How the heck are we supposed to get out of this mess if no one will give us a chance?
Perhaps actually develop some actual talent to put around the star FIRST - and then invite them?
Unfortunately, the bar has been lowered so much, most Seattle fans have (IMHO) lost the ability to effectively assess where the team is at the moment. The club has not developed *ONE* .800 OPS hitter (500 PAs), in over 10 years. That includes 2011. Yes, Carp just missed at .791 (but that was still only 313 PAs).
The club scored 671 runs the year before Jack arrived. They scored 640 in 2009 and plunged to 513 in 2010. In 2011, the club FINALLY actually started to get some young talent to the majors (but most of it didn't arrive until the second half), and the run total finished at 556.
While Seattle fans "may" have legitimate reason to be optimistic about Smoak and Ackley and Carp and Seager ... the reality is that the only players on the Seattle roster that have managed an .800 OPS over 500 PAs in a season are Ichiro and Figgins.
Is Fielder supposed to believe that the supporting cast in Seattle is actually going to be supporting just because Jack says so? Sexson hit .910 for Seattle ... and Seattle stunk. Branyan hit .867 for Seattle and Seattle stunk. Fielder *ALREADY* went through the pains of attempting to pull a bottom tier team into respectability.
Heck, Fielder's first full season, Milwaukee had Bill Hall hitting .899, Corey Koskie hitting .833, Carlos Lee hitting .896, Geoff Jenkins (.791), Cirillo (.784), plus Gabe Gross (.857). THAT club finished 14th out of 16 team in runs scored. Any star player taking an objective look at the Seattle roster is going to (rightly?) assume that the club is years away from putting a legitimate offense on the field. The fact Pujols just moved to the AL West likely isn't a strong pull for Fielder either, since he just spent the last 5 years listening to how much better Pujols was. Anyone wonder what kind of stories YuBet has told Prince about Seattle?
Seattle has an over-the-hill RF, a couple of meh veteran hitters (Olivo and Ryan), and a whole pack of kids with less than a year of MLB experience. Seattle has a history that says they are incapable of producing decent hitters internally. They have a history that says the vast majority of FAs who move to Seattle see their performances disintegrate. And they have a history of NOT rewarding their home grown talent with large contracts, (see AROD and Griffey and Randy Johnson).
Why does external talent have no interest in Seattle? Because Seattle has systematically for the last decade done everything it can to alienate the talent that spends the most actual time in the organization - the prospects. How positive is the locker room talk from guys like YuBet and Lopez and Willie B?
The club did have an identity once upon a time, when the roster was filled with home grown guys like Griffey and Edgar, supported by some decent veteran imports. But, a team chock full of mercenaries is never going to have an identity of its own. Seattle's identity today? They're the "Japanese" franchise in the miserable park for hitters.
Seattle has been trying to buy a winning team for 10 years. It doesn't work. As soon as the home grown pipeline was turned off, their fate was sealed. Because the farm was so completely miserable, today, a little move in the right direction feels like a tidal wave. It isn't. The club STILL hasn't produced an .800 hitter to call its own. The club STILL continues to be the death of most imports, (Figgins, Kotchman, Cust).
Seattle will start attracting good FA talent at a reasonable price only *AFTER* they demonstrate some organizational competence in developing hitting talent on their own. Until then, they will continue to only be able to land the flawed, unwanted, or just plain greedy flotsam and jetsom from the discard pile.
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