This was originally meant as a FanShot but my thoughts got a little longer so I decided to put them here. Obviously this is going to be about the trade.

In Buster Olney's segment today, Insider only of course, he says that despite thoughts around the league, both the Yankees and the Mariners think Montero can catch. I semi agree.

If the Mariners do feel Montero can catch then I anticipate them using Montero as Cleveland does Carlos Santana.

For those who don't know that situation, Cleveland wants Santana in the lineup everyday, so instead of continually using him as a catcher he also plays 1B. This way it keeps his bat in the lineup but allows him to not get burnt out from catching. Great for Fantasy ;)

If this happens I could see Montero getting a lot of games at catcher, maybe more. Some at 1B, and then the rest at DH.

This allows Smoak the majority of playing time at 1B and some at DH, while Carp plays in LF and may serve as our primary DH.

The way this would break down over the course of the season would be something like

C: Montero - 90 games | Jaso - 40 | Olivo - 30 - would not surprise me to see one traded

1B: Smoak - 120 | Montero - 20 | Carp - 20

DH: Carp - 60 | Smoak - 30 | Montero - 40 | Wells - 30

LF: Carp - 80 | Wells - 80

Wells may be pushed out a little bit here but the potential is there for him to move around the OF somewhat with Guti's injuries and Ichiro getting older.

This may be one way to keep our potentially best hitters in the line-up throughout the season without having to hurt there development and stick any of them at DH frequently.

About the potential line-up, I don't think this is rosterbation, as technically we have these players just discussing order they hit in, I don't Montero starts in the middle of the order right away, but as the kids continue to develop we could look at a line-up something like this:

Ichiro (RF) - Ryan (SS) - Ackley (2B) - Smoak (1B) - Montero (C) - Carp (LF) - Wells (DH) - Guti (CF) - Seager (3B)

Our rotation obviously takes a hit with this trade, but we do gain a lot and add flexibilty. If Ackley, Smoak, and Montero live up expectations and Carp and Wells continue to pay well, as well as Seager providing solid hitting from the back end we would look to have a nice young line-up. If Ichiro bounces part way back and Guti or Ryan can manage to find something then that would help a lot as well.

Our rotation obviously takes a hit and I am all for adding EJax or Oswalt to the rotation but I don't think we will be bad in that area either. Obviously we lead off with Felix (he is still ours everyone), then after that the order gets jumbled but we have Vargas, Iwakuma, Noesi, Beavan, Furbush, and also Hultzen and Paxton fighting for a rotation spot. My attempts to predict an order will most likely be wrong but I would put it as:

Felix, Vargas, Iwakuma, Noesi, Hultzen

This trade may hurt but I think it helps us out in the long term. As many have said, we dealt from an area of strength to acquire a player in a position of need. The big wildcard here is Noesi, and while Campos could be good down the road, he won't help us now, and Noesi will.

Those are my thoughts and I would love to hear more of yours.

We found out very late that our Mariners GM can't continue on with our 28 team dynasty league. Phase 1 of our slow auction draft (48 hours of no overbids to win a player) is starting Sunday, so hopefully someone responds pretty quickly. Anyway, the league is a 6X6 H2H (5X5 plus OBP and HOLDS), and organizations have the rights to all the players drafted by their real life counterparts (the Mariners in this case), as well as all international free agents signed other than Japanese and Cuban players. This is the 8th year of the league, and it is a pretty active trading league, so the M's organization isn't completely full of real life Mariners, though almost all of the top minor leaguers in the M's organization are still owned by the Mariners franchise in our league. Nick Franklin is the one major prospect missing, as well as Francisco Martinez and Chance Ruffin (who the Tigers originally had the rights to), and Carlos Triunfel (maybe a couple other lower level guys). But you would have the rights to some other decent specs in Jarrod Parker, John Mayberry Jr., and a few others. Rookie contracts start when a player crosses the 130 career AB or 50 career IP threshold and last 4 years additional to that "rookie" year at a 300K. We have a 100M salary cap, so these players are quite important, and there is a pretty big focus on minor leaguers in our league. There are a couple ways to retain good players at a discount after their rookie contracts have expired as well. The actual major league roster does not have too many Mariners on it. Young studs like Pineda and Ackley have been traded away, though you have Jason Heyward and other decent player to build around. It is more about the opportunity to join a fun league and shape your team with a big influx of players from your favorite organization (though many owners own franchises that aren't their favorite teams).

We need owners ASAP, and I've found that coming to SB Nation team blogs has been a great way to get interested knowledgeable owners in the past, so hopefully someone responds with their email address so I can give them a link to the page, some further team information, and answer any questions. I'm going to be posting this elsewhere, but I truly hope someone from this site responds first.

-Keith

Five song playlist. Theme: disaster. Let's see it! And be creative, dingus.

Hey everyone, ready for round 2? As you’ll see below, most of the National League rosters feature the same distribution of player talent as their AL counterparts. In order to not post the exact same post as last time and also as a rebuttal to some comments made on my last post I will be looking at what year each player debuted for their current team and how that player got there. So after every player’s name we’ll see their WAR, what year they first played for their team and how they got there.

