye said bad contracts aggregate. He didn’t even claim that a 2/$2m contract would bring the M’s down.
So, what really was your point?
You’re just doing exactly what he (rightly) said some are doing: saying people are making claims that they aren’t.
Willie doesn’t have to be that popular with a fan segment to justify a couple of extra bucks — 350 seats per home game at $20 a seat would do it and that ignores profits on the ubiquitous Willie jerseys, pictures, etc. (which are already in inventory), plus the beer and garlic fries all these Willie lovers will snarf down. Sure you could sell the fans a new guy, but it would cost expensive up front advertising dollars. It would be really interesting to know how much (and what) in depth information management has developed on fan preferences and behavior.
#58: The Ms would be better off letting their pitchers bat there instead of Willie.
As #62 points out, no, not really so much.
In order to directly address this issue, I’ve formulated a new metric to evaluate Bloomquist’s *special* skill set. I reveal VORPi (value over replacement level pitcher) here at USSM for peer review. Briefly, VORPi calculates WFB’s offensive value using a replacement level pitcher as the baseline.
Willie’s ‘06 VORPi is 27. He’s good for almost three wins versus a replacement level pitcher. Impressive. Once again sabermetrics shatters another commonly held misconception about a player’s worth by definitively proving WFB’s bat IS more valubale than any average replacement level pitcher’s bat…..
#105:
Thank you for helping me fend off the big mean straw man!
#106 (and others): seriously, WHO gets up in the morning and decides to go buy an Ms ticket just to see WFB????
I want proof that giving him a roster spot is good for 350 butts in Safeco a night (and I don’t mean cigarette butts or head butts against something hard)….
Terry, I think you need to invent BORP – butts over replacement player.
Does a replacement butt-bringer even bring any at all? Is it 15% below league average?
Questions that must be answered to find the true value of the commodity known as Ballgame.
It seems that the anti-Bloomquist attitude is a microcosm of something that’s wrong with USS MARINER and its readers.
It seems that the people at USS MARINER (and their followers) are evaluating Bloomquist on his baseball talent (or lack thereof), whereas the Mariner FO is evaluating him on his ability to draw fans.
Similarly, USS MARINER (and its followers) seems to evaluate the team on its ability to win, whereas the Mariner FO seems to evaluate the team on its ability to make a profit.
We seem to be banging our heads against a stone wall.
HEAD-BANGING: I agree with those who feel that there is no room for Bloomquist on a competitive team with a 25-player roster.
If they were to pay me $400,000 a year, I can guarantee you that I would do outrageous things to draw 350 fans per home game. Simultaneously, I would not take up a roster spot.
It is possible to make a small investment to draw fans (to sell tickets and other items) and make a good margin. That can be done without forfeiting a spot on the roster or quality of the product on the field.
I’m fairly certain that a recently posted graph showed a correlation between winning and attendance– the best way to get fans in seats and make profits is to win. Not even the Cubs are content with being loveable losers anymore.
WTF! WFB for 2008!
The FO needs to stop screwing around and just give that 10 year, $12 million contract to give Boom-boom.
Odds on WTB retiring as a Mariner? At what age?
How much longer do we have of this guy?
So does this mean his new nickname is WT08B?
seriously, is this for that game were Bloomquist went 5-5?
105: As other people have pointed out WFB isn’t that bad of a 25th man. If Grover doesn’t know how to manage him than at least bitch about that, not his salary, which in the grand scheme of things isn’t going to matter.
How much bad contract aggregation do you really fear for 2007 and 2008? If you want to wear sackcloth and scratch yourself with potshards over this, knock yourself out, but it’s really not the end of the world.
If you want to wear sackcloth and scratch yourself with potshards over this, knock yourself out
I thought only Japanese pitchers still did that and then only in offseason camps….
If you want to wear sackcloth and scratch yourself with potshards over this, knock yourself out, but it’s really not the end of the world.
It is in fact possible to think that this was a mistake while simultaneously not wearing sackcloth and scratching myself with potshards, or considering it to be the end of the world. I’m doing it right now, actually.
Can we maybe get a definition of straw man added to the site FAQ?
No one is about to commit suicide over this; we just see it as yet another bad player decision by Mariners management in a loooooong string of them.
Yes, I do want to wear a sackcloth. I also commit to scratching myself with potshards. I’ve clearly been shown that this is the end of the world, and I want to go out my way.
Hmm… Or I could have the viewpoint that I’ve portrayed within every single post I’ve put up.
Nah, that’s too logical. It would be of much more shock value were I to pull a random belief from my sleeve that I had never taken a moment to prove, quite possibly because it happens to be absurd.
The sky is falling!!!11!!11one! (!)
At least we know what uniform Willie will be wearing for the next couple years when he hits his annual home run off Barry Zito.
121, was someone talking to you?
What uniform will Zito be wearing?
You people are hilarious.
121, was someone talking to you?
No, no one was.
That said, given that you were directly responding to the now defunct #105, I thought he could use a little help. That guy’s a sap. I’m curious as to how he’s even possible to function in society with, you know, saying all those things that he never even said. Does he use telepathy? Is it a controllable urge? Does he even know when he’s said-but-not-said them?
Instead of having the dunderhead, who coincidentally goes by the same name as I do, come in and spoil the conversation by saying more things that he wasn’t saying, I thought I’d come in and speak for him.
So no, no one was talking to me. It was totally directed toward Josh. I’ll go back to my corner now, because I clearly don’t know what I’m talking about.