Defining the offseason challenges
So let’s talk off-season, and what the M’s are going to face.
The big issue is that the M’s have a long ways to go if they’re going to compete against the Angels next year, and not a lot of places they can do it.
Position players
C: Johjima, Burke will likely return.
1B: Sexson’s under contract, and they’d probably like to dump him
2B: Lopez is under contract, but they’re really not happy with him and will certainly consider upgrades.
SS: Betancourt
3B: Beltre
LF: Ibanez, but even the M’s must recognize his range is destroyed and he’s killing the defense.
CF: Ichiro
RF: ?
DH: Vidro’s under contract and may be too brittle to play the field everyday. Spot 1B starts, sure, but his lateral range is too horrible for 2B. Whether they’re considering playing him at second over Lopez would depend on their opinion of whether he could handle the wear, as well, and I don’t know what their thinking is on that.
Stashed:
C: Clement’s glove isn’t ready by all reports, and his bat’s probably not ready either. No worries if he goes to Tacoma again.
1B: Broussard’s a question mark – there’s really no place for him next year either
OF: Jones has gotta, gotta start. Balentein might be able to play a decent corner, but the team’s said pretty strongly they want to avoid having two rookies in the outfield. That’s a whole other discussion, though.
And Bloomquist for the bench. Whee!
What’s up?
If they pass on Guillen, it works out pretty well. Ichiro might want to move back to right, but you can play Ichiro in CF, Jones in RF no problem — Jones has range and a great arm.
If they re-sign Guillen or they sign a different OFer, then you need to push Ibanez out of the outfield in favor of Jones.
Pushing Ibanez requires you move him to DH or 1B, which requires you to move Sexson or Vidro, with Sexson the more likely of the two.
What’s going to happen:
A 2B upgrade may not be their highest priority (we’ll get to that) but they’ll be listening. I’ll be stunned if they don’t find some veteran infielder to come in and challenge for the job. Take your pick of whoever they might be able to sign to a minor league contract or even bring in for a couple million, depending on how soured they really are.
If Guillen or an OF signs, still think Sexson gets dumped somewhere and Ibanez will move to first.
If they don’t, they’ll leave Ibanez out there to stink up the place defensively.
Starting pitching:
SP Hernandez
SP Washburn
SP Batista
SP ?
SP ?
They’ve got some candidates to start, guys like Baek, and the plan to get Morrow into the rotation may… well, it’s a possibility. They may see if HoRam can turn it around in spring training. But they’ll be looking to bring in a starter. If you don’t think they want to see two kids in the outfield, what do you think the chances are they’ll go into next year taking two gambles in the rotation?
The pressure to sign someone or trade for a name – Barry Zito! – is going to be high, and they may be willing to part with some top prospects for a Horacio Ramirez-level acquisition. Not funny? Too soon?
Bullpen:
Not a big issue. You’ve got Putz and a ton of guys like Green that can pitch on the cheap. We’ll probably see them try and pickup a veteran or two for “stability” or whatever, but that’s easy enough.
In terms of priority/what we’d be trying to fix
I know everyone’s screaming that we need starting pitching, but the best thing the team could do is to turn the defense around. It’s an easy way to make the team better and you get Jones’ bat into the lineup. That, in turn, makes it a lot easier on the pitchers, who can go deeper into games, saves the bullpen, it’s a whole cycle of awesomeness. Which means I’m arguing you try and get Jones in and upgrade again after that — so you have to move Sexson.
Or, to put this another way, moving Sexson gives the team many more ways out this offseason and more money to do it with, and they shouldn’t stop trying to make it happen, ever. They should be calling other GMs at Christmas hoping they’re loopy on eggnog. The sooner you can do it, the sooner you can tell Raul to start working out there and hope he’s passable by Opening Day.
Signing starting pitching from the free agent market’s a fool’s errand. Dave’s written about this, but your chances of getting anything approaching value form a free agent pitcher are really low, to the point it’s not worth it. Don’t do it! Go for the scrap heap! Trade for some of Tampa’s excess! Don’t lock us up to a huge, horrible deal because it’s a bad year for pitching talent! Please?
