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.
[...]The idea is not new, but this is the first that I can recall it being seriously talked about. According to Shannon Drayer the Mariners are going to give Dustin Ackley some reps at second base. Here's a quick rundown of some pros and cons:
PROS
Ackley at second base [...]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 NLReports surfacing that Chris Jakubauskas has been claimed off waivers by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jakubauskas was a decent pitcher for us this season coming in roughly average. He's not a big loss.
And here's the official press release link.
' [...]From 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:
-----
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
-----
How would you [...]
Two-year deal. Details forthcoming.
Jeff's update: $10m, 2 years. I think I said everything I have to say about Wilson the other day, so the bottom line is that this is a great deal in a vacuum and still a pretty good deal for a team in our [...]
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 [...]
Well that actually did not take very long. Larry Stone is reporting that Griffey will return to the Mariners in 2010 on a one year contract. No word yet on the terms or expectations, but um... well... it's sort of weird after [...]
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' [...]Blah blah, they don't matter. I know. People will still talk about them, so talk about them in this meaningless thread. Feel free to not talk about them too. Or whatever.
Just for fun, I listed each player's rank in UZR amongst qualified players at his position for 2009.
P -
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' [...]
Carlos Gomez is the return. More later.
[Source]
Later: Hardy is a guy that we'd all been hoping that the Mariners would make a play on this offseason to address the shortstop position, so it's a bit of a shame that he's been taken off the table so early and' [...]
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.
' [...]Since this doesn't involve our team or division, let's be fairly brief:
The winner: Mark Teahen
The losers: Josh Fields (the other one), Chris Getz
Overview: Kenny Williams was so disappointed with Fields and Getz being unable to live up to their minor league numbers that he couldn't just non-tender [...]
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?
As much as people love to debate the Cy Young and MVP results every year, the problem is that rarely can anyone be absolutely certain that their suggested pick is the right one. There are so many different ways of evaluating who was the best pitcher or who was the [...]
CC Sabathia
#52 / Pitcher / New York Yankees
Height: 6-7
Weight: 290
Bats: L
Throws: L
Born: Jul 21, 1980
Joe Blanton #56 / Pitcher / Philadelphia PhilliesHeight: 6-3
Weight: 255
Bats: R
Throws: R
Born: Dec 11, 1980
This is the first time I've been able to post Blanton's photo this year and' [...]
Jeff, xero3k, Matthew, Graham, wyte_lightning
