Matty sez: 

Stub thread begging for further commentary from Doc or others...

"Others" have tossed their coppers into the tin cup, to the tune of 50+ comments.  Substantive comments, as in.  Not 50+ the pseudo-witty driveby 4-word "comments," but witty-n-wisdomy comments from bottom of cup to top.  Since you rung the till....

"Doc" will now thumb Confederate currency off the top of his bankroll and match each and every copper with his own 1800's-era sawbuck.

That, or will noodle around until even he has hit his keystroke payroll cap, one or the other.

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To my admittedly primitive eye, it sure looks like the Mariners need a shortstop ... And it sure SEEMS like the guy who just hit .340 with a near-one EYE ratio and played well-above-average defense at both short and second in the NPB...might just hit better .650 for the Mariners. 

Especially since he's a switch-hitting contact/line drive type who uses the whole field like Ichiro and can run pretty well.

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Just so!

American players enjoy hitting mistakes and appearing on ESPN at 11.  Japanese players go up to the plate braced for the worst, and prepared to beat opponents who are performing well.  Not that I'd ever stereotype.

NPB batters are fire-hardened and can hit pitchers' pitches.  Nishioka is an extreme such.  Dr. D could do with a "hard" offensive player to go along with, um, Ichiro.

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... Why should I NOT take this as evidence that the Mariners are going to be completely pointless to watch in the next three years?  Why shold I even bother following this slap-shod team any further?

 

 

'cause this is the GM of the Cliff Lee deal, Matty.  Take two Felix highlights and call me in the morning.

This is a GM who goes after Adrian Gonzalez, who goes after Cliff Lee, who goes after Justin Smoak and Jesus Montero rather than going after class-A ball saber robotrons.

As long as Zduriencik's here, so is SSI.   ::toothy, Dean Winchester winning smile::

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:: draws deeeeeeeeeeeeep breath and rattles off 53 replies in one JFK-style monotone ::

Moe

And since it is a sealed bid it is very possible that the M's made a serious offer for the guy but that the Twinkies were more serious.

Moe is my man but since $5M won the best player* in the Pacific League, I wouldn't term their offer "serious."

* = I know, I know

What I do like about this comment is the way that it presumes intelligence on the part of the Mariners.  CA, G-Money, Grizzly, and others have offered a rainbow of plausible  color-hallucinations as to why the M's might have passed on Nishioka. 

Whether the bid was serious or not, we can be sure that the analysis was serious.  And who can believe, after reviewing the list of NPB impacts in America, that the Mariners didn't take Nishioka's ML prospects seriously?

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