M’s sign Chris Shelton

Dave · December 8, 2008 at 8:07 am · Filed Under Mariners 

Seriously, I think Jack Z understands how to build a pretty sweet 1B platoon for no money. The M’s have inked Chris Shelton, and he now becomes the frontrunner to be Branyan’s platoon partner at first base. That should be a productive duo for basically $2 million bucks.

Go Jack Go.

Tags:

Comments

57 Responses to “M’s sign Chris Shelton”

  1. BillH on December 8th, 2008 7:26 pm

    Ahh, yes, and of course we’ve never heard of small-sample-size theater and think that 97 AB can tell us all we need to know.

    97 ABs is enough for the manager to determine if you deserve another 97. He was DFA’ed in June.

  2. The Ancient Mariner on December 8th, 2008 8:12 pm

    And this proves what, exactly? Michael Jordan was cut from his high-school basketball team in tenth grade — clearly, the guy just couldn’t play the game.

  3. JLP on December 8th, 2008 9:09 pm

    Why are we so happy with this signing again? That’s right, because it was cheap and he may be serviceable if you find yourself in a bind. If you think there’s anything more to it than that, then you’re deluding yourself.

    I don’t think anyone is looking at this signing as anything more than what you just said, Bill. On paper, it looks as if Jack Z. has signed two low-cost players to fill a gap until a better solution presents itself. I don’t think he signed them to platoon at 1B/DH for years to come. I mean, Shelton’s contract is a minor league deal. If Jack Z. and Don W. don’t think he’s working out during spring training, then they can keep him in the minors. No harm there. If anything, he’ll rake down there and perhaps earn himself another shot at the bigs.

    I think you’re reading too much into people’s elation. I think people are just really excited that Jack is actually making somewhat beneficial moves. Instead of selling the farm for nothing, he’s taking a flyer on a low-cost player with some upside, something that Bavasi wouldn’t have done with a gun pressed to his temple.

  4. MKT on December 8th, 2008 9:12 pm

    I find these moves very refreshing. It reminds me of the days when we couldn’t sign the Texeria-types and Sexson-types
    […]
    so we looked around and found Luis Sojo and Rich Amaral and Paul Sorrento

    Not just Sorrento, but David Segui too … he perhaps wasn’t the bargain that Sorrento was but he still hit serviceably and had a salary that was less than half of the M’s departed free agent Tino Martinez. So in the four years between the (relatively) big names of Tino Martinez and John Olerud, the Ms managed to do okay with relatively cheap first basemen.

  5. Jeff Nye on December 8th, 2008 9:26 pm

    If you can’t get excited about the massive change in organizational process and philosophy that these recent moves show, then I don’t know what to tell you.

  6. eponymous coward on December 8th, 2008 10:09 pm

    LaHair’s career minor league OPS: .806
    Shelton’s career minor league OPS: .919

    Shelton’s the better hitter. Not even close.

    (FWIW, Russ Branyan’s career minor league OPS: .917)

  7. gwangung on December 9th, 2008 7:46 am

    97 ABs is enough for the manager to determine if you deserve another 97.

    No, it isn’t.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.