If the Mariners were in the playoff hunt, would they call up two rookies for the stretch run?

If they’re good players, why not?

…who would be batting 3rd, 4th and 5th? And would you be comfortable seeing those players in that order for at least 100 – 120 games out of the season?
jjracoon earlier in the thread seems to be pretty stoked. Anyone else?

Yeah, I’m stoked. I don’t think the offense will be ’27 Yankees or anything, but they should be roughly average offensively. Coupled with an above average rotation and a really good defense, that means wins.

As far as 3-4-5 guys, I’d say vs Lefties:
(wOBA/ISO/Spd)

3. CF Gutierrez-R (.337/.160/5.0)
4. DH Bradley-S (.365/.174/3.2)
5. 2B Lopez-R (.324/.169/3.3)

and vs Righties:

3. LF Bradley-S (.365/.174/3.2)
4. DH Griffey-L (.328/.180/0.9)
5. CF Gutierrez-R (.337/.160/5.0)

Maybe Kotchman instead of Griffey, if Griffey falls off a cliff.

The wOBA, ISO and Spd numbers above are Bill James projections from Fangraphs.

The two lineups I looked at (using the Bill James projections) worked out to an expected league average in runs scored (about 0.04 above per game, actually). So the offense with the current roster and expectations is not horrible.

Oh, man, now you did it. You linked to a LL article!

Yeah, I know — crossing the beams, dogs and cats living together, yadda yadda. But on the eve of the confab at Benaroya it seemed to fit into the spirit of togetherness. Koombiya, mutherfuckers!

Plus Dave was on a plane and so wasn’t able to write his usual three articles this week about why MOAR POWAR! isn’t really necessary.

So who drives in the runs

Anybody who has guys get on ahead of him. Seriously, that’s what upgrading OBP is all about. RBIs are team stats (unfortunately assigned to individual players), and they only accumulate if players get on base — HRs aside, you can’t drive in guys who aren’t already on the basepaths. A chain of high OBP guys getting on for each other is a more reliable way to score runs than a bunch of guys with power who make a lot of outs.

and can hit a home run?

All of them? Seriously, of the position players currently expected to start for the M’s in 2010, all of them hit at least one home run in 2009 — even Adam Moore had one (in 23 ABs). The only exception would be Saunders, who didn’t put one over the fence in his 122 ABs last year, but I don’t think anyone expects that drought to last if he gets regular time in the majors; but he’s probably starting the season in Tacoma anyway. Woodward didn’t hit a dinger last year either (and has averaged just 3 a year in his career) but he’s a backup bench player at best.

Yeah, there isn’t the one fearsome big bat, and chicks dig the long ball and MOAR POWR!!!11one1 and all that, but maybe you just need to read
this.

Except Hannahan is lefthanded.

That, unless I missed someone, is all that is left from the day Jack was signed.

On the day Zduriencik retires, I’m assuming the goal is that Felis is still around (since he’s not yet 24). Ichiro! might be in the Hall of Fame by then. My guess is it’s a race between RRS and Moore for who will be the third from last left. Whoever it is of those two will have exceeded expectations, but it’s expectable that we will have someone left from the prior regime who will do that. I’d love it to be Moore; we haven’t had a great catcher here, ever.