Baker's Blog: To Blow up or Not to Blow Up...

Even the “Saber Heads” didn’t think we’d be this atrocious.

That being said, I feel the answer to our issues lies somewhere inbetween “rebuild” and “stay the course.”

I agree with your sentiment that Bavasi isn’t all that great of a deal maker, but let’s face facts here, unless Armstrong does a complete 180 we’re stuck with him through the end of the season, and I don’t want him to “reload” our team. So you make the obvious deals that can’t really wait…deal Ibanez for something, dump Washburn or Batista on someone if you can…does Rhodes have any value? Anyone who doesn’t have any value to this club beyond this season but may be a useful piece to someone actually sniffing the play-offs should go (obviously we wont be able to trade most of our dead weight, I only named those with a realistic shot of being moved).

Other then that, Bavasi should make every attempt to re-sign Felix, Beltre, and Bedard, in that order. If he does that AND somehow gets value through trade out of the aforementioned pieces, then we should give him a tip of the cap when he drives off into the sunset at season’s end.

Antonetti

I think what rubs some of Detectovision or Baker’s blog people the wrong way is the absolutes of your theories.
Vidro is not “done” as a major league hitter. If he could play any defensive position at all, he’d be usefull, but he can’t. He is not an above average DH, and last year, he was extremely lucky with his BABIP. He is still a usefull pinch hitter, since if you need a single or a walk, he still provides good chances of those (also provides good chance of GIDP too as well). This year he has just been a bit unlucky and a bit too power-happy, not a good thing from a short fat guy with no power.
As bad as Raul’s defense is, it’s about the same as Manny’s, definitely better than Jack Cust’s (or Jeremy Giambi for the matter), so even smart GM’s can have problems evaluating defensive talent (or something to that effect).
I definitely agree about getting Morrow some starting experience NOW! I don’t understand McLaren’s logic, he’s been dynamite as of late, so we keep him there? If he had sucked, would we have kept him in a relief role as well, since if he can’t be a good relief pitcher he can’t be a good starter?
Johjima as a DH isnt’ very good either. 290/310/400 as the upside of a DH?
I agree, definitely trade Putz. If GM’s overvalue closers every year why not just trade your closer every few years. We could have got a LOT more in return if we had traded putz put in soriano, got him 30 saves, traded him, got sherrill 30 saves, traded him. Look what a washed up Gagne got, fairly good return for a sucky relief pitcher.

I’m not sure if Richie is done either. Yes we need to get rid of him, but After that Angels series, I don’t know how someone can look so locked in and be “done”. Sure it could be small sample size, but he didn’t look like he was “getting lucky”, he looked like he knew what he was doing. I think he just needs to be on another team.

I was always kind of under the impression that our pythag record last year was skewed in large part to Ho and Weav getting absolutely killed in a few starts (like a couple 16-3 type games?)? I admittedly don’t really know much on the topic, but was that more of a myth?

To blow up the team or not, that is the question
Whether tis nobler in the mind to lose
The ballgames to Angels Rangers and A’s
Or to take arms against the sea of old age
and with trades and DFAs end it, to suck
no more; and put it to sleep, to say we end
the losing and the thousand GIDPs and suck pitches
Now Hatteberg? That geezer come hither too?
Tis an old fart that man should never wish.
I’d rather to sleep, perchance to dream
of rotations of Strasberg, Felix and Juan Ramirez
Aye, there’s the rub of so much losing
For in those losing streaks, these dreams may come
What outs we made and runs we surrendered
we can give pause. There’s the redemption
that makes rebuilding work for Cleveland:
Your Yankees and Red Sox become old
and our stars of the future are young
And as we shed Bad Leftfielders of London and Magic Hotdog Power
We give rise to the unhittable Felix and Strasberg
The mighty Triunfel and Halman, Hubbard and Clement
You have Joba Chamberlain and Zombies of Duncan
Pedroias with reps of gold and games of brass
And thus is the nature of Major League Baseball
Of old talent ebbs and new talent flows
That Diamondbacks, Rays and Brewers win with players so young
Thus must we mire with players so old
And lose all of these ballgames?

That was just full on in-your-face bashing. You knew his theories and thoughts on the issue and you said:

Any fan with a pea sized brain could have seen the the Seattle Mariners allowed more runs than they scored last year. Thus they overachieved massively and were not a 88 win team. But the blundering front office couldn’t get past the notion of 88 wins + Bedard = Playoffs.

Do you think that’s going to get him to consider your point more? If your entire purpose was bashing him, then that’s fine. But I assume it wasn’t, because you could have easily written a lot less and gotten the same point across. By saying this, you’re not going to gain any respect from him. If you truly wanted to get his attention and tell him what you think, you should have left out all of the bashing, subtle or not.

What kind of wrench do you need to tighten this team up?