"No amount of offseason tinkering is going to make Seattle a good team"

says Cliff Corcoran covering the AL West for SI's Hot Stove piece.

Comments

That's such a dumb statement...

You can makeover a team so drastically in an off-season that it won’t look like the same team of the previous year. The guy’s an idiot. Since when has Robert Manuel been a top prospect? The M’s didn’t think enough of him to call him up in September.

by basebliman on Nov 16, 2009 3:22 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Yeah I already called him out via Twitter on this. Basically, all he had to say was that we don't have a foundation to build off of.

Also, that neither Guti or Ichiro count as part of a foundation, just Felix.

My Mariners blog - SodoMojo Twitter Feed, Fuck the fucking Angels!

by gregrabble on Nov 16, 2009 3:32 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

That makes me chuckle.

He suggested Bryan Lahair for DH.

by I Lick Squirrels on Nov 16, 2009 3:34 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

To be fair,

the context of that seems to me that he is saying Bryan LaHair would provide similar production at DH as Griffey, which is probably true. However, his seeming acceptance of that level is the problem.

If Griffey wants to come back for another season in Seattle, they could use a DH. If not, they could get similar production out of Triple-A first baseman Bryan LaHair.

by Matthew on Nov 16, 2009 5:11 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I also linked him to Dave Cameron's piece about misuse of pythag, and this was his response:

“No argument w/ that piece, but you misjudged my use of Pythag. It’s an indicator not an answer. M’s still aren’t a good team.”
And
“I agree that the M’s were a legit ~.500 team, but they lack a core to build around, which you need to make the leap to contend.”
And
“They also lack vets with trade value, so they can’t rebuild. Thus the plan should be to play the kids and see what they have.”

My Mariners blog - SodoMojo Twitter Feed, Fuck the fucking Angels!

by gregrabble on Nov 16, 2009 3:35 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Depending on how you define 'good',

he’s realistically right. I don’t see a way that in just this offseason the Ms can get to an expected 90+ win level.

That said, the overall negativism is uncalled for since the Ms don’t necesarrily need to get to an expected 90+ win level to compete in the AL West and the idea of just packing in available payroll space so that Tui, Saunders and Mike Carp can play is short-sighted.

by Matthew on Nov 16, 2009 5:16 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

That quote doesn't really bother me.

It’s the assumption that we’re some desolate team that’s going nowhere that gets me. Yea, we’re not that good but we’re not getting better? Play the kids and see what happens?

Also not a fan of using the last three pythag records to come to this conclusion. It basically ignores that two different regimes with two different processes handled the team during the last three season and Zduriencik’s org is clearly trying to build something (Not sure why the author felt the need to note that we’re “Building For: Nothing”).

by ThundaPC on Nov 16, 2009 7:21 PM PST reply actions 0 recs