Developing Starters, Saving Money
by Jon Shields ~ August 6th, 2008
It’s nice to see this organization starting to make some moves to put them on the right track, or at least pointing themselves towards the right track.
One of the team’s weaknesses was the shortage of worthwhile starters in the upper levels. In just a few short weeks the organization has added three guys to go along with Ryan Feierabend in Ryan Rowland-Smith, Gaby Hernandez and Brandon Morrow. While Morrow is the only one with true impact potential, the other guys are exactly the type of pitchers the organization needs to produce from within. These guys can better or at least match the numbers produced by Miguel Batista, Jarrod Washburn, Carlos Silva while costing nearly $30 million less per season. Wouldn’t it be nice to spend that $30 million on an impact bat, covering their salary for more than just one season, rather than on one year of filling the back of the rotation?
Those guys are still here for now, but Washburn and Batista are only under contract through next season, if they make it that far at all, and hopefully the new GM will be smart enough to fill those holes from within.
The only thing left to do this season would be to move Batista from the starting rotation (7.07 ERA) to the bullpen (4.15 ERA), and replace him with Rowland-Smith or Feierabend. That gives you a rotation that includes Felix Hernandez, Washburn, Silva, RA Dickey, RRS/Feierabend. If Washburn is dumped this month then he can be replaced by the other one. That should work out fine until the rosters expand for September, at which point Morrow should be ready to make a few starts.
Who takes Washburn?
The New York Yankees have supposedly bowed out, and the Colorado Rockies filled their rotation with Livan Hernandez, so is there anyone left to take Jarrod Washburn’s salary off of the Mariners’ hands?
We won’t know until three days after he’s placed on waivers, which probably won’t come until the end of August once GM Pelekoudas has finally given up on getting something back, but the prospects of him entering the offseason as a Mariner are seeming more realistic than a month ago.
That said, there is still a lot of time for a team to become desperate for a “solid” starter.
Teixiera Blurb
Mark Teixiera’s three favorite places to play are New York, Los Angeles and Seattle, according to the LA Times. That’s a surprise to me, but would Seattle have a chance at signing him because of this? I doubt it, because he’s already on a winning team in Los Angeles that will probably try and extend him, especially if it meant keeping him out of Seattle. Also, as good as he is offensively, he’s looking for a ten year deal, which is never a good idea in my opinion. I used to be extremely gung ho about the prospect of signing Tex, but 10 years is an awfully long time to commit to, especially when you aren’t confident that the organization can pull together the remaining pieces.
15 Responses to Developing Starters, Saving Money
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1 August 6th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
10 years?!
2 August 6th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
The last thing I read said that Teixeira was only going to be signed by a NY team because his 10-year-want is too grand for everybody but them.
I don’t want to see it happen, but at least Morrow is being used as he was drafted: a starter. I’m still on the boat that the day the Mariners organization failed biggest was drafting Morrow over Lincecum.
3 August 7th, 2008 at 12:51 am
As good as Lincecum has been, there is totally some hometown bias in that statement. Drafting Morrow over Lincecum in 2006 was the organization’s biggest failure? Since 1977? Looking at that draft now, Seattle didn’t fail as badly as some of the teams, and there were much bigger mistakes made over the course of this franchise’s history than that 1st round.
4 August 7th, 2008 at 9:15 am
10 years? He’s good I’ll grant him that but 10 stinking years? who the H-E double toothpick does he think he is?
Who has been signed for 10 years? anybody come to mind?
5 August 7th, 2008 at 9:59 am
^A-Rod
Anyway, the LA Times reported yesterday that Ken Rosenthal, who spawed the 10 year rumor, had asked Teixeira something along the lines of “Would you like a 10 year deal?” and to that Tex said “Sure.” Of course he’d like a 10 year deal, but there’s a difference from that and seeking one. So, a 10 year deal may not be in his future, especially since he’s nearing 30.
6 August 7th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
This front office hasn’t been around since 1977. And yes, I would rank drafting Morrow over Lincecum a top 10 failure.
Lincecum was far and away the best player in that draft. Not only was he the best player, HE WAS A FREAKING LOCAL PRODUCT. Chances like that are rarely passed up (ie- Chicago Bulls passing up Michael Beasley for hometown Derrick Rose.) Yes, it was a top 10 failure, also because we drafted a starter in Morrow, and never let him start.
7 August 7th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Lincecum was not the #1 ranked player in that draft. Andrew Miller and Luke Hochevar were rated higher. I don’t know how you can call it a failure. Morrow is far and away better then 3 of the 4 players drafted ahead of him. Its never a failure when you draft a player in the 1st round that contributes at the major league level.
