It is definitely possible to stand pat and say, "we're going to war with the guys we have. Ackley, Peguero, Halman and Carp are your mid-season upgrades, as well as more Kennedy and less Figgins/Cust."
But if you're going to stay in the race, and an upgrade to the pen or the DH slot doesn't cost you that much, then why wouldn't you spend a little extra?
And if you don't think you can compete, then why wouldn't you try to add an extra player or two for your next championship team by trading a commodity?
If we don't do anything, we could still win the division. That's possible. The kids would have to continue to amaze but it could happen.
But there's a reason most teams choose to be buyers or sellers every year: because just making calls at a pot instead of either going all in or ditching out and folding is a good way to lose your investment without a significant chance of winning the whole thing.
Or to put it another way: fish or cut bait, don't just hope a trout jumps out of the water to get ahold of your lure.
Maybe Ackley, Smoak, Peguero, Halman, Carp, Pineda, Pauley, League et al can make this happen. Figgins and Guti could rebound to career norms, Cust might find a bit of pop by getting to sit on the bench more, and all our starters can continue their first 3 months for the next 3.
Then standing pat sounds great. It sounds kinda like getting a straight out of a 4-8 hand to take a pot from a team holding face cards, but these things happen a not-insignificant amount of the time.
But if you thought you had a magic rotation, the kind that could take any team in the playoffs if they had just a LITTLE offense, and you were fighting for the division lead at the deadline, would you really skip the chance to add some offense to push yourself over the edge?
The Mariners walked away from a chance to add an arm in 2002, or a bat in 2003 to help them reach the playoffs and just missed out in a stacked division two years running.
This division isn't stacked like that, but it is fairly even. It would take a Cool Hand Luke to assess our roster and decide that it's good enough to win the division over two equally-matched teams and compete for a World Series if we just wait to see that river card.
Jack hasn't had the opportunity yet to make that call. We'll see in three weeks which of the 3 options suits him.
~G
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