Not a lot of time to post this weekend, but this is a must-read article from the finest sportswriter in the city.
[...]
Not a lot of time to post this weekend, but this is a must-read article from the finest sportswriter in the city.
[...]Ken Griffey Jr.: Remember the stories going around back before he was traded a decade ago? Junior, from the sounds of things, got to be a real pain. Then time passed, he aged by ten years, his career aged by fifty, and he became arguably one of the best clubhouse [...]
I don't know how much time I'll have to be around the computer today/this weekend, so I might as well address this now:
As with the Chone Figgins and Cliff Lee deals, I'm talking about this before it's actually official, so this could still blow up. Keep that in' [...]Larry wouldn't lie to us, would he? And Larry wouldn't have lousy sources, would he?
Source: Mariners will trade Carlos Silva to Cubs for Milton Bradley, may be announced later today
Don't go too crazy, as this is the first we've heard of it actually happening. But...
Update: Official [...]
So Cliff Lee held a conference call with reporters today from Puerto Rico, where he was on vacation. During the call he expressed his shock and dismay at being traded without notice the same day he submitted to the Phillies a counter-offer for a contract extension. Based on some of [...]
Ryan Drese looks like it's no problem, he did some stupid things in his day too, and boys will be boys.
[...]Rumors everywhere suggest that Nick Johnson's on the verge of signing a one-year deal with the Yankees, worth something like $6m or so. Johnson's .402 career OBP and status as a high-reward player whose risk diminishes his cost had made him a candidate to end up in Seattle from [...]
UPDATE: 14:02 PST - They're all gone in under three hours. Sorry folks.
UPDATE: 13:14 PST - Only about 100 tickets remain, just hours into the announcement. Seriously, buy now.
Go ahead and plan on being there. Here's Dave's announcement of the event - Saturday, January 9th, Seattle Central' [...]
On the one hand, at least he's changing things up, I guess. A true one-two punch refers to blows delivered in rapid succession. Oftentimes an entire day will pass between baseball games, and sometimes the delay will be even longer. Unless we're talking about geological phenomena or biological evolution,' [...]
As you've heard by now, the deal is finally official. I don't know if a "finally" is warranted, since this only took three days while the Erik Bedard trade a few years ago took seventeen months to complete, but this was such a winner from the beginning that the [...]
Still not official, still awesome.
Update: Unless Bob Elliott is right. Whoopsadoodle
Update #2: Larry Stone has assured us that everything is fine
Update #3: Official! Cliff Lee is now a member of the Seattle Mariners organization, while Tyson Gillies, Phillippe Aumont, and JC Ramirez are not. We rock.
Despite the widespread enthusiasm over the impending Cliff Lee acquisition, there remains some degree of concern that, while the Mariners are improving their run prevention, what they really need is offense, and that they won't be able to win if they don't score many runs.
I would like to take [...]
Well I was wrong. Seems Zduriencik wants Langerhans back and intends to sign him shortly. I assume that would be to a minor league contract with an ST invite.
[...]Still no official confirmation, but at this point, it seems the return is almost certainly going to be Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, and J.C. Ramirez. That's the package that's being reported. Aumont/Gillies/Ramirez means no Saunders, Morrow, or Triunfel, and no Saunders, Morrow, or Triunfel means that we [...]
Says Ken Rosenthal:
#Phils getting $6M from #Jays in Halladay deal. Drabek, Taylor, likely D'Arnaud to TOR, Aumont, Gillies and 3rd player to PHI...
This is, of course, just another rumor, but it's the latest rumor and also comes from as credible a source as you're going to find at the [...]
We're probably not going to learn anything new about this deal today so it's time to talk about something else for a little while in order to avoid all the cabin fever. Word has it that the Red Sox and Mike Cameron have tentatively agreed on a two-year deal' [...]
Note: if Happ and/or Blanton are involved, and they're coming here, then that would change things, but I'm not going to speculate any more than I have to.
So, we can't yet be sure what we're going to be giving up here, but that doesn't mean we can't make some [...]
I'm back. Yay. Stupid Harden.
So Ryan Langerhans was non-tendered today, opening up a 40-man spot and making him a free agent. As a free agent, he's free to negotiate with anyone, including the Mariners, but there's not a lot of playing time around here to be had, making' [...]
The agent.
"They know where we stand," Matthews' agent, Scott Leventhal, told FOXSports.com. "Gary wants to play every day, and he wants to play center field."
"He's still got an amazing amount of talent," Leventhal said.
