ESPN insider requests... big time mariner fan

[xdominatorx]

http://insider.espn.go.co...neyer_rob%26id%3d4877703

http://insider.espn.go.co...es_gordon%26id%3d4887060

thx for the love. finally have reason to be excited for MLB again.

Lets GO M's!!

 

[usedtobecool]

​

TOPIC: WHY CLIFF LEE IS THE BEST FIT FOR HIS NEW HOME BALLPARK​

[h2]The setup[/h2]
In modern baseball, you really do need a scorecard to keep track of the players.

Well,that or you can just look at their jerseys. Or the scoreboard. Which isa good thing, since these days it's not always easy to find a scorecard.

Butyou get the idea. Thanks to free agency and the necessary focus onpayrolls, if a team isn't spending money in the offseason on freeagents, it's cutting loose players to save money. Or, in the case ofmany franchises, both.

Every winter, then, there are dozens anddozens of players who can be had, via free agency or trades. And everysingle team enters the winter with one goal in mind: getting better. Wemay assume that every team likes the players they eventually acquire --if they didn't like them, they wouldn't acquire them in the first place-- but obviously some teams do better than others.

Yes, theyoften do better because they spend more, whether in money (for freeagents) or talent (in trades). But they also do better because they'rebetter able to evaluate their targeted players, in terms of overallability and specific "fit" with their prospective new team.

Twofantastic starting pitchers changed teams this winter, and both in thesame deal: a four-team, nine-player megatrade that sent Roy Halladay from Toronto to Philadelphia and Cliff Lee from Philadelphia to Seattle.

Halladay'sarrival in Philadelphia made the biggest splash, and for good reasons:Halladay quickly signed a long-term contract with the National Leaguechampions, and he's arguably the best pitcher in the major leagues.

Nevertheless, in terms of "fit," the Mariners just might have come out ahead with Cliff Lee.
[h4]Two more solid offseason pickups[/h4]
A couple of other great fits, both in the American League …

Spending $7 million on a closer might seem a bit extreme for a cash-poor franchise like the Rays, but they did have some money to spend and didn't really have any other holes on their roster. Rafael Soriano might not be as good as Mariano Rivera or Jonathan Papelbon, but Rays manager Joe Maddon is probably thrilled to finally have his own blow-'em-away reliever.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Guerrerois coming off a rough, injury-plagued season with the Angels. But for$6.5 million, the Rangers signed a guy who was an excellent hitter in2008 and may benefit from regular DH duties.
-- Rob Neyer
[h2]The proof[/h2]
In joining the Mariners, Lee will essentially have everything going for him.

Whilenot the fly-ball pitcher he was before 2008, Lee does still give up hisshare of flies (and line drives and everything in between). But SafecoField is where home runs go to die -- especially wannabe home runs hitby right-handed hitters, thanks largely to the 390 feet between homeplate and the wall in left-center field. Sure, it's a little closer tothe fences in right field -- 385 feet to right-center, 326 down theline -- but managers aren't likely to load up with left-handed hittersagainst the southpaw Lee.

And the fly balls (and line drives) that don't manage to clearthose (mostly) distant fences? There's an excellent chance that they'llbe gathered by the Mariners' superb outfielders, particularly in centerand right, where Gold Glovers Franklin Gutierrez and Ichiro Suzukimake difficult plays look routine and routine plays soporific. At thispoint, the only question is who's going to be in left field. Milton Bradley, Michael Saunders, Ryan Langerhans and now Eric Byrnesall figure to vie for left-field innings. The good news is that withthe possible exception of Bradley, all the candidates are soliddefensively (which is no surprise, considering the Mariners' tendenciessince Jack Zduriencik took over as general manager).

Of course, Lee's covered in the infield, too; the M's have outstanding fielders at shortstop (Jack Wilson) and first base (Casey Kotchman), and they're fine at third base (Chone Figgins) and second (Jose Lopez),too. And if Lee gets tired of watching his teammates make plays, he canalways muscle up and throw three strikes; he's struck out nearly sevenbatters per nine innings in his career.

After leaving theNational League, what will he make of those big bad American Leaguers?Mincemeat, most likely. Lee won an AL Cy Young Award just two years agoand pitched nearly as well for the Indians in 2009 before joining thePhillies.
[h2]The conclusion[/h2]
In theend, it depends on how far down the road you care to look. If you'relooking past 2010, you might give the nod to Halladay because thePhillies locked him up contractually through 2013 (even 2014 if he hitssome durability marks, or even if he doesn't, assuming they still thinkhe's worth $20 million). Meanwhile, Lee is currently unsigned beyond2010 … but at $9 million in 2010, he's a huge bargain, and of coursethe M's do have a number of months in which to lock him up for a fewmore years.

Even if that doesn't happen, the Mariners enter the 2010 season with baseball's top one-two rotation punch in Lee and Felix Hernandez.Of course, in baseball there's no such thing as a sure thing. Cliff Leehas suffered through poor seasons before, and he probably will again.But that seems exceptionally unlikely to happen in 2010.

