Juggernaut
Q. Was the Unit-Moyer-Fassero rotation better?
A. The 1997 ballclub had really terrible pitchers in the #4-5 slots, like 6.00 ERA guys. That 1997 Mariner team may have had the skinniest, tallest talent pyramid in baseball since WWII. Right now, the 2011 rotation is better than the 1997 rotation.
And are you even going to take Johnson and Moyer over Pineda and Felix, necessarily? See what I'm saying?
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The 2001 rotation had five good pitchers -- two moderate stars and three average-good SP's. They led the league in ERA, too. But a lot of that was the 10K bullpen.
You going to trade these guys for Freddy, Moyer, Sele, Abbott and Halama/Joel? I'm not.
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I remember some rotation from the 1980's that went like 44-for-50 in quality starts in one stretch... Matt Young, Erik Hanson, Bill Swift and two guys, or something like that.
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Q. How about this year's Phillies?
A. Can't bet into that pot. Cole Hamels is at his best, 9 strikeouts and 1+ walks, and he's the #4.
Cliff Lee is special. Roy Halladay is an easy Hall of Famer. I'll take Philadelphia. Oswalt is his generation's Jim Palmer. But you might take Philadelphia over anybody from any year, I dunno.
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Best rotations ever? That's a hilarious list. But George Brett wasn't the best player who ever lived, and he was useful.
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Q. The #4-5 starters are putting on quite a show, give yer that...
A. A picture's worth 1,000 words. Vargas and Fister were matched up against Weaver and Haren? You kidding me?
Krueger was on the TV today, talking very astutely about how much Vargas and Fister have improved. The reputations of Vargas and Fister have not yet caught up to their actual abilities.
You know I was always Fister's biggest fan. But I had nooooo earthly idea that he was going to get this good.
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Vargas and Fister may be #2-3 starters at this point. They sure have shootin' would have been for a lot of Mariner teams, including recent teams..
I'm not sure, with Vargas' new cutter/slider and his 33-33-33 game, that he isn't threatening to become the next Jamie Moyer. Doug Fister is looking like an animal. Those guys aren't hot. They are just good.
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Q. Favorite stats right now?
A. Well, the four guys except Erikkk are on pace to be worth $80M this season by themselves. That is the WAR value that Felix, Pineda, Vargas, and Fister are earning right now. $80M between them.
Erikk gets rolling, as he has, and in June they're essentially going to be delivering $100M/year rotation performance.
Think about it. What's the M's payroll again?
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The M's rotation FIP -- its expected ERA -- is about 3.25. Last year a starter with a FIP of 3.25 would have been the #7 starter in the league -- ahead of Greinke, Price, and Sabathia.
What would it cost you to sign a particular starter who gave you 267 innings with 222 strikeouts and 76 walks, with only 20 homers, and a FIP of about 3.25 ?
The M's have five who average that, full season.*
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You see why SSI is banging its spoons for the M's to get it together and go for the pennant this year. Give a GM a $100M type rotation, and he'd better figure the rest out. Ask Bob Watson, who was Brian Cashman's predecessor.
This is the year that the Mariners have five starting pitchers who walk down the street against gunfire as if they were in a Clint western.
With these five pitchers, you have no excuse. You've got to go find some meh hitters, and try to win.
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You say, you don't think about Vargas and Fister as though they were Hamels and Oswalt. Well, sure. But reputations or not, Jason Vargas and Doug Fister are going toe-to-toe with anybody. They're giving you the performances you need.
Hey, fellow bloggers, I realize that the preseason script was for the M's to lose. But wake up and smell the K/BB ratio. The script has changed. Pineda, Erikkk and co. changed it.
The AL better hope for an injury to one a these dudes. Is 'cause this rotation is a juggernaut.
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Q. Think that the Committee has correctly assessed their on-field situation?
A. It's a funny thing. If Nintendo had a chance to exploit the market by changing one thing -- let's say a motion sensor -- it would consider that part of its strategic job.
Or if they had a video game that had one thing wrong with it, something that ruined its appeal to the teen demographic, they'd fix the one thing wrong, wouldn't they?
Here you've got Nintendo guys who are shipping a fancy product with one easily-identifiable fatal flaw (no RBI man). Why is it so unimportant to fix flaws in a baseball product?
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The suits have done a great job of holding the ballplayers accountable for doing the very best they can do.
At what point does a Chris Larson walk into the boardroom and say, "Wow, who knew we were going to have this pitching staff on our hands? Here's my proposal for adding a bat. We could create some excitement here, like 1995."
At what point is the owner of a company as accountable as his grunts are?
BABVA,
Jeff