"I think any team will be impressed to sit across'" [...]
Chone Figgins has been a regular player every year since 2004. Presented below is his year-to-year baserunning value, excluding stolen bases, since Fangraphs' WAR equation already takes those into account.
Year Runs 2004 1.5 2005 10.0 2006 9.1 2007 5.0 2008 6.4 2009 7.3
Six years, 39.1 "hidden" runs added by advancing on grounders, fly balls, or hits. I don't know why [...]
More photos » by Chris Carlson - AP
awkwarrrd
I'm kind of jumping the gun here, which I know I could' [...]
Per Rosenthal on Twitter and also on Fox Sports:
The Mariners are on the verge of signing free-agent infielder Chone Figgins to a four-year contract in the $36 million range, according to a major-league source.
Well this kind of came out of nowhere:
The Mariners are the clear frontrunners to sign free-agent third baseman Chone Figgins, multiple major league sources told FOXSports.com on Thursday night.
Figgins is the team's first choice to succeed Adrian Beltre at third base, the sources said. [...]
Over the past few weeks, I've made no secret of how much I'd like to see the Mariners sign Rich Harden. Given our roster situation and the fact that we're not trying to win now at all costs, I think Harden's risk/reward is an excellent fit, as he has' [...]
Ken Huckaby looks like he can't believe he's taking a mug shot after being charged with the aggravated assault of Derek Jeter.
' [...]Dave has already laid out his full explanation of why this seems like an empty rumor, so you should go read that. It's a solid, sensible post, and there's no point in my repeating it when you can just go over there. Go away! Go away from my website!
There [...]
You may have noticed that Fangraphs is all set up for community projections now. This is the same thing USSM/we used to do, only for everybody in baseball. It's a really cool feature that's remarkably simple to use, and one neat little twist they threw in was including the rooting [...]
Yesterday, in discussing Edgar Martinez's chances of getting into the Hall of Fame, Larry Stone linked us to an Edgar fact sheet that was sent out by the Mariners to members of the BBWAA, a fact sheet that makes a number of statistical arguments to support his candidacy. [...]
So the Tuglett put up another good year in AAA, and now the 26 year old utility player with substantial middle infield experience has a .286/.372/.457 career line over 1400+ PAs at the highest level of the minors. He was nevertheless dropped from Kansas City's 40-man last week, but' [...]
Over the coming weeks, you're going to hear a lot about how certain teams are listening to offers for certain players, and how certain other players are untouchable. We've already been told that the Tigers are listening to offers for Edwin Jackson, the Blue Jays are listening to offers [...]
According to both UZR and RZR, Ramon Santiago has been a below-average defensive middle infielder over the course of his career.
Seems there's a little more to playing in the middle than being able to pick it up and throw it.
[...]Chris Jakubauskas claimed by Pirates
Huh Wait, why? I guess Jak wasn't very good He's over his head as a starter and just a standard replaceable long reliever. He belongs in the NLFrom the LA Times.
Article headline: Dodgers won't be pursuing John Lackey
Article content:
[LA's team president] said that would rule out Lackey "unless there is an effective way to make that kind of deal."
In other words, the Dodgers won't try to sign John Lackey unless it makes sense for them, and [...]
Help me out here. I can't decide how best to handle this part of the offseason.
Poll What do you want to read about? I want to read about as many Mariner rumors as possible! Rumors! I only want to read about' [...]Warning: what follows is not a baseball post.
Driving home from work today, I found myself in some approximation of bumper-to-bumper traffic when a guy in a sports car to my right floored it to get ahead of me and merged into a 15-foot gap without signaling. Per usual, it pissed [...]
Luke Scott looks like he's talking to someone important and is ashamed to have such a dweeb for a friend so when you come up to him he pretends he doesn't know you.
' [...]May 19th, they say, was the turning point. Following a rough start against the Angels in which he gave up a bunch of hits and a bunch of stolen bases, Felix was called out by Don Wakamatsu for a lack of focus and determination, and from then on it was [...]
Since 2000 - covering the last ten years - there have been 428 American League starter seasons with at least 150 innings pitched. Here's how Felix's 2009 ranks among them:
ERA: #5
FIP: #17
Combined*: #8
* (2*ERA + 6*FIP)/8. A quick and dirty way of still giving starters some credit for [...]
Dave at Fangraphs passed along a link to this year's crop of minor league free agents. A popular thing to do with this information is pick out a handful of guys that would make interesting and potentially worthwhile pick-ups. This is not that. This is a full team made [...]
