Comments on: Armstrong Speaks

By: downwarddog

downwarddog — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:22:41 +0000

Beltre has one year in his career that was great, the year before he came to Seattle. He hasn’t been remotely close since. That said, his contract is up, so expect 2009 to be pretty decent by Beltre standards. Completely expendable.

By: DAMellen

DAMellen — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:29:48 +0000

Why a pitcher? Obviously, we have to get some quality players back, but why a pitcher? Do they think our lineup is so strong that we don’t have any use for position players? That seems like the Ms pigeonholing and role playing again. “You don’t trade a corner bat without getting a quality pitcher in return.” That’s dumb. And for the record, I bet when he says quality, he means has had at least one season with a good ERA at the major league level. Not actual quality.

By: msb

msb — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:59:12 +0000

from Stark

“For whom the Beltre toils: One more corner bat the Giants appear to be targeting is Seattle’s Adrian Beltre.

“Beltre is playing really well right now, and he’s playing hard,” said one scout, “maybe because he thinks it will help get him out of there. I know the Giants have done a lot of work on this guy. They’re looking at him hard.”

But to deal for Beltre, the Giants would have to overcome the same issue — trading away someone like Cain. There’s no way to know for certain whether interim GM Lee Pelekoudas or someone else will be making the decisions in Seattle. But every team we talk to about the Giants says it would want a starting pitcher back in any significant deal. And clubs that have spoken with Pelekoudas say that if it’s up to him, he “won’t let Beltre go without getting a quality pitcher back.”"

By: joser

joser — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:13:06 +0000

The Mayan calendar doesn’t end in 2012 any more than ours ended at Y2K. It rolls over like an odometer. And according to actual Mayan scholars, as opposed to New Age nut cases and/or scam artists with books to sell, past roll-overs for the Mayans were an occasion for great parties and rejoicing. So perhaps that’s something for the M’s to look forward to (though, given how they aligned their calendar with anticipated stadium openings, I suspect that the Mayans were A’s fans).

By: pgreyy

pgreyy — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:23:58 +0000

According to the Mayan calendar, the world will come to an end in 2012…so, perhaps this talk of the slow rebuild to contend again years from now is a bit shortsighted?

(Oh, and my worry about the main quote above…”grind through some of these contracts we’re obligated to…”–might NOT mean ditching these players…but to accept that some non-producing elements of our roster will be trotted out there on a regular basis until their contracts are up. Grind, indeed. Without improvement, as an M’s fan, I’ll be a toothless bloody gummed mess by then.)

By: metz123

metz123 — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:59:45 +0000

Of course you can rebuild and compete. The M’s should be competing every year. They have a great revenue stream, they are in a 4 team division and they have more money than 2 of those teams.

Boston has been competing and refreshing their roster since 2003. Yeah, they’ve now got the 2nd largest payroll in MLB. They do most things right, they trade for what they don’t have, they let players go that they don’t want sentimentality be damned, they build bullpens on the cheap and they get good talent through the farm system and turn it into productive major leaguers.

The M’s could easily do the same thing if they just bothered to watch and LEARN.

By: Steve T

Steve T — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:47:54 +0000

Rebuild with what? Who has confidence that this management team could rebuild a frigging cardboard box, let alone a 21st-century baseball team?

By: joser

joser — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:14:17 +0000

2012. That’s when the A’s will open their new stadium. The M’s have never been smarter than the A’s in the Beane era, and starting then they won’t be richer. And the M’s will be trying to hang onto Felix then too.

Four years. That’s what they have to get things permanently turned around. Or get used to seasons like this one, at the bottom of the AL West.

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:41:29 +0000

Of course we can rebuild and compete. We’re in a four team division, and Oakland has done a pretty good job of doing the same thing on a smaller payroll.

By: Tek Jansen

Tek Jansen — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:09:56 +0000

No one is taking Silva or Joh. The M’s are stuck with them. Wash and/or Batista might get a career minor leaguer back in return.

I hope that the new GM realizes that he needs an excellent return for any possible Beltre trade. While I do not advocating turning down an excellent offer for Beltre, or signing Ibanez to a long term deal to play LF, it is still depressing to think of what the M’s lineup will look like without them. Ichiro and the nobodies.