Who gets the last ten million?
DMZ · December 8, 2006 at 10:14 am · Filed Under Mariners
The M’s have money in the budget. They haven’t made a name signing to appease the restless natives. They need another starting pitcher. But there’s only maybe $10m left in the budget?
Who gets it? Quick, before they make a move.
wrss fhccna
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$10m delayed signing bonus for Jarrod Washburn.
Ichiro! and JJ Putz
Oh, a big name aquisition: Key Griffey Jr. Just kidding. I hope.
John Thomson and Cliff Floyd.
Pineiro
Hopefully most of it goes towards the Hargrove-Bavasi Severance Package Fund.
Willie Bloomquist
A dinner for Hargrove and Princess Wille.
They trade Broussard for Rodrigo Lopez and give him a Christmas bonus!
Bavasi blew the money on a $10M for a “Welcome Overpriced Free Agents Party.”
I told him he never should have hired both Jay-Z AND Shakira to play the party, or hire Wolfgang Puck to do the catering. But does he listen to me, a season ticket holder? Noooooo.
My guesses: Baptista and Thomson
A special assisstant to Hargrove, to help make even more stupid decisons
Re: #8 – Bavasi apparently was offered Rodrigo Lopez for Ben Broussard and he said no, I’d like Jaret Wright instead. *shakes head*
And to answer the question, $10 million to Brad Radke to coax him out of retirement and for him to promise to learn how to throw with his left arm.
Brad Penny but I don’t see a deal there…
Whichever starting pitcher it is, I bet they can’t spend that $10M this season without committing at least $10M to the same guys from 2008 and beyond.
He’s just waiting to pounce on Ron Villone! Hey, he’s LH, he’s a good fit!
Why do you say $10 anyway Derek? I thought they had like $25 million left.
Carl Pavano
#10 — Baptista? Did you mean Batista? Although I believe that Baptista fell out of favor with Real Madrid, So maybe they can pick him up when the transfer window opens up in January. They can also talk to Chelsea about Shaun Wright-Phillips.
I’d rather have Ronaldo, he gives way better headbutts!
Jeff Suppan
#20 — You mean Zidane.
Okay…I get it…Let’s play Bill Bavasi!
Trade Putz for Eric Milton!
What?? He’s a SP, throws left handed, and has a pulse! He fills a need we have and should benefit from Safeco Field and our great defense. Putz was just the going rate in the market. We still have Sherrill to fill the closer role!
Ok. I’m going to put on my Ms Front office hat, and do my research (open ESPN’s top 10 remaining Free agents…) Let’s see…
Until we get star trek transporters, Clemens ain’t coming here.
Andy Pettite’s a gamer, a known winner with post season experience, but we don’t need that. And he’s too expensive.
Sure we’d love Zito, but we only have 10 mill.
That leaves…
JEFF SUPPAN! Perfect! Throw $10 million a year at him for the next 5 years. He’s pitched in the AL, he’s used to being on a team with a sucking chest wound, and he’s a proven Veteran(tm) who has shown he can win!
Trade Sexson and throw the bank at Zito. The Astros have proven that with just two good starters, you can limp through the regular season and make the playoffs. We can go to battle with Zito and Felix, I think.
#22 – One of those bald guys, I can’t keep track.
Nice to know that it’s there even after the “huge strides” made at the Winter Meetings, as reported on the M’s website, referring to Guillen and the 2 stud pitchers.
Where does the $10 million figure come from? What is the self-imposed salary cap set at this year? $80 million?
Perhaps in the NL but that isn’t going to cut it in the AL. You have to win the West to get a shot at the playoffs. Perhaps not every year but only a fool would be trying to win the wild card in the AL.
Hey, what about throwing another $10 Million at Guillen and asking him to pitch every fifth day? He’s got a re-built arm. Sure it’s a risk, but I’m sure he’s completely healthy now like Ramirez.
This plan would also assure at least some playing time for Snelling every fifth day.