A quick refresher on my definitions for the player types:

Superstars – players with a track record of at least 3 years putting up 4+ WAR seasons, I tried to be entirely mathematical, but there is some fudging here and there because the word “superstar” also tends to be a lot of public perception and name recognition

Surprise Players – Players putting up a 4+ WAR season who either bounced back from age, injury, had a career year, or a breakout rookie season. Basically any player that outperformed anyone’s expectations going into the season would be included here.

Solid Players – Any player putting up a 2-3.9 WAR season

Replacement Players – Any player putting up a 0-1.9 WAR season

Crap Players – Any player with a negative WAR

Continue reading this post »

You know those incredibly irritating twitter follow me buttons popping up in signatures? Or those four line deep ones that take up more space than the comment itself? Or the ones with links in them that you accidentally click and take you away from the thread?

Yeah, I loathe those as well and I'm trying to do something about it. The SB Nation settings already allow you the user to opt out of seeing other people's avatars. Why a similar option to avoid seeing signatures doesn't exist is beyond me. I asked them and they replied that they have no plans for such a feature. I find that unacceptable and I think they need to be informed how much it bugs people. Maybe with enough people telling them how much signatures are annoying, they'll listen. So, if it's a matter that bugs you at all, or even if not and you're willing to do me a favor, please drop them an e-mail (support@sbnation.com) and/or a tweet (@SBNProductTeam) and let them know that you'd like to be able to hide signatures.

Thank you.

Seattle-

Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik confirmed yesterday that the team is in "substantive talks" with super-agent Scott Boras regarding a trade with the Colorado Rockies for Coors Field. "It's no secret that we've been looking to upgrade our offense," said the normally reticent GM, "so trading Safeco for a more offensively-minded park just makes sense."

While Zduriencik refused to comment on any specific trade terms, ESPN's Peter Gammons reports that Coors Field is likely to command a premium price. "Coors is a better hitter than Safeco in every important offensive category: Batting Average, and of course Home Runs. It makes sense that the Mariners would love to make a trade. What I don't understand is what the Rockies get out of it. Unless they get the Mariners pitching staff. That might be enough to swing the deal."

Boras has been losing no time in hyping his product with a flurry of media appearances and strategic leaks to the press. "Coors field is clearly THE franchise hitter's stadium in all of baseball," said Boras in a recent interview. "The city that secures this stadium will instantly upgrade its entire hitting lineup, which will translate into increased wins, revenues, and playoff appearances. That more then justifies the 1.3Billion asking price."

Continued Boras, "Stadiums like this come onto the open market only once in a generation. Coors Field has firmly founded itself as the most prolific offensive ballpark ever created. In only its fourth year, the stadium hit 303 home runs, the most ever in a season at one venue. Think what Coors can do now that it's entering its prime."

Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times is strongly in favor of the trade. "Howard Lincoln and the Japanese ownership of this team need to show their committment to 'Win Now.' This trade would certainly do that."

Another reason he likes the trade is that "Coors Field is especially friendly to American League teams." According to Baker, "Since the park's inception in 1995, American League teams have consistently compiled higher batting averages and more hits at Coors Field than the Rockies. So the Rockies wouldn't suffer as much as the Mariners would gain."

Noted sabermetrician Dave Cameron of USS Mariner disputes this last point, saying "It is notoriously difficult to predict how a given stadium will hit after changing leagues. I grant that it would be interesting to see how Coors field would do in the AL. And obviously Minute Maid Field is making the switch from the NL to the AL in 2012, so Coors would not be alone, but we just don't have a large enough sample size to extrapolate good predictive data."

"What we do know," said Cameron, "is that the ball does travel 9 percent farther at 5,280 feet than at sea level. So a warning-track hit to deep center at Safeco (say 400 feet) would travel as far as 440 feet in the Mile High City. And the wind is an even bigger factor. The wind at Safeco often blows in from left center, which is death to right handed pull hitters. Coors field, however, showed an 11.3% bias towards tailwind last year, according to Fieldgraphs. Given a 10-mph headwind, which is close to the average prevailing wind in the United States, the same 400-foot shot down the left field power alley (where both stadiums have the fences at an identical 390 feet) would turn into a 370-foot ho hum can of corn hitting into the wind at Safeco. By contrast, a 10-mph tailwind at coors field turns that same hit into a 430-foot blast."

Jeff Sullivan of Lookout Landing is taking a wait and see attitude. "As much as my readers may be salivating at the idea of 'Franklin Gutierrez, Power Hitter,' Only time will tell if this trade goes through. My readers are more interested in following the Jeff Francis free agent sweepstakes, or that other guy, whats-his-name, that other free agent."