​

TOPIC: WHY FELIX HERNANDEZ IS THE WORLD'S BEST PITCHER WITH WHOM TO START A FRANCHISE​

[h2]The Setup[/h2]
Felix Hernandez was anointed King Felix when he was still 19, the youngest pitcher to start a big league game since Jose Rijo took the mound for the New York Yankeesin 1984, 11 days before his 19th birthday. The hype was ahead of hisgame, but not by much. In an era of special young arms -- a time thathas spawned Zack Greinke, Tim Lincecum, Justin Verlander, Jon Lester,Stephen Strasburg and Aroldis Chapman, among others -- the 23-year-oldHernandez, runner-up to Greinke for the American League Cy Young Awardin 2009, would be the choice to make if you had your pick of pitchersto build a franchise around.
[h2]The Proof[/h2]
Noactive pitcher as young as Hernandez has accomplished as much by thesame age. Since 1980, only two pitchers have struck out as many battersby age 23 as Hernandez, who has 810 career strikeouts. One is DocGooden (1067), the other Fernando Valenzuela (824), and Gooden hadthrown nearly 300 more innings more (1,172); Valenzuela over 100 more.Hernandez has averaged 8.06 strikeouts per nine innings, his ERA-plus(adjusted for home ballpark) is 125, and he has allowed 8.58 hits pernine innings. Gooden is the only pitcher over the past 30 years who hasmade at least 80 starts by that age with better numbers. Make thecutoff 50 starts, and there are only nine pitchers, including Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens. Pretty good company.

Hernandezturns 24 on April 8, during the first week of the 2010 season. Lincecumturns 26 this year, Greinke and Verlander 27. Chapman, the Cubandefector, turns 22 in three weeks; Strasburg -- the No. 1 overall pickin last June's draft by the Washington Nationalsand one of the most eagerly anticipated prospects in years -- will be22 in July. Both, for all their raw talent, will remain question marksuntil they have proved themselves on a big league mound. Hernandez'syouth and track record give him an advantage over the others, and inevery significant category in 2009 he showed advancement over theprevious year: strikeouts per 9 innings pitched, BBs/9, HR/9, BAagainst, walks and hits per 9 innings (WHIP), and Wins AboveReplacement (WAR).

Twenty-oneof Hernandez's 34 starts last season qualified by one measure as"great" starts: 7 innings or more, two earned runs or fewer. And whilehe has an advantage playing in pitcher-friendly Safeco Field, he wasmore dominating on the road (10-2, 1.99 ERA, .211 OBA) than he was athome (9-3, 3.05) last season.

The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Hernandezis built to last. He had some minor elbow trouble in 2007 and asprained ankle in 2008, but otherwise has been healthy. He pitched acareer-high 238 2/3 innings last season, 38 more than the previousseason, which makes him a candidate for the dreaded "Verducci effect"-- that pitchers under the age of 25 whose workload has increased by 30innings or more are at risk of injury or significant regression thefollowing season.

Only Verlander threw more pitches last seasonthan Hernandez (3,627), who threw 100 or more pitches in each of hispast 27 starts. But he has thrown as many as 120 pitches just once inhis big league career, and while Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci cancite a raft of pitchers who bear out his original research, there arerecent exceptions as well, most notably Lester and Lincecum, whoseperformance did not suffer despite their workloads jumping 83 and 49innings, respectively. And now that the Mariners have signed Hernandezto a five-year, $78 million extension, you can be certain they willprotect their investment as much as they can, although no one has yetdevised a fool-proof system against a catastrophic arm injury.

Hernandezwill be eligible again for free agency at 28, meaning he could achieveriches unimagined by any other pitcher at a similar age. But over thenext five years, he could well prove a bargain compared to Lincecum,who is trying to parlay back-to-back Cy Young Awards into $13 millionin salary arbitration and could well be paid significantly more overthe next five years than Hernandez, whose deal was done by Marinersgeneral manager Jack Zduriencik before Lincecum filed his arbitrationbid.

The potential is there for you to get more bang for yourbuck with Hernandez than with Lincecum, which is another reason to takehim as your franchise cornerstone.
[h2]The Conclusion[/h2]
Hereat Hot Stove U., we are not so blind to our own dogma that we considerour arguments above challenge. In this case, for example, weacknowledge that one of the pitchers cited in our treatise couldoutperform Hernandez over the next five years, or over the arc of theircareers. But we hold firm to our premise that Hernandez is bigger andstronger than Lincecum, has demonstrated more emotional stability thanGreinke, has a proven track record that can't be touched by Strasburgand Chapman and comes at a price that in today's market is eminentlyreasonable. Long live the King.

 

[thetrapezeswinger]

Thanks for posting those UsedToBeCool. Let's go M's!!!

 

[o fenomeno]

felix

lee

ichiro

mariners