A Name To Tuck Away
Due to the varying abilities of the players already on the roster, the M’s find themselves in a rather interesting position this winter. They have four talented young position players who are all close to major league ready. They aren’t finished products necessarily, but they can play, and they have enough ability to fight for a spot on the team in spring training. Quality young talent is the lifeblood of an organization, and the upside of having first or second year players contributing for the league minimum is tough to match.
However, none of the four project to be good enough in 2010 that they should have job security heading into next season. They should have the opportunity to make the team, but the M’s can’t go into the season depending on these guys stepping up. It has to be a pleasant surprise, not an expected outcome. So, at each of their respective positions, the M’s need to provide a realistic alternative, but they need to do so without slamming the door shut on the kids.
At those positions, they need options, not necessarily solutions. That’s easier said than done, honestly. You generally don’t expend significant resources to acquire a player and then put his job up for grabs in spring training. You’re not going to sign Nick Johnson, then make him beat out Mike Carp for the first base job. That’s just not going to happen.
There is a path that can make this work, however – targeting players with positional flexibility. This is one of the ideas behind the acquisitions of guys like Jack Hannahan and Bill Hall. If Tui flops, those two could platoon at third base. If they trade Lopez, maybe those two share second base. Or maybe they keep Lopez and Tui wins the third base job, so Hall ends up as Saunders platoon partner and Hannahan fills the role of infield super-sub. Those guys give the M’s options.
What they don’t give the M’s is enough offense. They’re nice enough role players, but they’re backup plans if the first option doesn’t work out. The M’s need a guy with some positional flexibility who they actually want in the line-up and is good enough to hold down a fairly regular job. They need a guy who could slide in at two or three of the LF/3B/1B/C/DH jobs, depending on where the team needs him. It would also be great if he was a switch-hitter, giving the line-up some balance regardless of which position he ends up playing. Oh, and if he was already under contract for the next two years at reasonable salaries, that would help. If he happened to grow up in Moses Lake as a big Mariner fan, that would just be icing on the cake.
Believe it or not, that guy exists. His name is Ryan Doumit. He’s spent the last couple of years alternating between catcher and the disabled list for the Pirates, though they’ve also used him at first base and in the outfield, because his strengths behind the plate begin and end with “he can hit”. The rest of the resume is all pulled straight from Doumit’s file. He’s a switch hitter without much of a platoon split. He has some pop in his bat, and for his career, has been an above average major league hitter. He’ll be 29 next year, and is signed for $3.5 million in 2010 and $5.1 million in 2011, with a team option for 2012 and 2013 following that year. And yes, he’s a local kid. He’s even Willie Bloomquist’s cousin, so you know there’s grit and hustle in the genes somewhere.
He comes with downside, of course, or he wouldn’t be available. He posted a .299 OBP in 2009 when he was on the field, which wasn’t often. A good chunk of that was a low BABIP (.271 versus a .307 career mark), but he’s not a particularly patient hitter, so his on base percentage will always be driven by his batting average. He’s got enough power to make the approach work, but if you’re tired of guys hacking at pitches out of the strike zone, you may not love Doumit. He’s also been hurt a lot in his career, never compiling more than 465 at-bats in a season, and had wrist surgery last year, which is known for sapping power. And, as mentioned, he’s not much of a receiver behind the plate, nor would likely be particularly great at either first or in left.
He’s a hitter first and foremost, with the bonus ability to not totally embarrass himself at three positions. And that gives the M’s options.
If Rob Johnson’s recovery from multiple surgeries don’t go well or Moore flops in spring training, Doumit can fill in at catcher. If whatever 1B/DH they bring in has say, a herniated disc in his back that requires a rest, he can play there. If Saunders can’t hack it in left just yet, you can stick him in the outfield until Ackley’s ready. And, if the M’s hit the lotto and all the young guys play well, then you have the best 10th man in baseball.
Doumit would give the M’s flexibility and productivity. That he’s not particularly expensive and is coming off a poor season makes him exactly the kind of player Zduriencik has shown to be interested in. While the names of higher profile players float around, keep Doumit’s name in the back of your mind, and don’t be too shocked if the M’s end up making a play for him.
Basketball on Segways, I’d like to see that.
Can’t take being told your ideas might suck? Sorry if i offended you. Your points are as valid as mine. Thats all I’ll say.
Go start your own blog, then. As long as you’re in our house, you play by our rules. So stop whining. This is your last warning. No one here will miss you if you keep this crap up.
[goodbye]
That is definitely where I part company with Wag. I like Jose, but he and the Mariners would be better off with him sent down the road. As impressive as his HR totals were, they are not the sum total of an offensive player. Jose would hit more home runs in a friendlier park and we would be happier with a player that gets on base more, takes more pitches, and has more to his game than lining a ball 5′ past the LF foul pole once every 25AB.