For purposes of this exercise, don’t think too much (like the M’s!) – just scan the list. No trades, nothing — max $10m, preferably someone with some name recognition or other positive intangible quality they can play up in the press conference (so post-season is good, etc).
My guess went up, barely coded, with the post.
“Mission Accomplished”, the mission was to build expectations that things might actually change due to 3 straight last place finishes. Sign a decent bat to further build hope and then sign two of Atlanta’s toss aways, because everyone knows 2 #4s is better than one #1.
David Wells! He’s a lefty and has name recognition.
Rules! Rules! Rules! you should be more flexable on the rules. How about any trades, $25 million.
Suppan or Weaver. Ugh.
Mark Mulder
I guess my secret decoder is broken, because I keep getting Jeff Suppan. No matter how many times I shake the damn thing, the same stupid answer keeps popping up.
I don’t see what you guys have against Suppan. He’s a GB pitcher and 10x better than Ramirez. He’s a good #3 or 4 starter.
Ohka.
Nope. One dude, $10m. You maybe could backload it to get someone under, but not implausibly.
If you want to run your own w/trades, with different limits contest, you’re welcome to do that on your own site. I just want a quick sense of what the USSM readers think would happen if that was the situation, which it is.
Babe Ruth.
DMZ – a solid choice but I’ll go with the FA with the same first name but a different six letter last name. He played for the Pneqjanyf last year.
#31: DMZ: My guess went up, barely coded, with the post.
Suppan, huh.
Anybody left from the Pac-NW that we can get for a hometown discount?
For those of you struggling with the coded reference
ABDCEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
nopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm
We’ve got more than $10 million to work with. Counting Broussard at $4 million and Putz and Ramirez at $3 million each, the payroll is sitting at just under $80 million. Bavasi has already said the team is going to spend in the mid-90s.
Adding Cliff Floyd, for example, doesn’t count since the money for Broussard will be transferred over to him.
If the M’s want to, they can commit $15 million to Zito this year. I’d make the argument that they should do this, because if they don’t we will be in the exact same situation next offseason: $15 million to blow on crappy spare parts.
I’d rather have what amounts to Zito on top of an $80 million flexible budget over a flexible $95 million budget. Zito gets us 3-5 more wins over anyone else we could add with his money in 2007. And his deal will look great next year when the Mariners are suddenly looking at having to overpay like the Royals to lure ANYONE to come to Seattle.
#38—I agree that Suppan is an acceptable #3 or #4, but we’ve already got Washburn and HoRam(!) for those spots, and could easily find another league average type for a lot less moolah. What the team needs is a #1 or #2 besides Felix, and it’s pretty apparent that isn’t going to happen.
I was going to guess Russ Ortiz. But that didn’t make sense, with either your coding, or our front office…
Or maybe it does…
I’m just asking because people seem to think he’s terrible.
I don’t care if they have $100m to work with or $5m. This is a quick exercise, a jog, it’s not an Offseason Plan or whatever.
Under $10m, one pitcher, who do the M’s get?
For the purposes of this excercise though, I’d give the $10 million to Gagne and Thomson on one year deals. You could spin those pretty good.
Fun with xFIP, 2006:
4.79 — Gil Meche
4.86 — wrss fhccna
fhccna is more durable, so if he signs for the same contract, it might not be quite as awful, but he’s also older and in danger of walking more than he strikes out if he moves to a DH league. It’s interesting that there was almost no buzz about wrss fhccna during the winter meetings.
I wanted Greg Maddux.
I guess Suppan will do.
But, I’d grab Craig Wilson and John Thomson with that last 10 million.
Well, I will change my vote from Ohka to Suppan.
Of course, you’d have to free up roster space for both of ‘em, though. Buh bye Joel. See ya Cesar.
Mulder
V ungr guvf pnza TZ
We’ll give it to Batista. *sigh*
Hey Derek, give us a hint on your guess.
DMZ, I’m not sure if your intent was to see how many people would actually start to rationalize giving what’s left in the FA market (outside of Zito I guess) $10 million per season but this thread is absolutely dreadful.
