CA:

Wilson .... Jack, that is, most likely kills this or any other move for SS.  Too bad, terrible move in hindsight and the 2 year deal to erase last years' hit stings now more than ever.  I'm afraid of this off season.The team needs some PR moves, a big splash, and to be more competitive next season.  All of that adds up to money, and the M's have a clear history in rebuild situations... the money goes down, not up.

:- /

Perhaps that is the reality.  Sigh.

Let's not forget that right before last season, Zduriencik rewrote Wilson's option year -- 2011 -- with a guaranteed $5M for this year.

AND:  when Jack Wilson was offering to retire, Jack Zduriencik talked him out of it.  By all reports, anyway.

CA could be zero'ing in on the Royal Brougham reality:  Jack Wilson, when healthy, is the number one for another season, and L-Rod becomes the insurance policy.   Grim.

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CA

Really, we are on the  verge of a perpetual rebuild situation here.  Ive never agreed with saving all of our prospects, but would have liked to see a few more of them excel early in their careers, it would have made the other necessary moves more clear in hindsight.  Some is luck, some is lack of superstar talent in the minors.  Again, too bad.  Adam Jones (who I was fully ready to trade for Bedard) turned out to be better than I thought, though well short of some well thought of wags locally would still be here with a faster start.  Saunders pains me, I'm pretty sure he will be a fine player, 2 years later we have to look to upgrade his position.  And so on.   Tough to make these calls, can't be done SABERly cant reliably be done with scouting forecasts.  Just one position player (Ackley) coming up and producing right away sells the base on the rebuild.  Hope it happens.

As Sandy has always preached.   (1) Get a few young players who are making a difference.  (2) Then you can see clearly enough to make a well-targeted strike on the imports.

It has made the entire process much tougher, that the young hitters come up into Safeco and don't splash right away.

We remember Bill Bavasi pushing Shin-Soo Choo at Mike Hargrove, and Choo getting what ... we see, 18 at-bats, making one error in CF, and Hargrove angrily pushing Choo into the deep freeze.

Asdrubal Cabrera making AAA at the tender age of 20, hitting sort of ehhhhh, and the community of Seattle selling him as ML fringe...

Let's just say that in 2007-08, Choo had established himself as our 150-OPS+ left fielder, Cabrera as our solid young SS and that Jose Lopez had followed up on his 90-100 OPS+ early-20's seasons.

You'd have been able to put some FA $$ into, say, an Adam Dunn, and all would have looked very different...

...............

As CA also notes, let Ackley and/or Smoak pull a Hanley Ramirez, and all of a sudden "the base will be sold" on the future.

Could be just around the corner.  Visualize Whirled Peas.

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