And they have a history of NOT rewarding their home grown talent with large contracts, (see AROD and Griffey and Randy Johnson).
At the time Seattle offered to make KGjr the highest paid player in baseball, he turned it down and demanded to be traded home. At the time Seattle offered to make AROD the highest paid player in baseball, he turned it down to take an insane deal from Mr. Hicks. We screwed over RJ. Two out of three ain't bad in baseball.
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They rewarded Ichiro, they've rewarded Felix. I think Felix is the most illuminating example, from everything I've read his sentiment is that he loves Seattle and wants to be a lifelong Mariner. That demonstrates pretty clearly to me the relationship has been one of fairness and reward.
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And, frankly, I just don't agree with the sentiment. The M's can win the way the San Francisco Giants of 09 and the Moneyball A's of the early aughts did. With tremendous starting pitching and "just enough" hitting.
Beltre and Sexson hit in front of a pitching staff filled with the likes of Miguel Batista and Carlos Silva, not a rotation of young studs like Pineda, Hulzen, Paxton, Walker, Campos, Ramirez, Snow, et al.
Z is operating on a different roster construction paradigm than Bavasi, and just because Sexson and Beltre didn't help the 2005 M's, does not mean that level of performance wouldn't have a gigantic impact on the 2012 M's. It's a different roster.
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Seattle has been trying to buy a winning team for 10 years.
Seattle hasn't been trying to BUY anything since Z arrived. The BIG free agent acquisition under Z has been Figgins at $9 million per? A reasonable deal at the time, despite it's catastrophic results.
In fact, Z has spent three years as a SELLER, building internal pieces and trying to find the 'homegrown' players to build around, just what you seem to be proposing.
Where we clearly differ is on measuring the merits of his plan so far. The difference of opinions comes from the sampling spot. I'll continue to argue that you have to judge a FA addition by his effect on the current roster, not the entire 2011 season. By using counting stats like WAR and runs scored over the course of the year you are completely discounting the roster changes that actually did occur.
I am apparently much more ready to roll the dice and go to war with Ackley, Smoak, Carp, Wells, Seager, and Jaso. With solid vet players in Ichiro (who until there's some evidence that his 2011 season wasn't driven by a BABIP 66 points below his established career norms - I'll be predicting a solid bounce back season), Ryan and Olivo. This team is a good CF and MOTO bat away from having "just enough" offense.
We don't need to hit like the Bash Brothers, we need to hit league average.
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Now, if you disagree, if you believe the young roster isn't ready to compete yet, that they need a few more years to season, that we need to get Hulzen, Paxton, Franklin, Walker, Top draft pick of 2012, into the mix first. I totally understand that sentiment.
But the sentiment expressed above clearly leads to the conclusion that you have to trade Felix Hernandez. If you believe that the M's aren't ready to compete yet, and have no history of rewarding home grown players, and believe that FA's follow the money, etc, etc... the only logical conclusion is that we have to move the King.
To me, that's unacceptable, it's admitting defeat before the game has even started. Step up to the plate and swing the bat.
- Ben.