SB Nation - Login for mobile commenting

Lookout Landing

First Speculation Opportunity Of The Winter

About damn time.

Baker:

Also, Zduriencik has had conversations about another free-agent and may have an answer in 48 hours.

LaRue:

As the coaches were being introduced, GM Jack Zduriencik said he had one contract offer on the table to an unnamed free agent...

Hickey:

GM Jack Zduriencik said in a conference call Monday afternoon that he has one offer out to a free agent. He wouldn't say who it would be, but did say he hoped to have an answer ''in the next 24-48 hours.''

The free agent is:

-a position player
-not Mark Teixeira
-not Griffey
-not Manny Ramirez
-not Barry Bonds

...which leaves us with but several dozen possibilities.

If it turns out to be Ben Broussard my heart will melt.

0 recs  |  251 comments

Comments

Furcal?
One would hope.
Dunn?
This comment and your first one suggest conflicting opinions of Zduriencik's level of competence
Bloomquist?
I already made my guess
You must not think very highly of Dewey
I'm going with Snelling then.
Could be a good offer to Adam Dunn...
Why not, he won't cost us any draft picks, BECAUSE THE DBACKS DIDN'T FUCKING OFFER HIM ARBITRATION!

YOU DICKHOLES AREN’T FUCKING BROKE, QUIT ACTING LIKE IT!

This is Eric Byrnes fault somehow.
Rec'd for news, outrage and hilarity in two short sentences.
I'm calling it now. Carl Pavano.
It's not a pitcher
Ah, I missed that part.
How does that disqualify Pavano?
I heard he plays a mean left field.
You'd have to eb a retard to sign Pavano before March.
HOW COULD YOU LEAVE THIS OUT
Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik said moments ago that he has had a conversation with the agent for outfielder Ken Griffey
Not interesting

and 95% odds Goldberg initiated

Does Goldberg have any other clients?
I hope so
I was trying to narrow options for speculations
He better after he got benched in favor of a girl
The public has spoken and you're wrong.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/reader_feedback/public/display.php?source_name=movabletype&source_id=34850

Fuck Griffey
A smart team would bring in Edmonds on a one year deal to appease the nostalgia factor.
I hope Griffey's old ass falls down the stairs
OK, I understand not being interested in Griffey

But what’s with all the active hate? I mean, I hope that they don’t go anywhere NEAR him, but why are so many people here so hostile?

Because it's a terrible baseball decision

and many (otherwise smart) people are blind to that because they can’t separate their personal feelings from business.

To counter the irrational love
This is why I root for A-Rod.
I don't think I've seen irrational Griffey love since his like May 2008
I irrationally love Griffey and would buy M's tickets if he were to come back

then of course I’d buy the tickets either way but…

If we’re going to suck, I’m totally OK with the nostalgia trip while we’re at it

Hmmm, I wonder if he can get to 3,000

2,680 right now. He might have a shot if he plays for AL teams and plays DH for the next two years…

Because some of us aren't infatuated with Griffey

And don’t want 4 years of nauseating Griffey circle jerks to make us hate this team anymore than we already do.

Four years?

That’s optimistically pessimistic.

Only midly racist?

How the fuck are my eyes able to see that?

Amazing, I was able to see it instantly as well.

The human brain is the shiz when it comes to pattern recognition.

Good God that's painful.
I invite "Mr. X" to come around here and try to defend these bullshit comments
DMZ is your typical, bargain basement liberal. He looks at Ichiro Suzuki, and sees his race first. Then the makes the dramatic leap that other people who share Ichiro’s race would feel threatened here as well. These people are race-obsessed, and can’t see anything beyond it. Unless every player from Japan shares Ichiro’s unique character traits (trying to be nice here), I don’t know why they would have anything to worry about.

Fucking wow.

This makes lots of sense

I can tell you for one that growing up Japanese in Seattle was very hard on me because of racist assholes like DMZ.

Uh…. seriously? That was one of the weirdest comments of all time, especially how he blamed Derek for being race obsessed

P.S.
Why does everyone assume that since he is from Japan that he is going to be good. The guy wasn’t even drafted for the Japanese professional leagues and he was playing amateur ball last year. Sure he throws 95 but so do a lot of highschool and and college players who never crack the big leagues. Giving 3 million to an unproven amateur palyer would be stupid and I say good for the M’s for not offering him the moon.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Tazawa was the one that asked the pros not to draft him so he could go play in America, right?

