Offseason Thread

[Bulltalk]

^^^ No kidding. I just don't like our chances at all this year in spite of the Cano signing. I just don't get this management team. How many DH/1B/slow/injury and defensively challenged players can we load up on? The off-season from about the winter meetings till shortly thereafter started to look promising. Then...I don't know. Was there REALLY no trade we could have made with Franklin and some combination of prospects/vets to get either a 3rd/4th starter or decent outfielder? Maybe we should have made the Price trade if it was there for the doing. And was that a good choice for our new president of the franchise? Seemed pretty boring to me, didn't seem to portend a new brand of leadership, a new direction to me.

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know...the effing M's can never seem to get it right. If it's not the ownership being cheap, it's the general management being incompetent or unable. I wish someone with real panache, competence and vision would buy this team and right this ship. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know...

We are counting on so many things going right this year which we have very little business counting on to do so. It's a given that we're counting on Felix and Iwakuma to be at least as good as last year, and that Cano will put himself into MVP discussion. From there, we seem to be counting on Seager becoming an all-star caliber player, Ackley to begin resembling the can't-miss hitter we thought we had drafted, Miller to surprise as one of the upcoming young talents in the game, getting some steady and reliable offensive production out of the 1B position, actually have Saunders give us a full season of decent hitting without going into some seemingly intractable slump, that Zunino will become a solid catcher capable of handling the needs of this 3/5's young pitching staff, and do so without compromising himself too much as a hitter, etc, etc...

Once again, just so many question marks heading into another season, counting on so many things going right that we have very little business counting on to do so.

I so much want to get behind this team, get excited about this team again, but they always find a way to let their fans down again. Count me cynical till I SEE IT, till the day when we're actually "in it", really "in it" when the weather starts turning nice. Until then I do not believe.

[TTown]

come on ubaldo. let's do this.

[Sweezo]

^^^ No kidding. I just don't like our chances at all this year in spite of the Cano signing. I just don't get this management team. How many DH/1B/slow/injury and defensively challenged players can we load up on? The off-season from about the winter meetings till shortly thereafter started to look promising. Then...I don't know. Was there REALLY no trade we could have made with Franklin and some combination of prospects/vets to get either a 3rd/4th starter or decent outfielder? Maybe we should have made the Price trade if it was there for the doing. And was that a good choice for our new president of the franchise? Seemed pretty boring to me, didn't seem to portend a new brand of leadership, a new direction to me.

And yet it seems so close to a perfect offseason. If they landed a #3 SP with some upside and a decent outfielder, I'd have few [if any] complaints.

I'm guessing they planned on trading Franklin for an OF and use Hart at DH, but the market hasn't been what they wanted so now Hart's penciled in RF. Now, you wait for that unfortunate team who sees an IF go down with an injury, or a team like the Mets who might think Franklin's a better option than Stephen Drew at SS.

[TTown]

mcclendon says ackley is in left (which is better than center), and saunders will be in center (though he belongs in a corner spot).

the current buzz -- which has been wrong more often than not this offseason -- has us and baltimore as the top suitors for kendrys.

[nuke the whales]

Now apparently Nelson Cruz is close to going to Baltimore, which I am just fine with.
Edit-
And now it's official, although for 1 year $8 million the O's might have gotten a good deal. No way he was going to come to Safeco looking to reclaim his value on a 1 year deal though.

[Sweezo]

Now apparently Nelson Cruz is close to going to Baltimore, which I am just fine with.
Edit-
And now it's official, although for 1 year $8 million the O's might have gotten a good deal. No way he was going to come to Safeco looking to reclaim his value on a 1 year deal though.

Right. A 1 year/$8 million for Cruz would've been OK [although I really don't like the guy] for the M's but it makes no sense to Cruz. I suppose he's trying to do what Beltre did, but with Beltre it made sense to show it was all SafeCo that was holding his numbers. I guess Cruz would be trying to show he can stay healthy for a whole season, that's he's put the steroids behind him...but he's leaving one park that's offense friendly for on that's even friendlier.

Let's see if we bring in Morales now?

[TTown]

LL was speculating we could get kendrys at a decent price now, going off the cruz contract. make it happen.

i'd still like a vet/proven #3. high hopes for our youngins and all, but i really wanted ubaldo. i'd take santana on the right deal.

[Sweezo]

Seeing Cruz signing elsewhere and this...

[tweet]https://twitter.com/TNT_Mariners/status/437260702772772864[/tweet]

...helps restore my faith in the front office a bit. The reports of that $75 million M's offer for Cruz was, obviously, nonsense. I don't mind them being interested Cruz on a bargain, I just didn't want them to think "OMG POWER" and disregard the ballpark and PED factors. Since they...did something similar last year.

LL was speculating we could get kendrys at a decent price now, going off the cruz contract. make it happen.

If they did 3 years/$30 million I'd be pleased. If Smoak hit .277/.336/.449 over the course of the season I'd be ecstatic, and that's the line Kendrys put up last year. Smoak's upside is Kendrys' reality.

I'm not thrilled about the idea of seeing Morrison/Hart in the OF, but if they could shuffle Kendrys/Hart/LoMo around enough at DH hopefully ease the wear and tear on Hart's knees. Since Hart's a one year investment I guess it's easier to gamble on his health if that's what he wants to do.

Re-signing Kendrys has to mean Smoak is moved. Otherwise, there's zero use for him and his $3 million salary. Thankfully, Smoak agreed to a team option year in arbitration which would seem to be a nice fit in a trade. I stand by the idea of a Franklin/Smoak/+ package to the Pirates for an OF/SP.

[TTown]

Re-signing Kendrys has to mean Smoak is moved. Otherwise, there's zero use for him and his $3 million salary. Thankfully, Smoak agreed to a team option year in arbitration which would seem to be a nice fit in a trade. I stand by the idea of a Franklin/Smoak/+ package to the Pirates for an OF/SP.

while i agree that's the ideal scenario, all this talk of hart playing 100+ games in RF reads (to me) as the front office assuming a smoak/morrison platoon at 1B and kendrys the primary DH, no? unless it's just a smokescreen to up smoak's value, it seems that management thinks there's room for all.

[Sweezo]

Re-signing Kendrys has to mean Smoak is moved. Otherwise, there's zero use for him and his $3 million salary. Thankfully, Smoak agreed to a team option year in arbitration which would seem to be a nice fit in a trade. I stand by the idea of a Franklin/Smoak/+ package to the Pirates for an OF/SP.

while i agree that's the ideal scenario, all this talk of hart playing 100+ games in RF reads (to me) as the front office assuming a smoak/morrison platoon at 1B and kendrys the primary DH, no? unless it's just a smokescreen to up smoak's value, it seems that management thinks there's room for all.

Who knows? McClendon today said Smoak's his starter. I wouldn't be surprised if they entered the season with Smoak as the 1B, with LoMo waiting in the wings if Smoak fails to impress. That's not really what I want them to do but it might be the reality.