Wednesday Chatter

by Jeff Sullivan on Dec 2, 2009 2:37 PM PST in Miscellaneous Comment 59 comments

Fox Sports' Rosenthal/Morosi rumor central links the M's to Rich Harden, suggesting that the M's are showing "strong interest". It's not the first report to link the two parties, but it's the latest and the most legitimate, which makes it exciting - of all the pitchers out there right now, Harden might be the best fit for the 2010 Mariners, as he has extraordinary upside and enough risk to keep his price manageable. There are no performance questions about Harden. He's proven himself to be consistently effective in both leagues. The only question is health, and that makes him the right kind of risk. I know one of the big critiques of Bill Bavasi was his tendency to get hung up on individual names and labels and end up paying too much to get them, but I can't help myself here. Harden Harden Harden

Remember Aroldis Chapman? There hasn't been a whole lot said about him lately since he changed agents, but there was this from SI:

In recent days, however, Chapman's rumored price tag has shifted from Daisuke Matsuzaka money ($52 million over six years) to the more realistic Stephen Strasburg range ($15.1 million over four years). SI.com sources place at least one big-market club's offer at $12 million over three years...One source told SI.com that the left-hander's fastball did not exceed 92 mph during a private workout last month.

The Mariners, I expect, remain interested, as do a whole slew of teams, but boy did the air come out of that balloon in a hurry. Chapman was a big story during a dead month, but he seems to be cooling off just as the rest of the league is heating up.

I don't remember hearing about this, but at least according to a source of Yahoo!'s Tim Brown, Chuck Armstrong nixed a deal that would've sent Adrian Beltre to San Francisco back in mid-2008. I have no idea who was involved and therefore can't say with any degree of certainty whether Armstrong did the right thing, but social experiments are fun, so I can't believe Armstrong vetoed a deal that would've brought us Pablo Sandoval and Jonathan Sanchez. Shame on you, Chuck.

Joining the ranks of the 30+ times projected at Fangraphs: Matt Tuiasosopo, Adam Moore, Rob Johnson, Jack Hannahan, Bill Hall, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Ian Snell, and David Aardsma. You people are crazy. On the other hand, six of the seven lowest projected wOBAs belong to Mariners, so I guess you're also somewhat reasonable.You don't see a lot of zealous sensibility these days.

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The Beltre trade..

I have little problem with any trade of Bill Bavasi’s getting vetoed. Though the Washburn situation was upsetting at the time

by CKel on Dec 2, 2009 2:40 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

It would have been a deal to bring Rich Aurilia back anyway.

by abender20 on Dec 2, 2009 2:49 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

One could only hope!

Man, those were the days – when Spezio and Aurilia were the mainstays on this glorious team. 95? Fuck 95! We want the early Bavasi era back!

by Captain Poopy on Dec 2, 2009 3:01 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I think you mean Pelakoudus

by Poochie on Dec 2, 2009 3:10 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I think you mean Pelekoudas

Determined, Jonesing Commentor | Proud proprietor of Wyomingroutes.org & Washingtonhighways.org

by I'm NOT Corco on Dec 2, 2009 5:19 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I think you mean Thomson

by CKel on Dec 2, 2009 7:47 PM PST up reply actions 3 recs

Yeah I guess when you're hyped as having a fastball that can touch 100 then show up throwing in the high 80's/low 90's it tends to cost you money

by OlSalty on Dec 2, 2009 3:04 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

But didn't Pf/x have him at 101 during the WBC?

sounds like he’s just out of shape

by seattlebruin on Dec 2, 2009 4:11 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

He probably just hasn’t been throwing for a while and will recover that velocity once he starts again, but I’ll bet having him show up throwing 90-ish cooled a lot of teams to the idea of breaking the bank to get him.

by OlSalty on Dec 2, 2009 4:55 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Plus there's the whole Matsuzaka thing

teams are getting smarter, and risking Matsuzaka money on a who-the-hell-knows-what-you’re-getting item is a pretty scary proposition.

Guys still gonna get paid, but it’s hard to argue that he’s anywhere near the same league as say, Stephen Strasburg given just how little we know about him at this point.

by seattlebruin on Dec 2, 2009 5:07 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

x

• After getting a peek at the price on Matt Holliday(notes) during the GM meetings, Cardinals officials are said to be pessimistic about signing the free-agent outfielder, and are concentrating more on Mark DeRosa(notes) or Miguel Tejada(notes) for third base.

What in the fuck

by Poochie on Dec 2, 2009 3:09 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

And I completely forgot about Morrow!

Three aces!

by Fogel on Dec 2, 2009 3:21 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

What if we sign Ben Sheets

How many punches is that?

by Poochie on Dec 2, 2009 3:23 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Mariner's rotation:

by Fogel on Dec 2, 2009 3:30 PM PST up reply actions 13 recs

Why can't you rec via mobile? Lame.