I’d be a lot more willing to take a one-year flyer on Mike Mussina, even with that dying strikeout rate (this is even more attractive if you improve the defense). But I’ll freely admit I’m a raving Mussina fan and have been for years. I may not be entirely rational – I mean, as I write this, I’m watching the Indians beat him up and I’m still thinking “pick up that 2008 year on his deal? Better than taking on Zito’s contract…”
But there’s the challenges at a high level:
- defense sucks
- starting pitching sucks
- Jones needs a spot cleared
- Sexson sucks, Ibanez sucks defensively
Be assured we’ll be getting into a lot more detail about pitching candidates and so on soon enough.
Comments
62 Responses to “Defining the offseason challenges”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
USSM uses and recommends
Good, but depressing at the same time post DMZ.
It seems like the M’s have a bad farm system in the fact where they can’t pull up a starter for 5-10 games a year like a Ubaldo or Y Petit and have them be at least semi serviceable during an injury or struggle by another pitcher. I realize its much better then it was and they have offensive help on its way, but anytime they want to bring up the next rookie pitcher that over performs I would be happy to see it.
I love beer…
What guys other than Mussina would you take a one year flyer on?
1st beer on me!!!
w/r/t pitcher replacement: I don’t think it’s such a huge deal. They had that guy in Baek, and he got injured when they needed him at one point… but it’s not like the team or system was entirely barren of spot starters.
Please enjoy any beer that is not brewed by Anheuser-Busch, Miller, Pabst, Labatt’s or Coors.
Hey, since you guys seem to love beer so much, how about a homebrew contest to find the Official Beer of USSM? It would basically be a big feed but with completely unofficial (i.e. non-BJCP) beer tasting by a panel of judges consisting, mainly, of the site’s authors.
The whole thing makes sense to me, except maybe Mussina. But that’s just me. Is there any reason to believe the Mariners understand that we don’t have a terrific defense, (other than Lopez of course, who had that time to think about it)? It didn’t seem to work in the play AJ scenarios.
Love the beer idea. Can you guys fix it so we adjust the number we buy you?
Jeff and I are the only beer drinkers, truth be told.
My offseason priorities would be:
1. Target a #2-#3 starter by trade, an Aaron Harang caliber pitcher. That may not be available, but I’d certainly throw a lot of resources toward obtaining that.
2. Put Adam Jones in LF.
3. Trade Richie Sexson.
4. Figure out the 1B and DH situations. If Sexson is traded, probably an Ibanez/Video/RH hitter combination.
5. Trade for or sign a young, inexpensive fifth starter option to compete with Cha Baek and Ryan Rowland Smith in the spring.
That’s enough for now.
Any chance we can trade MacLaren to Tampa Bay?
Aaron Harang is an ace. In terms of trading for a starter the M’s have to think cheap, young and unproven.
So is Joe Torre available? Can we PLEASE sign him?
I know Sexson is banged up, but would there be any point in keeping him around, merely out of faith in the old “contract year effect”?
11. I don’t necessarily agree with that. I don’t say go out and foolishly spend a ton of money on the free agent market, but I do say make a list of decent middle-of-the-rotation pitchers and pursue. Like I said, that type of pitcher may not be available, but I would do the due diligence. You may give up a bunch in talent, but the rewards may be worth it.
13 – Would that be the corollary to the “Sexson will get hot later in the season” faith?
9. How about that RH hitter at DH be… Alex Rodriguez? Also, I really don’t think Ibáñez, should get a starting role next year. He’ll be 36 on June 2, and I can easily see a whole year of the first 3 months of this season for him. That being said, with the stupidity of this franchise, expect him to start next year in LF over Jones.
hey look! ESPN is interviewing the batboy! oh, wait, that’s just Grady
FWIW, Drayer speculated that Clement would get one more year in Tacoma: “Rob Johnson looks like he could possibly handle the back up role (as opposed to playing every day) but the current pitching staff wants to see Jamie Burke back with one starter going so far as to call him the perfect back up.”
I would love to see Jamie Burke back. What a job he did. No rush on Clement or Johnson.
