Wednesday Chatter
by Jeff Sullivan on Dec 2, 2009 2:37 PM PST
in Miscellaneous
- Fox Sports' Rosenthal/Morosi rumor central links the M's to Rich Harden, suggesting that the M's are showing "strong interest". It's not the first report to link the two parties, but it's the latest and the most legitimate, which makes it exciting - of all the pitchers out there right now, Harden might be the best fit for the 2010 Mariners, as he has extraordinary upside and enough risk to keep his price manageable. There are no performance questions about Harden. He's proven himself to be consistently effective in both leagues. The only question is health, and that makes him the right kind of risk. I know one of the big critiques of Bill Bavasi was his tendency to get hung up on individual names and labels and end up paying too much to get them, but I can't help myself here. Harden Harden Harden
- Remember Aroldis Chapman? There hasn't been a whole lot said about him lately since he changed agents, but there was this from SI:
In recent days, however, Chapman's rumored price tag has shifted from Daisuke Matsuzaka money ($52 million over six years) to the more realistic Stephen Strasburg range ($15.1 million over four years). SI.com sources place at least one big-market club's offer at $12 million over three years...One source told SI.com that the left-hander's fastball did not exceed 92 mph during a private workout last month.
The Mariners, I expect, remain interested, as do a whole slew of teams, but boy did the air come out of that balloon in a hurry. Chapman was a big story during a dead month, but he seems to be cooling off just as the rest of the league is heating up.
- I don't remember hearing about this, but at least according to a source of Yahoo!'s Tim Brown, Chuck Armstrong nixed a deal that would've sent Adrian Beltre to San Francisco back in mid-2008. I have no idea who was involved and therefore can't say with any degree of certainty whether Armstrong did the right thing, but social experiments are fun, so I can't believe Armstrong vetoed a deal that would've brought us Pablo Sandoval and Jonathan Sanchez. Shame on you, Chuck.
- Joining the ranks of the 30+ times projected at Fangraphs: Matt Tuiasosopo, Adam Moore, Rob Johnson, Jack Hannahan, Bill Hall, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Ian Snell, and David Aardsma. You people are crazy. On the other hand, six of the seven lowest projected wOBAs belong to Mariners, so I guess you're also somewhat reasonable.You don't see a lot of zealous sensibility these days.
The Beltre trade..
I have little problem with any trade of Bill Bavasi’s getting vetoed. Though the Washburn situation was upsetting at the time
CKel - December 2, 2009
It would have been a deal to bring Rich Aurilia back anyway.
abender20 - December 2, 2009
One could only hope!
Man, those were the days – when Spezio and Aurilia were the mainstays on this glorious team. 95? Fuck 95! We want the early Bavasi era back!
Captain Poopy - December 2, 2009
I think you mean Pelakoudus
Poochie - December 2, 2009
I think you mean Pelekoudas
Corco - December 2, 2009
I think you mean Thomson
CKel - December 2, 2009
Yeah I guess when you're hyped as having a fastball that can touch 100 then show up throwing in the high 80's/low 90's it tends to cost you money
OlSalty - December 2, 2009
But didn't Pf/x have him at 101 during the WBC?
sounds like he’s just out of shape
seattlebruin - December 2, 2009
You're probably right
He probably just hasn’t been throwing for a while and will recover that velocity once he starts again, but I’ll bet having him show up throwing 90-ish cooled a lot of teams to the idea of breaking the bank to get him.
OlSalty - December 2, 2009
Plus there's the whole Matsuzaka thing
teams are getting smarter, and risking Matsuzaka money on a who-the-hell-knows-what-you’re-getting item is a pretty scary proposition.
Guys still gonna get paid, but it’s hard to argue that he’s anywhere near the same league as say, Stephen Strasburg given just how little we know about him at this point.
seattlebruin - December 2, 2009
x
What in the fuck
Poochie - December 2, 2009
Also Harden! Harden! Harden!
Poochie - December 2, 2009
I love Harden <3
lailaihei - December 2, 2009
A Hardon for Harden?
Robert Lintott - December 3, 2009
Everyone needs to get this out of their system before we sign him
OlSalty - December 3, 2009
Two aces!
Dewey N - December 2, 2009
1-2 punch!
Poochie - December 2, 2009
And I completely forgot about Morrow!
Three aces!
Dewey N - December 2, 2009
What if we sign Ben Sheets
How many punches is that?
Poochie - December 2, 2009
Mariner's rotation:
Dewey N - December 2, 2009
Why can't you rec via mobile? Lame.
appleshampoo - December 2, 2009 via mobile
Congrats on selling out to get your recs.
