Reader Poll
Jeff Sullivan · December 6, 2013 at 1:57 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Hypothetically, still, because we’re still not in charge, you and I. I just ran this very same poll two days ago. Things have changed since two days ago a little bit. So I’m curious again.
Franklin plus stuff, yes. Paxton plus stuff, likely. Not Walker for me.
Prenegotiate a 5 year deal and then make the trade! This way you get a premier pitcher and keep him
Still no. A dumb trade is a dumb trade. Obviously, (almost) anything can happen, but the goal is to maximize your odds of success, and you do that by accumulating the most possible value over the longest term. This wouldn’t be that, because 2 years is still too much shorter.
If they could negotiate a 5 year deal like longgeorge1 says, then sure.
Is Amaro still dismantling things in Philly? Maybe they’d want to get rid of Lee for a lesser price. He is a higher contract but should come at a lesser cost than Price.
Weird that less people would do it now then in the previous poll. It does make more sense now, but I still wouldn’t do it. Got to find a way to get it done with Franklin and pieces.
I would do nearly any version of this trade that DIDN’T involve Walker.
I like the idea of testing the waters with the Phillies. Rollins and Utley won’t last much longer, and their farm system lacks many well-regarded middle infield prospects in general, especially with above average offensive potential, and particularly in the high minors. Furthermore, those they do have are mostly Shortstops. Philadelphia seems like an ideal landing spot for Franklin if we could snag Lee, and not give up Walker in the trade.
“I like the idea of testing the waters with the Phillies. Rollins and Utley won’t last much longer, and their farm system lacks many well-regarded middle infield prospects in general, especially with above average offensive potential, and particularly in the high minors. Furthermore, those they do have are mostly Shortstops. Philadelphia seems like an ideal landing spot for Franklin if we could snag Lee, and not give up Walker in the trade.”
I’ve been thinking about Philly as well. They have two bad contracts and aren’t likely to go anywhere with such a bare cupboard. What if they offered us Lee and Howard and picked up half the total tab for a lesser return (since we’d be doing them the monetary and PR favor of allowing them to “unload” a bad contract). Send them a replacement placeholder first-baseman (Smoak?) an infielder (some combination of Ackley, Franklin or Taylor), and maybe a catcher since Ruiz is gone (Marlette?). That’d add something like 27 million (~6 wins at $4.5 apiece) to the Mariners’ payroll and give us Cliff Lee again. And some dingers in the form of a DH.
I’ll stop rosterbating now.
I changed my vote to “Yes.”
If they don’t add more pieces like an outfielder and a DH, then I retroactively change my vote back to “No.”
I think I may have been more willing to do something like this if Hultzen was still healthy and pitching well. Losing Hultzen and having Maurer really struggle hurt our young pitching depth. We need to have a few good young players on the team to keep the salary at a manageable level. We simply can’t win a World Series using just free agency or trading for veterans. We need to balance that with young, cheap talent.
Call me crazy but I want Walker to be the centerpiece of a trade for Stanton. Then maybe see if we can get Kemp+cash for Ackley like I think Dave suggested. All the sudden, we have a good offense.
I just can’t buy in to the notion that the Dodgers are so eager to dump Kemp that we could get him AND a large chunk of change for Ackley. Ackley isn’t a prospect anymore, and I feel like in the Mariners blogging community, we have an unavoidably inflated idea of his value. Most of that value stems from either his former blue-chip status or two half-seasons of good, not great, performance which are not quite 2 years apart (I might be a little harsh regarding 2011). While theres a good amount of risk, and money, attached to Kemp, we really need to remember that to the rest of the league, Ackley also represents an amount of risk that is far from trivial.