For those of you who are (justifiably) distrustful of the Bill James projections but still want to look at some numbers, the 2010 CHONE projections are live. For hitters, anyway. Here are the Mariners, here are the free agents, and here are the Yankees, in case looking at [...]
The following table shows what our payroll situation would be if we built a team from what we already have in-house. Some figures are exact, and others, such as those of the arbitration-eligibles, are approximations.
(Don't worry about things like, say, Jason Vargas showing up instead of Garret Olson. It doesn't [...]
Pretty much everybody that gives a crap about baseball understands by now that the Mariners are way different from how they used to be, but people's minds have been changed by different events. Some people were convinced by the hiring of Jack Zduriencik. They knew about him in Milwaukee, they [...]
Given the following information:
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32 year old injury-prone shortstop
UZR
+14 runs in 105 games in 2009, +23.6 in 316 games since 2007
Plus/Minus
+27 runs in 2009, around +48 since 2007
Revised Zone Rating
+15 runs in 2009, around +50 since 2007
Fan Scouting Report
#7 SS in 2009, average 7th or 8th since 2007
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How would you [...]
Let's see what we've got here...
Rk Player Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Pts 1 Joe Mauer Minnesota Twins 24 3 1 - - - - - - - 371 2 Ben Zobrist Tampa Bay Rays - 10 6 2 2 1 - 1 - - 172 3 Mark Teixeira New York Yankees 2 3 2 4 3 2 7 1 - - 158 4 Derek Jeter New York Yankees 1 5 3 4 4 2 1 1 2 1 157 5 Evan Longoria Tampa Bay Rays - 2 4 1 2 3 2 3 2 1 106 6 Zack Greinke Kansas City Royals 2 3 2 1 1 - 2 - - - 92 7 Miguel Cabrera Detroit Tigers - - 3 1 2 4 - 2 - 5 74 8 Kevin Youkilis Boston Red Sox - 2 - - 1 3 1 8 1 - 69 9 Chone' [...]When the Mariners traded for Jack Wilson, we knew it a move fueled by defense. The front office and coaching staff made no secret of that. Wilson brought a glove, an excellent glove capable of making up for a lackluster bat, and this was okay, because we knew that [...]
Damn you, Griffey, for making the audience wait to see this table of critically important information.
Rk Player Team 1st 2nd 3rd Pts 1 Zack Greinke Kansas City Royals 28 1 - 143 2 Felix Hernandez Seattle Mariners - 17 6 57 3 Justin Verlander Detroit Tigers - 8 9 33 4 Roy Halladay Toronto Blue Jays 1 2 11 22 5 C.C. Sabathia New York Yankees - 1 2 5 6 Jon Lester Boston Red Sox - - 1 1Looks about right. The top six arms in [...]
Brad Voyles looks like he spends a lot of late nights out on the town and he's getting pretty tired of always getting lectured about it when he comes home.
[...]Overbay is both not very good and due $7m in 2010, so, with our salary situation, I wouldn't expect this to get much farther.
' [...]Via Yahoo!:
"We believe that Ken’s presence with the Seattle Mariners organization was such a positive asset last season with his leadership on and off the field," general manager Jack Zduriencik said. "His passion for baseball, life and the Seattle Mariners goes unsaid. We are happy to have Ken back" [...]
When the Padres hired Jed Hoyer, I was joking with a friend of mine that the Red Sox were working to get one of their guys into as many front offices as possible such that a few years from now Epstein could yell "ACTIVATE" and all of his splinter cells [...]
A few things I missed over the afternoon...
Russell Branyan has rejected a one-year offer from the Mariners, a one-year offer that, via Larry Stone, included a 2011 option. Branyan says that, while he'd love to stay in Seattle, he's holding out for a multiyear deal that gives' [...]I'm looking at this for the first time, just like you guys. Let's see what we've got.
Rk Player Team 1st 2nd 3rd Pts 1 Elvis Andrus Texas Rangers 6 9 6 63 2 Andrew Bailey Oakland Athletics 11 1 3 61 3 Jeff Niemann Tampa Bay Rays 3 5 3 33 4 Rick Porcello Detroit Tigers 2 7 2 33 5 Brett Anderson Oakland Athletics 5 1 3 31 6 Gordon Beckham Chicago White Sox 1 2 8 19 7 Nolan Reimold Baltimore Orioles 1 - 1 6 8 Matt Wieters Baltimore Orioles - 1 3 6 9 Brad [...]"The 2008-09 player rankings, compiled by the Elias Sports Bureau, are used to compare players and to determine compensation for free agent signings. The rankings combine stats" something something something last two years something everybody knows these are a total joke. I think even the people that publish them know [...]
