LATEST STORIES FROM U.S.S. MARINER
Batting Order Shake-Up On The Way
Eric Wedge hinted at this towards the end of last season, but tonight he made his most declarative statement on the issue, telling Mike Salk on ESPN 710 that he was “leaning in (the) direction” of moving Ichiro out of the leadoff spot. People have been talking about shifting Ichiro to the third spot in the order for years, and it seems like his poor performance in 2011 has given...
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18 days ago
Discuss
Current Depth Chart
Prince Fielder isn’t coming to Seattle, so you can officially cross him off the “what’s next” list of possibilities. You could have done that after the team traded for Jesus Montero, honestly, but now you can officially stop wondering if the team was really going to put four 1B/DH types in the line-up at the same time next year. The answer is no – they’ll settle for...
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20 days ago
Fielder Signs With Detroit
9/214. Seriously, if you’re upset that the Mariners “missed out” on that deal, you’re nuts. Huzzah for the Mariners not wasting that kind of money on one player.
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This post came from: U.S.S. Mariner, and is copyright by the authors. This RSS feed is intended for the personal use of readers and not, for instance, spam blogs.Fielder Signs With Detroit
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20 days ago
The Best Pitching Performances in M’s History
The “Inside the Book” Blog had an interesting post up the other day riffing on an idea from an Athletics Nation blogger named Dave Wishinsky: FIP perfect games. The idea’s pretty simple: a traditional no-hitter/perfect game (and other stats that use hits allowed, like game scores) essentially give credit to the pitcher when balls in play are turned into outs. FIP ignores...
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20 days ago
Mariners Sign Kevin Millwood
The Mariners have been rumored to have interest in Kevin Millwood for a month or so now, and today, news has come out that he has agreed to terms with the team on a minor league contract with an invite to spring training. It’s not at all uncommon for teams to bring in veteran guys to hang out in Arizona so the team can evaluate whether they have anything left to add – the team...
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22 days ago
Montero, Darvish, Perez, Colon: AL West Bullet Points for 1/18
1: I have to agree with Dave that Jesus Montero’s bat is likely to be an upgrade, but something short of hall-of-fame level. The list of players Dave compiled includes quite a few guys who were established in the majors at the age Montero is now. Focusing on college-drafted players gets you a pool that’s more similar age-wise, but it presents its own set of problems...
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25 days ago
Why I’m Not As High On Montero’s Bat As Most
I know, I wrote up a Montero piece on FanGraphs yesterday and just linked to it here, and now I’m doing it again, but this won’t be a habit, I promise. Most of my Mariners-related content is still going to go here – I just decided to use Montero (a nationally prominent guy) to make somewhat larger arguments about the sport. The pieces are about him, but also about how we...
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27 days ago
Jesus Montero and Defensive Value
It’s 2,300 words and I still feel like I just scratched the surface of the subject, but for those interested in whether I think Montero should be a catcher or a DH, I tackled that issue at FanGraphs today. For those who just want a summary – I can see the arguments for either decision, but I don’t think it will make a big difference in his value either way. A brutal defensive...
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28 days ago
Going on Clubhouse Confidential Today
For those interested in watching me try to physically restrain myself from talking too fast, I’ll be making my television debut this afternoon, appearing as a guest on Brian Kenny’s Clubhouse Confidential at 2:30 on MLB Network. The show is re-aired throughout the day, so if you miss the first go around, you can probably catch it later tonight as well.
And yes, I’m going...
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28 days ago
Hector Noesi May Be Better Than We Realize
Because The Big Trade sends two players in each direction, it’s only natural to pair those players off and view the deal as essentially Pineda-for-Montero and Campos-for-Noesi. And that’s generally how this deal has been analyzed, including by me. The talk surrounding this trade has been almost entirely about Montero’s future value and where he’ll fit into the roster long...
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January 15, 2012
Pineda Trade Sets Team Up To Do More
As you’ve heard by now, the Mariners made a bit of a blockbuster trade today, shipping Michael Pineda and Jose Campos – generally regarded as the team’s fifth best prospect, but one with a ton of upside – to the New York Yankees for DH/sorta catcher Jesus Montero and Hector Noesi, a lower upside guy who ranked as NYY’s seventh best prospect a year ago (but spent too much...
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January 13, 2012
M’s Trade Pineda/Campos to Yankees for Jesus Montero (C-ish) and Hector Noesi (RHP)
Ah, that vertiginous feeling that accompanies a big move…
MLB’s reporting that the M’s are close to a deal sending two high-impact pitchers to New York in exchange for Jesus Montero (the guy they almost got in the Cliff Lee deal) and reliever Hector Noesi. Montero was once seen as a can’t-miss hitter with poor defense at the catcher position. After a slow start, he recovered...
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January 13, 2012
Pineda For Montero
News broke while I was having dinner. Analysis coming soon – short version, I like the idea, not sure I love the execution, but it will depend on what else M’s do.
