Rumors: Lackey, Harden, Figgins, O-Dawg

by Jon Shields ~ November 13th, 2009 at 6:35 pm

Here are a couple of leftover rumor links as we head into the weekend:

On Thursday Larry Stone went through some Seattle Mariners rumors, noting that “the Mariners will look deeply into” John Lackey. With regards to Rich Harden he writes “this one has legs.” He discusses about ten other players as well, so check it out.
Jason Churchill has a hot stove post up today, with the most interesting quote being: “Rich Harden is either really liking the idea of pitching in Seattle, or he’s using the M’s as leverage to get a better deal in LAA, LAD or Boston.”
He also says the Mariners have no interest in Chone Figgins, and Orlando Hudson has no desire to play in the American League, among other things. Check it out.

eastcoastmariner

I hope the part JAC mentions about the Marlins having no interest in trading any of their arms except Lindstrom isnt true since this Nolasco idea has really grown on me. But then again, so has the idea of Harden in an M’s uniform…

eastcoastmariner

Many people in the M’s blogosphere have suggested the Mariners target Marlins pitcher Ricky Nolasco. Of course the M’s have given no such indication that they will do so but Nolasco as the M’s #2 is something nice to think about
harrison

Oh, crap… look what we started.

http://proballnw.com Jon

So I take it “many people in the M’s blogosphere” equals the Sodo Mojo crew? I guess I missed those posts.

harrison

Yeah… myself and I think Griffin each made different posts comparing him to the type of pitcher that could be an effective #2 for the Mariners.

http://proballnw.com Jon

He’s also the type of pitcher you need to clean out your farm system to get, down year in 2009 or not.

harrison

What started it was a blog post stating that the Marlins felt that Ricky Nolasco wasn’t an effective starting pitcher or something like that … and that turned into “Nolasco is available and undervalued” …

Slurve

Rich Harden!
http://proballnw.com Jon

Didn’t want to blow a post on this alone, so I’ll just post it here until I have some more tidbits to add to it:

ESPN’s Buster Olney: “If I were to set an early handicap on the upcoming Lackey sweepstakes, I’d throw out an educated guess on the rankings, from top to bottom, that looks like this: Mariners, Angels, Brewers, Mets, Red Sox, Yankees. The Mariners have a lot of payroll flexibility and a clear strategy predicated on strong pitching and defense.”
eastcoastmariner

The Sodo Mojo guys did do a post that included Nolasco in it but to be fair I’ve also seen it mentioned by people on PI as well
http://www.sodomojo.com gregrabble

I don’t know if I’m at the point where I just want something to happen, but the idea of Lackey is growing on me.
http://proballnw.com Dustin Shires

I know I’m preaching to the choir here, at least I should be, but any money that JZ thinks about giving Lackey, he better guarantee Felix, and then some, first.

If Lackey gets a 90M contract from the Mariners, JZ better have busted his ass in giving Felix that 90M first. If that doesn’t work, cool, we have Lackey. But I’m pretty sure we’re all in agreement that any money Lackey would be potentially getting from the Mariners should be used towards extending Felix first.

http://proballnw.com Jon

No way Lackey gets $90M anyway (at least, from any team other than the Yankees).

And I don’t believe there is any reason to think that the Mariners couldn’t extend Felix AND sign Lackey if they wanted to. Felix’s deal can be backloaded with the big bucks kicking in for his would-be FA year. You don’t often see players under club control sign extensions that pay them the same amount every season. They almost always escalate.

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