But, I think the truly important aspect in this is the opinion on Saunders. If you believe Saunders is going to be productive in the majors, (and hopefully soon), then yes, Bay could be a questionable pickup. But Bay is a .900 OPS guy, who has already shown the ability to produce a .900 OPS in the AL, so league slosh concerns aren't an issue.
The Safeco impact is obviously a major concern. But, Pittsburgh has a stadium that plays much like Safeco, punishing righties and rewarding lefties. Safeco is probably a bit worse, (though somehow Pittsburgh went from a neutral hitters park to a pitcher-skewed park pretty much the day Bay left ... hmmmm).
For reasons that are more intuitive than analytical, I am low on Saunders upside as well as his speed of transition. So, if the club wants to search for offense on the open market, my first preference would be for help in LF. And while I'm deathly afraid of seeing Adam Dunn wearing anything other than a batting glove, I have zero faith in the UZR take on Bay. Only one LF in baseball had more outs than Bay in 2009, so while he might not be fantastic, I'm not buying the idea that Carlos Lee and Ibanez were both drastically superior to him defensively, (which UZR says).
With Griffey returning, I don't see the club sinking major money into a DH, (who would split time with Junior), but a righty-LF, who maybe could DH a bit, with a 4-OF rotation? I could see that working. Don't get me wrong. I'm not gonna cry if Seattle opts to hand LF to Saunders ... and I certainly hope he proves me wrong. But, I fear the 2nd coming of Wlad with Saunders ... great talent, but not adaptive.
The REAL plus in all the latest is that the club seems to be fishing hard for OBP. Whether you're talking Figgins or Bay, the club is DESPERATE from some .380 OBP guys. Yes, they are desperate for power, also. But, without some high OBP guys, the power guys get walked with men on and hit solo dingers. You need BOTH for an effective offense, so the club is better if they can land either.
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