I made a post about this over on Lookout Landing, but what do you guys think of Curt Schilling? The big issue here is losing the 1st round pick, which I agree is a huge problem, but Schilling can still pitch. Graham’s pitching stat (tRA and tRA*), FIP, and xFIP seem to still think favorably of him, and he has excellent control.
Also as a flyball pitcher, Safeco should help him out–especially if Adam Jones pushes Raul out of the Outfield. He seems like a good bet to be a legit #2 behind Felix and probably could be had for 2 years, $20-30 million. He mentioned being okay with Pitching in Tampa next year, which leads me to believe it’s not just Boston, Arizona, or bust like many say. Schilling is also a smart pitcher who changes speeds, and it’s a long shot, but maybe Felix would pick up on that.
Any thoughts on potentially bringing Schilling to Seattle?
Doesn’t signing free agent no longer cost a first rounder, but the team whom the free agent left just gain a sandwich pick?
10. Only if Tampa takes Bill too. Then hopefully we can get Walt and Tony in a package deal.
What if we ended up with a very, VERY good defensive player at 2B who wasn’t a total trainwreck at the plate (like Lopez was last year), and a tolerable option at 1B?
I could live with that, myself- I’m not really ready to give up on Lopez, exactly, but I suspect he might never really make it here, because this park is just horrible for RH pull hitters, and 2B is another place we could try and put as much defense as possible. Is there anyone in the minors who might be available for not-too-expensive who meets those qualifications- someone who might hit .260/.330/.390 and be worth 10-20 runs with the glove trapped in someone’s system?
Here’s an idea… dump either Ibanez or Vidro. There that makes roster possibilities a lot easier.
Instead of wasting time dreaming about Harang (as if he is some huge undervalued secret that the Reds don’t appreciate-if nobody could pry three months of Dunn from them, be assured nobody has enough to acquire Harang) or seriously considering how to throw prospects at more HoRams, how about targeting a guy like Belisle? Just a thought for rosterbating Ms fans. The posts would be more interesting at least.
Has the worm turned on the USSM opinion concerning extending Guillen?
I would love to see an Ms team in the top quarter of the league defensively. Clearing a spot for Jones and moving Raul from the the outfield would be a big help. What the most likely scenario for that third outfield spot (my secret hope is that Guillen isn’t extended)?
Playing ‘if I were GM’…
I wouldn’t dump Lopez just yet – he’s still young and people were pretty high on him 1.5 seasons ago. Of course, given that the organization would continue trying to make him into a slap hitter, maybe they should trade him away.
If there’s any chance someone would take Sexson, jump on it of course (not likely, I’d think). Otherwise I’d start the year with a Broussard/Sexson platoon at first, hope that Sexson started hot (against all expectation) so I might trade him in May, and stock a good-fielding, right-handed hitting, replacement level 1B in AAA. In May, I’d trade or dump Sexson and bring up the AAA player as a rightie/good fielding platoon partner for Broussard. He would start against left-handers and sub defensively in any game the Ms led by 2 or more after the 5th inning.
I think Vidro is tradeable. Bye-bye for whatever I can get, Ibanez is my DH/backup corner OF. Jones in left, I’d be open to Balentein in right, but would also look over the free agents of a decent hitting, good fielding RF, keeping Balentein in AAA. One year contract on the RF.
CF, 3B, C, SS – why change? Though one hopes that Betancourt returns to being a plus fielder.
The team becomes much better on defense (upgrades at LF and RF, slight improvement at 1B because of the post-May platoon), though still weak on the right-side of the infield, and better on offense (upgrades at LF, 1B, and DH, prayers at 2B, a bit of a downgrade in right).
Pitching – I pretty much agree with what Derek says (which is pretty much in line with what Dave said earlier). Starting pitching is the place with the biggest deficit, but where does an upgrade come from? Given the park, improved defense, taking a flier on someone mediocre and hoping they look good enough to trade for someone better at year end isn’t a bad strategy. Or if you can talk Tampa or someone else out of an arm. But the emphasis there should be on developing a better pipeline of new pitching talent from the farm system for the future.