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This post came from: U.S.S. Mariner, and is copyright by the authors. This RSS feed is intended for the personal use of readers and not, for instance, spam blogs.Pineda For Montero
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January 13, 2012
Dave on Kevin Calabro Show
I’ll be joining Kevin Calabro and Jim Moore on their afternoon shot at 710 ESPN at 3:30 to talk about Prince Fielder. Yup. More Prince Fielder talk. Feel the excitement.
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This post came from: U.S.S. Mariner, and is copyright by the authors. This RSS feed is intended for the personal use of readers and not, for instance, spam blogs.Dave on Kevin Calabro Show
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January 12, 2012
Leukemia Free
As far as I know, this news doesn’t affect the Mariners chances of signing Prince Fielder, so I apologize in advance for the lack of update on that front.
I do, however, have some news to share. I underwent a bone marrow biopsy yesterday morning – my third one, in fact. The procedure is pretty crappy, and involves drilling into my tail bone to extract some bone and...
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January 11, 2012
Edgar’s HOF Vote Totals Increases Slightly
It’s Hall of Fame voting results day. Barry Larkin gets to celebrate while everyone else gets to wait another year, including Edgar. I’m not planning on writing a ton about this, because we’re probably a decade away from Edgar having any real shot of getting elected. It’s good news that his vote total rebounded from 32.9% to 36.5% after declining last year, but with the...
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January 09, 2012
What Now?
With the signing of Hisashi Iwakuma now official, the team’s off-season shopping list has gotten shorter. So, I figured it was probably time to take a look at the roster as it currently stands, and what the options are going forward from here. First, here’s what the team could put together on Opening Day based on what’s already in the organization.
Position
Player
PA/IP...
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January 08, 2012
M’s Officially Sign Hisashi Iwakuma
As rumored a few days ago, the M’s have come to terms with RHP Hisashi Iwakuma on a one year contract. Per Jerry Crasnick, he’s guaranteed just $1.5 million in salary, and has incentives based on starts and innings pitched that could push the total value of the deal up to $4.9 million.
In other words, it’s a freaking steal. For context, he signed for less guaranteed money...
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January 05, 2012
Prince Fielder, Opt-Outs, And A Contract I Would Support
It’s no secret that I’ve been generally opposed to the idea of giving Prince Fielder a long term, big money contract. I think his value on the field is fairly overrated and the side benefits of having him on the team are mostly made up and unsupported by facts. In general, I’d rather the team spread their money around to fill multiple holes and upgrade the roster...
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January 04, 2012
M’s Close To Deal With Hisashi Iwakuma
Over the last week or so, various reports have been circling that the Mariners were closing in on a deal with Japanese RHP Hisashi Iwakuma. Today, we get the best confirmation of those reports, in the form of a report from Sponichi (in Japanese, but helpfully translated by Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker) where Iwakuma is quoted as saying:
“We’ve received terms from a number of...
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January 03, 2012
Will Venable
Over the weekend, the Padres acquired outfielder Carlos Quentin from the White Sox in exchange for a pair of prospects, and in the process, created something of a logjam of outfielders from players remaining on their roster. Quentin is expected to take over as the regular left fielder next to Cameron Maybin, and his presence turns right field into a job share between some combination...
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January 02, 2012
Assorted New Year’s Musings
I’ve been away, thanks to a combination of work and family duties that I can’t believe I even bring up in light of Dave’s recent post. People often used to malign sabermetrically-oriented writers like Dave as automatons; robots more interested in numbers than the grand arc of a baseball season, or more interested in nitpicking a hit-and-run than in the compelling story of...
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December 28, 2011
JEFF FRANCIS WATCH 2012
(Click this link, then come back).
Hello and welcome to the first in what I guess now qualifies as a series of JEFF FRANCIS WATCHes. Our first JEFF FRANCIS WATCH is today, because PRINCE FIELDER isn’t the only free agent alive. We are writing this because Sullivan is keeping everyone abreast of the PRINCE FIELDER landscape, but no one is keeping an eye on JEFF FRANCIS’ backyard...
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December 28, 2011
Merry Christmas
For Christmas this year, USSM would like to present you with gifts of not doing things. We would like to offer you no Felix Hernandez trade rumors, a day free of speculation about Prince Fielder, and a lack of doom and gloom about the team’s future. We hope you enjoy freedom from these annoyances.
More seriously, though, enjoy your holiday with friends and family. I’m thrilled...
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December 25, 2011
Rangers Win Darvish Posting
You’ve probably heard by now, but the Rangers won the bidding for Yu Darvish, putting up $51.7 million to just barely edge out what Boston paid for the rights to Daisuke Matsuzaka back in 2006. They now have a month to negotiate with Darvish on a contract, and given their interest level and his desire to pitch in the US, it’s extremely likely that a deal will get done...
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December 20, 2011
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