Offseason FreeForAll, Moneyball Dept.
G-Money
If Jack intends to hold on to Franklin and believes in him, then no, you don't block him off with an immovable Nishioka. I still have my doubts that we can EVER trade a Japanese player.
Hasegawa, Johjima, Sasaki, Ichiro...no trade rumors on any of em. Extended and inflated contracts on a couple, and a couple of save-face retirements back to Japan when it was turning into a disaster over here.
I would be wary of Japanese imports as a Mariners GM. I just would. Once they get there the negotiations and outcomes are out of your hands.
Yeah, if you're Jack Zduriencik and you're confident - following a 100-loss season - that you can think in terms of three years.
If Zduriencik can think in terms of several years down the road, then the man has the guts of a cat burglar or a spinal surgeon...
But this is a great point that hadn't occurred to me: that a bona fide old-school GM like Jack Zdurienik just doesn't want to get wrapped around the axle with Seattle-Japan lawyerly politics. Great call G.
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Not to alienate Royal Brougham any further than we already have, but .... when we were consulting at one F-500 company, they talked constantly about the need to "Get Boeing Stamped On Jeff's Forehead," as they put it.
Simply to do things the Boeing way.
Me? I visualize Jack Zduriencik as trying to "Get MLB Stamped On Seattle's Forehead." G's observation here, stepping around the Japanese Favorite Son ossification, may well be that very thing.
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GMoney: We can live for a year with a giant hole at SS. We can't live with a hole at SS and 2B and 3B and LF and C and DH. Figgins needs to be better at 3B immediately, Ackley needs to be up sooner rather than later (would they really burn a year of eligibility in order to get him the extra two months of play?), Smoak has to hit from day one...and we still need 2-3 bats.
So it's either a trade to do so, or it's a known and accepted hole in the 2011 lineup, used as a tradeoff to patch the other holes.
Paracorto: I believe you pointed out what's the real trouble, lot of holes and a couple of rookies who have STILL to show they belong to the show. Lot, lot of work still for Z and it's hard to imagine he can solve everything by next season
As with the intersection of [Jack Wilson] and [Casey Kotchman] last year: it just puts crushing pressure on your offense.
If the Mariners are really going to go into camp with nothing new at SS, then they have to do GrrrrrrrEAT at other spots.
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As it pertains to Justin Smoak and Dustin Ackley, now there, I'm fine with losing.
Give me a roster full of players that you plan to win your next pennant with, and I'll take the good with the bad... just don't give me another year's worth of Jack Wilson, Chris Woodward and Josh Wilson... that is a waste of my time and a waste of my life. As it were.
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