Mariners - Looking to next year.

[BWahlberg]

Well, before the all star break I was thinking, at least they're better than the A's. Yeah right...

Here's whats bugging me. Why are they playing Olivo and Borders? Neither have ANY trade potential, Pats a "has been" and Miguel has only had 5 hits since he came back from AAA.

I say get the youth out there, and see what we've got for next year. Trade Ibanez and see if you can pick up some middle relief or a few potential starters. Just do SOMETHING!

 

[GrizBiz]

The A's do this every year - they kind of flounder around for the first half and then go on a tear in the second half of the season. I guess that's what happens when you play so many young players. Sigh...

The problem with the catcher position is that they really don't have much of a choice. Borders at least understands how to call a game - something that Olivo doesn't seem to have a handle on. Rivera was pretty impressive in his call up from AA but he only caught once every four or five days and while he hit almost .400, that's about 140 points higher than he was hitting in AA. Wiki Gonzalez is doing well in AAA after his injury but he is the new Big Ben - a career underachiever that has enough 'tools' to tantalize. #1 draft pick Clement is still unsigned. He was scheduled to start at the high-A ball team in California but if he holds out through the summer, he'll probably start at low-A Wisconsin next year. That puts him two or three years away.

The M's brass has to realize that they have to tear this team down and rebuild it. Shoot for a .500 season in 2006 and a pennant run in 2007. Since we are all amateur GM's at this point, here is what I think they should do:

Trade Guardado, Villone, Winn and Nelson. They all have value and none of them will be around in 2007 when the team might be decent. I'd package Guardado and Villone for a trade to the Red Sox - they've got a pile of young pitching talent and the only glaring weakness of their team is closer and left handed relief. Guardado and Villone probably give them another WS, so a package of Papelbon and one other starting pitcher that will be ready in 2006 is not unreasonable.

Package Winn and Nelson and ship them to the Yankees. Winn isn't great in center field but compared to Bernie he'll shine. Nelson is (surprisingly to me) having a very good year and he's played in the Bronx Zoo before. The Yankee bull pen could really use him and a Winn/Nelson package should land Duncan. He's a AA 3B, which is something that the M's don't really need but he is their best prospect and I say get the guy and worry about what to do with him in two years when he's knocking on the door.

I'd DFA Spezio and call up Leone to man his spot on the bench. Spezio is a waste of a bench spot and his salary is a sunk cost. He's only had two hits all year. Leone can play every position that Spezio can play and do it better and while he will strike out a lot, he will also hit some bombs. Power off the bench is something this team sorely lacks.

In the off season, I'd give up on the Sele reclamation project and let he and Franklin walk. Go to Japan and grab Matsuzuka - he's one of Japan's premier pitchers and he'll be eligible to come to the states after this season. He once threw 250 pitches in a game and has a pitch that he invented called the "Gyro pitch", which is evidently some kind of changeup/screwball with crazy movement. He's a risk and he won't be cheap but at this point, I'm ok with that. The free agent pool of pitchers is very, very thin this year so going to Japan makes some sense.

If Moyer wants to come back, I say try and get him to sign a Clemens type deal, where he pitches mainly at home and doesn't even need to take road trips that he isn't scheduled to pitch on. Moyer has a home era under 3 this year, so maybe we can get another year out of the dude. That leaves a pitching staff of: Matsuzaka, Felix, Bobby M, Piniero, Meche and maybe Moyer. If Moyer agreed to a deal like that, I'd force either Piniero or Meche into a swing role where they come out of the pen for long relief sometimes and start at others.

I'd also try and grab Ramon Hernandez to man the catching spot. I always liked him when he was with the A's and he's the kind of reliable, steady catcher that I can live with. He'll only hit .270 but that's, what, 150 points higher than M's catchers have hit this year? He'll probably cost $5 million per year for three years but I'm so damn sick of putting band aids on this spot that I'm willing to spend some $$ to stabilize the position.

