Shoppach vs RHP, career: .658 OPS
Jaso vs RHP, career: .927 OPS
Kelly hits lefties for an .868 OPS, which would be great if either Montero or Zunino were left-handed - but they aren't. We swapped out a RHP crusher for a fall-on-the-sword type.
So like you said, better spot him carefully. Instead of Montero getting to take tough breaking-ball pitchers off because Jaso is available, he'll get to try his already-poor luck vs. righties against most of the harder ones. Hope he's good to go to start this season and can close that platoon gap.
But this is probably just to buy time for Zunino to log AAA innings and Montero to get more behind-the-plate time, as you intimated. If the backup can't reasonably be placed in the starting lineup EXCEPT to give Montero a day of rest (because everything he does Montero should do as well or better, except throw to 2nd) then Jesus should get to catch a lot of games. I still would have rather had a LH backup catcher. Any port in a storm and all that. If Montero hits like we all want him to then it won't be a problem, right?
Still hoping we can solve the Zunino/Montero conundrum and get both of them a lot of at-bats going forward while having them be very productive hitters. And Shoppach's insurance and means we don't have to bring Olivo back. Can't complain about that.
~G

I've previously identified Bryan Anderson of the White Sox as a possible trade target. Hits O.K., catches O.K., but didn't get along with Tony LaRussa. Was a free agent and signed with WS on minors deal.
Another possible target is Steven Lerud of the Phillies. Good defensive C, and may hit enough.
We have trade bait for this level. I wonder if JackZ will make a swap once who the roster excess is becomes evident. I suspect Peguero will go for Shoppach, but Carp and Wells are out of options, and we have a good surplus of bullpen arms from both sides, plus Liddi, Thames, and Triunfel may need to change scenery to get a chance to play.
If we could spring a trade with Philly for Domonic Brown and Lerud, I'd be happy to give them Liddi, Triunfel, and Thames to help with their problems - and if they signed Yuniesky Betancourt as their backup IF, they have serious depth problems behind Utley,Young, and Reyes. And Thames would make a dandy platoon partner for the other Young in RF

But it appears that ship has sailed. Maybe, as you suggest, something could happen later this spring. Shoppach can't be traded yet though and I think it's an MLB deal so that would require 3 catchers in Seattle or Tacoma starting with 3 and one of them being the new lefty. If you're seeing it as at least a few years of a partner for Zunino while Montero switches to 1b/DH/3rd catcher for next year that could be worth dealing with the rosters this year though. I'd have understood that better than Shoppach now, but maybe they valued the idea of a veteran for both Montero and Zunino.

I'm looking specifically at guys that could be at Tacoma, but come up and help if need be. We have a hole in experience between Montero and Zunino/Hicks, and all of them are RH, so it would make sense to me to trade whatever we have as excess for a piece that fills a gap in our depth, so we don't have to sign a C equivalent of Yuniesky Betancourt for depth if someone is hurt or ineffective. And since our marginal players are in positions that other teams need, and Philly, in particular, will have a good stock of AAA/MLB C after Ruiz serves his suspension, it's worth dreaming/scheming about as we wait for Pitchers and Catchers to report.

...wasn't that hard of a call. Came up with it when I was working under the assumption that Jaso would be the team's primary catcher in 2012; Jaso was obviously going to land a platoon partner so the Mariners needed to add a catcher who could mash lefties and preferably had some sort of track record. So I headed over to Fangraphs and set up the following leaderboard:
>catchers
>vs. LHP
>multiple seasons: 2009-2012
>min. 150 PA
>sort by wRC+
It spat out the following list.
#1-4: guys we can’t have (Posey, Lucroy, Napoli, V-Mart)
#5: Jesus Montero (yay!)
#6: Geovany Soto, would’ve been interesting and cheap but Rangers
#7-9: guys we can’t have (Santana, Hanigan, Ruiz)
#10: Ramon Castro, would’ve been interesting and cheap but Dodgers and injuries
#11: guy we can’t have (Iannetta)
#12: retired guy
#13: Kelly Shoppach
(Ronny Paulino, incidentally, is #18 on the list. Gotta love Z's coherency on this one: Shoppach as plan A, Paulino as injury depth in spring training/plan B.)
When Jaso was traded, that kinda went out the window... but not entirely. Obviously a backup catcher was still needed, and obviously Ibanez was going to see playing time vs. RHP (Morales, the DH, is also historically mediocre vs. LHP), so it was still going to be a right-handed guy. Same list. I did, as you recall, very much like Erik Kratz for a while; by all reports he's a pitch-framing master of defense and game-calling who's known for his vast experience handling MiLB pitching staffs and can also hit LHP at an above average rate. Sort of a Shoppach-esque hitter, actually, if not quite as good. But I guess Philly decided they liked him as their backup.