If this “One October” has taught us anything it’s this:
You don’t need all-stars at every position to win ball games. You don’t need veterans at every position to win ball games. You don’t need three top-of-the-line starters to win ball games.
All you need is a group of guys who play solid defense, have pitching that keeps them in games, and have bats that provide timely hitting.
This, I think could be the strategy for the Mariners in 2008. Certainly looking at the Diamondbacks and the Rockies breeds hope for next year, but let’s remember for a second that they’re in the NL.
With a core group of guys in place for next season, it makes sense to head into the offseason with the goal of putting together a roster that looks something like the following:
IF – Broussard / Lopez / Betancourt / Beltre / Bloomquist
OF – Ichiro / Jones / Guillen or an outfielder you can sign this offseason for 8-10 million / Balentin (who I think you bring up and give the role of Jason Ellison from the firsthalf of this year)
C – Johjima / Burke
DH – Ibanez / Vidro
SP – Felix / Batista / Washburn / ? / ?
Pen – Lowe / Sherrill / Morrow / Green / O’Flaherty / ? / Putz
Now the question marks are tough to fill in. To fill one rotation spot, I’d aggressively pursue a younger (26-29 year-old) starter from either Tampa, or another team whom we package together an offer for. I’d like to say both Clement and Balentin are untouchable, but if forced to deal one I’d part ways with Balentin because Clement’s a lefty hitter and may very well develop into an above-average defensive catcher.
For the other remaining spot in the rotation I’d basically have an audition for the job either in Winter ball or in Spring Training. I’d give Rowland-Smith / Baek / Feierband / Morrow all a shot at winning the gig. Two of the guys who don’t win the job (I’m assuming Morrow’s one of them) get spots in the bullpen, with the fourth being sent back to Tacoma.
I’d like to see the Mariners dump Sexson for anything. Then dump Vidro / Ibanez if the offer is right — young pitching / lefty bats in an attempt to get younger. Finally I wouldn’t mind the Mariners trying to go after a guy like Torii Hunter or Aaron Rowand if the price were right and maybe consider moving Ichiro back to right. If that option is unavailable, I’m not opposed to re-signing Guillen at somewhere in the 2year-20million range.
Frankly I think 2008 offers a lot of hope. If Felix blooms into a staff ace, and if the starters we fill the fourth and fifth spots with can manage to keep us in ball games early, as opposed to falling drastically behind like Weaver and HoRam were prone to do this season, I honestly think challenging for the division again is doable.
I’m putting the over/under on Wlad getting traded for pitching help at about 75%.
Depth and flexibility are obviously what we have. Couple things to note are that it’s not fair to keep Broussard in the role he had last year. I’m sure his trade value is down, and granted that we’re just gonna have to eat a portion of Sexson’s
contract to dump him, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to keep Richie and Broussard in a RH/LH platoon situation at 1b.
Between Ibanez/Vidro, I keep one of them. If either of them can net us a passable 4th or 5th starter, definitely jump on it.
Definitely non-tender Ho-Ram.
No problems with trading Balentien… give him to the Marlins for Scott Olsen.
And I’d weigh re-signing Guillen against the option of making a deal for an under-valued player such as Rocco Baldelli who could be had for cheap and who still could turn into a very nice player, hamstring issues pending. (Washburn for Baldelli? I’d do that…) Then again, I doubt Bavasi will get that creative with the roster. He’s wanting to add starting pitchers, not subtract them…
re: .26
I’m not sure how you plan for “timely hitting”. Please elaborate.
re: 29 — Thanks for the smartass reply.
I don’t think you can “plan” for “timely hitting,” but I think that when piecing together a roster it’s important to keep a couple of things in mind:
1) great rosters aren’t filled with mashers
2) to build rallies and hang lopsided numbers on the board, you have to put together an offense that can string hits together.
You want to blame the Yankees 2007 postseason failure on something, blame it on the fact that they completely failed to drive people in when given opportunities.
Take for instance the bases-loaded one-out jam that Paul Byrd pitched himself into. Damon pops out to short, Jeter “singles,” on a play 70% of AL third baseman make, to drive in a run, and then Abreu flies out to end the inning. For me, the game was over there. The fact that the Yankees continued to miss opportunities to claw back and put a dent in the deficit doomed them.
