Jason Stark points out that last winter, the Yankees committed a total of $441M in free agent dollars ... compared to $176 million for every other American League team put together!
So it is by a wonderful alignment of the planets that these things came together:
1) The Yankees are the-winter-after, therefore unusually absent
2) The Mariners have $50m off the books and have their Big Cash Winter
3) Jack Zduriencik has his first established winter at the helm, and is eager to do a Chuck Knox Instant 2-12 to 12-2 Turnaround
............
Cyber-Seattle intones "$25M" as the amount that Seattle has to spend. SABRMatt consistently calculates it at $35-40M. Dr. D consistently reminds that:
1) The Mariners can spend whatever they want to spend;
2) Howard and Chuck have, at times, flexed the payroll, provided they personally buy in to what's going on;
3) Howard and Chuck spend based on their comfort level with the GM ("It's very easy to raise payroll when you know it's Pat Gillick who's going to be spending it," Howard said one time.)
...............
I hate to be a noodge, but an Adrian Beltre arb agreement would come at SO much the wrong time. We consistently infer that the M's must have knowledge that arb isn't an option for Beltre.
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=== Albert Pujols ===
... has two years remaining on his contract.
... After next year, 2010, will become a 10-and-5 player and the Cardinals won't be able to trade him. They'll simply lose him for nothing.
... the Cards are trying to negotiate a hometown discount.
... Pujols is saying no way, Jose.
.................
I remember when Stoneman slipped in at the last second and shocked the stuffing out of everybody, including Angels fans, by signing Vlad Guerrero to a market* contract.
Hey, the M's have an opening at first base :- )
The M's went to their owners and went wayyyyyyyyy over budget projections in their offers to local icons Junior and ARod.
A back-loaded 10x $25m to Pujols might run you only $20m up front. Figgins $9m, Harden $9m, Pujols $21m roughly pencils into SABRMatt's $35-40m. I don't think they'd need a lot more FA spending any time soon....
They can have our top 10 prospects. Fine by me. I'll give 'em two more prospects than anybody else will. Talk about yer Stars & Scrubs; when's the next time I'd need a young player?
I love Pujols...he's a freak of nature with a bat in his hand...but his health continues to be in question even now...sooner or later his lega dn hip problems are going to require surgery no matter how much he claims he's going to be able to rehab his way through it each off-season. That's a lot of dough on one player for a mid-market payroll.
On a per year basis, 10/25 is a bargain. It is a big risk health and years-wise, but I'd do an 8 year contract extension for Pujols.
This is a great offseason to be aggressive. The market is as strong a buyer's market as its going to be in years, both in FA and trade.
I'm a bit bummed about by the years on Figgins, but the fact of the matter is that the Ms bought him at an excellent price (per year). Doing a little more digging, I'm absolutely convinced that Figgins is a 10+ run 3B, and I think Z is too. You're talking about a 4 WAR player here, a mini-Ichiro.
THought you'd want to see, Doc...Baker claims Bay has been telling his buddies from the Pittsburgh area and his family in BC that he'd sing a little joyful ditty while doing a handstand on E. Martinez Way to play for the Mariners.
Food for thought. :)
And I wonder if that implies that the back-channel communication is alive.
One more NL Central player, I guess :- )