Wlad DFAed, Saunders to MLB
Per Baker and others.
Dave adds: Interesting timing. Saunders has been on fire down in Tacoma of late, but shouldn’t be expected to be such a huge improvement over Langerhans for the rest of this year to make a dramatic difference on the field. This, to me, looks like a move for 2010 – Saunders gets an extended audition so they can get a better idea of what they have in left field going forward. I’d say this is the first sign that the team is shifting its focus away from this season.
As for Wlad, don’t worry about losing him for nothing. He was getting traded this week regardless – this just gets him off the roster sooner. The M’s now have 10 days to trade him or pass him through waivers. There will be enough interest in a young/cheap outfielder with power that they’ll be able to deal him for something. Like, say, Ian Snell?
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I think the Ms should trade Wlad, Halman, and Almonte as a 3-in-1 package. The other team gets the same player 3 times! That’s 3 times the chance one of them pans out and learns how to recognize a major league breaking ball!
That should at least net them Jack Wilson, right?
Don’t forget Mike Wilson and Joe Dunigan…
Out of options on Wlad, so I guess it will be easier to shuttle Saunders back and forth as they need to expand and contract the pitching staff at various times until Sept. 1.
If the team was shifting it’s focus toward next season, why wouldn’t Sweeney be shipped out before Wlad?
Here’s what I had been typing when this went up…
“Despite missing the early part of the season due to shoulder issues, Saunders has made strides this year. For the season, he’s hitting .310/.378/.544, and the past seven games going into Friday night, it was .429/.467/.768. In addition to that, he’s taken over in center field the past few games, and while not ideal, he can still hack it out there. Great stuff, right?
Not entirely. Saunders has torn it up in thirteen games in July, but in the month of June he hit .242/.215/.432 and was striking out in a quarter of his at-bats. In addition, while he’s great at handling right-handed pitchers (.344/.411/.620), left-handers, he’ll still need to learn how to handle (.247/.312/.400), and he’ll be doing so while the Mariners are in a tight division hoping to make up ground in the event that the Angels ever lose a game ever again.
I recognize that the outfield situation is less than ideal. Gutierrez rushed himself back for bobblehead night and Langerhans, though he’s slugged so far, cannot be expected to be much more than a plus glove out there. Saunders gives the Mariners a chance for some increased production against southpaws, and let’s face it, he’s probably going to be the starting LF next year as well. It makes you think that after Chavez went down, they were really just biding their time until they perceived him as being ready.”
So, yes, 2010 move. I wonder if we will see more 2010 moves shortly?
If the team was shifting it’s focus toward next season, why wouldn’t Sweeney be shipped out before Wlad?
Sweeney has no trade value. DFA does not mean released/waived/kicked to the curb. The M’s were trading Balentien this week – that hasn’t changed at all.
As a Canadian I’m pumped to hear Saunders is getting a shot in the bigs. Hopefully he can do enough to secure a spot in 2010.
Oh yeah, and we’re facing four straight lefties now. This should be interesting.
Welcome to the big leagues, kid.
And, just for fun, Reid Brignac was just pulled from the Durham line-up in the 3rd inning. Let the speculation begin.
You started it!
It’s a shame Wlad didn’t pan out. I was rooting for the guy, but if you can’t hit, you can’t hit. I hope Saunders can hit a breaking ball.
Some dude named davidcameron says something really interesting over at LL…
Holy freaking crap. Which starting pitcher is in this deal?
Then again, there are 28 other teams, and at least some of them would be interested in Brignac.
Is Ian snell a realistic possibility? I would love to have him.
It would kind of suck to lose Morrow, but I trust Zduriencik to get appropriate value back in any deal. It’s going to be surreal if Cleveland is the third team in a deal that goes down this weekend, however.
Please, please, please, please let our collective dreams come true.
Are the Ray’s buyers or sellers (or “both”) at this point? would it make sense for them to go get Halladay?
I’d love to see Brignac in Seattle, but that would increase the demand for Wash and Bedard, especially in the AL East.
How fun is this to look forward to the possibility of a big deal with excitement rather than nervousness as with the previous administration?
How fun is it to be an M’s fan again?
Wlad and ??? for Brignac?
Morrow? Moore?
Tampa’s catching situation is effed up so I could see them hot after Moore.
They’re buyers (or at least they should be), and they have a bumper crop of prospects to spend to upgrade the current team (and perhaps even simultaneously shed salary).
Seriously, read Dave’s comment over at LL. If even half of what he says is afoot, it’ll easily rank with the Putz deal in terms of wow factor.
Can someone give me a link to the discussion of these trades?
[ot]
How so? He is left handed and the splits quoted show he is better against RHP. Do you mean he will hit better than Wlad or Langerhans against LHP?
How is the playing time likely to be divided between Langerhans and Saunders?
Baker says Wak intends to start Saunders, Lnagerhans 4th option.
[no]
I’m confused (what else is new?) — has Endy Chavez disappeared from consideration? He’s a very good defensive LF, right, who hits pretty flyweight, but does that mean he’s a goner? Or riding the pine next year? Or are we anticipating it’ll take two years to come back from the surgery?
Having Chavez/Gutierrez/Ichiro as an outfield is like having four or five guys out there.
I think we’ll count on Endy like we counted on Snelling — you just can’t at this point in time based on the severity if injury he endured.
Anything he can provide as a fourth outfielder is bonus at this point in time.
Chavez is a FA after the season, and, unfortunately, will not be completely healthy by the start of the 2010 season.
But give Saunders a shot. I like Langerhans, but we already know what he is and have seen what he can do. If Saunders truly struggles, put Langerhans back in. Might as well try to see if Saunders can give more of a boost to the offense than Langerhans.
Brignac is expected to be back in the lineup for tonight’s second half of Durham’s doubleheader, for whatever that’s worth. Definitely something going on, though.
