I really want to see Fielder in Mariner blue/teal/whatever the hell color it is that we wear. But deep down I am concerned about what happens if we get him.
Back when the M's had all kinds of money and added Beltre and Sexson on one fell swoop, there was optimism that the offense was on its way. Sure, some preferred other options [like Delgado, oddly enough] but at least there was a thought that two big ticket FA bats could turn things around for us.
And they didn't. Sexson was alright at first, but he declined. Hard. Meanwhile Beltre was a solid 3B but offensively didn't exactly set the world on fire. After seeing what can happen when one of your primary offensive cogs eats a large portion of your salary but declines due to age [Ichiro], and what happens when you spend all or most of your offseason budget on what seems like a sure thing [Figgins], I don't know what to think about Fielder.
If we sign Prince Fielder, that alone would not make us good enough to contend. We could beat the A's, we could maybe beat the Angels, but Texas would still steamroll us.
We would have to somehow swing a trade or two to get an impact bat, which means we have to trade decent prospects. I don't think we have that many of those in the minors. We have a few good-to-great pitching prospects [T. Walker, Paxton, Shipers] but not many. And there's not much in the way of offensive prospects either. Hultzen's not even signed and couldn't be traded in the offseason if he was signed anyway.
Basically...I don't know that getting us Fielder gets us into contention. A series of dominoes would have to fall just right for that to occur, and I don't know that the odds of that happening are strong enough.
Bulltalk wrote:We can always move Smoak a little later down the road if we wish. He could DH. Play left field. Would he be any worse than Ibanez out there with Guti covering him?
The only thing keeping Smoak from being the slowest player on the roster is Josh Bard. If we put him in LF, I think the offense he provided would be completely offset but the number of plays he couldn't make in the outfield due to lack of range.
Plus, I think part of reason Smoak is doing poorly now if because he is pressing. Putting him in LF would probably be completely out of his comfort zone.