My choice, let the execs and owners reline their suit pockets in gold. It’s a lot less threatening than being saddled with another albatross.
Save the money for next year.
Oh, I forgot. The M’s don’t operate that way.
Put the money into free tickets for kids.
Oh, wait. They don’t have to do that, because there will too many empty seats already, so they can just let kids in for free any night.
Seriously, if the M’s are saying they only have $10M left in the budget, then the first response should be that they are cheapskates for not having bigger budgets now and over the past few years, given the huge revenue flow. Putting that aside, I guess I’d prefer they not spend much at all and then create a bigger slush fund to have even more flexibility to make moves that might come along during the season. If a the right spendy move materializes, then jump on it. If not, then don’t waste it.
Let’s face it, the M’s will not contend next season and nothing they do with that money will change that much or even excite the fan base enough to reverse the freefall in ticket sales (which will lead to even lower phoney budgets in the coming years).
R.A. Dickey.
Four Words:
Mark Redman, All Star
Sign the cheerleader, save the world.
I still say to stick with Mark Mulder. Although he won’t be ready until mid-year, he’s somebody that has had a lot of success both in the AL and NL, is only 29, and could be a #2 for us long-term!
I don’t know what he’s asking for, but I would take a chance on a refurbished top of the line model rather than pay the same price for cheap brands that are lower quality.
The most positive news right now is thst the Red Sox only have a week from today to sign Matsuzaka. If they don’t we can alwasys sign him as a free agent next year.
Rick Helling.
Now that I typed that I’m going to gouge my eyes out.
I see no better way to spend the extra $10 million than to use it as Bill Bavasi’s severance package.
Hargrove’s severance package, on the other hand, is an oiled-up Willie Bloomquist emerging from a large birthday cake.
66. How do you know that Mulder isn’t “low quality?” if we signed him it should be to a minor league contract.
Why not take a risk on Mulder? Same with Gagne.
Offer low base salaries, with incentives for staying healthy.
They both get invites to spring, and then you see where it goes.
Oakland could not have captured lightning in a bottle better than Frank Thomas last year. It is conceivable that the M’s can do this as well. Then again, we are dealing with Bavasi.
[Pineiro]
MARK freaking MULDER
I would be happy again if we got him. Just take a chance!
Although I just have a gut feeling we’ll get Thomson….I hope the feeling is wrong though.
70. Granted it’s a risk. But here’s an opportunity to bring in someone with a 103-57 record, big name splash capability, and could be had at a lower cost because of the injury situation. I don’t think we would have to throw $10 Million his way…but give him something guaranteed plus incentives that would allow him to earn his way.
Dave Fleming
Chris Antonetti!
MARK freaking MULDER
I would be happy again if we got him. Just take a chance!
Although I just have a gut feeling we’ll get Thomson….I hope the feeling is wrong though.
Whoa…DAVE FLEMING!!! There’s a name that just haunts the memory!! If I remember right…nicknamed one year “The Tourniquet” and “The Flesh Wound” the next…and next!
I see Derek’s decided to use ROT-13 encoding on his posts. Isn’t that a DCMA violation to break the encryption, though?
Re: Mariners and Mark Mulder
It appears they’ve considered it.
And 10 million? Yeah, I’m guessing Fhccna or Ongvfgn is about what you get for 10 million.
True ROT-13 geek story: back when I spent a ton of time on a help desk and posting during the Usenet’s heyday, I read so much of the stuff that I could actually scan ROT-13.
Marquis could be an option.
Jeff Weaver (and yes, ugh!)
A 5.76 ERA is still a 5.76 ERA, so Bavasi follows the Guillen pattern of a previously good “name” coming off a bad year who will agree to one-year deal for a premium salary, one year plus some guaranteed money for a second in terms of option or buyout, or two- or three-year deal spreading out the money.
Plus, there would still be enough money leftover (once Broussard is traded) to sign the left-handed version of Guillen: Cliff Floyd or, if Bavasi is willing to give up some sock for more walk, Shannon Stewart.