8 August 7th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
@ Dustin: I agree with that last bit, but I still don’t blame the front office for not picking Lincecum. Traditionally little guys like that don’t go high. In the draft it’s all about projections, not necessarily what they’re doing that moment, and teams feel more comfortable going forward with a bigger guy:
Hochevar (1): 6′5, 205
Reynolds (2): 6′7, 225
Lincoln (4): 6′0, 200
Morrow (5): 6′3, 190
Miller (6): 6′6, 210
Kershaw (7): 6′3, 220
Lincecum (10): 5′11, 160
Scherzer (11): 6′3, 213
How can you possibly project a 160 pounder to succeed in the bigs or hold up to 200 innings? It was a gamble to take Lincecum, and that’s why he went 10th behind those other guys. I’ve never said that SEattle shouldn’t have drafted Lincecum, all I’m saying is that I completely understand why they wouldn’t, and why the other teams didn’t. You can’t teach size, and little guys, especially those who throw hard, have a tendancy to break down.
Also, with that windup of his, you have to fear he might get the ol’ Doc Gooden/Dontrelle Willis syndrome. (Crazy windup that works great, but ages and loses flexibility and has to relearn how to pitch)
9 August 7th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I never said he was ranked the #1 prospect, but he was damn sure the best.
And to Jon, look who the best player in that draft is… the little guy who could quite possibly win a Cy Young. Only 3 or 4 others have even touched the big leagues, not all of them are even starters, and none of them have had half the success that Lincecum has.
10 August 7th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I acknowledged that, but hindsight is 20-20 my friend.
Also, the best player in that draft was Evan Longoria.
11 August 7th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Pitchers have more value than 3rd basemen.
I’m not choosing hindsight. I was saying Lincecum on draft day, only to have my hopes shattered.
12 August 7th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
If you were a Royals fan or a Rays fan or a Pirates fan or whatever would you be saying, “Damn, that Lincecum kid is going to be the best player out of this draft. I hope we get him?” If you weren’t from Seattle would you be saying it was one of the organization’s worst moves?
Anyway.. I don’t blame them for making the choice they made, and what’s done is done. No changing it now. Anyway, for you own defense, here is a pretty good read on why Lincecum shouldn’t be considered an injury risk and why he would’ve been a good pick.
And who knows.. maybe he’ll want to pitch for his hometown team, and we’ll have both Lincecum and Morrow in the same rotation one day. ha..
I don’t think picking Morrow over Lincecum or any other pitcher that went after that number 5 pick is all that huge in the grand scheme of things. Is that worse than picking Jeff Clement before Ryan Braun, Troy Tulowitski, Jay Bruce or others in 2005? We don’t have enough data to know that just yet, but what about picking John Mayberry instead of someone like Joey Votto or Jon Lester in 2002? Putting together a draft isn’t an easy thing to do.
13 August 8th, 2008 at 12:37 am
It’s worse because we absolutely raped some of the entire package Morrow has by puting him in the bullpen for x amount of time, instead of developing im as a starter. If we developed him as a starter, I can almost guarentee the mess known as the Bedard-Silva off-season WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED.
And if I was the Rays or Pirates fan, I would have wanted Lincecum too. Mostly because I’d be a Rays or Pirates fan living in Seattle, and knowing about him and what he can do. Screw Morrow, Lincecum was the easy choice.
Also… I can honestly say that I find no fault in picking Clement over Braun, Tulowitski or Bruce because Clement’s value is far greater in a draft because he is a catcher. The other three play dime-a-dozen positions. Record setting power catchers are a rare breed.
14 August 8th, 2008 at 10:00 am
OK, so if you weren’t living in Seattle it wouldn’t be a big deal not drafting Lincecum. Not necessarily because he has been the best one so far, but because you haven’t had a special interest in him pre-draft.
I agree that Clement’s value is far greater as a catcher, but the chances of him staying behind the plate are slim with the great depth we have behind the plate in the upper levels of the system. Either Clement moves to 1B/DH, or we trade either Moore or Clement, not to mention Rob Johnson is showing he has more offensive potential than anyone thought.
At this point I don’t think we should trade Clement. Raul Ibanez shows just how important it is to have that lefty power bat in the lineup. He’s been the only Mariner since moving to Safeco to put up consistant power numbers. Better to have Clement under team control than to waste money on the market.
15 August 8th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
With that list of pitchers available, I don’t think the mariners could have screwed up the draft. Which they did not do.
They screwed up after the draft by putting Morrow in the pen.