Seattle GM Bill Bavasi was asked about the SS position and he indicated that the position will not be manned by Morse long term. (After seeing the errors that he made in Toronto and Cleveland, I guess I can see why!) Bavasi indicated that the "SS of the future" is Yuneski Betancourt (YuBet), the Cuban defector that the M's landed last off season. He's jumped from A to AAA already this year and he's been hitting better than Morse did in AAA. He's also being compared to Omar Vizquel and Ozzie Smith on defense, so look for a September callup for YuBet.

Other than those moves, I think the M's are set with young talent and we are just going to have to live with a year of growing pains.

RF - Ichiro
CF - Reed
LF - Snelling (my boy!)
DH - Ibanez
1B - Sexson
2B - Lopez
3B - YuBet
CA - Hernandez

Bench:
Olivo (gotta have a catcher)
Bloomquist (super sub can play everywhere)
Leone (left handed power hitting infielder)
Choo (young 5-tool outfielder currently doing ok in AAA)
Plus either:
Bucky (right handed power hitting 1B/DH)
or
Strong (speedy defensive minded OF)


Rotation of:

Matsuzaka
Bobby M
Felix
Meche
Piniero/Moyer or Papelbon/newly acquired pitcher

Bull Pen of:

Piniero or newly acquired pitcher
Nagoette
Mateo
Sherrill
Atchison
Putz
Soriano


That's not a world series winning team - they are very young in the lineup, rotation and bull pen. They also lack in HR power, although most of the young position players will develop some HR power as they mature. I think that this is a team that can go .500 - of course I thought that the 2005 M's would go .500, too, so what the heck to I know?


There's always next year!

 

[GRIZFAN20]

Your forgeting one major player GrizBiz, what do you do with Beltre. Heres how I see the mariners offseason:

Pitching: I agree, Sele and Franklin can walk. Bring up Felix and add Matrisch into the rotation and itll be a pretty good one.
As far as the bullpen is concerened, get rid of Mateo, Putz, and even though i like him, Shiggy. If they do trade someone like Winn, get a pitcher for him. Going into free agency I feel the #1 thing the M's need to get is some bullpen help.

Offense: If Winn is traded, that opens the door for Snelling at LF. Other than that, I think the starting lineup will look the same in 06 as it is now. Morse will stay at SS, even with (YuBet) in Tacoma. I agree with getting rid of Spezio. Again, he's a great guy, but with Leone and Dobbs ready for the majors and that big salary of his, hes not worth it. Hansen will also be gone, so welcome back Bucky.

 

[GrizBiz]

Your forgeting one major player GrizBiz, what do you do with Beltre. Heres how I see the mariners offseason:

Pitching: I agree, Sele and Franklin can walk. Bring up Felix and add Matrisch into the rotation and itll be a pretty good one.
As far as the bullpen is concerened, get rid of Mateo, Putz, and even though i like him, Shiggy. If they do trade someone like Winn, get a pitcher for him. Going into free agency I feel the #1 thing the M's need to get is some bullpen help.

Offense: If Winn is traded, that opens the door for Snelling at LF. Other than that, I think the starting lineup will look the same in 06 as it is now. Morse will stay at SS, even with (YuBet) in Tacoma. I agree with getting rid of Spezio. Again, he's a great guy, but with Leone and Dobbs ready for the majors and that big salary of his, hes not worth it. Hansen will also be gone, so welcome back Bucky.

Ha! A better question is what do I do for a short stop - I completely left the position off my list! (Hey, I never claimed to be a GOOD GM!)

I'd have YuBet at SS and Beltre at 3B. Again, the Seattle GM has proclaimed YuBet as the SS of the future - he'll be up in a few weeks and is hitting around .300 at Tacoma with much better defense than Morse. All those singles won't make up for Morse's errors. (Morse has been getting benched for Bloomquist on a semi-regular basis for god's sake.)

Seattle's bullpen is actually pretty damn good this year. Both Putz and Mateo have era's around 3. Mateo was hurt real bad by the "put him in for a single start" experiment and was very, very bad for a couple of weeks after that. He's been pretty good since and I'd keep him.

