Ichiro and free agency, Lowe’s woes, and more
Ichiro’s comments yesterday on free agency are covered extensively.
“Ichiro may leave” in the PI.
Geoff Baker on the same subject. The picture of Ichiro hanging out in his pink shirt is worth it.
The Japanese star was taking live batting practice in his first spring workout here Tuesday when Seattle reliever George Sherrill sent him lunging out of the way on a pitch that ran inside. After the chuckles subsided all around him, Ichiro finished the workout, then let reporters know that Sherrill’s errant slider was about the only “pitch” he has seen yet from a Mariners squad he is thinking seriously about leaving.
That comes after not one but two blog entires (“Ichiro won’t rule out free agency” and “Agent confirms Ichiro “very disappointed,” mulling options“)
Lowe may go under the knife again, or Lowe still not cleared to throw. Short version: the arm’s not right, and they’re going to MRI it to see what the deal is. Results may drive another surgery.
The Times follows up on WSJ story on the M’s re-working their suites and includes this tidbit:
Safeco Field opened in 1999 with 67 luxury suites and subsequently added another suite on the press-box level. For the first few years, 98 to 99 percent of the suites were filled, said Aylward. He said last year’s percentage was in the mid- to upper-80s.
At the PI, the Go 2 Guy, who for some reason showed up at the wrong spring training league and is still filing Mariner stories, writes about Moyer and Garcia and Adam Eaton, who “In a better world, from a Seattle perspective, Adam Eaton would be wearing a blue uniform in Peoria instead of a red one in Clearwater, Fla.” In a better world, his asking price would have been reasonable for the team to pay. That was a good pass for the M’s.
Also, my “Bugs Bunny, Greatest Banned Player Ever” post here at USSM is going to be in the next Best American Sports Writing annual. I’m super excited.
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54 Responses to “Ichiro and free agency, Lowe’s woes, and more”
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#49- i don’t know how you could lump Boone and Olerud with Cirillo and the others you mentioned…Boone almost won the MVP…Olerud won a gold glove (i believe)…the others were complete busts…Boone and Ole gave us some good ball…
I don’t think there’s a comment on ability there: he’s making the point that when those players were no longer productive, the team was willing to release them or eat substantial amounts of their contracts to move them.
Congratulations Derek!
Me like Ichiro’s skater dude style.
Maybe Ichiro will have an especially good year because its a contract year?
But unless the team has a good year, I don’t see him wanting to stay in Seattle.
Of course, that would presumably mean that Bavasi and Hargrove would be gone, and who knows?
Can we expect real change if this is another underwhelming year?
Hey Wise Ones:
I’ve been looking but can’t find if you’ve done this yet. In light of Attanasio’s new ‘book’ on Ichiro, I’d be interested in knowing y’all’s analysis of Ichiro vs. the League.(cf? rf?).
I for one would not be bothered if the Mariners traded him before the deadline as long as they got a decent trade. To me, it’s a package including a starting CFer and a front end starter and a top prospect AA or higher. Your thoughts?