Those are below average skills for a 2b, and roster killing skills for a 1b or 3b. The balancing act the Mariners have to pull off this offseason, is to get better marginally offensively, without getting worse defensively. Replacing Jose at 2nd with a better offensive player, and hopefully defensively too is one of our few opportunities. Jose at 1st or 3rd doesn’t add more defensively than his offensive limitations take away.
Your points are as valid as mine. Thats all I’ll say.
This is ridiculous. They’re not. Dave knows his stuff inside and out, back to front, and up and down. He has contacts with scouts, front offices, and at the cutting edge of active research. You are a man with a computer and an opinion.
When you put in the work Dave has, people will value your input accordingly.
Actually, I generally think you have to show your work (you do get partial credit around here when you do the work–start with the statistical foundation and reason from there).
The problem here is that he DID show his work….
Even when the apple has a worm, Mike Snow presents the shiny side. Are you in sales by chance? 🙂
Your points are generally misguided and your responses tend to be rather combative. That is not how we carry ourselves here.
Good luck on whatever Fox blog you end up joining. I’m sure you’ll learn absolutely nothing there.
Are you in sales by chance?
Goodness no, not in the slightest. I just like to find entertaining twists to inadvertent errors. It’s more fun for everybody else than me harping on my pet peeves (waver/waiver, rein/reign, cache/cachet, etc.).
It definitely is more entertaining. (How does then/than strike you?) heh
(How does then/than strike you?)
Well, the editor in me will want to fix the mistakes, but that’s an ordinary typo. It’s not nearly as grating as the others, which are epidemic in sportswriting and suggest a certain literary pretension without actually having mastered the literary skills to use the words correctly.
Aren’t the terms “sportswriter” and “literary skills” mutually exclusive?
Not necessarily, the field has always had truly talented writers, ranging from David Halberstam to Ralph Wiley to Bill Simmons according to your tastes. But when your run-of-the-mill hack columnists try to emulate that kind of artistic talent, they have a tendency to get intellectually overextended.
I thought the general topic was “potential M’s acquisitions” and the specific topic was “players with positional flexibility” plus offense. Accordingly, Dave proceeded to make the case that Doumit is the player that best fits the criteria (i.e., the topic). So, if the (specific) topic was really Ryan Doumit, perhaps the title should have been “Ryan Doumit: A name to tuck away” or at least he could have been mentioned before the 6th paragraph. This is not a criticism of the post, just an observation directed at any would be topic Nazis.
A player that can hit with “positional flexibility” is certainly valuable, but a CATCHER along those lines is the holy grail of versatility. With Moore and Johnson being so inexperienced, Doumit could be an ideal pickup.
[off-topic]
As a Mariner, I think we would quickly find quotation marks appearing around Doumit’s position whenever he appeared as the backstop on our lineup card.
I don’t think the Doumit thing will happen, at least not before the season starts. The Pirates were very high on him but he slumped badly after he returned from the wrist injury. But he did hit very well in September. For 3.5MM, I think they’ll at least wait to see how he does and move him either before the trading deadline (unless they’re contending – just kidding) or before next season. It’s a pretty good gamble. If he comes anywhere close to approaching his ’08 numbers they’ll be able to get a lot more for him.
That’s a good point Mike. I might also add Art Thiel to that list.
I love posts like these.
I was focusing on national names, but Thiel is a good writer, yes.
@KingCorran
Similar to the ones that belong around Rob Johnson’s name when Johnson is in the lineup?
Pardon, I was just looking at writers worth reading. I really hadn’t considered whether they were national or not. (yet more proof of my attention span I suppose)
Oh, I didn’t mean the discussion should be limited to national names. I just meant that’s the kind I thought about to come up with my examples, so someone like Thiel didn’t occur to me. Your attention span is fine, considering that we’ve managed to keep this exchange going all day.
As a Pirates fan, I had been thinking about possible destinations for Doumit in the event that he’s traded (which, for the record, I don’t think is a given, as his contract is very team-friendly and long enough that he has a chance to be a solid contributor when the Bucs are ready to compete), and the Ms and the Rays seem like the logical places for him to end up. I agree with Dave on this point. Unfortunately, I’m not sure the Ms match up with the Bucs as trade partners. The Pirates need MIs and SPs, and I’d imagine they’d want for Doumit something like the package they got for McLouth, which was the numbers 4 and 7 prospects in the Atlanta organization, plus a major-league ready SP. I doubt the Ms want to trade Triunfel, and I don’t see what’s left to make a deal work. Any ideas?