Blaine Newham… what are you going to do? He’s worried that Garcia’s going to be let go for nothing. It includes these gems:
Once the Mariners cut Garcia, he will be gone, as will his 200 innings, as will his value in a trade for that big bat they need.
Would the Cincinnati Reds take Garcia and Randy Winn in exchange for Ken Griffey Jr.? Sure they would.
But that’s another story.
Where would you put that big bat now?
Why in the world would the Reds trade Griffey now, while his trade value is so low, for an average outfielder and an extremely-well compensated mystery?
The Mariners seem frustrated with him to the point they just want him gone.
But are they forgetting that Garcia, despite his problems, had an ERA of 1.97 in September last season, when a pennant was on the line?
In Garcia’s last four starts for the Mariners, he allowed two runs. In September, he walked eight while striking out 28.
He could win 18 games next season, as he has in the past.
Has Newham forgotten that those games in September, when a pennant was on the line, might have been meaningless if at any point in the season before that Garcia had pitched well for any reasonable stretch of time? And has he forgotten that Garcia required a personal catcher to reach those stats?
And sure, Garcia could win 18 games next season. So could I. Should the highest possible ceiling be what teams look to in retention decisions, rather than reasonable expectations?
Blaine Newham is such a bad baseball columnist there’s no joke here. That as an editor he must see the work Larry Stone does cross his monitor every day of the season and yet not have any of Stone’s ability or insight rub off on him baffles me.
I’d like to add to and, I hope, clarify Dave’s comments. Dave’s not suggesting (as some emailers seem to think) that you shouldn’t blog, or that you shouldn’t speak your mind. Instead, I think what he wants to see is people trying to find their original voices: if you’ve got a business background, that’s a great slant to take, or if you’re into the stadium, that’s a great way to contribute to, and you’re going to write more interesting stuff, and do better at it, than if you attempted to do general commentary that’s duplicated elsewhere. I love a lot of the email we get because it’s really interesting and original takes, and I’d love to see that kind of diversity online as well.
That said, I’m not Dave, so that’s just what I think he meant to say: to be encouraging.
Looks like the vultures are beginning to circle. Orlando Hudson for Rafael Soriano? This is the kind of offer that is made when an entire league realizes that one of the GM’s is asleep at the wheel and there is a feeding frenzy to rob his team blind before everyone else does. We should be thankful that Bavasi turned them down, though Hudson is too young to fit into the current scheme. I’m guessing he’s holding out for Mike Bordick.
Also, I’d like to make one blogging comment, now that offspring are popping up everywhere. I’m all for more M’s blogs and people expressing their opinions, but I’d love to see folks starting blogs on different aspects of the game. How about a financial M’s blog, dedicated to keeping track of payroll quotes from management, salary figures, deferred payments, etc…, so that we can have an easy access resource to point to when Howard Lincoln starts spouting off ridiculous payroll numbers again. Or a blog devoted to covering Safeco Field itself, reviewing different seats, concession stands, parking tricks, bus lines, and other ballpark related ideas? While I’m enjoying reading several of the new blogs, I think we might be reaching a saturation point where redundancy takes over. There are still plenty of niches to be filled, though, and I’d encourage some of these new folks to find their own creative area to offer something new to the M’s Blogosphere.
Not so fast, Jason! Don’t forget about Mariner Talk!
Don’t worry, we’ll get that left nav updated pronto.
Oh man… yet another M’s blog. (Kidding. All these blogs and points of view make for a better discussion.) This time it’s Cracking The Safe, which I must say has the coolest URL of all the M’s blogs out there. “PC Loadletter? PC Loadletter?! What the *&!@ is PC Loadletter?!” Very nice.
Officially Endorsed U.S.S. Mariner reader Aditya Sood was the first to write in with this Omar-related quip: “So now we know why the Mariners had to non-tender Arthur Rhodes.” Many others followed, but only Sood was on the cutting edge of this humor razor.
The Score Bard posted a cool riff off my suffering comment yesterday.
Also, everyone’s nominating the 97->98 Marlins for worst off-season by a contender, but that seems like cheating to me. So to be more specific: I’m looking for the Worst Off-season Driven By Incompetence Alone.
With respect to Oakland — they just made a steal of a deal, sending reliever Mike Neu to the Marlins for lefty starter Mark Redman. In addition to the “Big Three” (Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, Mark Mulder), the A’s now have Redman and Rich Harden at the back of their rotation. With three lefties and two righties, it’s a wonderfully balanced rotation… and one which should, thanks to those lefties, carve up the M’s this season.
So here’s the new question: grant us that the M’s are, at best, a 90-win team next year. The A’s have had a pretty strange off-season, too: are they better than that? The Angels are spending serious money: did they make the right moves to win the division? And Texas… well, they’re still Texas.
Link to “Vizquel trade nixed“. If the article’s to be believed, one of Omar’s two surgically repaired knees (of three total) didn’t look good when the M’s doctors looked it over and that’s the end of that.
Here’s my long-not-awaited 2004 season rough cut estimates of what happens to the Mariners next year
Offense changes
(Martinez-Wilson/Davis-Olerud-Boone-Guillen-Spiezo-Ichiro-Winn-Ibanez)
Winn to Ibanez = -10 runs (yes, I’m serious)
Cameron to Winn = wash
Rotating 3b to Spiezio = +15 runs
Rotating OF subs to McCracken = -10 runs (and that’s generous)
-5 runs
Defense changes
Winn to Ibanez = -10 runs
Cameron to Winn = -20 runs
Rotating 3b to Spiezio = -5 runs (ish)
Rotating OF subs to McCracken = wash (and maybe an upgrade)
-35 runs
Pitching changes
(Moyer, Meche, Pineiro, Franklin, Soriano)
Garcia to Soriano = +15 runs (but really, anyone’s guess)
Franklin to normal Franklin = -10 runs
+5 runs
(Sasaki, Mateo, Guardardo, Hasegawa, Soriano, ??)
Rhodes to Guardardo = +5 runs
Nelson/Benitez to random guy from AAA: -5 runs
+0 runs
That’s an overall drop of 35 runs, which puts the team a hair under 90 wins. What that doesn’t include, though, are the matchup problems with the lineup that we’ve been pointing out, the team’s natural age-related decline (it’s an oooold lineup), the vulnerability to lefties… I would bet that others out there will take a crack at this (I think Peter at Mariner Musings has the gap at ~50 runs overall before he started to take a swing at defense).