I take offense with that

if only because I use “Mr. X” as a bowling nickname. I wish to not be associated with the above quote.

Where is that from?
Ok, found it.

WOW. Projection much?

OMG DMZ IS RACIST
And I guess I should read the whole subthread before commenting
One of the comments had a bizarre, random swipe at Derek:

“DMZ is your typical, bargain basement liberal. He looks at Ichiro Suzuki, and sees his race first. Then the makes the dramatic leap that other people who share Ichiro’s race would feel threatened here as well. These people are race-obsessed, and can’t see anything beyond it. Unless every player from Japan shares Ichiro’s unique character traits (trying to be nice here), I don’t know why they would have anything to worry about.”

Needs more “LEAVE GEFF BAKER ALONE11!!!”

Damn, Corco beat me to it.
Corco beat you to it?

I beat him to being the second person to mention it
News!

This almost makes up for the want of baseball at 10 every night

If Bavasi were still the President of Marineria

we could look forward to the emphatic signing of Mark Loretta for 3 years and 18 million.

I'd guess Kapler, but I'm not sure he makes much sense outside of the Brewers tie.
Have you seen our outfield?

Kapler would be #2 on the depth chart.

Rich Aurilia!

PLEASE! BE RICH AURILIA!

Where the hell did this come from Coach?
I was just scanning the list of free-agent for really bad players.

Then I saw Aurilia and remembered how bad he was for us in 2004, how he’s a first baseman now and since he’s not a Type A or Type B free agent. And it’d be awesome if they signed him.

As an NRI as the new Miguel Cairo -Miguel Cairo's playing time option, sure
I will be so happy if it's Spiezio
Jeff Cirillo!
This one I would welcome
You just want to use that sidebar'd Cirillo image again.

One can dream
How the hell is he a Type B Free Agent?

What arcane sorcery is Elias practicing?

Playing time
Yup.

Elias loves counting stats, not talent.

Holy shit I completely forgot about Milton Bradley.

Yes please.

I really hope that Z isn't one of those people who refuse to get good, cheap players

because they’ve had “problems” in their careers.

It would be a bold first step for his regime.

Bradley wants money, of course. But he also wants years.

Ivan Rodriguez!

Somebody has to “mentor” Jeff Clement. Yeah.

Scott Podsednik
Crede, maybe?

As a cheap stop-gap replacement for Beltre?

Rocco? Your mom?
Rotoworld
Alan Embree told MLB.com on Monday that his agent has received interest from 10 organizations, including the Mariners.
Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik said Monday that he has made an offer to a free agent and hopes to have a response in the next 24-48 hours. There’s no particular reason to think it’s Embree, other than that it would make sense that the offer was to a reliever.
Well it's not!

Thank God.

I don't even know why Embree would want to come to Seattle

If he has really received calls from 10 orgs, and this is his last year, I’d assume he’d want to be on a team with a chance of making the playoffs, and odds are one of those 10 has a chance

Odds are no, actually.

Why would a playoff-caliber team sign Alan Embree?

Becuase he's left-handed and above average.
He blew it all the time for Boston back in 2005, though.

He was just awful.

I heard he always eats all the roast beef in the post-game buffet too. What an asshole.
He wasn't even that good the last few seasons.
He might have a point

Last 2 years he hasn’t looked great. Velocity is still good. Barely used his slider last year. Maybe he was hurt a little. This year his control kinda sucked.

lol but than we wouldnt have to worry about silva anymore lol
You should really read the LL style guide and the LL wiki before commenting.
Is quickly shaping up (lol) to be a more hated pitcher than Jarrod Washburn.

http://llwiki.wikidot.com/carlos-silva

That's not what the page says.
rofl did u no that silva gained a lot of weight this year
Yeah but 10 organizations have offers out or 1/3 of MLB

13 orgs finished below .500, and the AL West isn’t going to be so unbalanced this year, so Oakland could contend, Detroit and Altanta still have “brand name” value, and Colorado could still reasonably contend.

So at least 1 of those ten teams are better bets for the playoffs then the Mariners.

But then the odds that the 10 teams he got offers from are the 10 worst teams in baseball is remarkably low, as all 10 of the 10 worst teams in baseball aren’t going to be chasing aging lefty setup guys to throw guaranteed money at

I'd take a flyer on Bonds before Griffey.

Hopefully it is someone who can play SS.