Man, if something like this deal is actually consummated, the “chemistry” proponents like Mark Oh are going to have a fit (and if the team doesn’t make the playoffs — the increasing likelihood of which of course is the reason to ahead with a deal in the first place — or even declines in its winning percentage all, that will be all the proof they’ll need. Since of course all winning and losing is the result of good or bad chemistry, determined retroactively if necessary.)
Chavez is a free agent this offseason. It’s possible he’ll be back (players that miss big chunks of their walk season may be tempted to sign a short, reasonable deal to re-establish their value) but there’s no certainty of it. So having a backup plan is a good thing. Getting an potential upgrade over Chavez is a good thing. Having multiple options when negotiating in the offseason is a good thing. Having excess talent at a position you can use in trades is a good thing.
If Brignac is indeed being linked to the M’s, I’m going to jump up and down and do back flips.
Trades in which the Mariners acquire actual talent at cornerstone positions long term are still a rather novel concept to me, and I don’t know if I can actually handle this level of anticipation.
According the MLB traderumors Brignac was pulled for not hustling to first base… so much for that.
Brignac got pulled for not running out a popup?!?
F that S.
Yes, because that site is widely known for posting only 100% accurate, credible information.
damn it. Oh well. Signs are we are selling, so I have tremendous belief that Z will make us happy.
That’s the party line on the Brignac thing for now, yep. Strange that they would wait an inning before punishing him for not hustling (his grounder was in the first, yanked after the second).
[meet the mod queue]
You mean that a MLB organization wouldn’t simply come out and say “yep, he’s being traded this afternoon, you got us!”
I’m simply shocked at such insinuations of skullduggery.
That hilarious! What was that conversation like?
“Hey Reid, forgot to tell you… you know that pop out you didn’t hustle on a few innings back? Yeah.. have a seat.”
That’s like smacking your dog an hour after he jumped on the table and ate your sandwich.
sounds to me like he is a selfish player….we don’t need another one of those
Anyway, the “benched for not running out a grounder” thing may be true, or it may be the sort of thing an org leaks to beat reporters as a smokescreen when a real move is happening.
Your opinion of this trade’s likelihood shouldn’t be any different now than it was half an hour ago.
Can you imagine a whole locker room full of selfish guys like that? The mind boggles.
Saunders bats eighth, Sweeney’s career lives on.
Are players pulled before a deal is done or after?
Usually once talks start to get serious, to prevent a possible injury screwing up the trade.
So, to answer your question more directly, “during”.
So, if all this firestorm of Brignac, what would a theoretical cost be for the M’s? Wouldn’t it have to include Bedard? (or Wash) Bedard and Wlad for Brignac?
Most likely Morrow and/or Clement.
Why Saunders? This pisses me off. I mean WTF does a guy have to do to get to the bigs? 9 HR in preseason, white hot in the minors as of now. And no I’m obviously not talking about Saunders. I’m talking about Mike Wilson who would be a better addition to this team this year, with the power presence he would provide. Cause God knows we could at least try and hit a Branyanless HR, from time to time. No? Also it is about time we flip flop Branyan and Guttz in the order. Branyan to 5 Guttz to 2. It was fine while it lasted, but it’s time to get back to reality.
You are wrong.
I wonder when he found out? I assume his family is still in Victoria (making him the first guy from there to make it to the bigs since Harden AFAIK) and they could’ve made it down on the floatplane or even the Clipper if they knew last night or early this morning. (Hmmm, I wonder if this guy is a relative?)
Why Saunders? This pisses me off.
Relax yourself by looking in the mirror and saying “self, you don’t know what you’re talking about. The people who run the team I’m rooting for? They do. This is good.”
[deleted, use better analogies]
I’m talking about Mike Wilson
We know we know already! He’s 26 years old and has spent all or parts of 4 years in AA. Abraham Nunez once led the NL in spring-training homers:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/n/nunezab02.shtml
26 and striking out 35% of the time in AA? Sometimes organizational soldiers get lucky in spring training. Smart organizations don’t get over-excited by it.
Btw, mlbtraderumors now reports that Brignac was pulled 3:11pm: because “his right leg was bothering him this afternoon.” And because he didn’t hustle. And, you know, his glove felt too tight on his hand.
I think Madden just enjoys seeing how ridiculous something can be before mlbtraderumors won’t report it. You should check his twitter feed to see if he’s making fun of them.
If Saunders is the real deal, as some of us believe, the M’s will have an interesting problem on their hands. What to do with Ackley, Triunfel, Tui, Halman, Mike Wilson, and Carrera?
We might see Ackley moved to 2B after all, making Lopez expendable for a trade. Triunfel would be moved to 3B, eventually making Tui expendable for a trade.
Carrera could become a superb fourth outfielder, ala, Chavez. Halman might be trade bait (allegedly loved by the Pirates), but he also might be a DH for the Mariners. Ditto for Wilson.
Ackley isn’t getting moved back to the infield, and I’m not sure why people are so hung up on that idea.
But yes, right now, the Mariners have too many outfielders in the system, so you’ll see some of those players moved to shore up other weak points.
It isn’t a matter of being hung up on the idea of Ackley at 2B. It is a matter of: where else to put Ackley? The Mariners have repeatedly stated that they expect Ackley to be in the majors sooner, rather than later. Does that mean 2010? That is a reasonable possibility. That creates an immediate problem (albeit a nice one to have).
It is doubtful the M’s are going to trade Ichiro or Guiterrez. If Saunders becomes a fixture in LF, that leaves Ackley without a position. What other solution is there? Trading Saunders? That doesn’t make sense if Saunders successfully makes the leap to MLB, because he is a gifted defender whose skill set suits Safeco Field…and he hits left with some power.