Rumor is the trade of Winn to the Yankees is 95% done. They don't have any pitching we want, so I guess we are probably giving him up for single A prospects. A Seattle writer (Finnigan ??) started a firestorm of speculation by stating that the M's might be getting Pavano from the Yankees for Winn and Piniero. Pavano has been bad this year but I'd still do it in a heartbeat. Something is wrong with Piniero.

I hope that Bucky can come back ok but degenerative knee injuries and big guys don't go well together. I'd sure like to see he and Leone on the bench together - big, power bats from either side of the plate would be nice.

Clement evidently signed today, so maybe we can get him used to hitting with a wooden bat this year and he can start his climb through the system in 2006.

If the Nintendo ownership wants Matsuzuka, we will get Matsuzuka. He sounds pretty darn good and the M's will have the salary cap room to sign him.



BTW - looks like Minnesota is about to give up on Boone. He's just lost so much bat speed that he can't hit for power anymore. He's trying to compensate by pulling everything and has some pretty big holes in his swing. He's an easy out and they just can't afford to have him flailing around out there while the much-hated A's pass them up in the wildcard race.

 

[GrizBiz]

Came across some interesting stats today.

Mariner bull pen era is 3.20, which is ranked third in the AL.

The starter's era, by comparison is 4.99 - fourth worst in the AL behind TX, KC and TB (ouch).

Also in the AL, on offense the M's are:

Last in batting average (.258)
Last in on base percentage (.316)
Last in slugging pecentage (.393)


How depressing is that pile of junk, fellow M's fans? Other than the bull pen, this team just flat out stinks!

 

[GRIZFAN20]

Even though its not officially on the website, the mariners recalled YuBet from Tacoma. Im not sure whats wrong with Lopez, either he's injured or got sent back down. If he got sent down, it wouldnt surprise me, his average was worse than it was last season, and even then it was pretty bad, like .230. Maybe YuBet is the future at 2nd base and Morse at short, we'll soon find out.



And what do you know, first pitch he sees he hits a triple, looking good so far

 

[GrizBiz]

Even though its not officially on the website, the mariners recalled YuBet from Tacoma. Im not sure whats wrong with Lopez, either he's injured or got sent back down. If he got sent down, it wouldnt surprise me, his average was worse than it was last season, and even then it was pretty bad, like .230. Maybe YuBet is the future at 2nd base and Morse at short, we'll soon find out.



And what do you know, first pitch he sees he hits a triple, looking good so far

Hargrove said that Lopez was being sent down to work on his swing. That's a pretty good idea, since Lopez has acquired Beltre's tendancy to swing at pitches ankle high and ten inches off the plate. I guess YuBet played 2B for a while in Cuba and you sure can't take Morse's bat out of the lineup so I kind of like the move. Didn't see it coming but I like it. I think you are right - Lopez better get his poop in a group or he could find himself on the outside looking in. He's still only 21, so there is time.

YuBet can fly, eh? Too bad he got on base with two outs and "automatic out Olivo" hitting behind him. Maybe they should have sent him around third and hoped that the Indians screwed up the relay to home. There's probably a better chance of that happening than Olivo driving him in. (I guess he likes to be called "Nicky" for some reason but he will always be YuBet to me.)

Clement reported to short-season A ball Everett last night and got a single in his first at bat. Everett - so close to Seattle and yet soooo far from Safeco. Too bad there's no interleague play in short season A ball - an Everett AquaSox trip to Missoula might actually get me over to see a few more Osprey games.

Rumor on the USS Mariner site is that Felix will get one more start in Tacoma and then be called up to Seattle to pitch out of the bullpen for a month or so before being inserted into the starting lineup. I guess it all depends on if someone gets traded or not. If Bavasi "stands Pat" I'm going to be mad.

Edit: No sooner do I finish desparaging Olivo and he homers! Solo shot gets the M's on the board.