This is sort of like movies that skip casting a currently bankable “star” for an ensemble of “names”: sometimes you get “Pulp Fiction,” but sometimes you get “Two Days in the Valley.”
John Thomson is my guess. I see the rest of the market passing Bavasi by, leaving him to spin the attributes of the following rotation:
Felix
Washburn
Ramirez
Thomson
Baek/Woods/Lehr/White(shudder)
Actually, no, it is not…
JIM LEYRITZ!!!!!!!!
lol, no in all seriousness, they’ll break the bank for Zito, or they’ll get 2 bottom of the rotation guys like Thomson and Batista.
Believe it or not though, I could still see Thomson and Zito signing here to at least create some healthy competition for that #5 spot in the rotation and Zito of course (for this year, anyways) gives you a solid #1 starter, although he’ll probably over the years be better suited to be a #2 or #3 starter, and u know Thomson will come “cheap.”
Honestly, you guys are overlooking the obvious. For $10 million a year (for as many years as it takes to pay the total price), the M’s could pay for a robotic pitching machine/android that looks like Randy Johnson and fires two major-league quality pitches. It would instantly be our #2 starter. (For an extra $10 million, we could hire the clowns from one of those incessant home makeover shows to make slipcovers to transform Throwbot into FIVE different pitchers, so it could start every day. That’ll eliminate the need for human pitchers, so we can trade ‘em all for bats.)
In fact, if there were a couple of bucks left after buying Throwbot, we could also purchase a juicy pineapple to serve as GM of the club, marking a significant upgrade there as well.
Actually, it should go in the other order, or else we risk Bavasi trading in Throwbot for an inflatable dartboard.
Mark Mulder.
I would love to get him, but I just have that gut feeling we’ll be getting………Thomson………
[well, we're certainly censoring you now]
[see above]
Booo…poor taste in language JeffMantoFan!
MARK MULDER
BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I’ve posted that like 3 different times over the last 30 minutes but it gets deleted!!!!!!
87–Gotta love the question that answers itself.
Anyway, I think it’s Shawn Estes–lefty, Mariner history, looks like Kurt Cobain; what’s not to love?
DMZ says it’s 0100101001100101011001100110011000100000010101110110010101100001011101100110010101110010.
Knowing the FO is making some really stupid moves the last few days, it’ll be 0100101001100101011001100110011000100000010101110110010101100001011101100110010101110010, because they’re a Proven Winner®
Jimmie
Honestly, I think the perfect bet for you guys is Jeff Suppan. I think it will happen, here’s why. Suppan is a Type A free agent. Your first round pick is number 11 and is protected from being given up, so the Cardinals would likely get your 2nd round pick. The sandwhich round this year is so big (30 or so), its practically a 2nd round itself, so you’d only be giving up essentially a 3rd round pick, and that’s offset by getting a sandwhich pick back from Meche. Suppan would do well in your pitcher’s park, even if it is the AL..and the guy has got substance, as seen in his stepping up in the playoffs last year. Bavasi should know the rotation needs work, and Suppan is being underrated in this market.
Plus, Baseball America came out with top 10 Mariners prospects today. Anyone see it?
We had Batista on our team 2 years ago, Blech. Go for Suppan, clearly a superiour pitcher for the same money.
Give the $$ to King Felix for a personal trainer.
Or, give it to him as a bonus at the end of the season to keep him happy and make him less likely to walk when he hits Free Agency. Or buy a house for him – right next to Edgar’s place – and pay for a dating service so this kid will get married, have kids, and put down roots.
Jimmie, i kind of fear that, and I fear he’ll come w/ a multi-year guarenteed contract just under 10 per, but it could always be worse, like say 100101001100101011001100110011001010111011001010110000101110110110010101110010 for a similar contract
I’m with Grizz. Its gonna be Weaver. He’s playoff tested!
I’d also like to point to 73/77/89 is a great example of what happens when people get flagged for comment moderation for whatever reason. It just never goes well.
