Counter-COUNTER Point
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Don't mind my incoherency. I'm still boggling about Spec getting 1,000 views in a day...
- His first day up (Google page rank = -1)
- With no links other than one, here, not in a sidebar, buried in a post (will correct shortly)
- While writing in the frozen tundra of Seattle October
- While writing about the Seattle Mariners
- While writing about guys who probably will never be Seattle Mariners
I'm still geekin' out about it. You guys rock. I gotta figure out how to get an account that allows me to comment, though... ... what were we talking about? Ellsbury! Now there's an issue that splits the congregation right down the middle.
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CCP, Rick The Biology Editor: Ellsbury and Choo would be exciting. What wouldn't be as exciting, would be facing any 2014 starter who throws from the left side. Never mind having to deal with any Charlie Furbushes.
CCCP: No, CCCP doesn't mean "Soviet Union" any more. And we'd heard that if you put a physicist, a chemist, and a biologist in the same faculty lounge, the biologist is the dumbest. No word about where bloggers, or communists, would sit on those couches. No snide anti-censorship implication, whatosoever, is implied by pairing those last two groups in one sentence.
This is a legit concern, bottom line. Once again, we will stipulate that Giancarlo Stanton is much preferable. As is Matt Kemp, who tatoo's lefties to the tune of a .342/.405/.571 lifetime rampage.
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Lefty/Righty imbalances come and go; you look up and, next thing you know, a Stefen Romero is bashing and you've imported a 1-year Kendrys Morales of some type. Most GM's do not emphasize Lefty/Righty splits, when gathering to himself good hitters, and neither does Dr. D.
Zduriencik's first words here (well, almost) were that you need lefties in Safeco, and you need to add one righty at some point. (His last words here were, "change the walls.")
As Safeco is currently configured, Dr. D will cheerfully admit that the Mariners are now too left-handed.
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SSI would maintain that Rick The Biologist's comment is an argument against Choo, more than against Ellsbury. Ellsbury's career splits:
| AVG | OBP | SLG | EYE | |
| vs RHP | .302 | .353 | .460 | 0.56 |
| vs LHP | .286 | .343 | (.390) | 0.47 |
It says here that watching Ellsbury against LHP's would be quite comparable to watching Ichiro against LHP's. They're both speed burners with quick bats, who get on top of the ball, and the ability to go 1st-to-3rd survives the deployment of David Price.
But, yeah, if Jacoby Ellsbury is a good fit for the Mariners, Matt Kemp's a better one.
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Oh, and I'd like to thank Mike Hargrove one more time for overruling Bill Bavasi on the subject of Shin-Soo Choo. Hargrove, under protest, played Choo one (1) game in the outfield, and Choo (badly) misplayed one (1) ball, and Hargrove triumphantly yanked him. Powerflushing Choo's career as a Mariner. "It wasn't going to get any better out there," he gloated. Quote unquote.
Just thank your lucky stars that Mike Hargrove was not in a position to make the call on Ichiro. Your heavenly stars, that is, not your Che Guavara stars.
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CCP Grizzle the Corporate Exec: Um, are we really talking about two of the top 5 free agents? Going to Seattle?
CCCP: You want to talk about the Arsenal Gunners, instead?
SSI readers are probably all on the same page. We'll believe one impact signing when we see it. (Actually, we won't even believe it then.)
That said, we're not talking about "Fielder and Hamilton" when we're talking about two free agents this winter. As we all know, the Mariners could add two players if they wanted to. Consider last year's Hamilton offer, plus the shed Kendrys money, plus the fact that the Mariners are newly cash-flush, plus the Seattle Mariners are blue-nosed skinflints who could spend wayyyy more, any time they wanted to.
Which, we're sure, probably does all add up to the signings of Jason Vargas and Dan Wilson.