Couple thoughts -
1) As I pointed out this summer the M's sunk an incredible portion of their salary ($54 Million) into accumulating negative wins. Ichiro and Gutierrez ended up being marginally positive, while Bradley, Wilson, and Aardsma managed to write themselves out of town, Figgins is the only albatross salary left. So, sure, you can't sign Fielder and waste $54 million, I'll give yah that.
2) There's only one Pat Gillick. The man had supreme talent in evaluating civics. He had a true gift at picking out value from the rubbage heap. But I've seen nobody else come close to replicating that skill. We try it here and on other message boards every year - the best and the brightest of us toss out names like candy on halloween - and what? For every bounce back candidate we identify we get handfulls of dead cats. I want Brian Cashman's job. It's the easiest in baseball.
3) I think psychological impact is greatly undervalued by the stat heads. Confidence is a huge part of the game. And while "taking a team and putting it on his shoulders" may sound cliche, wouldn't you feel more confident with Fielder in the line-up? How do you measure that impact? Ohh that's right momentum, chemistry, et. al., can't be measured therefore = does not exist. /sarcasm.
4) Geoff Baker has been pounding the pavement on the "requirement" of having a big bat in the middle of the line-up to legitimize the batting order. Having a Fielder in the middle takes an enormous amount of pressure off of Smoak and Carp and Ackley. Does it energize Ichiro? Does it shift guys out of the middle of the line-up who don't belong there (Olivo)? How is that overall effect measured?
5) Not enough Ackleys and Pinedas? How about Franklin and Hultzen/Paxton/Walker/Campos? What about Smoak and Carp and Seager and Wells and Robinson?
I guess my point is... what's the alternative? I feel no more comfortable spending $25 million on Chris Capuano and Ryan Doumit and Frank Francisco and other bargain pick-ups - I mean are they going to be any bit of an upgrade over what we already have. Is Capuano a better bet than Blake Beaven or Danny Hulzen? Any bullpen arm gonna be better than Wilhelmsen or Delabar? Doumit is three years away from impact WAR and will no longer benefit from the positional adjustment - throw him into the of/1b/dh mix? Really?
If we don't get Prince, I won't cry. But man, wouldn't he just make the game easier for everyone around him?
/Late night ramblings
- Ben.
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