Seattle Mariners Depth Chart: Introducing the rickroll! (Part 1: Starting Pitchers)
The first installment of the one-stop-shop depth chart requested by rick82

 

Quite awhile back, rick82 suggested a depth chart similar to one he had found for the Seahawks.  I tucked it away as a good off-season project, and decided we would dub it the "rickroll."

The origin of the "rickroll," now a quaint, old-fashioned Internet artifact from the horse-and-buggy days (2007), can be found here.

We start with starting pitchers, because that seemed logical, plus it allows us to start with the only long-term contract on the books.

The yellow boxes are actual MLB clocks that have started running.  The green boxes are projected best-guess timeframes.

Oh, and I'm going to do that sneaky thing where I make you jump to my own site to see the whole thing, since we're still in the exploratory stages here.

 

  2014 age   2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Thumbnail commentary
Felix Hernandez 28 RH $20.9M $24.9M $25.9M $26.9M $26.9M $27.9M FA Holding court for the rest of the decade unless something changes.
Hisashi Iwakuma 33 RH $6.5M $7M (team option) Arb2 Arb3 FA     The best FA signing of the Zduriencik era, whether mandated from Japan or not. The 2015 team option would also buy out his first arb year, if I'm understanding it right.
Taijuan Walker 21 RH PreArb1 PreArb2 PreArb3 Arb1 Arb2 Arb3 FA Felix and Taijuan could be FAs the same year? Don't count on it, but 2020 could be dark times.
James Paxton 25 LH PreArb1 PreArb2 PreArb3 Arb1 Arb2 Arb3 FA And, yes, K-Pax will be on the same timeframe as well.
Erasmo Ramirez 24 RH PreArb2 PreArb3 Arb1 Arb2 Arb3 FA   Wither e-RAM? He went the wrong direction in almost every category in 2013, but he's still ahead of the rest of the in-house options.
Brandon Maurer 23 RH PreArb2 PreArb3 Arb1 Arb2 Arb3 FA   Well, some of us thought he might not be ready for prime time. For whatever reason, he gets hit harder than he "ought to."
Blake Beavan 25 RH PreArb3 Arb1 Arb2 Arb3 FA     To the extent that anyone cares, Beavan will be arb-eligible in 2015.
Hector Noesi 27 RH PreArb3 Arb1 Arb2 Arb3 FA     See entry under Beavan, Blake.
Danny Hultzen 24 LH Injury PreArb1 PreArb2 PreArb3 Arb1 Arb2 Arb3 Who knows at this point? I suppose on the positive side, he's no longer on the same timetable as Tai and Pax. And he could slide back another year, depending on how much rehab he needs in 2015. My view is that he'll still be a useful MLB pitcher, but it will be awhile before we know.

 

 

Continues on through Luiz Gohara (it's ranked by time of arrival, not ability) at this link.

 

 

Comments

3

(as a consequence of his coming over from Japan). The Mariners were going to lose him last year if they didn't re-sign. He's a free agent after the team option. If that's not the case, and he is team-controlled, why on earth did they give him that contract?

4

after three years, i.e. 2015, and can become a FA by MLB rules only in 2018. If you don't believe me (which you probably don't), check b-ref or cott's or your choice of references. NPB players CAN have contract clauses that restrict OFFERING arb, or requiring a team to allow a player to file for free agency when a contract expires, but he's still arb-eligible after 3 and a FA only after 6 by the MLB rules.

6

That's about your 8th comment in a row that does so, not that anybody's counting.  :- )
You wouldn't want to leave the false impression that you're uninterested in baseball and in conversation, but in auditing.  In terms of 'netiquette the concept would be harassment / heckling, though of course it would be inadvertent in this case.
We're confident that you avoid commenting on Cameron's and Sullivan's posts, at USSM, only to point out errata... 
...........
Of course, precision has value in itself, but not at the expense of diverting our attention away from the actual subject.  No doubt when you get an active new commenter at LL, you're interested in his striking a balance between posts that (1) call attention to the author's errors, and (2) ... um, everything else.  Such as a forward discussion of the subject.
Spec's table is a game-changing post.  I plan to exploit the idea at every opportunity.  
............
One reason they might give Iwakuma money, that they didn't have to, would be because they're not chiselers.  "Win/win" orientation is gaining in traction in F-500. 
All that said, it's a worthwhile question, Iwakuma's contract situation going forward.  Not that it's as worthwhile as thanking Spec for his work :- )
.

9

And that's why I put "as I understand it."
But it seems as if both sides are right.  Iwakuma was going to be a free agent if the M's didn't re-sign him after 2012, but it seems like maybe that was because of the way the contract was structured, not because his deal was somehow a "special Japanese deal" separate from the standard MLB deal.
I know that in a deal with a guy like Bonderman, the terms of the contract say that he can become a free agent under certain conditions (such as not being called up by July 1 or the like).  Maybe something like that can be done in an original six-year MLB deal.  Team agrees to grant Iwakuma release unless terms of new deal reached by a certain date.  It seems like it was something like that.
I don't know how Iwakuma's current deal addresses the arb years.  It's possible that it has a similar provision where the club allows him to choose FA over arb.  But I think that technically he's still going to be eligible for arb.
But maybe I'm wrong.
 
 

Add comment

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><p><br>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

shout_filter

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.