Griffey, GA, Abreu
Jeff at Lookout Landing with a witty call for all of us to hyper down a bit.
He apparently shares an office with the kind of amigo who will assume the fetal position when you twang a rubber band at him :- ) ... not a bad metaphor for the Mariner blog-o-sphere (including me) when it hears a rumor of a move it doesn't care for.
LOL.
Will cheerfully admit there are times when Dr. D could give more of a shrug of the shoulders about moves that aren't going to make-or-break The Grand Plan. Aaron Heilman for Ronny Cedeno and Garret Olson is pretty much the opposite of what I'd do -- giving up the (by far) best player in the deal in return for cheap quantity -- but none of those three players, including Heilman, were going to be part of the M's next pennantwinner.
There are a few things that are baseball life-and-death, such as Hargrove's culture of Veteran Entitlement and the 102-loss comfort-zone atmosphere that ensued. (Having Charlton Jimerson start in LF would have actually been worse than Oklahoma City-style sports death, but that threat has been averted).
Anyway, yeah. Most of these moves aren't worth going all feline over. Whether the M's chose Swisher, Abreu, or Dunn, for example, there's no reason to wear Airsoft gear to the office to avoid the rubber band. :- ) Like Lonnie says, we've all got cabin fever.
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LL is also quick to notice that Garret Anderson is much un-preferable to Junior.
Actually, GA is *in reality* the kind of thoroughly depressing move that the Junior move is falsely accused of being.
If you haven't seen GA's stats lately, stop reading right now and go take a look at his OPS+ trend. Anderson had exactly two (2) years in which he was anything other than mediocre: 2002 and 2003. Oh, hey! Weren't those the years right before the roids crackdown of 2004?
He's a CAREER 105 OPS+ hitter WITH the two roid years -- and GA is a corner outfielder!
So, yeah, that makes sense. GA was good at 30 and 31, predictably went over the hill at 32 with the roids crackdown ... and now he's 37. Let's go get that guy and put him in front of Wlad Balentien.
What's with Dave Edler's confusion about who selects the players? Which of the co-GM's was the guy who was here back in 2002 and 2003 when GA was beating us? :- )
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Far be it from me to duck-and-cover at the sight of a ping-pong ball gun, but what state-of-mind would cause you to consider signing Garret Anderson?
Granted, Boras wants to create the perception of interest in GA. And granted that Royal Brougham USUALLY wants its FA targets guessing. But in this case, what is the benefit to signalling to Abreu and Griffey that you have options? They're already accepting pay cuts in excess of 50%.
The GA signals are there because Chuck Armstrong, or somebody, is thinking that Anderson gives you a cheap MLB(TM) hitter. Like we have noted, the Mariners' suits are far too strikeout-averse. They still won't forgive Wlad for his K's in his first go-round. :- )
Strikeouts are no worse than infield popups or three-bouncers, guys. Wlad's going to hit 30+ homers one day soon. How many Choos and Guillens and Cabreras do you want out there over the next coupla years.
Cheers,
Dr D