Raul Ibanez And Polling The Audience

As of Wednesday, December 26, Raul Ibanez is officially a member of the Seattle Mariners. He is 40 years old, and he will earn some millions of dollars in salary. He's expected to get time at DH, first base, and the corner outfield, and he'll also presumably come off the bench every now and then. While everybody has issues with defensive measurements, we can at least all agree that Raul Ibanez is not a plus defender. For whatever it's worth, the 2013 Bill James projections forecast a .314 wOBA and .734 OPS.

As of Wednesday, December 26, Mike Carp is still officially a member of the Seattle Mariners, but he is out of options and basically out of a job, given the way things stand. He is 26 years old, and he's in line for something like half a million dollars in salary. He'd be capable of getting time at DH, first base, and the corner outfield, and he could also come off the bench for pinch-hitting opportunities. While everybody has issues with defensive measurements, we can at least all agree that Mike Carp is not a plus defender. For whatever it's worth, the 2013 Bill James projections forecast a .318 wOBA and .739 OPS.

Both Carp and Ibanez are left-handed, with similar versatility, if you want to call it that. Carp is a lot younger, meaning Ibanez is a lot more experienced. Their 2013 projections are one and the same, for all intents and purposes. Ibanez had the better 2012, but a lot of that could've been the park, and Carp had the better 2011. In 2012, Carp was hurt early on.

Carp and Ibanez project to be extremely similar players in the short-term. The Mariners signed Ibanez in large part because of his experience and leadership skills. The Mariners think that Ibanez could help many of their other, younger players, but this is unquantifiable. It's all about faith. So here's a poll! Let's ignore that Raul Ibanez might have also cost the Mariners D.J. Mitchell, because, yeah.