Robert - December 2, 2009
A brotha's gotta eat
Dewey N - December 3, 2009
1-2-3-4 punch. Then a kick to the M's nuts via Carlos Silva.
ToddK - December 2, 2009
Yelling at it won't make it work any faster
seattlebruin - December 2, 2009
For some people it does
OlSalty - December 2, 2009
x
I bet I could harbor a guess
Poochie - December 2, 2009
I got a kick out of that, too.
Teej - December 2, 2009
Some people just aren't very intelligent.
njd.aitken - December 2, 2009
Tuesday Bullet Points ... Wednesday Chatter
Thursday Potpourri (?!)
Eyebrows - December 2, 2009 via mobile
Thursday Mountain Goats
Jeff Sullivan - December 2, 2009
Friday Foibles?
Poochie - December 2, 2009
I LOVE the Mountain Goats!
BRKLN M'S - December 2, 2009
I also love the Mountain Goats
Are you comparing them to a potpourri?
CKel - December 2, 2009
Noticed. It's the sig.
royalcurve - December 2, 2009
It's been said before but it's remarkable how much GMZ and the better parts of the M's blogosphere think alike
OlSalty - December 2, 2009
He likes them young?
CMC_Stags - December 2, 2009
Zduriencik enjoys Russian River Brewery?
He gave the YouTube video of Red headlocking Coach five stars?
He makes sly comments about the lesser M’s blogs?
Or he just plain ignores them?
He enjoys soccer?
He regrets how little he knew about the value of defense earlier this decade?
He’s tired of people talking about the Bedard trade?
He loves Jeff?
He has strong opinions about certain banned posters at Lookout Landing?
He enjoys memes for about a minute, before they become obnoxiously overused?
He hates net-speak?
katal - December 2, 2009
Actually, it pleases me a great deal to consider how many of these are likely so.
I love you, Jack Zduriencik.
katal - December 2, 2009
Man Z sounds like a big flaming homo.
Robert - December 2, 2009
Go back to MarinerCentral.
katal - December 2, 2009
Do you suppose that if we picked up Harden and re-signed Bedard
we could get a whole season out of the two of them combined?
Two Rs and Two Ls - December 2, 2009
In 2006 they started a combined 26 games.
28 games in 2007.
Then they combined for 56 starts in ’08.
Of course, then Sheets didn’t pitch at all this last year.
I suppose we’d get about a full season out of them. The only catch, obviously, is that their trips to the DL aren’t likely to sync up.
katal - December 2, 2009
Harden has made 51 starts over the past two season.
The injury concerns are obviously real, but he has made most of his starts the last two seasons, for what’s it worth.
MFAN - December 2, 2009
From a #2 starter, 51 starts still means about 15-20 missed starts
seattlebruin - December 2, 2009
Those numbers seemed a little high to me at first
But looking into, it does seem right.
And that is a lot of starts to be giving up, but those other 51 starts are better than anything we have now not including Felix of course.
njd.aitken - December 2, 2009
But there's no guarantee he averages 25 starts a season.
Sure, he got 51 over two, but we’re talking about missing over 1/4 of his expected starts as proof of durability. This doesn’t sound too great to me.
Yes, I would love to get Harden on a short-term, incentive-laden contract though.
seattlebruin - December 2, 2009
Yeah, I think you're right.
I went to yahoo excepting to see that Harden had made something like 30-35 starts over the past couple years, so it threw me for a loop when i saw that he actually made 26 and 25 starts over that period of time.
MFAN - December 3, 2009
I dickree...
If he signs with the M’s, his name shall henceforth be Sir Dick Hardon.
Adam B - December 2, 2009
Plus...
He would give the Mariners the dedicated “Richard Innuendo-Last-Name” they’ve been missing since ’08.
Adam B - December 2, 2009
We had Fister last year.
Benne - December 3, 2009
Fister and Dick are different things
seattlebruin - December 3, 2009
and fister is not really innuendo. It's quite explicit, in fact.
Bearskin Rugburn - December 3, 2009
Another example of the ineptitude of the previous M's
As if we don’t need any more reminders, now we find out that we could have had Sanchez and Sandoval. No surprise that the oaf Armstrong was the lynchpin behind such a mediocrity.
nathaniel dawson - December 2, 2009
Yeah pure idiocy.
Robert - December 2, 2009
Huh, so social experiments really are fun!
seattlebruin - December 2, 2009
What gave it away?
nathaniel dawson - December 2, 2009
In prospect news...
Per Jorge Arangure
The M’s signed another international pitcher named Jochy Ogando to a $275,000 bonus
Scrupio - December 2, 2009
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