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1 & 2) Vargas is a Safeco pitcher, but don't sneer at that - we actually play in Safeco. It has value to us. He's got that fighting spirit I desperately want on this team. And he seems to want to stay. His quote about, "I feel I've proven my value here in Seattle" was nice to see. When a guy wants to stay and you want him to stay, what's the problem? He won't break the bank. The Ms have no right to get that cheap.
The only question is what we do about Iwakuma. Could we possibly bring back both arms? That would leave two back-end slots for Hultzen and Erasmo, give Beavan the long relief role, and situate Paxton and Walker for either trade or AAA dominance in 2013.
Yeesh. Add that to our suddenly-ridiculous bullpen of RH 95+ hurlers and lefty destroyers and our staff would look...well, like we wanted this year's staff to look. But you can't get everything just when you want it, and we always figured 2013 would be the plan.
I'm curious to see what Iwakuma looks like the rest of this season and whether we'll keep him around if he looks like he has the last couple of starts. Cuz the last couple starts are Early Nomo era, and that can last for a couple of years easy. Do we trust Iwakuma's health? I'm curious.
3 & 4) I think we have to extend Ryan, assuming he's not asking for ridiculous cash for his defensive prowess. We dunno if Franklin will stay at short, and signs are point to no - at least as a full-time player. Miller's not one. Triunfel can be, but offensively he's still pretty joke-y and not anywhere near the defender Ryan is to make up for it. Our next real SS is in low-A. We need Ryan. Pay him and make sure we hit well enough at other positions to make a hitting shortstop less necessary.
I'm down with a Wells/Thames platoon in pursuit of that ideal. LF Wells/Thames, CF Saunders and RF...somebody who can thump a little works out for me. We'll still have Guti to figure out, but he has to stay healthy for more than a week before we can make any plans with him. Saunders is a 3 WAR player in a full season if he hits like this. Add a Nick Swisher in RF and see what happens.
If Ackley, Montero and Carp actually hit, really good things could happen. It's been 10 years since really good things happened around here for the offense, so I'm kinda ready for it. I hope the Mariners are.
~G