especially if they have a legitimate defensive repertoire. They would be along side of Zunino and Paulino presumably. I don't think the M's want 3 catchers this year, anyway.
AAA def CF is another thing they could use.

I'm glad to have a cleanup hitter of some stripe. :) I've been waiting a few years to get a pair of MOTO hitters on the team at the same time, and we might have it this year with KMo and Morse. Heck, we could have a really nice string of hitters all chained together if things work out right.
Our roster construction is definitely not all about synergy, though. Jaso + Montero was some kind of synergy. Franklin + Ryan would be another (that I don't expect to see). Wells + Thames could be.
But we seem to have half-a-dozen DH/1B on this team (Ibanez, Morse, Montero, Kendry, Smoak and Carp), all our minor league replacements seem to have migrated to positions that are blocked in the bigs (eg, Franklin and Triunfel to 2B along with Romero and possibly Miller by the end of the year) so we need to shift them off-position to keep them on the radar or trade their blockers...
We have vast resources tied up in these spaghetti pots in an attempt to have enough choices to make the RIGHT ones in March. There are 4 rotation slots behind Felix, and we have TEN pitchers (Iwakuma, Erasmo, Beavan, Noesi, Hultzen, Paxton, Walker, Maurer, Mitchell, and Carraway) at AAA or above trying to fill those 4 slots. That's terrific for getting the best possible mix, you would think; 10-to-make-4 is great. Since Iwakuma is guaranteed a slot, really it's 9-to-make-3.
And then what with the other 6? Do we actually leave a pitcher we want to keep in the minors for longer, since Jack believes that major league time really enhances prospect value? Is it better for Paxton to stay in AAA, if in that scenario Hultzen getting to the bigs might mean Hultzen getting traded in a Stanton-esque package?
How does that sort of thing effect the chemistry of the team?
How does Zunino being The Future at catcher affect Montero this year? Is he going to get out of here and then blow up into a star, or can we find a way to make him a star while he's here?
We had youth in the lineup in historic, almost singular proportions last year. Will that help us, or hurt? We have even more youth on the way. The vets we've added are ALL one-year fliers who won't interrupt the ascent of talent from the farm for long... but can they impact us meaningfully for the better in 2013 despite that? Can vets lead when none of them might be here after the trade deadline?
It feels like a really hard way to create a winning team. This whole process (or at least the way we're going about it) seems more akin to baking than cooking, which I guess means I should stop looking to the cook Billy Beane for examples on how to do this. With cooking you can mess with the ingredients until you get it right. With baking you need to leave it alone and trust that you've got the perfect mix. We need to get the right team coming out of Spring Training, at which point I hope a lot of the overlap and lineup weirdness has settled into a recognizable and productive mix.
I'm fascinated to see the Opening Day iteration of this team take the field. If we go for broke with the kids in a sort of AAA barnstorming club augmented by a couple of veteran bats and a Cy Young winner, and backed by a mega-talented bullpen of 98 MPH death, then I have no idea how that performance will go on the field but I'd be glued to the TV to find out.
If we (once again) tread water with NRI veteran invites and semi-castoffs plugged in at the last minute, I'll be less thrilled. But either way, as you said in the shouts, this team could lose a LOT of games. Or they could win 20 more games than last year by catching lightning in a bottle. Several bottles. We have a raft full of bottles just waiting for that lightning strike.
Maybe this is more of a Frankenstein team after all, just awaiting a spark.
Wouldn't it be funny if Morse turns out to be the spark we've been looking for?
~G

is a season-opening, debilitating trip to Japan. 'Twill indeed be fascinating to watch how the M's get out of the gate.

