Just thought I’d pass on a couple of quick news and notes bits that might make for some interesting conversation. Jason actually passed on most of this information to me, so here it goes.
- Brad Wilkerson signed with the Blue Jays. Releasing Wilkerson saved the M’s about $300k. It looks like he might get a shot to platoon with Shannon Stewart.
- Former M’s minor league (short lived) Bronson Sardinha signed with the Indians. He was released by Seattle, rather than being suspended after conduct detrimental to the team.
- The Rockies released RHP Jose Cappellan, who refused his Triple A assignment and is now a free agent. Cappellan is a great arm and a former top prospect for the Braves. Should Seattle take a look at him?
- Jacque Jones was released by the Tigers and is available for FREE, should the M’s go after him?- Blast from the Past: Former M’s farmhand Shawn Estes will take over the fifth spot in the Padres rotation and will make his first start Tuesday.
- With McLaren’s statement yesterday that “we’ve reached the stage where I’m going to use the best nine guys I can to win the game,” and the subsequent benching of Kenji Johjima, how bad does that three-year, $24 million extension look now? Is this the end of Kenji? What about a Kenji for Junior trade (stirring the pot here)?
- M’s prospect Michael Saunders had a great week this week (.481/.500/.815), rising his stock as a prospect. Will the M’s continue their aggressive ways and promote the 21 year-old outfielder to Tacoma this year?
- Foxsports.com is reporting that the Marlins and shortstop Hanley Ramirez are nearing a six-year, $70 million extension.
- The Mariners signed Victor Diaz to a Triple A contract and he hit fourth for the Rainiers last night. Was this a good signing? Could he be a potential fit for the M’s or more of just organizational depth?
The Kenji contract is indefensible. If he came back for 2 years at a discount, it would be a different story. The fact that he got another 3 years AND a hefty raise for his obviously declining play doesn’t make any sense at all. Add to the equation that our #2 organizational prospect is a catcher, LHed and ML ready ..it makes the Kenji signing all the more ludicrous.
The Reds have some good prospects and could use arms like Feierabend or Baek as well. I’ll wait to see what is done with Kenji and how that works out to make my mind up about whether it was a good or horrible idea. Right now it doesn’t look good, but I think he has some trade value even being the 3rd highest paid Catcher in the league and having a bad start to the season. There’s still possibility that it turns out to be a more than defensible move, though it never looked like a good idea. My thought all along was that he became trade bait once he signed anyway, but if Bavasi is trading him the outlook doesn’t look much better either way.
If a trade with the Reds did go through for Griffey that would make Jacques availability a moot point unless he would be happy as a 4th OF. I think it could work well getting both Jones and Griffey with only Ichiro playing the OF almost every day and Balentien playing most of the time, but Jones isn’t exactly a bat in most of the same ways that Reed isn’t. What sense would it make to bring in Jones and keep Reed down? If you like Jacque, take a closer look at Jeremy.
Capellan is an interesting idea, though it doesn’t seem very likely that he would be a huge upgrade. Sometimes they work things out in a new situation, but it wouldn’t be the first time for a team to try that with him.
I have little doubt that if Saunders continues the way he has so far this year that he will get promoted. I really like the possibilities of a few OF prospects the M’s have less than 3 years away right now and Saunders looks like the most solid among them. If he does continue, get promoted and progress in AAA this year they might actually be able to use him next year. It doesn’t seem very likely that all that happens. Even if he does continue (seems likely) they’d still have to decide to promote him (not so unlikely) bring him up next year (hard to guess at now, but possible) and play him regularly for him to have a chance at impacting the team next year. I like Saunders a lot but feel it would be best for me to be patient. What they do with him is harder to speculate correctly on what would be the best outcome.
Just wanted to say thank you to whoever formatted this for me. I had it formatted when I first posted it earlier in the day, but I then went back and added something and it lost it’s format, so whoever fixed this for me, thanks, I appreciate it!
I love Griffey and want to see him retire a Mariner, but IMO it is the absolute wrong move to go out and get him now.
You acquire Griffey if he puts you over the top, this team is far from it and IMO they need to blow this thing up. The M’s FO has been skirting the issue for years by applying overpaid quick fixes..most don’t work out.
As much as I’d love to see change, nothing will happen until Armstrong and Lincoln ride off into the sunset and are replaced by men who realize they are NOT baseball men, but are willing to go out and hire the best baseball people they can and then stay out of their way.
If it doesn’t change at the top then it really doesn’t matter.
Did anyone watch the replay of Sexson rushing the mound? Something really bothered me was not Richie rushing the mound but if you watch Yuni running around with his helmet in his hand with his arm cocked to throw it if another player didnt grab him we lose are SS also.The so called fight i get what Richie was trying to do .Yes the ball wasnt even close but he is proably tired of doing crappy and watching everyone else do the same.
It really sucks that Norton would have gotten some legit playing time, but instead, we’re stuck with Cairo there. There’s no chance of Cairo taking over, but if Norton was awesome, this could be the start of pushing Sexson out the door.
m’s should be doing some serious head scratching on which guys should be part
of the 09 m’s. the others should be moved for players that will be part of an 09 team.
a blind man could see this team needs to be blown-up.
question is,with fo jobs on the line,will the fo do what it needs to do? or will they keep us in the dentist chair,while they try to save their incompetent hides…