In this post, Olney introduces the idea of John Lackey joining the Mariners. Exciting! Lackey is great and would help restore some of the team smelliness we lost with the departure of Justin Thomas. Here is the phrasing Olney used in delivering his point:
Seattle could land Lackey potential [...]Still nothing happening between parties to the best of my knowledge, but a couple hours ago we got this from Jon Heyman's Twitter:
#mariners gm zduriencik: Felix is our property. we're going to have him the next 2 years."
That's a bold statement from someone who isn't ordinarily so bold.
Something to" [...]
Every AL blog got two ballots, each ballot voted for three managers, etc. Last year, the SBN AL voting matched up perfectly with the official results, which says something about just how much access as a voter really matters.
Rk Manager Team 1st 2nd 3rd Pts 1 Mike Scioscia Los Angeles Angels 9 8 3 72 2 Ron Gardenhire [...]Writing is easier when you don't have to think up an intro.
In terms of things we know we can measure pretty well, Rob Johnson the defender doesn't stand out, at least not in a good way.
His error rate, for whatever that's worth, is about average. His four in 754.1 [...]
Alejandro de Aza looks like at first he didn't really want to go to the party, but then someone told him there would be Triscuits and he's all "I love Triscuits!"
' [...]Next Tuesday, between 11am - 1pm, Jamie Moyer will be signing the 2010 Moyer Foundation calendar at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. The calendars, which you can see here, cost $5 and benefit Hutch School for children whose lives have been affected by cancer. You may feel disinclined [...]
Dejan Kovacevic link, as mentioned in the comments:
Jack Wilson, the Pirates' shortstop most of this decade, is discussing a multiyear extension with Seattle that would keep him from becoming a free agent.
The Mariners are believed to have offered a two-year contract worth more than the two-year offer the Pirates' [...]
Baseball players can make contributions in a number of different ways, the most obvious and talked-about of which is how they do at the plate. Defense, position, and baserunning tend to be brushed off as secondary concerns. What follows are the top and bottom 15 in the sum of these [...]
$1m buyout instead of an $8.6m option. This'll be an interesting name to watch; JJ would make a great buy-low candidate for a bad team looking to cash him in at the deadline, but on the other hand, it was the Red Sox who wound up with [...]
Travis Denker looks like he just ran into an old friend at the beach but doesn't know if his buddy recognizes him anymore, which is a bummer because Travis really wants to give him a hug.
' [...]Heads up. Mariners claimed Yusmeiro Petit. Heard from Dave, and this is the only link I can find right now.
[...]We can just skip the whole background section, right? To many, Lopez's improvement as a hitter is a sign of things to come. To others, Lopez is a decent but by no means extraordinary bat that is approaching a plateau. Figuring out which it is will be of considerable importance' [...]
Pedro Martinez
#45 / Pitcher / Philadelphia Phillies
Height: 5-11
Weight: 195
Bats: R
Throws: R
Born: Oct 25, 1971
Andy Pettitte #46 / Pitcher / New York YankeesHeight: 6-5
Weight: 225
Bats: L
Throws: L
Born: Jun 15, 1972
No matter how it turns out tonight, I will concede that this World Series has [...]
Kurt Birkins looks like he just realized the person he was making fun of to a friend was in the same room the whole time.
[...]No new ideas presented here. I just remember that, back when I was first learning about regression, one of the things that stuck with me was seeing how the top batting averages in the league in Year X looked in Year X+1, so here's a similar concept with a different, [...]
Guess I should talk about this, since the Mariners seem to be showing considerable interest. I understand I'm late to the party, but then I never expected that the M's would still be hovering around at this point in the sweepstakes.
It's easy to see why Chapman's getting so much attention.' [...]
Should I bother linking to good stuff at USSM, or do you guys pretty much all already read it? I should hope it's the latter.
[...]
A.J. Burnett
#34 / Pitcher / New York Yankees
Height: 6-5
Weight: 230
Bats: R
Throws: R
Born: Jan 03, 1977
Cliff Lee #34 / Pitcher / Philadelphia PhilliesHeight: 6-3
Weight: 190
Bats: L
Throws: L
Born: Aug 30, 1978
End of baseball?
[...]