Playoff experience is key. It’s an intangible that is underrated.
I didn’t anybody knew what ROT13 was anymore.
Suppan’ll be great: mediocre AND a religious kook.
Curious, why was the BA prospect list deleted? Copyright issues? If so, I will refrain from posting in that manner in the future. Really, though, all I did was copy the list 1-10 and gave proper credit. Fair use, no?
It was a thread hijack and I had another post in the queue.
Plus, I hate thread hijacks. It’s rude. I wish people would knock it off.
Trade Sexon to Baltimore for Lopez and Cabrera,+cash(move Ibanez to first) and then sign Zito.5/85… maybe the season will be saved after all…or maybe not
Jeez, sorry. This thing seemed sort of like a daily news thread, to me.
I was only responding to a previous post.
I…. don’t see that. But whatever. I deleted the other post too.
They should spend the 10 million on apology cards for all their fans.
stoyboy, why on Earth would Baltimore trade Lopez AND Cabrera for Sexson?? Did I miss a transaction…did Peter Angelos decide to operate the ballclub himself? Even Mike Flanagan wouldn’t touch that deal.
The point of this thread, of course, is that this ballclub as currently operated is more than $10M in salary away from relevance in the AL West, unless some other GM gives us talent free that we cannot reasonably pay for.
Sad.
Hmmm, Lopez and Cabrera for Sexson would be the rip-off of the century (well not quite), almost as good for the winning team as that Soriano for Horacio Ramirez trad… oh, wait.
Well, it wouldn’t totally surprise me, only becuase Bavasi seems to follow up idiocy with brilliance and visa-versa, so who knows, but it’d be a like a .01% chance type trade. Of course, we should be sitting like vultures waiting for Baltimore to give up on Cabrera, if they ever do, which is also like a .01% chance of happening, but it’s not totally unprecedented, even if it would be totally stupid of them.
Ibanez + $$ for Brandon McCarthy. Hey, it fills needs.
Just curious, but what “brilliance” can you point to in the Bavasi era?
$10m or under. One pitcher.
Come on, this isn’t that hard.
#7: A dinner for Hargrove and Princess Wille.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
$10m or under. One pitcher.
Come on, this isn’t that hard.
Why do I feel like Sean Connery should be saying “That’s not what your mother said last night!” right about now, based on the last couple of threads?
PS: I’d like to ask USSM posters once again to please refrain from using ethnic slurs…
I think you have over estimated what remains of the fan base after the last few seasons.
Weaver, Jeff
That is all…
This is rediculous. That we should be talking about Suppan and Mulder in the $10M a year range shows how bad the market has inflated for pitchers. Those are the 2 I wouldn’t mind seeing signed to incentive laden deals, but with this market the team has to take the risk of injury and decline.
If other moves could be involved I’d say Sexson traded for MiLers, defensive 1bman signed on the cheap to compete or platoon with LaHair and Pettitte signed for 3/54 with the last 2 being player option years.
DMZ — Jeff Weaver
Yankees signed Pettite to 1 yr/16 million deal. Scratch him off the list……
Add me to the Mulder camp. Have an incentive-laden option clause that lets us drop him if he comes back as Gil Meche, but can turn into a multi-year deal if he comes back as, well, Mark Mulder.
I’m probably behind on reality lately, but I thought it’d be funny to suggest Chan Ho Park anyway.
Hmm. Maybe the M’s could invest in a few of these Lichtenstein pictures of pitchers.
At $16,500 a piece, they could corner the art market on them and drive them up. After all, Bavasi has driven up the price for crappy starting pitching in the trade market now. Certainly he could do the same with limited-edition art?
Tony Armas, Bruce Chen, Shawn Estes, RYAN FRANKLIN! OH YEAH!!!
Carl Pavano is due $10M this year, I’m willing to bet it ends up coming from the M’s, or at least part of it does.
Best answer so far.
