With the continuing the Slow Mariners News Days ...

by Steve Nelson on Jan 4, 2007 10:49 PM PST in Seattle Mariners Regular News

I figured I'd get something up, at the least to provide a container for your random daily comments.

Keeping things at least dimly Mariner related, according to mlb.com Ryan Franklin and the Washington Nats are apparently talking, with Franklin still wanting to be a starter:

"The Nationals have shown interest, and I'm showing interest back," Franklin said. "We are not close to anything. We are just talking a little bit. I'm talking to them about starting.
"I think I'm more valuable to a team -- starting-wise -- because I have a rubber arm. I've been known to throw a lot of innings. I enjoy being out there longer than one or two innings. Before last year I threw [almost] 600 innings in three years. I'm looking to getting back to the role.
...
"I'm not looking to break the bank. I want to be treated fairly. I can't really tell you numbers right now. ... I just want a chance to get back to that starting role and show what I can do -- 200 innings, quality starts and help the team out."

To be fair to the Nats, the story seems more about Franklin being interested in the Nats than vice versa. I get the impression that Bowden's interest may not be much more than having an assistant return a couple of phone calls.

And if the Nats reporter is scraping this deeply for a story, Nats news must be as scarce as Mariners news. (Or maybe its just that the Nats are still hung over after the Vidro trade.)

*****

Update [2007-1-5 10:10:13 by Steve Nelson]:

Derek at USS Mariner has an interesting piece looking at available information on whether converting a player to DH from a position affects the players offensive production.

Tweet Comment 5 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Quality starts

Hooey.

Henry Kissinger ist der Ubermensch

by spittle8 on Jan 4, 2007 10:57 PM PST reply actions

Sounds like cRyan

Gets his "Qu" words confused. He provides quantity. Not quality.

Iceberg, right ahead!

by PositivePaul on Jan 4, 2007 11:21 PM PST reply actions

You know as much as I hate him

Ryan Franklin still has some value at the right price as a starter. In a park like Safeco or RFK he could provide useful innings to a ballclub. At a price of a couple million a year, a starter pitching 200 IP with an ERA of 4.8-5.2 is still a little valuable. Its below average but better than you'd expect from some crappy AAA starter. I'd say he's similar to Washburn (b/c of K/9 and BB/9) but gives up many more HRs. If you could use him in parks that suppress HRs then you might be able to make it through the year with him in the rotation. That said, I don't ever want to see him as a mariner unless Beltre is trying to kill him again.

by Edgar for Pres on Jan 4, 2007 11:44 PM PST reply actions