Comments on: Miguel Batista

By: jaysbaseballfan

jaysbaseballfan — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 12:02:12 +0000

The best part of that Cox quote is that he doesn’t even feign enthusiasm for the guy.

By: West Coast King

West Coast King — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 21:58:44 +0000

“He is like the starting version of Jose Mesa,” Bryan Price said, referring to Miguel Batista

Yikes! That’s not a great reference. It’s about as bad as this one:

“They got a good starter, we think, in Horacio,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said after the Rafeal Soriano-Horacio Ramirez trade

By: msb

msb — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 19:33:14 +0000

Kirby Arnold and Andriesen both talked with BP about Batista #113-- FWIW, the age quote was in the context of working with much younger pitchers...

By: Eleven11

Eleven11 — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 19:32:33 +0000

Oops, thanks. I guess I locked up on reading that, my error. I suppose this means we’ll read endless articles about arm slot changes and stuff…
Back to work which I should have been doing anyway!

By: Coach Owens

Coach Owens — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 19:30:07 +0000

Well the only good thing this signing has brought is that it has brought all of us fans together. We know now that despite how much we like or dislike the Mariners we know that all of us hate Bill Bavasi.

By: msb

msb — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 19:29:35 +0000

#118– he answers it in his next line– Larue considers him a project because “… Batista has never won more than 11 games in a season and had an ERA under 4.00 twice in his career.”

By: Eleven11

Eleven11 — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 19:06:45 +0000

Hey, quick question, Larry Larue notes Batista and two others are considered “projects”. Huh? $8 Mil for a project for 3 years? Is he injured or why would this be????

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 18:18:25 +0000

I was hoping for 2009. Looks like it will be 2010 instead.

By: wsm

wsm — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:59:22 +0000

The year to year inflation of free agent salaries at around 10% is completely and utterly unsustainable. That’s not even arguable.

Its been sustained for along time now and new money keeps coming in. I don’t know if you’ve checked the new pocket schedules out or not, but ticket prices are going up again. Another 10%. I seriously doubt we’ll be seeing a plateau in the free agent market until we get a major national recession.

—

The most alarming thing to me about this latest roster move is the impact it has on the payroll flexibility for 2008. Assuming Ichiro is re-signed for a similar salary beyond 2007, the M’s are looking at shedding only Jose Guillen’s contract at the end of the year. That’s not a lot of money to play with. Even non-tendering guys like Broussard and Ramirez will likely only free up about $12 million total.

As bad as this winter has been, next year could be a lot worse. Another last place finish and no money to spend.

By: kentroyals5

kentroyals5 — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 13:18:05 +0000

I would have loved signing Batista 3 years ago to a 3 year deal as a #4 or #5 deal..just in the perspective we all have of this offseason, its a pretty horrid deal…we all thought signing Schmidt to a 4 year deal was too long for a 32 year old, but a 3 year deal to a 36 year old with a ridiculous WHIP concerns me.

I do like Batista..but not when he becomes our #3 pitcher..haha