Deadline Limbo

by ~ July 23rd, 2009 at 9:46 pm

This is the time of month that you might expect this site to be flooded with trade deadline talk, but most analysis or speculation would be pointless given the team’s current standing.

A lot of us thought that we’d have a fair idea of the Mariners’ direction after that terrifying road trip (Dodgers, Red Sox, Yankees) and last Rangers series leading into the All Star Break.  The Mariners impressed through all of that, but didn’t rise or fall enough to change their status.  Since then the team has been winning ballgames, but the Angels have been on a tear and have made it impossible to close the gap.  The Mariners are 7-3 in their last 10 games and have actually lost ground.

So here we sit with 8 days to go until the July 31st trade deadline, and the Mariners are still 5 games back in the AL West, 4.5 back in the Wild Card.

Buy?  Sell?  Hold?  The Mariners could be leading the division or 10 games out by the time the deadline rolls around, so no one knows.

I have my hunches as to what will happen, but we’ll hold off on putting the pieces together until next week.  Hopefully we’ll have a good idea of what’s going on by Tuesday or Wednesday.

«
»

  • moethedog

    I’m a “holder,” in the sense that to improve their weakness (hitting) the Mariners will have to weaken their strength (pitching). I’m not sure the trade-off works.

    If this is the way they go, it is unlikely that they are going to find that great offensive stick at the positions they need help in. SS? Which SS out their is worth weakening the pitching lineup? Were Hanley Ramirez available for Bedard and Balentien then that might work. Unfortunately…that world isn’t the real one.

    LF? Perhaps. But combining his offense AND defense, Langerhan is a + win player already. Will a replacement with a bat give up that strength with a weak glove? A good possiblility.

    Interestingly, DH is the one spot they might upgrade at immediately without giving up much. Junior has certainly slipped…Only two DH’s (listed in baseball-reference as the teams main DH) in the league have OPS’s less than Juniors 89. Ortiz in Boston has an 85. Burrell in TB has an 86 (Jacobs in KC and Vlad G in Cal also have 89′s). I would argue that the upside the rest of the year for all four of those is significantly better than Juniors.

    Perhaps Sweeney’s two hits today will bode well for his 2nd half….ButI’l argue that Carp, Clement, aAND Saunders are better hitters right now than Junior. The problem is Juniors presence has been very positive, evidently. How do you politely reduce his AB’s without reducing that great impact? Tough question.

    I think you ride this wave and hope that Cal. slumps (which is likely to happen at some point) and that Felix, Wash, and Bedard continue to dominate.

    In that scenario…the Mariners are there at the end….right in the mix in the last two weeks.

    However, if Beltre is going to be a no show the rest of the year they may make a move there…but the guy there now has been at least servicable. 7 games, 2 taters.

    All that being said….If Bedard is not going to be a Mariner NEXT eyar…they may try to get something for him this year.

    However…I don’t see them getting an IMPACT bat in such a trade.

    So….they stand pat. Perhaps another smart minor acquisition.

    But I would love to see some Carp AB’s……and maybe some Saunders one’s, too. But Carp at DH….sounds appealing. Lets see what he’s got…

    Keith

  • http://proballnw.com Jon Shields

    And the Angels pull another victory out of their butts.

    Damn you, Joe Nathan.

  • SABR Matt

    Don’t blame Nathan. Blame God. God hates the Mariners and is doing everything in his power once again to stick it to Seattle. They scored their tying run in the 9th inning on a 498-trillion-hopper that Nathan partially knocked down and that hit the second base bag, kciked into shallow right field and deftly avoided the gloves of both Punto and Casilla, either of whom could have stepped on second to end the game. The Angels also scored their 2nd and 4th runs on bloopers to shallow center and Figgins and Willits both had two hits that went under two converging infield gloves.

    The amount of ridiculous luck the Angels hit into every frackin’ year makes me want to become a devil worshipper just to spite God and his baseball pets in Anaheim. Unbelievable.

  • http://proballnw.com Jon Shields

    Yeah that infield hit was definitely luck. Is Danny Glover managing that team? Are there Angels in the outfield? What the hell is going on?

    If God is a baseball fan, it would make sense for him to root for the ANGELS.

  • SABR Matt

    It’s practically every game I watch with this a-holes…lucky bounces, flares, bloops, infield swinging bunt hits, unfair umpiring…I get angrier every time I see these guys play.

  • moethedog

    In rechecking my 1st post above I realized I should have referred to baseball-reference’s OPS+ numbers….not just the straight OPS….when referring to DH productivity.

    Sorry…

    Keith