Yuniesky Betancourt "plays" shortstop
Too bad he doesn't "play" it "well".
"You're" doing "it" "wrong"
He is training w/ Raul

He may yet learn what defensive pride is all about. Have hope dammit.

I always hope for the best

experience, on the other hand, has taught me to expect the worst

Well "you're" "a" "weirdo".
www.failblog.org
http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/
Maybe

We’re the mystery team in for Furcal.

Would Furcal pick Seattle over Oakland though?
Gotta be a minor hitter

and I’d wager an outfielder, so I’m guessing Edmonds as well.

wheeeeeee!
(but he better be playing left field or first)
Good call Matthew.

Much as i would like the “mystery player” to be a difference maker with the bat (Bradley etc.), from a budget standpoint it is probably a “minor hitter” who costs less but has a relatively good glove, someone like Edmonds.
BB wasting big money on guys like Silva, Batista, Washburn, (past) Sexson, is costing us now.

But as JI post below, Edmonds probably can’t handle CF anymore. Another possibility for the mystery guy could be some CF with a good glove and mediocre bat (also costing less than 5 million), but I don’t have a name.

Left field is open.
I have a hard time thinking that Edmonds would come here and move off center unless it was his last option.
I don't really assume it's a budget thing and more a, any free agent who's willing to make a signing so quickly

is either a big name getting a huge deal or a minor name getting an average deal.

endy chaves?

please?

Not a free agent.
I wish it were Mike Cameron.
I wish it were Mike Cameron and LF was coming in about ~15 feet.
damn

i thought he was. oh well. still, that catch is freaking ridiculous. plus, he’s a pretty criminally underrated ballplayer.

Raul Ibanez has made 2 above average catches in his entire career
i'm talking about endy chavez.....

and on the internets do i really have to capitalize? is it english class? or is that a LL rule….

That is indeed a LL rule.

You might want to take a look at the LL Style Guide.

I THOUGHT THIS WAS AMERICA!

Seriously, though, writing like an adult is not something that should be exclusive to English class.

,

I died inside when this happened but Beltran brought me back to life.
Sounds like a evanescence song
He saved me from the nothing I became
Hatteberg
If true this would be hilarious
Could be worse
It makes some baseball sense

But from an emotional perspective it seems like GMZ is saying “Hey! I want to be one of those cybermetric GMs too!” and then read Moneyball and decided to get the same players

and I'm undecided if it's hilariously awesome or not

either way it would be really cheap so there’s nothing to complain about, and a reasonably high upside, and because of all that he could be flipped at the deadline if he’s producing

So I guess it’s fine by me

Why would we sign a 39 year old first baseman who had a horrific

collapse this season?

He didn't
Shhhhhh...

(I don’t want him)

Roster filler.

Plus Hatteberg was decent as recently as 07, and his 08 doesn’t count as a collapse.

Is Brian Daubach available?
No we want Dave McCarty to be a P-1B
Nick Punto!
Is melting good or bad?

The end of your post is very confusing.

Garret Anderson
I'm calling it...

Jason Giambi.

My itchy eye tells me it's

Joe Crede.

Wait maybe it's Raul Ibanez
:O
If so, I hope the offer is a picture of Big Z's middle finger.

Or his balls.

Lowballing Tex or CC

I can only hope

Adam Everett

I would be thrilled if that happened.

Sheets. Andy Sheets.
Jeez, people...

Okay, so my vote goes to Abreu.

Raul Ibanez with good defense…

And by "good" I mean "not horrible"
Abreu is a pretty horrible defender by most accounts I've seen.

52 plays below average over the past three years, according to Dewan.

-24 last year alone.

Was my second choice.

There’s a chance we could get him to DH as well.

DoyleDoyleDoyleDoyleDoyleDoyleDoyleDoyleDoyleDoyleDoyleDoyleDoyleDoyleDoyleDoyleDoyle
He tore his ACL walking in for his physical.
Griffey Haters...

Griffey is the best Mariner ever. If he comes back to the mariners will you boo him? I doubt it. He is better right now than Raul Ibanez. Put him in left. or let him DH. He is an upgrade from the starting DH last year right (Vidro.). I think he has a couple good years left in him, if he can play 100 games why not.

He's totally not even close to being better than Ibanez.
Because he is terrible. I'm not sure why we should care whether you think he has a couple good years left in him.
I will boo him if he sucks, which all indications say that he will.

