Street Strikes Again
by Jon Shields ~ December 2nd, 2008
It would be possible to run a Fire Joe Morgan type of website based solely on the writings of Jim Street, and every time one of his articles is posted on Seattle’s official site I find myself shaking my head. I usually refrain from mocking Street on this site, but his latest piece contains an absolute doozy.
Trading for a run-producing first sacker might be the way to go.
The Brewers are believed to be receptive to swapping Prince Fielder this offseason to bolster a pitching staff that needs at least one starter and a proven closer. A Fielder-for-J.J. Putz deal sure would get considerable attention and conceivably be a good trade for both teams.
Over the past three seasons, the 5-foot-11, 270-pound Fielder has slugged 114 home runs, including 50 in 2007, and driven in 302 runs. Putz, meanwhile, emerged as a top-notch closer in ‘06, going 36-for-43 in save situations, and he had a career year in ‘07 with 40 saves in 42 chances. He was selected as the best closer in the AL.
A series of injuries last season, beginning with inflammation in his right rib-cage area, resulted in a frustrating season for the 6-foot-5, 250-pound Michigan native. But he finished strong, going 5-for-5 in save opportunities in September.
Strong-armed right-hander Brandon Morrow could move into the closer role. Though he currently is penciled in as one of the five starters heading into Spring Training, he has closer stuff.
Where do you even start with this?
Let me make sure I’ve got this right: Street wants the Milwaukee Brewers to use Putz– an unknown for 2009 who is only under contract for one more guaranteed year– as their closer, in return for a 24 year old that already has an All-Star appearance, a top-10 Rookie of the Year finish, and a top-5 MVP finish under his belt, who is under team control for three more seasons and who just had an “off year” that resulted in what would have been the best performance out of the Seattle Mariners lineup last season.
Makes sense, right?
Mr. Street, if the Mariners called the Brewers inquiring on Fielder, Milwaukee would ask for Felix Hernandez first. I wouldn’t pull the trigger on that deal (because you don’t trade a King for a Prince!), but that is what they’d be looking for. After that they’d move on to Brandon Morrow plus, with the “plus” possibly weighing just as much as Morrow.
Fielder isn’t coming to Seattle without the Mariners giving up valuable pieces that are vital to the future of this team, and he’s certainly not coming to Seattle in return for a question mark of a closer.
Moving on, Street would also move Brandon Morrow back to the closer position. The argument was exhausted months ago, but moving Morrow back to the closer’s role would only make the slightest bit of sense if Seattle was a sure-fire contender in 2009, something they wouldn’t be even if a miracle Fielder-for-Putz deal went through. The team needs a lot of work, and reversing Morrow’s development is not a good idea.
Better ideas: Make Mark Lowe the closer. Put some unknown hard thrower from the farm system, the minor league free agent pool, or the Rule 5 draft in that role and see if they stick. Sign Chad Cordero, Brandon Lyon, Juan Cruz or one of the dozens of other MLB free agent relievers. Even signing 1st rounder Josh Fields and using him as the closer would be a smarter idea than putting Morrow there.
I would love to write Jim Street off as an old-school baseball guy that is just behind the times, but the problem is that he writes for the Official Site of the Seattle Mariners and is read by the majority of fans that don’t know that they should be laughing at him. I feel as badly for them as I do for the homers that believe what Jay Mariotti writes or says on ESPN (I STILL can’t believe he thinks the Nick Swisher trade was a bad deal for the Yankees).
I feel badly for anyone that relies on Jim Street for the Seattle Mariners news and insight. Thousands of innocent victims are being duped and taught to believe that Jose Vidro is an “Edgar Martinez clone,” or that Yuni Betancourt is the best defensive shortstop Seattle has had since Omar Vizquel, or whatever else Street feels like publishing.
I’m glad to know that all of you reading this have learned to get your Mariners fix from other sources.
8 Responses to Street Strikes Again
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1 December 2nd, 2008 at 10:21 pm
I dunno, man; Mark Lowe absolutely terrifies me. I found myself cringing pretty much every time he got on the mound this year. I’m willing to bet they trade him.
I would assume that part of Street’s job may be to make things seem better than they are - he is a team beat writer, after all, not a blogger, and people who would obtain their news solely from the team’s site don’t want to read about how bad things are in addition to already knowing that things are bad. Street should probably stay away from analysis and just report news, but whatever.
