I love sports fans. Not to pick on OBF here at all, but I've seen this sentiment:
Now that we have Montero the hyper urgency to do some thing BIG for me is gone
... expressed in various forms across the M's blogosphere since the (still unfinished) "big" trade.
And it baffles me.
If I told you going into this off-season, one in which it was generally assumed that the M's had $17-$25 million dollars to spend that the BIG free agent acquisitions would be a one year bargain deal for Hisashi Iwakuma and a one year deal for lefty George Sherrill with a bunch of minor-league filler deals for the likes of Kevin Millwood, Oliver Perez and Munenori Kawasaki?
I mean, I guess I understand that, it's responsible spending, not like the M's have another $20 million coming off the books next year... oh wait, what? They do? /sarcasm
All offseason (wich seemed to have started right around a certain 17 game losing streak) I've hoped the M's would turn some of their question marks into exclamation points - and instead they've just created more question marks.
Can Montero catch? Who fills Pineda's void in the rotation? How long will we need to bridge before the young guns of Hultzen, Paxton and Walker are ready? How do the new Japanese imports translate?
Add these to the ?'s we already had like can Carp cut it for a full season in the field? Which Smoak is the real Smoak - 1st half stud or 2nd half swoon? Which of Trayvon, Wells, and Seager are legitimate major league options? Which of the pile sticks? What of the rotation back ends? Is it Beavan? Furbush? Or maybe a sleeper like Erasmus Ramirez or Forrest Snow?
So the sentiment, the "alright, let's wait and see what we got", the idea that the M's need to allow the roster questions to resolve themselves before they commit big to free agents, I get it. I understand it. I do.
I just don't like it.
Look, I get Moneyball too. Doesn't mean I have to accept the premise. The Oakland A's are a 16 mile drive across the bay from AT&T park (less than 10 as the crow flies) in the 4th largest media market in the US, yet they are a "small market" team who's payroll is half that of their neighbor?
The tax-payers of Seattle built a billion dollar stadium that is still state of the art. The Seattle media market is the 13th largest in the nation, and when you add in the proximate and baseball free cities of Vancouver and Portland, and the entire country of Japan, you have a regional powerhouse of a team. Recent estimates place the value of the franchise at well over $600 million.
We do not have to reduce payroll and trudge through another season of "maybe, if all things break right". The ownership group is choosing to.
While Texas has back-to-back WS appearances and tosses $120+ million at the best available international FA. While LAofA adds the best bat of the generation and the top domestic FA starter.
We make a couple of revenue neutral trades and bargain one-year deals.
I get it. I understand. Me no like.
- Ben.