Fix the Mariners

[TTown]

I want 10 ideas by 5 o'clock, people.

Or maybe just a couple quick thoughts off the top of your head whenever you get a chance.

The way I figure it, without trades, we're locked into Guti (CF), Ich (RF), Wilson (SS), and Figgs (3B), with the all but inevitable additions of Smoak (1B) and Ackley (2B). I think Bradley's on the books, too, but... I don't think anyone really expects him to be here next season.

So that leaves openings at C, LF, and DH. Branyan won't cost much to pick up his option, but do we want to do that? Is anyone tired of the back issues every third day? Moore and Saunders are young and have shown potential at C and LF, respectively, but neither either are irreplaceable. I'd like to see Jack Wilson shipped somewhere, if Z is willing to admit his mistake.

How hard will the M's hit the FA market to fix the offense? I'm sure we'll try to deal Figgs, but what're the odds we get a quality return? Ideas? Trades?

[Zyme]

For me these stats tell everything:
Pitching ranks (Runs, QS, Whip, BAA): 9th, 10th, 7th, 11th

Hitting ranks (Runs, BA, Slug, OBP): 30th, 30th, 30th 30th

Analysis: GET. SOME. FARKING. OFFENSE.

the first question I have will be to keep lopez or to let him walk. If he gets type B FA I would say let him sign elsewhere (or move him to 3rd) and get the compensatory pick.

Figgins: Its hard to trade him at this point. He has basically no value. This mean if you want any shot at trading him you have to play him and hope he gets better and raises his value to something even halfway respectable.

Zyme's off season targets:
Draft: Solid hitting prospects, our pitching is great, our hitting stinks
FA targets:
1)Mauer (duh),
2)Crawford (great offense and awesome on defense, however, will probably be type A)
3)Adam Dunn (DH/maybe OF, he has done great things for washington and would finially add in some power. if he can still play OF, having Branyan and dunn as your 4/5 or 3/4 would really add some much needed power. Probably wont be more than type B)
4) Hideki Matsui (older, but still solid and could be a great combo with ich, even more japanese connections for marketing purposes)
5)Javier Vazquez ( will young and one of the most underrated pitchers in the league, would add another very solid arm in the rotation. Instant #2 behind felix)

[ORL_4LIFE]

-well Mauer already signed an 8 year contract earlier in the season so that's not an option.
-Crawford would be great, but realistically speaking, he would never come here.
-Dunn would be decent, just hope he doesn't turn into a richie sexson when he gets here
-i'll pass on matsui, not an OF anymore, but if nothing else is available, i guess DH would be decent.
-vazquez can't pitch to save his life in the AL, playing in Safeco and with our defense might help, but eh.

with that said, looking at the availabe FAs available this year, and with our limited salary, i'll throw my vote in for:

jorge cantu
ty wigginton
carl pavano
kevin millwood
brandon webb

[TTown]

Pavano's an interesting call. He certainly had a legit bounce back season this year. I have no idea how interested the Twins are at keeping him.

C Victor Martinez
OF Jayson Werth
DH Jim Thome
1B Lyle Overbay

There's some power options in positions of needs for us. I think all but Werth are lefties, which is obviously a plus in The Safe. I've always like David DeJesus for some reason, although he doesn't hit for power and I believe would need to switch to left.

[ORL_4LIFE]

werth would be great, but with boras as his agent, i doubt we can afford him. our only hope to land a respectable FA would be to trade aardsma and figgins to free up some cash. otherwise it's pretty much just gonna be another offseason where we sign stopgags until somebody is ready or whatever.

oh, and the royals picked up dejesus' option already, so that's also not happening.

[wiff]

For the most part I'd keep the pitching as is.

But as mentioned above target hitting hitting and more hitting.

Ichiro isn't going anywhere, so he is in right and leading off.

I'd keep Figgin's simply because his stock is at an all time low. I'd also bat him in the 9th spot. Gives the team a second lead off batter once they cycle through the order. And he can't really say much about it considering his batting average blows.

Guti is solid. He's a keeper
Looks like Smoak found his stroke the second time up in Seattle. I expect to see him at 1st.

I would have no problem replacing Saunders, Wilson, and Moore. And I'd give Lopez a swift kick in the pants out of town.


I'd love to see Werth in Seattle too but I just don't see it happening. But put him in left.

A power hitting 3b would be nice. To be honest I don't know who is out there that is available.

A catcher who can hit would be nice and I could live with kepping Wilson at short.

[Sweezo]

I took my own stab at this in the middle of the season, but Matthew over at Lookout Landing came up with this a couple weeks ago:



If the payroll was around $91 million this year, and the payroll has been steadily decreasing the last few season's as attendance has waned, that can't be good news for next year's payroll. In 2009, the payroll was $99 million. The year before it was $118 million. If we went into next year with an $85 million payroll I wouldn't be surprised. Which is awesome considering we're pretty much already comitted to paying out that amount next season to players that were on the roster this year.

So we have a team that's cutting costs to offset a decrease in revenue and a lot of holes to fill. What big salary commitments could you trade? Well...I don't know. Ichiro isn't getting traded [and his salary is enough that I don't think he nets you that much even if you did trade him] and moving Felix would be a PR disaster.

Bradley's not worth anything, so the options are either [a] see if he can produce or [b] cut him, eat $13 million, and pay extra for his replacement. I think the team doesn't have a lot of choice there..Bradley will head into spring training with a good shot at claiming the DH slot..

Figgins? If the best we can do is trade him to some team like the Braves and eat a good chunk of salary, I don't see the point. if you eat half his salary and then use the savings to sign a guy like Ty Wigginton [who is a right handed hitter], have you substantially changed this team's fortunes next season?

Jack Wilson? Declining range, can't hit, and he can't stay healthy.

Aardsma? Not too expensive, finished the year strong, and probably could net a prospect without us having to eat any of his salary.

Let's look at some of the names thrown out in this thread [and their 2010 salaries]. Who can we afford, who's worth the investment, and who would be willing to take a paycut to come here?

Jorge Cantu: $6 million
Victor Martinez: $7.7 million
Adam Dunn: $12 million
Carl Crawford: $10 million
Javier Vazquez: $11.5 million
Carl Pavano: $7 million
H. Matsui: $6 million
Ty Wigginton: $3.5 million
Jim Thome: $1.5 million

Thome's cost effective and could probably still produce as a LH bat with power, but he is 40 years old and ended the year with back problems.

I'm kind of at a loss for suggestions to fix the roster. If we're being realistic about next year's payroll, then none of the big name free agents are an option. For the most part, I think we're stuck with what we have. Next year will be a season where we will be forced to give some of this season's failures another chance [Bradley, J. Wilson], relying on the youth we have to take a step forward [Moore, Pineda, Saunders, Ackley] , and hopefully having another strong draft.

[TTown]

Well, Smoak's call-up was promising, albeit short because he stayed with Tacoma through their run through the PCL championship. He hit .340 in 14 September games, with 3 HRs and 9 RBIs. At least one hit in his last 10 games. I'm hopeful for a strong 2011...

[TTown]

Per Wiretap: Dice-K has a no-trade clause, but would accept a trade to a West Coast team. John Hickey of Fanhouse says we'd listen.

[BlackMamba]

Cantú and Thome would be great signings.

But, what about some young blood? Is Ackley ready?