I've never had a problem with ideas or words, I just don't make them into good articles. If you can get miileage out of my ramblings, feel free.
And yes, our pen could wind up obliterating the opposition in the late innings. I'm really looking forward to potentially getting to see the Fireman role used with malice aforethought and having a rock-solid setup for innings 7-8-9 as well. Did I mention that we have a potential goldmine of lefty relievers to boot? We'll have the complete set of Ginsu knives as well as the scissors AND knife block. Such a deal.
I also like the idea that if something unfortunate happens to one of the members of the pen we have plenty of arms around to pick up the slack. The pen should be a net positive at worst, and the strength of the team at best.
Just gotta get 6 good innings out of the starters and some runs from the offense. It's the latter that's been the problem, but Lonnie was at FanFest and says the new wall is basically in your lap as a spectator behind home plate, so runs may be a-comin'.
All the more reason an armada of arms to hold down the opposition is a good thing to have.
~G

The DH/1b thing is partially due to there being nothing close there in the minors. They're also not appearing to be really counting Montero as anything but catcher just yet. Bay may not have happened if they knew they were getting Ibanez and Morse, but more options are better anyway. It's not a problem in any way except our confusion being raised.
The logjam at 2nd is already being moved to corners in a few cases. Corner outfield depth is going to come from that logjam to some extent and some players just profile well there anyway. Sure they profile better at 2nd overall, but they can still fit if they hit.
I mentioned in a recent chat about the depth of starters. I neglected Michell and Vasquez and didn't think of AA starter Anthony Fernandez that most years would probably be going to AAA. He's still got a shot. Ignoring the org filler, that's actually 14 starters vying for 10 rotation spots between Tacoma and Seattle. That's a lot of options. I don't think it's necessary to bring in a starter since it's only a level of success far above what people are expecting that would make a couple wins worth going for. Save the bullets for a"need".
On the veterans in general, yeah it could go either way. Specifically with Ibanez he's said he came here for exactly that reason. Morse has basically said he's an Ibanez disciple in that regard and sees his place on the team as having importance in that regard. He has just been that type of guy with Washington and there's no reason to think he is only thinking about this year either. Morales and Shoppach may or may not contribute much in the way of leadership, but I think Shoppach is likely to from what I've read. Ibanez credits Javier as his mentor in that regard and I've considered Stan the biggest spark from that 2001 team. That's based on what I've heard from players and reporters. Javier didn't have to play every day and hit 40 hr to be a leader.
I love the bullpen and envision the possibility of it becoming ridiculously strong as well. It's not like those 14 starters can all stay there with us, so even some of that depth may add to the bullpen. Bonderman in long relief isn't a stretch, neither is Erasmo. Many starters have come into the MLB as mop up for their first taste too.
I've had the same thought on if they're bringing one straight from camp should it be the one they want to keep or the one they want to trade. For me the difference is mostly in looking 7 years out, all other factors don't seem as big. If one is up and another is earning it in say June I'm pretty sure they'll find a way to have them both up. That is, unless the one that's up needs to go back down. Anything else is assuming no injuries and good performances while also not wanting to trade any in front or just not having a market. That seems like a good position to be in anyway.
I think the team added some spark already and that Ryan will provide some this year to go along with it. Health and the gambling on the back end of the rotation are my biggest concerns. Excitement and anticipation...it's like waiting 5 years again for the next "Song of Ice and Fire" book...I just know it's going to be good.
There's some chances being taken this year, but if they're the 70 win team the projections are proclaiming shouldn't they be doing exactly that? Why are the same people who put faith in those projections also saying they should take the safe 1.5 win upgrade? Volatility is more likely to get this squad there than safe anyway.