off season

[bobflipaburger]

what do you want the M' s to do this off season?

I say:

Felix has arbitration, get something long term done! like LONG LONG term, like a 12 year contract.
Re-sign: Bltre, Griffey, and Branyan and bring back Jarrod Washburn. Make a trade for Juan Pierre... Can you imagine our outfield with Pierre, Guti, and Ichiro??? That's a TON of D, and a TON of speed. Also make Carp the starting 1B and move Branyan to DH.

so the line up would look comthing like this:

1.RF- Ichiro(L)
2.CF- Guti(R)
3.1B- Carp(L)
4.2B- Lopez(R)
5.DH- Branyan(L)
6.3B- Beltre(R)
7.SS- Wilson(R)
8. C- ???(?)
9.LF- Pierre(L)

Pitching staff would have Felix as the ace then following him some combo of: Wash, Snell, RRS, and Morrow or FIster.

 

[seahawkscott19]

I think what happens this offseason depends solely on what happens with Felix. The M's either need to sign him to a long term deal (my preferred choice), or trade him and take advantage of his insanely high trade value right now.

If they sign Felix, they need to go into a win now mode. When you are going to ride the back of a dominant pitcher, you need to win as soon as possible because you never know when his arm is gonna blow up. Trade Morrow for a shortstop that can hit, try to sign a catcher that doesn't suck at everything, resign Bedard for cheap and pray he can pitch 150 innings as a legit #2, and resign Beltre and Branyan. The only problem with this option is the M's have given Z a $25 million increase in payroll for next year, and signing Felix would take up a huge chunk of that money.

If they can't resign Felix, they would be able to trade him for some awesome young prospects and they would need to go into win in the future mode. Let Beltre walk, trade and sell high on Aardsma, play Tui at 3rd, Josh Wilson at short, Carp at first, and Moore at catcher. I think this option could play out very well in 5 years, but I don't think I can handle watching the M's suck for much longer while we wait for young guys to produce.

 

[bobflipaburger]

Silva needs to go... No one's going to eat that contract though.

 

[Fenom]

I think what happens this offseason depends solely on what happens with Felix. The M's either need to sign him to a long term deal (my preferred choice), or trade him and take advantage of his insanely high trade value right now.

If they sign Felix, they need to go into a win now mode. When you are going to ride the back of a dominant pitcher, you need to win as soon as possible because you never know when his arm is gonna blow up. Trade Morrow for a shortstop that can hit, try to sign a catcher that doesn't suck at everything, resign Bedard for cheap and pray he can pitch 150 innings as a legit #2, and resign Beltre and Branyan. The only problem with this option is the M's have given Z a $25 million increase in payroll for next year, and signing Felix would take up a huge chunk of that money.

If they can't resign Felix, they would be able to trade him for some awesome young prospects and they would need to go into win in the future mode. Let Beltre walk, trade and sell high on Aardsma, play Tui at 3rd, Josh Wilson at short, Carp at first, and Moore at catcher. I think this option could play out very well in 5 years, but I don't think I can handle watching the M's suck for much longer while we wait for young guys to produce.

Jack Wilson is an amazing SS. He is not the best hitter, but his defense is incredible. Rob Johnson seems like a great catcher, but not the best hitter. We need a guy who can hit, but when you look around the league there aren't many catchers who make an impact anymore.

Right now, no one is going to give up on a chance to go to the playoffs. Jack Z isn't going to toss in his cards and start over. Right now we are 1 or 2 years away from going deep into the playoffs. You don't get that close and decide to fold. It just doesn't happen.

 

[bobflipaburger]

Wilson is awesome, SS isn't a position you really look for a ton of offense out of anyways. But Johson SUUUUUUUCKS I'd rather have Kenji start then Johnson. According to UZR the mariners this year were the best defensive team since the stat has been around. We had 4 of the top 20 defensive players in the league Gutierrez was the best defensive player in the league by a huge magin, Wilson was also in the top 10, Beltre was in the top 15, Ichiro was in the top 20. So we've got pitching and defense. Just need to add in some offense... I'm thinking we need to build a team around speed. If we had Pierre like I suggested earlier and had him hitting 9th getting on base in front of Ichiro... He could buy Ichiro another 20-30 hits just by causing the in field to shift.

