To those comments: it looks like Bucky’s going to be playing DH/PH/1B, and Edgar’s going to see his time reduced.
Also, w/r/t Olerud: no one’s arguing that Olerud’s awesome. I would say that my (and, though I hesitate to speak for him, Dave’s) position is that he’s not terrible. I mean really, look at his park-adjusted stats the last couple of years, and he doesn’t look thaaat bad. Not everyone gets to be above average, though you want to pay your average guys $1 rather than what Olerud’s making.
What it does do, though, is offer Leone more of a chance. With 1B vacant, Spiezio can play more first, Leone more third, and that at least makes me happy. Though if you thought Olerud wasn’t hitting well enough to stick at first, start leaving those tomatoes out in the sun because you’re going to want something squishy and rotten to throw at Spiezio before too long.
From Melvin’s comments on the broadcast just now, it appears that Villone’s going into the rotation. Which means Villone’s going to make a lot more money this year, which means that we’re going to hear about the unexpected costs the team had to run up, eating into that contingency fund… oh well, it’s not like they’d have saved it for next year anyway.
And hey, one more thing. I’m all for giving Bucky Jacobsen a shot, but I do wonder how much he’s going to play — to me, this doesn’t appear to be a straight swap with Olerud. Jacobsen really isn’t a 1B, at least as evidenced by his time in Tacoma. In 81 games played, he appeared at first just five times, spending all the rest of his time at DH. So either the M’s are going to run him out there at a position he hasn’t played much this year, or he’s going to sit on the bench (which doesn’t tell us much about his ability to hit major league pitching). It might have made more sense to call up AJ Zapp.
OK, I’m going to take the other side.
I don’t understand why people are defending Olerud. He’s been awful for a year and a half, and his defense isn’t anywhere near good enough to make up for the fact that he doesn’t hit enough to play first base. He may well have been the second- or third-best hitter on the team, but that’s much more an indication of just how bad the M’s hitters are than an indication of how good Olerud is. Ultimately, he may not have been the biggest problem, but I certainly wouldn’t score him in the “positive” category, either.
Oh, and I was just baiting you on that CBA thing.
I don’t understand why people are piling on Olerud, either. Aurilia at least wasn’t hitting at all or playing good defense, at least. It’s too easy to focus on what a player doesn’t do — we harped on the need to get Olerud a platoon partner, for instance. But Olerud got on base like crazy against right handers, made decent contact — for a first baseman, he didn’t hit for the power you want, but when he’s the second, third-best hitter on the team, he’s not the problem.
Sure I do. The CBA’s freely available. I got mine from the much missed Doug Pappas, who posted it for anyone to download here.
Wait just a minute here… Derek, you have the CBA?
So who drops off the 40-man then?
Obvious candidates:
Guardado leaves in trade
Myers leaves in trade
Villone leaves in trade
Possible:
Ramon Santiago moved off (this is unlikely — they want him around)
Dobbs or Strong moved off 40 man
Rafael Soriano moves from the 15-day to the 60-day DL
Rett Johnson assigned or moved quietly to 60-day DL
Aaron Looper assigned
Like Aurilia, veteran presence designated for assignment
I’m curious to see where this goes.
We should also point out that the Mariners haven’t lost a game in almost a week now. They’ve got to be happy about that at least.
I can’t find anything in the CBA that says Olerud can refuse a waiver claim. That said, I didn’t give it the twice-over, so take that with your standard salt dosage.
From Tede:
Great stuff about the phoniness about the M’s use of language,
timelines, and Finnigan to grab extra cash out the door.
One part where you’re a bit wrong was about your expectations for the
Seattle Times (or P-I for that matter) on the issues of budgets.
Remember the Times/Blethen is using the same funny money accounting
practices to break the JOA with the P-I with 3 years of consecutive
(phony) losses. MAYBE…somebody on the P-I (Bruscas?) will go after
the M’s corrupt use of two timelines, but I wouldn’t count on it. Just
don’t be surprised that the Times won’t do a thing to expose the M’s.
For all the good newspapers do, remember that no newspaper will ever win
a Pulitzer for a series of stories on used car dealers. No newspaper
is that dumb to take on such a group of major advertisers to do a series
on used car dealers in the first place. (Hence, that’s why even with
the New York Times there was the need for a Consumer Reports to be
created. That’s also why the fan sites, Grand Salami mag, etc. are so
necessary in regards to covering the M’s. In comparison, all the
posturing over newspapers not allowing their reporters to be official
scorekeepers is just a false display of ethics.)
—
From a realistic perspective.. yeah, I guess understand. But I don’t like it.
I’m not sure that a DFA’d player has no refusal rights w/r/t a waiver claim if they have a no trade clause in their contract. I’ll look into that and see what I can find tonight.