[ot]
Me
DRJ: 1)The Orioles want to trade Lopez
2)Sexon hits more HR/RBI than Millar and can protect Tejada
3)Orioles need some pop in that lineup
4)Orioles have a lot of vets and young pitchers for their
rotation left
5)Orioles need a big signing
6)Cabrera is not as good now as he will be(Will the Orioles
wait)?
7)It is a good trade for both teams
Sign nobody unless another starting pitcher with good upside washes up on the shore. Extend Ichiro.
How is Ryan Franklin a free agent? I thought Gillick gave him a 2 year deal?
Or has it been 2 years already?
JoeM said: Me
Joe Mays? Seriously? I’d rather have Fat-elvys.
Alright my answer in #10 broke the rules by giving more than one name so here’s try #2…….
Backloaded: Andy Pettitte 1 yr/$10M…. with $6M deferred… easily the best arm on the market this year assuming Roger retires and ignoring a certain posted player. Frankly he is the only arm on the market thats actually worth the contract he got (or in the case of the unsigned guys…will get)…
Alright, I just broke the rules again but damn it, I want them to win… Here goes another try…
More in spirit with the question: Mark Mulder (assuming he’s signable for $10M or under)… he’s got the rep, has playoff experience, is a lefty, is a *workhorse*, he’s an extreme groundball pitcher which plays to the defense (see folks we’re really smart), yadda, yadda, yadda…. we’ll ignore the injury and the peripherals… Truthfully, I’d probably go for it with a sensible duration.
other guys: Baptista/Suppan
Off topic: I have no freakin’ idea how Soriano+Ramirez (>$2.2M) is a better deal than Thomson at $4-5M……
Derek – noone can answer your question because there isn’t a good answer, right? At this point, I’d probably dangle a couple of established players for prospects, and go into rebuild mode. It ain’t happenin’ this year. Mediocre hitting, poor rotation, bad bullpen. I’d be in on anyone coming off injury or explainable bad performance with a low-risk, low-$ contract, and put an option at the back end.
Choices: Mark Mulder, Eric Gagne, Chan Ho Park (this is not *that* crazy – he’s got more upside than Jeff Fricken Suppan), what’s the difference? I’d have been in on Kerry Wood and Octavio Dotel, too, for the same reason. They’re all for next year, anyway.
I hope to hell that they can Bavasi prior to the trade deadline, as the M’s will be sellers with a lot to gain. That’s when you move Sexson, not now.
$.4 million to lure Rich Amaral out of retirement, and $9 million (including travel expenses) for the experimental surgery in India that converts him into a league-average MLB pitcher, with the rest going into production costs for the Rick Rizzs/Rich Amaral 1995, 12 Years Later DVD.
Mark Mulder
I don’t like any of the remaining options. But Mulder is the only interesting guy who will be available on a one-year deal. If you are going to sign a pitcher in a market that doesn’t have any real good options, go for the short-term deal.
Mulder has some upside too. With a team option for 2008, it makes sense.
Tony Armas Jr. is a distant second.
#136– how old is Beau Amaral these days? He used to do a wicked Randy Johnson when he was about 6….
I’d go for Mulder, but considering he probably doesn’t want to play here, I’d bet on Chan Ho Park. Oh, and maybe John Thomson with what’s left. (Yeah, I know, pick ONE guy.)
Well, the name you’re looking for is Suppan. And really in terms of ERA
and xFIP he’s not a lot worse than Schmidt and better than Lilly or Schmidt. So relative to the market that would be a deal, even if he’s only a 3 win player.
But I’d gamble on Mulder. Either last year’s HR% and LOB% were a fluke because he was hurt and he could return to star form or he’s done and he’ll retire.
Oops, meant to say “better than Lilly or Meche”. I have Schmidt on the brain (insert your own joke here).
If we go off xFIP, it’s definitely Suppan…
Roger Clemens
You forgot your sarcasm tags, Slov.
Brian Moehler
I see you picked Jeff Suppan. I don’t disagree enough to pick a compelling alternative. Suppan will work.