Understanding August And Waiver Claims And All That

by Jeff Sullivan on Aug 3, 2010 2:49 PM PDT in Seattle Mariners Stats

With the non-waiver deadline passing by on Saturday, we're to the point now where any and all trades involving players on 40-man rosters must go through the waivers process. Because the Mariners have a few candidates to get dealt, and could specifically explore moving Chone Figgins, I figured I should dedicate a little time this afternoon towards explaining what all of this means, but then I decided, no, I'd rather make a sandwich, so instead here are links:

Twinkie Town's August waiver wire primer
My attempt to be more colorful about it
Cot's transaction glossary, which is invaluable

I know that all of baseball's weird little transaction rules can be confusing and frustrating, but remember that the August waiver wire is how the Angels wound up with Scott Kazmir. Sometimes the August waiver wire can be awesome.

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Probably a bad move,

but almost for pure entertainment reasons, and perhaps some clubhouse continuity and veteran presence, and partly because I just like the guy, I would like Mike Sweeney back up on the squad from time to time.

He’s actually doing decent in Tacoma now (where, for my money, there have been far more interesting games lately). He’s posted a .324/.422/.405 line with the Rainiers (including two two-run bombs in his 3 for 4 outing today), and according to Chris Hafner’s excellent fanpost yesterday, with a .354 wOBA Sweeney has been the team’s most productive hitter by that measure. So it’s not like he’s killing our playoff chances.

Mike Sweeney might not be a young prospect to feature. The guy has been around longer than I have. But with a 2010 contract of just barely over league minimum, it might not be a bad idea to keep him around and a part of the club. I’m sure that we can have some place for him next year as an added bat on the bench or in the lineup while the new talent gets their legs. And I’m sure that if we were to offer him something along the lines of his 2010 contract again for 2011, he’d go for it, just for the love of it. Lets face it—for a team with a lot of prospects on hand, it would be nice to have somebody experienced with struggle and success around, to keep their heads screwed on and their hearts in the game.

Probably not going to happen. But I think he’d go for it. Because that’s Mike Sweeney.

by SeattExPat on Aug 3, 2010 3:49 PM PDT reply actions