Sunday, December 17, 2006
i am sorry, i just can't stop thinking about the mariners. i can't believe what they have done this offseason. it has just been terrible. it is bad. they traded two of my favorite players for two crappy players.
lets see what they did:
trade 1- Rafael Soriano to Braves for Horacio Ramirez.
we needed starters yes. at the end of last season, i talked to matt all the time about turning Soriano back into a starter. they gave him a week off and one point, and i was sure that was what they were doing. this offseason, Soriano talked about wanting to be a starter again. the mariners said we couldn't, because we needed that depth in the bullpen. so what do we do? trade Soriano for a terrible starter no one else wants. we made both the bullpen and the rotation worse. it is just mind boggling. Soriano could have been a great starter, and if he stumbled, we could have put him right back into the pen where he excels.
trade 2- Chris Snelling and Emiliano Fruto to the Nationals for Jose Vidro.
Let me tell you about Chris Snelling. Lou Pinella hated playing young players. He just wouldn't do it, unless they were great. Chris Snelling was one of those players. Lou gave him playing time when he was 20, because he had an amazing batting eye to go along with a balls out nasty mentality on the field and at the plate. this kid exudes hustle and intensity. Our third base coach promptly blew out his knee with a late stop sign, and he has been through 4 seasons and 8 surgeries since then. Last year, he is finally healthy. He gets promoted to the bigs and absolutely rakes the ball. he starts off hitting .500 or so until our idiot manager starts platooning him. he still had a great call up, proving he was the most patient guy on the team, and that he could get on base more than any of our other idiots despite being 25. i was drooling over the propsect of seeing him in the outfield, or even better, at DH next season, where he could give his knees another year to heal up completely. he would have been our everyday centerfielder now if he hadn't hurt himself, so even with sore knees his is above average defensively at the corners, and has a great arm.
but no. we decided to trade him for a 32 year old declining second baseman with shredded hamstrings and absolutely no defense. His stats have been diving for the past three years, and his power is gone. So we sign this below average second baseman to be our everyday designated hitter. for this privledge, we will pay $11 million more over the next 2 years than we would have payed Snelling, who is still only 25 and still improving. to sweeten the pot, we gave up another of our young live-armed bullpen pitchers, who probably would have made the team and played a decent role now that we pissed away Soriano
i mean shit, what else am i supposed to think. these moves are just dumb. they both are backwards steps. i am actually rooting against the mariners this year. i hope we are historically bad so everyone in the organization gets fired, and we can actually start doing something right. they have been telling us for years now that we aren't going to go through a rebuilding process so we can win now. well, now we still suck, and we just wasted 3 season in last place and have nothing to show for it, despite the fact that we spent $270 million or so on salaries. now, it looks like we'll get a fourth year of crap, and if we are bad enough, we might finally get the rebuilding process this team apparently so desperately needs. i would be fine with rebuilding, at least it would be something. there would be a reason to be bad besides flat out incompetence.
lets see what they did:
trade 1- Rafael Soriano to Braves for Horacio Ramirez.
we needed starters yes. at the end of last season, i talked to matt all the time about turning Soriano back into a starter. they gave him a week off and one point, and i was sure that was what they were doing. this offseason, Soriano talked about wanting to be a starter again. the mariners said we couldn't, because we needed that depth in the bullpen. so what do we do? trade Soriano for a terrible starter no one else wants. we made both the bullpen and the rotation worse. it is just mind boggling. Soriano could have been a great starter, and if he stumbled, we could have put him right back into the pen where he excels.
trade 2- Chris Snelling and Emiliano Fruto to the Nationals for Jose Vidro.
Let me tell you about Chris Snelling. Lou Pinella hated playing young players. He just wouldn't do it, unless they were great. Chris Snelling was one of those players. Lou gave him playing time when he was 20, because he had an amazing batting eye to go along with a balls out nasty mentality on the field and at the plate. this kid exudes hustle and intensity. Our third base coach promptly blew out his knee with a late stop sign, and he has been through 4 seasons and 8 surgeries since then. Last year, he is finally healthy. He gets promoted to the bigs and absolutely rakes the ball. he starts off hitting .500 or so until our idiot manager starts platooning him. he still had a great call up, proving he was the most patient guy on the team, and that he could get on base more than any of our other idiots despite being 25. i was drooling over the propsect of seeing him in the outfield, or even better, at DH next season, where he could give his knees another year to heal up completely. he would have been our everyday centerfielder now if he hadn't hurt himself, so even with sore knees his is above average defensively at the corners, and has a great arm.
but no. we decided to trade him for a 32 year old declining second baseman with shredded hamstrings and absolutely no defense. His stats have been diving for the past three years, and his power is gone. So we sign this below average second baseman to be our everyday designated hitter. for this privledge, we will pay $11 million more over the next 2 years than we would have payed Snelling, who is still only 25 and still improving. to sweeten the pot, we gave up another of our young live-armed bullpen pitchers, who probably would have made the team and played a decent role now that we pissed away Soriano
i mean shit, what else am i supposed to think. these moves are just dumb. they both are backwards steps. i am actually rooting against the mariners this year. i hope we are historically bad so everyone in the organization gets fired, and we can actually start doing something right. they have been telling us for years now that we aren't going to go through a rebuilding process so we can win now. well, now we still suck, and we just wasted 3 season in last place and have nothing to show for it, despite the fact that we spent $270 million or so on salaries. now, it looks like we'll get a fourth year of crap, and if we are bad enough, we might finally get the rebuilding process this team apparently so desperately needs. i would be fine with rebuilding, at least it would be something. there would be a reason to be bad besides flat out incompetence.
