Comments on: Russell Branyan

By: joser

joser — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:39:33 +0000

My response was, ‘I’d love him.’” Wakamatsu said. “I’ve liked Russell for years, but from an opposing coach’s point of view, I saw things I thought I could help.

Wak keeps saying interesting, non-clichéd things. I’m sure a year in the spotlight will beat that out of him, but I find it amazing (and refreshing) that he’s reached this point in his career without taking the Crash Davis philosophy to heart.

By: msb

msb — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:23:13 +0000

gotta love the Kitsap Sun

“M’s Sign Big-Swinging First Sacker”

By: The Ancient Mariner

The Ancient Mariner — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:37:42 +0000

Look, when you’re paying $1.4 million plus incentives for one year, you haven’t limited anybody, and you haven’t made the sort of commitment that’s going to skew your manager’s decisions. When you consider that we have great sucking voids at both 1B and DH, adding someone who is at best half the answer for one of those positions shouldn’t start us complaining that we’re blocking anybody. We still don’t have enough hitters for those slots, even if you give up on Clement behind the plate and just plug him in to one of them (which I for one don’t want to see them do), so what’s to fret about?

Ideally, I’d still like to see them deal for Nelson, and then sign a platoon partner for Branyan, and give Clement every shot to win the starting catcher job, and let the best players win the playing time. After all, we’re going to have an FO and field staff that have no competing loyalties to skew their judgment on that (well, Zduriencik might have on Nelson, but he doesn’t strike me as the type to micro-manage the guys on the field, and none of them have ties to any of these folks).

By: dchappelle

dchappelle — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:09:11 +0000

I can’t say I like this signing. Clement’s Marcel projection is .257/.329/.414 and he seems the most likely to lose at bats with Russell on the roster. This looks like another player without a position and he can’t even really play defense. Sure, he’s cheap, but would seem to limit the possibility of a Brad Nelson or similar pickup.

Meh.

By: msb

msb — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:24:13 +0000

interesting Wak quote about Branyon “Jack had talked to me a week, 10 days ago and bounced his name around. My response was, ‘I’d love him.’” Wakamatsu said. “I’ve liked Russell for years, but from an opposing coach’s point of view, I saw things I thought I could help. He has the ability to carry a club at times.”

By: Teej

Teej — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:42:15 +0000

I’m all for adding high OBP, low-contact, power guys.

I’m all for this signing, but it should be made clear that Branyan is not a high-OBP guy. His career OBP is .328, compared with a park-adjusted league average of .338 over his career.

Marcel, as Dave points out, has him at .327 next year. He walks a fair amount, but the insane strikeout numbers will keep his OBP down around average, if not below. The comparisons to Dunn are a bit of a stretch.

I’m confident just calling him a power guy.

By: Breadbaker

Breadbaker — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:02:46 +0000

When was the last time a Mariner signing filled a real need (a left-handed masher) without putting anyone out of a job (sorry, Bryan LaHair, you’re not “anyone”) or duplicating a skill already in place (e.g., Cairo versus Bloomquist)?

By: DMZ

DMZ — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:54:50 +0000

It’s up. Man, it’s pretty long.

By: ThundaPC

ThundaPC — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:49:36 +0000

Or Carl Everett ($4 Million/year).

By: CMC_Stags

CMC_Stags — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:46:21 +0000

DMZ -

Thank you for being awesome and writing that up.

TIF-

That’s the best news the M’s have had for a long time. Compare that to the Spiezio contract.