UPDATE: Rumors now indicate the two sides are close to a deal. The Rockies would receive Felix Hernandez, Michael Pineda, the rights to all future Japanese pitchers ever, and cash considerations. The Mariners would receive a lifetime supply of Coors beer and the stadium. A few sticking points remain, such as whether the statue of Dave Niehaus would stay in Seattle or move to the new stadium, and transportation arrangements for season ticket holders. Boras is apparently considering buying Alaska Airlines with his own money and throwing their services into the deal, in order to bring the two sides together.

LATEST UPDATE: With the recent trade of Michael Pineda to the New York Yankees for Jesus, it's clear that the "king of all stadium trades" deal has imploded. Some analysts now wonder whether the whole thing was an elaborate ruse. The Mariners may have been stalling Boras to prevent division rival Oakland, (who has been openly shopping for a new stadium) from getting Coors Field before the stadium trading deadline.

Sources close to Boras report he is furious, reportedly shouting repeatedly behind his office door, "Fucking Jack! Fucking PLAYED me! He NEVER meant to do that trade!"

Possible confirmation comes from Mariners Insider Shannon Drayer, who reports hearing Jack Zduriencik chuckling to himself over lunch yesterday, saying "heh heh heh. Fuck you, Scott Boras."

Hi Lookout Landing,

Pitchers and Catchers reporting is just around the corner and we are excited to do some new things to better interact with the fans. Many of you are planning to come out to Peoria for Spring Training this year and we wanted to let everyone know that we started a new twitter account to bring fans inside info, updates, and giveaways. Hopefully this can be a resource for those looking for travel info, tips, and news.

We are already releasing sneak peeks of our program and pocket schedule and will be sure to ramp up tweets in the coming weeks.

Give us a follow or tweet any questions you may have about ST. Hope to see you in March.

http://twitter.com/peoriasportscom

This post is a larger build off of a comment I made over on USS Mariner. A commenter there said that he’s sick of solid players and wants Seattle to put more “superstars” on the field that can change a game with one swing or one pitch. This got me thinking about the way successful teams are constructed, so I’m now going to go through every playoff team from last year and quantify their players in 5 categories: Superstars, Surprise Players, Solid Players, Replacement Players and Crap Players. We’ll get to my definition for each category in a second, first my hypothesis as to what I’ll find:

I believe that the playoff teams will end up having only a couple of Superstars; the rest of the team will be rounded out with mostly Solid Players and a couple Surprise Players. It doesn’t take Superstars to make the playoffs, it takes a well rounded team with a smattering of big time players, whether they come in the form of expensive Superstars or inexpensive Surprise Players.

My definitions:

Superstars – players with a track record of at least 3 years putting up 4+ WAR seasons, I tried to be entirely mathematical, but there is some fudging here and there because the word “superstar” also tends to be a lot of public perception and name recognition

Surprise Players – Players putting up a 4+ WAR season who either bounced back from age, injury, had a career year, or a breakout rookie season. Basically any player that outperformed anyone’s expectations going into the season would be included here.

Solid Players – Any player putting up a 2-3.9 WAR season

Replacement Players – Any player putting up a 0-1.9 WAR season

Crap Players – Any player with a negative WAR

I’ll now be analyzing every playoff team and then take a look at how the 2011 Mariners fared in each category as well as the two most famously successful Mariner teams (1995 and 2001). I’m cutting off eligible players at 300 PA, will be using the five starters on every team that made the most starts and at the end will just calculate the total WAR contributed by the bullpen.

I’m about halfway through writing this and have realized this is going to take up a lot of space, so to make it a bit smaller I’m going to separate it into three posts. We’ll start with the American League playoff teams and based on the reception of the post in general I’ll continue with the NL and finally how the Mariners look.

Continue reading this post »

This seems like a very reasonable trade for the Mariners to make... Its been published everywhere that the Cubs are willing to eat almost all of Soriano's contract to move him and we know Seattle would do the same for Figgins. While he didn't play a terrible left field last year, most people think he's below average there, but his bat is still working. Would it work even better in a role where he gets more rest? His clear role at this point is at DH on an American League team. The Mariners need hitting and a backup for the outfield, which roles he could both fill. He probably comes cheap in terms of new money ($3M?), and given the length of his contract and that of Figgins it appears to be a good swap, along with potentially one other mid-level prospect coming over from the M's. Rather than just eating the Soriano contract, the Cubs get an option on a potential Figgins resurgence, save a little money and get a prospect. What an improvement it would be to have Soriano in the middle of the line-up and Figgins gone for good. Add another bat to the lineup and all of a sudden the Mariners would have a potentially decent lineup. Z can clearly make a deal with Epstein as shown with the Bedard trade, and this seems like a great fit for both teams. Any thoughts?

Hi Everyone!

My best friend and I are 40, and making our first trip to Spring Training. Going the very first week in March and plan on hitting games in Peoria, Surprise and Goodyear.

I am not scared of the price tag for the best experience I can find at each location but don't want to waste money on too much $$ for too little (for example, for $350 you can pull the second base bag during the 3rd inning drag at Goodyear).

I am curious if having the best seats in such a small venue is worth the difference in price...or to just get cheaper seats or the berms and walk around during the game?

Any experiences or tips would be much appreciated.