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Did you spend your waiver position on Snell? :- )
Ian Snell Joins M's; Game On
Ian Snell is on the 25-man roster, is joining the club now, and will start an M's game shortly.
Zduriencik, on KJR, emphasized that he hopes that Snell "is a change-of-scenery guy" and thinks that the M's staff has exactly the right people to get Snell's head right.
Doesn't want to stick his neck out on big predictions, but... the implications were clear (to me) that Zduriencik is looking for a jackpot here. Who can blame him. If we get the guy from 2006-07, that *is* a jackpot.
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Capt Jack was asked if it was tough to throw in the towel on the pennant race?
Reply: Hey, we just added three players: a shortstop, a starting pitcher, and now another starting pitcher. And, we get Adrian Beltre back. We get Erik Bedard back shortly.
One player out, five players in.
"We're looking up right now, but I don't want anybody throwing the towel in on anything." We're not going in a next-year direction; we're going in a different direction.
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Now that we realize that Capt Jack plans to harvest returns from Ian Snell NOW, rather than later, his priority becomes clear.
In a roto league, who do you draft for his performance going forward? Snell, the 8k starter, or Washburn, the 5k guy? Thought so.
IFF Snell is enjoying the game again, my roto $ is on Snell to outpitch Washburn from here to the wire. Let him show a little enthusiasm in his first start, and my AL roto team will cheerfully swap you Washburn for Snell even steven.
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And once it occurs that Snell-vs-Washburn is actually an (intended) SP upgrade, now you realize that they have also fixed SS, and can keep working 3B/LF etc. That doesn't consider that they may have found a dynamic #4 SP also (Rowland-Smith).
Good show! The guy was two steps ahead of us on the 2009 strategy.
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Personally have been speechless (ok, maybe not) with admiration, as to how F-A-S-T that Capt Jack is adding regulars who can be part of his next pennantwinner.
Not sure why the local eagerness to hear an admission of defeat for 2009. Zduriencik unequivocally refuted that.
Lots more interesting stuff... kibitz later...
Cheers,
Dr D
Comments
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Well, took over a last place team in an AL-only keeper league this year (hence the #1 pick) and am comfortably in first place in the standings. I'm going to save it for Jake Peavy, and maybe swap him for a keeper bat thats out of the running.
If Peavy wasn't traded I would have gone for Snell. If I were in danger of not making the playoffs I might have gone with Snell anyways. I wish I could watch Snell start a game before choosing, but Peavy is probably the pick for me in my situation.
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Hey Doc,
These deadline moves from Dr. Z remind me of what you often say with regard to Billy Beane's Athletics. I'm gonna mis-quote here, but it's something like "You play the first 1/3 of the season with what you've got, the next 1/3 with some adjustments, and the last 1/3 with the players you actually want."
Looks to me like this is the exact same way Dr. Z is looking at his group of guys.
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That hadn't occurred. :daps:
Beane says, "One-third watching them play, one-third trying to get what you want, one-third playing with what you want."
Isn't that something. Great call.
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Doc,
I think you missed this. Sure, if you are looking ahead to 2010 and no guarantee of Wash's return, Snell is a good option to replace him in the rotation. But for 2009, the potential for a huge improvement in the rotation is lost with the Wash trade. Now the rotation looks like Felix, Snell, and God-knows-what, at least until Bedard is whole (if ever).