M’s deny Millwood 4/$44 offer
DMZ · December 6, 2005 at 6:23 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Short version: teams says they haven’t even talked seriously yet, much less gotten all the way to sliding a piece of paper across the table.
Almost as interesting was this, though:
Bavasi said that the Mariners had merely inquired about A.J. Burnett, who inked a five-year, $55 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday, and that they had shown interest in the other three starters who have signed in recent days: Byrd, Loaiza and Hector Carrasco.
In characterizing the club’s interest in the four, Bavasi said, “One a ton, one a medium amount, one a little and one an inquiry.”
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58 Responses to “M’s deny Millwood 4/$44 offer”
Oh, and a rotation where Rogers, Piñeiro, Moyer and Meche is assuming a bunch of contingecies all turning out right- Rogers and Moyer stay effective as they go deeper into their 40’s (both Rogers and Moyer have very “meh” peripherals, with Rogers the most likey to get a vicious regression to mean), Meche becomes effective for the first time ever, Piñeiro bounces back.
If you were making 2 bets like that (say, Moyer and Piñeiro)…I can see it. A trifecta is pushing it. 4 is right out.
Yeah … after all, the Bavasis have been genetically engineering bad general managers for three generations and counting.
Buzzy Bavasi won championships in Brooklyn and LA (and the LA teams certainly were HIS, not running on Branch Rickey fumes like the ’55 team). He didn’t do much in San Diego, but expansion franchises are tough gigs. The Angels of the 1970’s weren’t bad.
Bill, OTOH…not such a good record.
Dan Obrien is a talented GM. Dont beleive me, examine the Houstan Astros and the position players/starters their farm system produced after Obrien retooled it. Examine the Rangers farm system and the guys in their line up it produced-after Obrien retooled their system. Next stop-Cincy….examine the progress its farm system has made since he’s been there (only two years).
The Milton signing isnt proof Obrien is stupid. Its proof the Reds previous ownership was clueless. You cant give someone a pile of cash and say buy the best/hottest Christmas presents ever- the day after Christmas. The Reds ownership saw season ticket sales in the tank and decided to free up 20 million in payroll after 80% of the market had been determined. Obrien was commanded by his boss to throw money at a garbage pile. He reluctantly did and no surprise what happened next.
To be “competitive”, the M’s need, at a minimum, 2 quality starting pitchers and one good hitter. There is a small chance that they could get lucky and get by with less than that, some of the young guys could turn in all star performances and carry the team, but that is very small probability.
If no Millwood, that leaves a long way to go to get to where they need to be through the trade route.
The trouble with trades is that the M’s have little of value that can be dealt without opening another hole that would then have to be filled by a trade….
About the only place there is some depth that could be dealt would be in the bullpen. A short list of what some other team might want would include Guardado and Torrealba and Reed. That really is about all (and I’m including Reed because I think the M’s have a couple of players in the minors that could take over in Center and hit .240 with no power just as well as Reed, the real issue is whether any other team would want to take a flyer on him).
There’s a lot of stuff that the M’s could package up, but most of it would not be very attractive — like Baek, Franklin, Meche, Nageotte, Bloomquist, Dobbs, Morse, Choo, Strong. Odds of finding a team who really wants any of these would be slim, but stranger things have happened.
I think we have to face facts, the M’s are not going to be a .500+ ballclub in 2006. There is no way they can get the talent they need, at least not unless a team does a fire sale and gives away talent for money. If they do get what they need, then I’ll have to conclude that Bavasi is a genius.
Jim Street has retired.
That’s weird. He got a byline yesterday.
Far off topic:
Thanks Derek for the Carl Everett monolog earlier. Hugely enjoyable.
Don’t be so sure that Jim Street has retired. He “retired” once before, when he was the P-I’s Mariner beat writer and believe it or not, president of the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America). After a season or two away, he was brought back by the Mariners as the M’s “beat writer” for the new MLB.com.
Doug Miller was brought in to replace Street as the M’s beat writer for MLB.com. Street’s basically retired.