Finally, last note on the Yankees failures before I get to my second point: the Yankees scored a total of 12 runs during the Cleveland series. Nine of those runs came on home runs — including six solo shots.
For my money, I’d much rather have an offense that strings together singles and doubles rather than trying to bop one out.
And, here’s the real thing about “timely hitting,” — if you piece together a team like the 2007 Rockies, who had four guys hit above .300, had one significant home run threat (Holliday) and several 20-30 guys (Atkins / Tulo / Hawpe / Helton – somehwat), as well as no real holes in the lineup (Torrealba being their lone weak-hitting regular), you have a recipe for success.
Seriously, 1-8 in the Rockies lineup, what’s the weak link (other than maybe Torrealba)?
Matsui (solid hitter, tough out)
Tulowitzki (little strikeout prone, but very solid nonetheless)
Holliday (yea, I wouldn’t pitch to him if I could avoid it)
Helton (still hits for high average, can mash the ball)
Atkins (can flat out hit)
Hawpe (see above)
Spillborghs / Taveras (either way you get solid production, OBP of .365ish)
Torrealba (even for a weak link still hits .255)
So, what I’m driving at, is that there are no easy spots in that lineup, no real chance for a pitcher to settle down and just steamroll right on through.
Why couldn’t the M’s build that? Why couldn’t guys like Jones / Beltre / Lopez / Guillen / Ibanez / Betancourt / Johjima / Broussard, who I all believe could hit .270-.300 compliment Ichiro in the lineup, with the home run power coming in pieces from Beltre, Guillen, Ibanez?
What am I missing?
I like extra base hits.
I like walks too.
In fact, here’s my trifecta of attributes: extra base hits, walks, premium defense…..
26 said “I’d give Rowland-Smith / Baek / Feierband / Morrow all a shot at winning the gig. Two of the guys who don’t win the job (I’m assuming Morrow’s one of them) get spots in the bullpen, with the fourth being sent back to Tacoma.”
I wonder why you would want to send Morrow back to the bullpen. We need starters, and that’s what we drafted him for. Keeping him in the bullpen is just delaying his progress. So if Morrow doesn’t win the last rotation spot (which is likely), I think he should go to Tacoma, so that he can try to join the club later in the year, or ‘09.
Rowland-Smith should go back to the bullpen so he can keep doing what he did for us this year. Given Feierband’s youth, I think he gets more time to become a starter in Tacoma, as well. Looking at it now, it seems like Baek is the most likely to win the spot, but if he doesn’t, I wonder if it’s time to think about moving him? I really don’t know what to do with him if he can’t win the spot against this competition.
In general, though, I think if someone has any chance of becoming a decent starter, they should be in Tacoma working on that – not helping a club that, let’s be honest, probably isn’t going anywhere next year anyway.
31/32/33 — and what, the Rockies don’t do all of that? Seriously, most hits in the NL / 7th out of 16 in doubles / 6th out of 16 in triples / 6th out of 16 in homers / 2nd out of 16 in walks / very solid defense.
Mariners, by comparison, 3rd out of 14 in hits / 12th out of 14 in doubles / 12th out of 14 in triples / 10th out of 14 in homers / last in walks / less than desirable defense.
Thanks for proving my point
35 – I don’t think dc was saying that the Rockies don’t do that. But your M’s lineup is no Rockies lineup, that’s for sure. The point is that the Rockies hit for average AND walk AND have some pop. The Mariners hot for some average, but don’t walk. When you get a bunch of guys together who only hit for average with very little patience it’s asking for some major slumpage.
sorry, HIT for average. they don’t HOT for average.
You’re the one who used the phrase “timely hitting” when you apparently meant something else.
If you don’t want “smartass” replies, don’t use nonsense phrases.
Baek would be a decent fifth starter, and should have been given the job last year instead of wasting money on Weaver…Raul HAS to DH…his defense is a liability even at 1st…and if A-ROD goes to the Angels, we’re screwed anyway…
“They may see if HoRam can turn it around in spring training.”