Also, there’s the consideration that once he’s on the team, management will be handcuffed into playing him until he retires or face intense fan scrutiny. Everyone is an upgrade from Vidro last year so that’s a pointless argument to make and your unsubstantiated opinion of his remaining value is worthless in the face of actual projection and performance/cost analysis that’s been done here and elsewhere.

I will not boo him no matter how badly he sucks

even if all signs point to him being an utter disaster =(

Babe Ruth was the best baseball player ever

that doesn’t mean I want his dessicated corpse on the Mariner roster. When you’re talking about building a team, nostalgia is poison – Griffey’s best days are well, well (WELL) behind him at this point and I see no reason whatsoever that he should come back to Seattle for one last go-round if he has nothing to contribute. Which he does not.

Actually, Honus Wagner was

but your point holds.

I'm taking Willie Mays
You take the Godfather, I will take the Godson... as much as it pains me.
Best hitter of all time

but what about Mays’ defense at a premium defensive position? Bonds was never awful, but he played a less critical position for most of his career much worse than Mays played CF

.302/.384/.552 for Mays with 338 SBs and CF defense... .298/.444/.607 for Bonds with 514 SBs and for much of his career average of above average defense.

Factor in likely stiffer competition for Bonds and those extra .110 OPS points look that much more impressive. I mean, he had a full season with a .609 OBP.

I don’t think you can really say Mays was better, but that’s just my dumbass opinion.

There's an argument to be had because of Mays' defense

and that Mays played in the most oppressive offensive era in modern baseball.

I just remember talking with Matthew about this and we pretty much came to the conclusion that Bonds is the best, period.

But that was almost a year ago so who knows.

I don't think much has changed in Bonds or Mays' career portfolios in the past year
But the way we evaluate them may have.
I think much of the Bonds' "best ever" stuff

was a reaction to his incredible prime,. If you’re gonna talk about Bonds, you have to discuss Ted Williams.

That was my main argument against Bonds, but Matthew swayed me.
Mantle has similar career numbers and had more defensive value

but his career ended a few years too early.

Has anyone done a park adjustment on these numbers?

Mays played in some cavernous ballparks while Bonds was able to take advantage (both defensively and offensively) of the smaller parks.

>cough>andtakeadvantageofbettersportsmedicine>cough>

The Polo Grounds was probably murder on Mays
Bonds was actually a good fielder when he was young.
I never said he wasn't
It felt somewhat implied.

Bonds could have played center OK in his youth.

And he was well above average in left

I was referring more to his offensive peak when he was a below average defender in LF. If we’re going to say that Bonds was the best because of his peak, we have to consider that his defense at his peak wasn’t nearly what it was when he was younger and faster.

At his peak 2001-04

I always though Bonds was a neutral left fielder.

Bonds Bonds Bonds
Bad at pitching.
Why the fucking hell would we boo Ken Griffey Jr. if he returned to Seattle?

He’s a local legend, he’s not very good anymore, and the fanbase is divided between “let’s not bring in a bad player” and “it would be really neat to see Junior finish his career in Seattle.” There’s no mention of booing him should he return. How many times do we need to go over this?

A-Rod was better
God damn it we'd gone so long without an irrational Griffey love post.

Look, the Griffey hate is annoying and nonsensical these days because (generally) no one gives him irrational love anymore, but you just fueled the Griffey hatred fire, which is one of the most annoying dead memes on LL. Way to go, asshole.

I would say Griffey hating is anything but a dead meme.
I just want anything having to do with Griffey to go away.

Most of the Griffey irrational love is gone, and I guess I don’t get the hate. I understood it at the time of him returning to Safeco—yeah, a lot of dumb fans thought he was the missing piece of the puzzle and it would be sentimental and cool blah blah blah, but 95% of the fanbase seems to realize it’s a bad idea to bring him back. Everyone’s just preaching to the choir, and the jokes haven’t even changed.

I don’t want to sign him, but I’m sure there are worse things that could happen than a former icon coming back to his old team and not blocking a prospect while the team rebuilds to sell some tickets. I’m pretty damn sure we won’t sign him anyway so this doesn’t matter. I understand not wanting him to be a Mariner, I just don’t understand flat out hating the guy. Yes, he’s not good, yes, we shouldn’t sign him. But the LLemming mentality of taking Jeff’s idea that Griffey is bad then beating the dead horse to death and then a bunch of people who aren’t funny trying to make jokes (this applies to anything) is really annoying.