 

[seahawkscott19]

You're right, we are a couple years away from competing and that's exactly the problem. Felix is a free agent in 2 years and there's no way we can compete with the Red Sox and Yankees in free agency. So unless we lock him up now, Felix won't be a Mariner in 2 years. And without Felix, we aren't a contender. So this offseason, Z needs to figure out if Felix is in the M's future plans, and if he's not, he'd be stupid to not take advantage of his value right now.

Jack Wilson is a good defensive SS, but he's a black hole on offense. This team desperately needs offense and keeping Jack Wilson isn't solving any problems. Plus, he'd cost $8.4 million. No thank you.

Rob Johnson is not a good catcher. He can manage a game fairly well, but he can't hit, he sucks at covering the plate, and he has a ton of passed balls.

 

[bobflipaburger]

We're a big bat away from contending... Doubt we'll be able to afford Holliday who's really the only good hitter out there this off season. Mike Carp has tons of potential though.

 

[seahawkscott19]

Our pitching situation scares me a little bit next year. You know Felix will kill it, but who knows what will happen after him. RRS seems to be going in the right direction but isn't really a #2, Morrow is a complete crap shoot, and then there's a bunch of random guys. That rotation doesn't scare anyone, and we don't have the offense to win games if we don't have solid pitching.

 

[bobflipaburger]

Snell has tons of potential... I think he'll start realizing that potential and be a legit #2 or 3 starter (depending on if we bring in a starter or not). I still have some hope for Morrow, but Bavasi seriously mismanaged him. RRS looks good. I like Fister.

 

[seahawkscott19]

I agree with you that we have pitchers that could be good, but I don't want to risk having 3 starting pitchers who MIGHT be good. Here's a pretty good write up on the Felix situation.

http://ussmariner.com/2009/10/06/the-deciding-factor/

 

[bobflipaburger]

Z is a very smart GM. He'll lock Felix up for a loooooong time.

 

[Fenom]

You're right, we are a couple years away from competing and that's exactly the problem. Felix is a free agent in 2 years and there's no way we can compete with the Red Sox and Yankees in free agency. So unless we lock him up now, Felix won't be a Mariner in 2 years. And without Felix, we aren't a contender. So this offseason, Z needs to figure out if Felix is in the M's future plans, and if he's not, he'd be stupid to not take advantage of his value right now.

Jack Wilson is a good defensive SS, but he's a black hole on offense. This team desperately needs offense and keeping Jack Wilson isn't solving any problems. Plus, he'd cost $8.4 million. No thank you.

Rob Johnson is not a good catcher. He can manage a game fairly well, but he can't hit, he sucks at covering the plate, and he has a ton of passed balls.

I thought the Pirates covered the rest of his salary this season and the same goes for next season. Or at least that's what I remember hearing. Anyone know? :?

Felix is definitely the guy we need to lock up. Beltre is a good player, but he has yet to show that he is worth the money on offense. Keeping Jack Wilson is obviously a good idea until we can get a younger guy up to MLB ability, but I think Beltre just costs too much for what you get. We have to go and get a guy like David Wright of the Mets. He is a good young player. We don't have anyone who has good defensive skills and hitting skills coming up anytime soon.

LF - We have a few guys, but we don't have anyone that is even close to Guti or Ichiro. Hopefully Ackley will be ready to help us out next season. He would complete the best outfield in the MLB.
3B - Beltre is a great player, but will still want a lot of $$$ and he has yet to earn it. We have to keep him or sign a big name in FA. We just don't have anyone who has proven themselves down in AAA.
1B - Seems like the M's might go with Lopez at 1st, but if we can get Branyan back...that would be very helpful offensively.
2B - With Lopez at 1st, I assume Josh Wilson would play 2nd. The guy showed he has pop as well as defense.
C - This is definitely the weakness of the team. Johnson showed he has an arm and can call a game well, but so can Johjima. I don't think either has proven they can help this team with hitting though.
Starting Rotation - Felix and Rowland-Smith will be the top two guys. Then we have a lot of other guys who could get the job: Doug Fister, Brandon Morrow, Luke French, Ian Snell, and Carlos Silva. That's if we don't try to bring back Washburn and Bedard. I don't see that happening, but having a veteran guy on the pitching rotation is what Jack Z likes from what I've heard. I'd assume Snell, Morrow and French will win those last 3 jobs. Although Fister showed he can throw against some good teams, notably the Yankees.

CF, RF and the Bullpen are all going to be the same...hopefully.

