While it's clearly t0o early to know what's going to happen, it seems that some national media outlets don't have high hopes for the Mariners.
Sports Illustrated likes the A's in the AL West. It will take huge years from Beltre, Sexson and Johjima to get them close to .500. Yikes.
ESPN's first power rankings have the M's at 26th. Ouch.
My biggest concern? The AL West is going to be tough. Not tuff like in The Outsiders (you know, Elvis is tuff, Mustangs are tuff), but tough like the other three teams are good and the Mariners are at best mediocre.
Not exactly a cheery outlook, but that's why they play the games right?
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That is kind of depressing but is anyone really surprised? I for one am not. This team needs changes and I for one am a believer in the Cleveland model of dumping all the big names in turn for prospects. Cleveland went through like 2-3 down years and then broke out with all their young guys. The mariners have been bad now for 2 years and on top of that they have not really built for the future. I know ownership wants to win now but how many mediocre signings do we have to make before we blow this up for real this time and start from scratch.
ReplyDeleteI understand (and share) your frustration, and while I agree that I like the way Cleveland did things, I have a couple of thoughts...
ReplyDelete-What "big names" do you want to trade for prospects? Ichiro? No chance he gets traded. Beltre and Sexson? They just got here. While Winn and Villone weren't exactly big names, they did get prospects in return (Bazardo is supposed to be damn good and Foppert was an elite prospect before surgery). I don't know who else you would want them to move to get good prospects.
-They are young. The 5th (and really the best) starter is 19. The middle infield both have less than a year of experience with the starting 2Bman being 22, and the starting SS being 24. Plus you've got Reed at 24 and even Morse at 23. Take a look at the 40-man roster and see how many guys were born after 1980.
-Plus, I think it's fair to say they've been doing what Cleveland has. They've been dumping old guys to get younger for 2 years now. They got rid of Olerud, Boone, Spiezio, Aurillia, etc. Plus the Freddy trade and the trades I mentioned from last year. Let's not forget Moyer denied a couple of trades too.
The Washburn signing was lousy. But, they needed someone to hold down a spot in the rotation. Especially since you have no idea what Gil and Joel are going to bring. Signing him for 4 years was idiotic, but they needed somebody for at least the next year or two.
Now, the Everett signing. Oy.
If they are out of contention come the trade deadline, then I'd like to see them move
Guardado for some more young bucks.
I just checked, and there are 24 guys born since 1980 on the 40-man roster. Plus another 10 born from 1976 to 1979. That's 34 of the 40 guys who are under 30.
ReplyDeleteBavasi inherited an old team and a depleted from system from Gillick. On the one hand, I think he has done a nice job of building with some young guys, but on the other hand he's made some garbage signings that may end up getting him fired if they suck again this year.