I just don’t understand why not wanting him to become a Mariner basically turned into “He’s terrible and fuck everything about him and his whole career.” Whose family did Griffey rape anyway?

And cue something about how I’m a god damn retard in….now.

Hey it's not my idea that Griffey is bad

That’s the universe’s idea.

Well, I guess I meant your post. Which is true, he's bad. But the stuff that's followed from other readers it just retarded.
The more people defend Griffey

The more outrageous the claims against him are going to get. It’s solely a reaction to those who can’t be objective about him.

Bingo
Also I should say that since I've never lived in Seattle and didn't get to watch the M's on a daily basis until 2004 Griffey never really did shit for me
I got to watch Griffey every day and I loved doing so

But he is one of the most overrated players on the face of the planet, and I’m tired of all the over the top descriptions of how great he was.

I loved him too. I and I still love the memories of young Griffey,

but I don’t want the worn out tired old Griffey who can’t hit anymore.

I heard he spends the off season strangling cats

and shoving cat corpses down the throats of homeless people.

That sounds like working out.

Must have been someone else.

That just makes him interesting
He's helping to solve our population problems
and our pet overpopulation problems

HE SAVED HUMANITY OMG

HE SAVED BASEBALL TWICE AND HUMANITY ONCE!
We don't actually hate Griffey

we hate what he represents.

And since Jeff expresses it in humorous ways I will welcome it until the day he retires.

Agreeing with Jeff doesn't mean you're an LLemming.
Yeah, you retard
Doesn't help either.
What happens when Jeff agrees with you?

The Reverse LLemming Effect?

I did not read it that way ac.

It is more of a, “Jeff hates Griffey so now I should rip on him relentlessly.”

This.

Agreeing with Jeff is one thing, but ripping him relentlessly to say “See! I hate him too! Look at me! I agree! I can be funny about it too! Look at me, look at me, loooook at meeeeeee!” seems to happen a lot these days. Not just on the Griffey subject, but that’s a good example.

BRMC is for people that seek to be fluent in gay.
It depends on why you agree with him
In this case it's because he is correct.
I don't want Griffey to come back

because I don’t want my last memories of him as a player to be him gimping around the field.

If Griffey hating is a dead meme then I don't want to be alive
I don't actually hate Griffey in the least

I just want him nowhere near a Seattle Mariners uniform in 2009.

I don't hate him either but I've been forced into that corner and I'll defend it to the death
you're a man of principle and I respect that
Just because you like him doesn't mean we should.
Fantastic idea and this is mind blowingly fresh opinion.
People who understand the projection systems better than I do

What would be your opinions of Griffey for ’08 and maybe (but hopefully not) ’09?

Something like 95% best case, median, and 5% worst case absolute collapse. Is an .800 OPS next season reasonable given that he has good health for the entire season and is limited to say 85% DH, 5% 1B and an occasional stint in a corner? I know you could find a replacement level player to put up those kind of offensive number fairly easily, but it’s safe to say that the Jack Cust’s of the world won’t draw nearly the attention of Ken Griffey, and that might just be worth the ~$5M difference between their ’08 potential salaries.

My projections for Griffey in '08:

.249/.353/.424

I'd say between 18 and 18 home runs.
So is that assuming he plays in the Great American Ballpark or US Cellular for half his games and plays CF some of the time?

Argh, I’m retarded… I meant ‘09/’10

I'd say Griffey's due for a ~.325-.335 wOBA next year

as DH, that makes him a replacement-level player.

His upside is probably ~.350, and his downside is horrifying.

How far above average is .350? 1 WAR? 1.5?
0.75 WAR
Yipes
DHs aren't valuable
And I was called a faggot for questioning Edgar's HOF credentials.
Edgar would have real HOF credentials if the Mariners hadn't retardedly kept him in AAA for so long
I think you can give him the benefit of the doubt.
Edgar's career wOBA was north of .400
Well obviously

He was a DH who had a short career.

It's kind of a moot point now, but this question should have read "how far above replacement is .350," not "how far above average"

since I’m unfortunately rather aware that Ken Griffey won’t even be sniffing average next season

Fortunately, he won't be sniffing glue, either

so he should still be good for a “famous ballplayer” talking-head slot somewhere.

I hope we trade for Khalil Greene

though if Petco got in his head that bad, I can’t imagine Safeco would be much better. At least he wouldn’t be Yuni in the field

It's Branyan.

Russell Branyan.

You must Login with your SB Nation account and be a member of Lookout Landing to post a comment.