I've been reading up a lot at LookoutLanding, USSMariner, and Detecovision, and I wanted to write a summary of the offseason so far and the franchise of the Mariners look forward.
Additions:
Jose Guillen A
For the price, he's great. Someone made the mention that getting Ichiro in center and him in right is like having Ichiro in right and Vernon Wells in center. Vernon Wells was just reportedly offered a $18 million per year contract for 7 years, so, getting Guillen at $5 million with incentives is awesome. Guillen can obviously hit, and the only real negatives about him are that he might take away time from Snelling, he is right handed, his arm isn't completely stable after surgery, and he doesn't walk a lot, which is a team need. Otherwise he gives us a legitmate power bat that can hit 5th in the lineup and put up 280 325 wtih 25 hr and 100 rbis.
Horacio Ramirez C+
We had to give up Soriano for him, who's one of my favorites, but Soriano is a relief pitcher, and we seem to have tons of those. Ramirez is good at ground balls, and he is a lefty, but he gets injured and just isn't that great at missing bats. I like this move to get less downside risk in starting pitching, but the questions are, couldn't we have gotten more out of Soriano or a Soriano package and how much better is Ramirez compared to Woods, Baek, or Feierabend?
Miguel Batista B
He's another solid groundballer, who doesn't get injured. $8 million per may seem like a lot, but its only 3 years (although he is 36) and this market seems to be insane. Solid addition to a solid lineup.
Justin Lehr B+
He's cheap, fairly young, and could be a useful pen arm. He's not very expensive, so I say sign tons of these guys and see if they pan out.
Subtractions:
Gil Meche A+
I'd like to have Gil Meche on my team. I think he' s a solid 3 or 4 pitcher, problem is is that he got a $55 million over 5 year contract, something I'd never pay especially when Schmidt only got $16 million a year for 3 years.
Joel Pineiro A
I used to love this guy, but a junkballer out of the bullpen just isn't appealing. For some reason he lost his stuff, and that just sucks for him because he seems like a great guy.
Rafael Soriano C
Great live arm, question marks with his injury problems, and he seemed to lose velocity at the end of the year before he got hit on the head. Like I said before, we should have gotten more for him.
Future:
We seem to have a great bench, but we're still one starting pitcher off. I don't know if Zito is what we need, and I don't know if I'd want to pay him $120 million over 7 years, but I feel like we need one number two guy or a power bat or something. The Cardinals won it all last year with just Carpenter and a bunch of solid guys in the rotation, but to do what they did, we'd actually have to make the playoffs. We need to get rid of an excess guy like Ben Broussard, Jeremy Reed, maybe even George Sherrill or a prospect to get a decent pitcher. I was all on the Jason Jennings bandwagon like most people, but he's already been traded. Any kind of solid 2 or 3 pitcher I say we get. I don't want to trade Adam Jones, because I think he could be very good, but I'd be willing to part with Clement, because I wouldn't mind having Johjima for a few more years.
Another possibility is just to sign a guy like Mulder and take our chances. Free Agency seems to be drying up, so we need to do something.
Summary:
I'm an optimist, and I see our team doing well. Felix will show up in shape and ready to get groundballs and will contend for the Cy Young. Ichiro will be excited about a team in the playoff hunt in August and get 240 or so hits. Beltre and Sexson will finally get a decent entire season that they've shown flashes of, Lopez will blossom for the full season too and be a 25 25 man. Snelling will not be injured as much because him, Guillen, and Ibanez will be switching to the DH spot and will get a 420 obp. Guillen and Ibanez will be solid corner outfielders and hit 280 25 hr. Betancourt will continue to get a high average and show why Bavasi was so intent on getting ground ball pitchers. Johjima will be even better now that he's had a full year of mlb pitching under his belt. Washburn, Batista, and Ramirez will be solid pitchers worthy of making a playoff push. Our bullpen will be lights out, with Putz again being dominant, Sherrill and Huber doing well, and Mark Lowe possibly making a comeback. I'm also going to predict Ryan Feierabend coming up big as either a bullpen arm or a 5th starter.
Predicting Record, 87-75 possible playoffs, but most likely just off the pace. Who knows because the A's didn't get much better with the loss of Zito and Frank Thomas. The Angels signed no one although they do get Colon for a whole year maybe and their prospects are a year older. The Rangers are never any good in my opinion, their trade to the Padres last year shows that.
Playoff push? Here we come hopefully. Mariners Baseball, My oh My.
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1 comment:
Mariner's suck. Looking at the market, it is getting out of hand. And that isn't just for pitchers. The Vernon Wells contract is ridiculous. Unless we want to spend crazy money, and it doesn't look like we do, we need to develop our farm system. And from what I've seen come up in the past 3 or 4 years, we don't have much promise.
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