Really? I thought there was no way this was going to happen. I’d rather give Weaver a try to turn it around. Say it ain’t so, Derek.
And I also meant what Terry was writing, sorry. This cold is killin’ me. I’ll just shut up and read.
I think you absolutely have to take on Moose…I mean, just for the nickname. Nothing else, make him a mascot…
Of note, timely hitting wasn’t included in my trifecta…
OK, rather than just throwing out cheap shots, DC, I’ll point out a couple of holes in your logic.
First, citing the Rockies’ batting average has the problem of Coors inflation. The shiny BAs you list aren’t as impressive if you look at home/road splits.
Pulling out one example from one game doesn’t support your argument at all. Neither does the fact that the Mariners had one of the higher team batting averages in baseball. I’m not sure how you’d construct a roster to “string” together hits much better than the M’s did. And, it led to several ugly losing streaks.
Rather than loading up on singles and doubles hitters, I’d rather drill a little plate discipline into the hitters’ heads, or get a few guys who know how to take a walk.
Is there actually any plausible scenario in which we agree to send Raúl Ibañez to the Tigers for a starting pitcher? (After all, that would improve our pitching staff in two ways.) Or is that just Jon Paul Morosi trying to make his brief stint in Seattle relevant to his new gig?
As far as Mussina goes, Derek, I’m with you.
I just checked out the home/road splits. Colorado’s offense is actually below average away from Coors (.236/.336/.395). By contrast, the M’s away numbers are .290/.337/.432.
Comparing a team that plays in the most favorable offensive home park in baseball with one that plays in one of the most unfavorable ones isn’t very meaningful.
Whatever, criticism aside, I wasn’t trying to get hung up on the phrase timely hitting. My bad.
What I’m trying to say, is that it seemed like our philosophy this year was to attack, attack, attack every chance we got at the plate – to be fair, more than “seemed” actually that was pretty much stated by management. If we were to teach or at least stress for our vets the impotance of stretching at bats, and innings, and pitchers out, by being more selective I still think it’s not too late to instill that in our players.
Basically, the crux of my statement is that I think the Mariners lineup in 2008 could be fashioned a lot like the Rockies lineup from this year. Yes we need to teach our guys to walk some more, but if we can continue to hit for high averages, and somehow manage to get a guy with some pop in the middle of the order as opposed to Sexson pulling the offense down, I don’t think things are as miserable as they’re made out to be.
I realize that probably none of this will happen because it’s not likely the Bavasi-McLaren brain trust will change philosophies in the offseason. But, I don’t think changing the mindset of our hitters is impossible were the right people to be in charge.
And, with a .236 average away from Coors, it’s pretty telling that the Rockies have a .336 OBP away from Coors, which is basically the same as their OBP at Coors just goes to show that they’re selective when they need to be — not necissarily all the time.
I just feel like our offense is close, real close to being a really good one.
Maybe I’m alone.
Correction: Colo’s road splits are .261/.336/.395.
I concur that the M’s offense isn’t far away from being formidable, but the glaring weakness, lack of walks, is nearly impossible to fix in the short term, given the organization’s philosophy and the type of players they’ve brought in.
You could overcome part of this by getting a slugging DH, but that would be at the cost of one of the only guys on the team who takes the occasional BB.
What I expect to happen is that the M’s play closer to their Pythagorean record next season, which leads, at long last, to a front office housecleaning. I think it will be such a letdown after the perceived steady progress of the past few seasons that it may actually lead Lincoln et al to question some of their basic philosophies. I can dream, can’t I?
I’m not so sure that our offense is even close to being top of the league. This team used to have a guy in the middle of the order who had a Career OBA of .418, a Career SLG of .515 and Career OPS+ of 147. He was the engine that made our offense great. Until we get a stud who is that consistent in all phases of hitting we will ride the roller coaster of hot and cold streaks.
Is Carlos Silva going to be prohibitively expensive?
Seems to me he’d be a good fit at Safeco.
I realize that Bavasi has a penchant for pursuing overpriced mediocre declining veterans, but isn’t Silva a little better than that?
