Best. News. Ever.
JMB · October 1, 2006 at 11:38 am · Filed Under Mariners
Well, maybe not ever. But it’s darned close.
Headline: “Ichiro Suzuki tells Mariners he’s willing to play centre next year”
“He said he wants to play there, so that’s good,” manager Mike Hargrove said before Friday’s game against Texas.
Like I said, pretty freaking cool.
Yay for centre field!
It was an AP story that also appeared in the PI.
And, for us civilized types in the lower latitudes – it’s “center” field
J’aime la zone centrale !
This opens up a plethora of options for the M’s next year. Question to everyone here: If the outfield next year was LF Ibanez, CF Ichiro, and RF Snelling, with Jones as the 4th off the bench…would that be acceptable, or would we need to upgrade.
My thought is that if we move Sexson, Ibanez could split time at 1B/DH, then we could go looking for a LF bat. Given the focus on pitching this offseason, do we see the M’s actively trying to trade for an upgrade at LF?
This opens up a plethora of options for the M’s next year. Question to everyone here: If the outfield next year was LF Ibanez, CF Ichiro, and RF Snelling, with Jones as the 4th off the bench…would that be acceptable, or would we need to upgrade.
There’s no reason to carry Adam Jones as a fourth outfielder at age 21. It’s just a waste of his service time. He needs to start ’07 in Tacoma.
And further, they need to get Ibanez out of LF and to DH.
If you wanted a 4th OF from our current bunch, it should be Jeremy Reed- who really IS sort of a tweener.
My guess is, though that the DH/1B/corner OF pile of:
Sexson
Benuardo
Doyle
Ibañez
Reed
probably isn’t the same by the end of ST 2007 as it is now. The thing is, if Bavasi is sincere about wanting a guy at #3 in the batting order, corner OF/DH/1B is the easiest place to find them- so that even adds MORE to the logjam. Sounds like he’ll need to make some trades.
You can’t have Reed, an LHB, as the fourth OF for Ibanez, Ichiro, and Snelling, who are also LHBs.
Also, I think this most excellent news should make us think long and hard about “OMG WE NEED HITTING” (as, for instance, Bavasi thinks we do).
Road runs scored (incomplete for Texas and Oakland):
Texas 405
Seattle 403
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: 400
Oakland: 388
We came in right in the middle of the league in road offense… with 22% of the lineup being the flat out WORST in the AL (DH and CF OPS: dead last in the AL).
We just replaced that worst hitting CF in the AL with a guy who’s got Hall of Fame skills. And DH is really easy to get talent for (see: Benuardo).
Sooo, basically, unless we’re convinced Ichiro, Sexson or Raul is going to dive off of a cliff next year… I don’t really think we HAVE to fix anything on offense right away. And, considering the M’s track record on that score (see: Carl Everett), I’m not sure I WANT them to.
I think there’s even an argument that Sexson isn’t really declining all that much, it just took him a year to get kneecapped by Safeco just like every other RHB:
Sexson career: .269/.350/.526 (.876 OPS)
Sexson, this year, road games: .271/.353/.515 (.868 OPS)
Maybe this should be in the “positive” thread, but if they can figure out a way to fix the pitching staff, I think I could live with a batting order of Ichiro/Doyle/Johjima/Raul/Sexson/Beltre/Lopez/Benuardo/Betancourt.
You can’t have Reed, an LHB, as the fourth OF for Ibanez, Ichiro, and Snelling, who are also LHBs.
Yeah, in an ideal world, you want the platoon, though Ichiro and Snelling don’t strike me as particularly vulnerable to LHP, Ibañez would be helped by sitting against LHP. So if the right deal comes along for Reed, sure, I make it.
That being said, I think Reed’s value right now is as low as it’s ever going to be, so I don’t think I trade him without thinking I am getting adequate return for someone who’s a useful 4th OF-and if it’s a choice between Reed and Willie Ballgame as my 4th OF, it’s no comparison.
The reason I keep Reed on top of that is that in a pinch, he could adequately cover CF without rushing Jones back if you’re determined he needs time in AAA, and Doyle and Ibañez won’t, though if a hypothetical RHB 4th OF could as well, that does make Reed superfluous.
There’s also (if you’re feeling wacky and Casey Stengel-ish) the idea of, say, trading Broussard, platooning Ibañez and Perez at DH, AND platooning Reed and Jones in LF, or rotating through multiple players at DH (something Bavasi hinted at yesterday) and splitting the almost 2000 LF/RF/DH plate appearances among 4 players with an eye to platoon advantages. (Yes, I know, Jones needs lots of playing time. If you do it right, he does get a fair chunk of playing time and development, even if he’s not playing every day.) Or maybe you trade Sexson and add 1B to the mix, too.
Of course, this would require a manager who isn’t intimidated by filling out different lineup cards all the time, and doesn’t let players rot on his bench. Sigh.
WOW…I just can’t believe how easy it was for me to forget J. Reed!
I wonder if that says more about my memory or his performance, my guess is the latter.
Well, the injury didn’t help either. He hasn’t played in months.