 

[bobflipaburger]

You're right, we are a couple years away from competing and that's exactly the problem. Felix is a free agent in 2 years and there's no way we can compete with the Red Sox and Yankees in free agency. So unless we lock him up now, Felix won't be a Mariner in 2 years. And without Felix, we aren't a contender. So this offseason, Z needs to figure out if Felix is in the M's future plans, and if he's not, he'd be stupid to not take advantage of his value right now.

Jack Wilson is a good defensive SS, but he's a black hole on offense. This team desperately needs offense and keeping Jack Wilson isn't solving any problems. Plus, he'd cost $8.4 million. No thank you.

Rob Johnson is not a good catcher. He can manage a game fairly well, but he can't hit, he sucks at covering the plate, and he has a ton of passed balls.

I thought the Pirates covered the rest of his salary this season and the same goes for next season. Or at least that's what I remember hearing. Anyone know? :?

Felix is definitely the guy we need to lock up. Beltre is a good player, but he has yet to show that he is worth the money on offense. Keeping Jack Wilson is obviously a good idea until we can get a younger guy up to MLB ability, but I think Beltre just costs too much for what you get. We have to go and get a guy like David Wright of the Mets. He is a good young player. We don't have anyone who has good defensive skills and hitting skills coming up anytime soon.

LF - We have a few guys, but we don't have anyone that is even close to Guti or Ichiro. Hopefully Ackley will be ready to help us out next season. He would complete the best outfield in the MLB.
3B - Beltre is a great player, but will still want a lot of $$$ and he has yet to earn it. We have to keep him or sign a big name in FA. We just don't have anyone who has proven themselves down in AAA.
1B - Seems like the M's might go with Lopez at 1st, but if we can get Branyan back...that would be very helpful offensively.
2B - With Lopez at 1st, I assume Josh Wilson would play 2nd. The guy showed he has pop as well as defense.
C - This is definitely the weakness of the team. Johnson showed he has an arm and can call a game well, but so can Johjima. I don't think either has proven they can help this team with hitting though.
Starting Rotation - Felix and Rowland-Smith will be the top two guys. Then we have a lot of other guys who could get the job: Doug Fister, Brandon Morrow, Luke French, Ian Snell, and Carlos Silva. That's if we don't try to bring back Washburn and Bedard. I don't see that happening, but having a veteran guy on the pitching rotation is what Jack Z likes from what I've heard. I'd assume Snell, Morrow and French will win those last 3 jobs. Although Fister showed he can throw against some good teams, notably the Yankees.

CF, RF and the Bullpen are all going to be the same...hopefully.

I think the reason why the Pirates got rid of Wilson is so they wouldn't have to pick up that option... They might be paying part of it though,

Disagree on Beltre. And David Wright is an over rated defensive 3rd baseman BTW. The only 3rd baseman with a better UZR than Beltre is Ryan Zimmerman and he's not going anywhere. Beltre will have to take a pay cut no matter where he goes so, I don't care what his agent says he's not getting a big contract again. Beltre's offense should come around next year since he should be healthy... If not I'll take his amazing D any day.

2B would likely be Tui if we move Lopez to 1B... I'd Personally like to see Carp starting at 1B and Branyan DH.

As for signing a big name FA, The only one out there is Matt Holliday.

 

[Fenom]

Maybe it was Ian Snell they were paying for. And about the DH position, if we can't bring back Griffey/Sweeney then we have keep Branyan for the DH position. I can't think of anyone we could use in that spot other than Bill Hall.

The M's also have Langerhans and Saunders. Langerhans hit two walk off homers and Saunders made a lot of great plays in left field, but neither really produced offensively.

I'll trust Jack Z though. The guy is going to make a World Series team.

 

[bobflipaburger]

I want to keep Griffey too... I just don't think he should be in the line up every day...

 

[HawksFan83]

Adam Moore is the catcher of the Future, Kenji is gone now.

LF will either be Langerhans or Saunders

1st/DH will be Branyan, no reason to not bring him back, but also look for a free agent signing, to platoon with branyan, cuz russ wont make it a full year playing first

2nd look for lopez to be traded, his skill set is better suited for a different ball park where right handed pull hitters can flourish.

SS look for JJ hardy to come in and take over here, Jack Z is still big up there with the brewers and the brewers dont need Hardy anymore, look for us to send Morrow to milwakee and maybe another bullpen arm, but i dont see Wilson playing for this team next year, to much money, old, obviously injury prone now.

