=== Good Guys Wear Teal ===

Good Guy Sports has this article up, asking one of SSI's favorite questions, and doing the legwork for all of us.  Kewl read, guys.

One thing that SSI has never exactly clarified (and that the authors at GGS don't emphasize one way or other) is, when Bill James asks "Can you win your next pennant with this player?," of course he's not asking it expecting to go 17-for-17 down the roster.

CYWYNPWTP, in baseball, is not like spinning a bike-combo lock, where you need to get six numbers right before you can ride.  Nobody has the player they want at every position.  The Red Sox, in 2009, had three infielders they can't win their next pennant with, the ones at C, SS, and 3B.  

..........

James asks this question primarily to identify .500, or <.500 teams, that are going in the wrong direction.  There are times you'll run down this list for, say, the San Diego Padres or New York Mets, and only one or two guys will get a yes.

That's when you know that the GM committee is playing cover-your-tail with the fans.  If you're not winning, that's all right, provided that you intend to win. 

When the Mariners lost 93 games in 2005, and then insisted on MLB(TM) retreads like Carl Everett, Jarrod Washburn, Jose Vidro and Miguel Batista, that's where the question really comes in handy.  When you're losing 90 and you trade for Horacio Ramirez, that's when "Can You Win Your Next Pennant With This Player" clarifies everything.

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=== Sacre Bleu, Is It That Good? ===

The running count with the M's is fine, but there's an even bigger context.  In the most fundamental sense, the 2009-10 Mariners rock CYWYNPWTP?'s world:

• They've re-signed Felix for five years.  I think Felix is a guy you could win your next pennant with, but I'll have to check the FIP's.
  
• They buried their firstborn under the threshhold for Cliff Lee.
• They have an Erik Bedard derringer in their left sleeve for forehead-close arguments in October.
• They've locked up their most dynamic young club-controls player, Guti.  You sure as Legolas-shootin' can win your next pennant with Franklin Gutierrez playing CF.
  
• They are identifying blue-chippers (Saunders, Tui, Moore) and making them win jobs.
• They sold their second-born into Egypt to get the best playoff setup man since Hoyt Wilhelm set himself up.
• They gave 5 years, not 3, so that their own club (and not Anaheim's) could win their next pennant with Chone Figgins.
• They've identified a Manly-Man young catcher they will cheerfully bet their black chips on.

GGS's targeting systems are dead on.  To Good Guys' lasting shame, I'll offer that I agreed with them on 24-for-27 of their assessments.  (If you want to kill another five minutes before work this morning, guess which three?  I'll give you one of the quibbles:  "rest of the bullpen."  There were only two others, and "rest of the bullpen" won't be on the final, anyway.)

We have only to add that a few players here and there, who aren't ideal, that isn't anything to worry M's fans.  James' CYWYNPWTP judges the 2010 Mariners as benignly as would Galadriel.  Your 2010 Mariners have a dynamic young team, loaded with glittering Stars and hungry, talented young Scrubs.

James' test, "Can you win your next pennant with this player," is one that Jack Zduriencik aces every time he flips open the blue book.  He'll ace it, again, when he trades for a first baseman.

Yeah baby,

Dr D