And someone thinks that Swisher is going to be bad for New York?!? El-oh-el. Wow.
2 December 2nd, 2008 at 10:39 pm
That’s a good point about Street’s role. MLB.com’s team sites can be viewed as a PR wing for each organization, so it’s expected that everything will be sugar-coated. That said, the Putz-for-Fielder speculation has nothing to do with sugar-coating the team’s problems.
Lowe didn’t have a good year, but I think he’s a couple of adjustments away from being the dominant guy we thought he would be.
He’s at his worst when he relies on his fastball too much, but when he mixes his pitches he can be quite good. He had to back away from throwing his devastating slider after the arm troubles, but he’s healthy and started throwing it more often towards the end of the season. It wasn’t the same as it used to be, but hopefully he can rediscover the slider that was once the best in the system.
While he had to practically abandon the slider for several months, he took his changeup from a pitch that he rarely rarely used when he first came up to a pitch to a pitch he had to use this past season. That caused him to get much better with that pitch, so the theory is that he can come back next season using the slider more often and more effectively, and having a second weapon in a decent changeup as well. The velocity on the fastball has always been there– even after the arm injuries– and that is always a good starting point for a reliever.
A lot of people have given up on Lowe, but I still think he deserves another shot. I can still see a closer in him.
3 December 2nd, 2008 at 11:08 pm
I had indeed heard that Lowe was once awesome, but just hadn’t really seen it. He got the job done a few times, but more often than not, hitters were getting him left and right this year. I guess it’s difficult to gauge any Ms player from this year. I’m not totally above letting him try again, but I’m starting to get the impression that Zduriencik wants a totally clean slate. The waiting is killin’ me.
I find it odd that Street is allowed his MailBag column - I guess that’s as close to blogging as you can get on a team site - but he has said some things on there that have been mind-boggling. I’m still trying to figure out if a lot of those articles are supposed to be editorials or actual news, or a combo of both. In all the things I’ve seen written about him in the blogosphere, nothing has been favorable. I mostly use stuff that he says to have something to yap about when I write, but I have learned to not take him all that seriously. Likewise, mlbtr.com is fun to read, but can’t be trusted as a solid source of news, obviously…
4 December 2nd, 2008 at 11:17 pm
I already have my rant on Street for the next 30 days. Sad cause there is some good material here.
Honestly how dumb can you get?
5 December 2nd, 2008 at 11:22 pm
As people become more and more involved with their teams they’ll naturally find better and better information. A little more than a year ago the Mariners team site was my primary source of info and prosportsdaily.com was where I got my rumors. Looking back, I couldn’t have been more uninformed. As we’ve discussed, the team site is sugar-coated fluff and PSD is rarely updated and overall useless, especially with sites such as MLBTR emerging.
The best thing to do is to get as much info from as many different sources as possible. From within the blogosphere (USSM, Lookout Landing, Prospect Insider, Detect-o-Vision and others), all the local papers (Times: Stone and Baker, P-I: Hickey and Thiel, News Tribune: Divish and LaRue [although LaRue is just barely a step up from Street] and a few others such as The Daily Herald), RRS’ blog, plus the rumor sites.
I’ve also added a few other sites to my daily reading recently, including Paul DePodesta’s blog (highly recommended, great insight on what goes on in the front office), beyondtheboxscore.com, minorleagueball.com, and a few sabermetric blogs.
Not sure where I was going with that.. but ok!
6 December 3rd, 2008 at 12:51 am
Reading Jim Street’s articles makes me feel sick….
7 December 3rd, 2008 at 2:37 am
This is found at the bottom of every jim street collum he writes. But I had to add a little something extra to really top off the garbage he creates. “Jim Street is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball, its clubs or fans.” Just a little subtle change almost oblivious to the untrained eye. However I think you guys can fiqure it out. Just for the record since you did bring it up, I remeber reading that article ages ago and thinking to myself #11 is back, Hooyah! NOT! Come on man even if you are a fluff writter, do not ever under any circumstance even begin to compare EEEEDDDDGGGGAAAARRRR to some clown in clown shoes.
Unitispat24 is a blogger for BBT.com. This blog was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or it’s clubs.
8 December 3rd, 2008 at 9:01 am
I have to post something
…I have too.