3rd base, unless beltre can be had for cheap, its gonna be a 1 year contract for someone to come play at this position, we might even have someone that we can bring up cheap for now.

Pitching, Felix has to get signed, theres nothing preventing it, he wants to play in seattle, seattle wants to keep him, we are turning this team into a family and we can win. He will get signed. but i see our rotation right now as

Felix, RRS, Snell, fister/vargas, and i would like to see them take a chance with Ben Sheets, he's a high risk but could be a high reward type pitcher, he could go out there with all his jollies on a one year deal, and pitch lights out in hopes of getting a good contract so you never know. And Bedard is still around lol but who really wants to take a chance with him and his Dr. bill.

Our bullpen should stay about the same, maybe bring in a vet who can last longer than 3/4 of the year then totally fall apart from fatigue.

 

[Fenom]

1st - Lopez
2nd - Jack Wilson
SS - Either a FA Pickup or Josh Wilson
3B - FA Pickup (Beltre will want too much.)
LF - Hopefully Ackley is ready to take over. Saunders doesn't have the bat and Langerhans doesn't have the speed/bat.

 

[HawksFan83]

Ackley wont be ready till about 2011,

I dont forsee Wilson playing on this team next year, and the pirates only picked up his salary for this season, he has an option for next season so we arent commited, like i said before, watch for a push for JJ hardy, he's young, and we all know he has great upside, just has to get back to his form, just had a bad year. Its just to expensive for this team to sign jack wilson, givin his age and now he's having leg problems.

Dont forget the bullpen could actually be upgraded this next season with Aumont and Josh fields coming in, both have great arms and are young and have really high upsides.

Our 2011 team will be a good young competative team, but as for 2010, look for a mix of vet and young players, while Z will want to win, he will still build for the future, so not signing to many vets is the key to getting that done.

 

[Fenom]

Ackley wont be ready till about 2011,

I dont forsee Wilson playing on this team next year, and the pirates only picked up his salary for this season, he has an option for next season so we arent commited, like i said before, watch for a push for JJ hardy, he's young, and we all know he has great upside, just has to get back to his form, just had a bad year. Its just to expensive for this team to sign jack wilson, givin his age and now he's having leg problems.

Dont forget the bullpen could actually be upgraded this next season with Aumont and Josh fields coming in, both have great arms and are young and have really high upsides.

Our 2011 team will be a good young competative team, but as for 2010, look for a mix of vet and young players, while Z will want to win, he will still build for the future, so not signing to many vets is the key to getting that done.

Well, my opinion is that Jack Wilson will stay here. J.J Hardy would be a good pickup and Jack Z probably will try to sign him, but he won't let Wilson go. He is an experienced player with great defense and a decent bat. They gave Branyan a chance last year, so saying that they won't give Jack Wilson a shot because of injuries doesn't seem like a correct statement.

 

[seahawkscott19]

Ackley wont be ready till about 2011,

I dont forsee Wilson playing on this team next year, and the pirates only picked up his salary for this season, he has an option for next season so we arent commited, like i said before, watch for a push for JJ hardy, he's young, and we all know he has great upside, just has to get back to his form, just had a bad year. Its just to expensive for this team to sign jack wilson, givin his age and now he's having leg problems.

Dont forget the bullpen could actually be upgraded this next season with Aumont and Josh fields coming in, both have great arms and are young and have really high upsides.

Our 2011 team will be a good young competative team, but as for 2010, look for a mix of vet and young players, while Z will want to win, he will still build for the future, so not signing to many vets is the key to getting that done.

Well, my opinion is that Jack Wilson will stay here. J.J Hardy would be a good pickup and Jack Z probably will try to sign him, but he won't let Wilson go. He is an experienced player with great defense and a decent bat. They gave Branyan a chance last year, so saying that they won't give Jack Wilson a shot because of injuries doesn't seem like a correct statement.

If they trade for Hardy (which is what they should do), there's no way they keep Jack Wilson. And you can't compare Branyan and Wilson. Paying $1.4 for an injury prone Branyan is nothing like paying $8.4 million for an injury prone Jack Wilson. Wilson seems like a nice guy, but it would be stupid to bring him back next year at that price.

Nick Johnson is another guy they should look at to bring in. He could probably come fairly cheap, is a decent left handed hitter, and could be the 2nd half of the DH/1B platoon with Branyan.