Anybody know if Kam Mickolo will be ready to go by Spring Training?
Anybody also think they have an idea if Bryan LaHair will be Major League ready by ‘09?
47,
So to summarize, you’d like a lineup with high averages, average or above walks, and power in the middle? I think that’s what every team in baseball wants. Easier said than done.
As 49 pointed out, that’s not likely to happen with this lineup. All the coaching in the world can only do so much, so while it’s certainly a noble goal to do the things you mentioned, I think we need to be a little more realistic about what we’re working with. Even if the guys we have improve, we can easily still be the worst team in the AL at walking – there’s just that much distance between us and the rest of the pack (KC had 39 more, and we were approx. 150 below the AL average in ‘07).
I think the more realistic approach is that we look for high OBP in future signings, rather than focusing on our existing players. I don’t think we’re going to teach our ‘old dogs’ (Beltre, Ibanez, Guillen, Ichiro, Johjima) any new tricks. Put some work into Betancourt, Lopez and Jones, and we might see some improvement. Feel free to straighten me out on this if you know better, but I have the impression that once you hit the major league level, significant change in walk rate is unlikely.
2) to build rallies and hang lopsided numbers on the board, you have to put together an offense that can string hits together.
Actually, crooked numbers usually come from mashing the ball off, over or at least to, the fence. Hitting a bunch of singles is what the M’s did this year, and the result, while not terrible, is usally a run here, a run there, lots of guys left on base, and lots of streakiness. That’s not necessarily a negative, but it’s also not an improvement over this year.
Someone suggested non-tendering Ramirez. I thought he was under contract for 08. If so, I doubt anyone would take him off our hands. I don’t know if a move to the bullpen would help him, but I would not, under any circumstances, give him a shot at earning a rotation spot in Spring Training. ST is way too small a sample size, with a variable quality of competition. He could look really good in Peoria, but there’s no “turning around” for him to do. He is what he is, and I’d either turn him into long relief, or stash him in Tacoma as an emergency starter.
The only problem with bringing someone in to challenge Lopez for 2B is that there’s just no place for the loser to go. We already have a utility IF in Bloomquist, and already have a logjam at DH. Whoever loses would probably need to go out. I assume Lopez still has options left, and he also has some trade value (young, former All-Star middle infielder, struggling as of late? I’d take him). Anyone they sign to challenge for 2B probably has neither. I’d really hate to see them give up on Lopez, but I expect they will.
The only problem with bringing someone in to challenge Lopez for 2B is that there’s just no place for the loser to go.
I’m not really married to the idea of WFB as the utility IF, but I understand the front office is. That being said, though, I’m more inclined to look in the minors for an underrated guy trapped in a minor league system than paw through the FA market. Think of this as AbCab in reverse. As such, you’re likely to have more roster flexibility than with a “proven veteran”- where the choice is basically to dump him in spring training or force him onto the roster somehow.
55- ramirez’s contract is up…seattle can let him walk or do whatever they want if they resign him…
I’m not sure they even consider this…either that, or they’re so married to the idea that major league experience trumps talent, that they will never do it.
I’m not so sure getting ‘value’ in the FA market is as difficult as you make it sound. Getting value in 2008 will surely be difficult, but the price of pitching goes up every year. A 5-year, 100+ mil contract might look like a steal in 2010.
I’m not so sure getting ‘value’ in the FA market is as difficult as you make it sound.
When compared to what you can get out of a farm system, I actually think it is.
55- ramirez’s contract is up
Well, that’s a bit of good news. Thanks for setting me straight.
So if we’re just judging the actions of the current management groups, then what have Wayne Krivsky and Bob Castellini done to merit an F? By pretty much any measure, the Reds are much stronger than they were when that crew took over just before 2006. The 40 man roster is much deeper. There is more young talent on the 25 man. They have 4 of the top 20 prospects in baseball – a top 10 system easily. After Junior walks in 2008, they have zero bad contracts on the book. This rating just smacks of a surface level reaction to a reputation of the organization — exactly the opposite of how you treated Tampa Bay. You do realize these aren’t the same guys who signed Eric Milton and traded for Tony Womack, right?