Mariners/D Broncos/BSU Broncos fan in Seattle

by appleshampoo on Dec 2, 2009 4:31 PM PST via mobile up reply actions 0 recs

Congrats on selling out to get your recs.

by Robert on Dec 2, 2009 6:32 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

A brotha's gotta eat

by Fogel on Dec 3, 2009 12:23 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

1-2-3-4 punch. Then a kick to the M's nuts via Carlos Silva.

by ToddK on Dec 2, 2009 4:21 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Yelling at it won't make it work any faster

by seattlebruin on Dec 2, 2009 4:11 PM PST up reply actions 4 recs

For some people it does

by OlSalty on Dec 2, 2009 5:18 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

x

It’s not known where Harden ranks relative to John Lackey on Seattle’s free agent wish list.

I bet I could harbor a guess

by Poochie on Dec 2, 2009 3:17 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I got a kick out of that, too.

by Teej on Dec 2, 2009 3:18 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Some people just aren't very intelligent.

by njd.aitken on Dec 2, 2009 5:22 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Tuesday Bullet Points ... Wednesday Chatter

Thursday Potpourri (?!)

angels fan in seattle

by Eyebrows on Dec 2, 2009 3:22 PM PST via mobile reply actions 0 recs

Thursday Mountain Goats

by Jeff Sullivan on Dec 2, 2009 3:33 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Friday Foibles?

by Poochie on Dec 2, 2009 3:38 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I LOVE the Mountain Goats!

I hope you die. I hope we BOTH die.

by BRKLN M'S on Dec 2, 2009 7:34 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I also love the Mountain Goats

Are you comparing them to a potpourri?

by CKel on Dec 2, 2009 7:48 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Noticed. It's the sig.

by royalcurve on Dec 2, 2009 8:20 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

It's been said before but it's remarkable how much GMZ and the better parts of the M's blogosphere think alike

by OlSalty on Dec 2, 2009 3:36 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

He likes them young?

by CMC_Stags on Dec 2, 2009 5:04 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs

Zduriencik enjoys Russian River Brewery?

He gave the YouTube video of Red headlocking Coach five stars?
He makes sly comments about the lesser M’s blogs?
Or he just plain ignores them?
He enjoys soccer?
He regrets how little he knew about the value of defense earlier this decade?
He’s tired of people talking about the Bedard trade?
He loves Jeff?
He has strong opinions about certain banned posters at Lookout Landing?
He enjoys memes for about a minute, before they become obnoxiously overused?
He hates net-speak?

by katal on Dec 2, 2009 5:57 PM PST up reply actions 2 recs

Actually, it pleases me a great deal to consider how many of these are likely so.

I love you, Jack Zduriencik.

by katal on Dec 2, 2009 5:58 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Man Z sounds like a big flaming homo.

by Robert on Dec 2, 2009 6:33 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs

Go back to MarinerCentral.

by katal on Dec 2, 2009 7:14 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Do you suppose that if we picked up Harden and re-signed Bedard

we could get a whole season out of the two of them combined?

Batted .393/.614/.464 for 2009 Diablos, #5 in OBP for PSSBL Rocky Division.

by Two Rs and Two Ls on Dec 2, 2009 3:40 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

In 2006 they started a combined 26 games.

28 games in 2007.
Then they combined for 56 starts in ’08.

Of course, then Sheets didn’t pitch at all this last year.

I suppose we’d get about a full season out of them. The only catch, obviously, is that their trips to the DL aren’t likely to sync up.

by katal on Dec 2, 2009 6:02 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Harden has made 51 starts over the past two season.

The injury concerns are obviously real, but he has made most of his starts the last two seasons, for what’s it worth.

SEA!

by MFAN on Dec 2, 2009 3:47 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

From a #2 starter, 51 starts still means about 15-20 missed starts

by seattlebruin on Dec 2, 2009 4:12 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Those numbers seemed a little high to me at first

But looking into, it does seem right.

And that is a lot of starts to be giving up, but those other 51 starts are better than anything we have now not including Felix of course.

by njd.aitken on Dec 2, 2009 5:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

But there's no guarantee he averages 25 starts a season.

Sure, he got 51 over two, but we’re talking about missing over 1/4 of his expected starts as proof of durability. This doesn’t sound too great to me.

Yes, I would love to get Harden on a short-term, incentive-laden contract though.

by seattlebruin on Dec 2, 2009 5:54 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, I think you're right.

I went to yahoo excepting to see that Harden had made something like 30-35 starts over the past couple years, so it threw me for a loop when i saw that he actually made 26 and 25 starts over that period of time.

SEA!

by MFAN on Dec 3, 2009 12:37 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs