Monday, March 14, 2011

WHAT CAN I DO TO GET YOU TO BUY THIS CAR TODAY? Why the Mariners should trade Felix Hernandez, by a bunch of national columnists:
  1. He is not a Yankee.
  2. He should be a Yankee.
  3. Why build your team around a Cy Young-winner whom you just signed to a contract extension and who has been with your organization since he was 16 years old and who has established a rapport with your fans?
  4. When you could build your team around a bunch of 20-year-olds who might be really good in four or five years?
  5. When they would be ripe for you to trade them to the Yankees?
  6. It would be good for baseball.
  7. Because what is good for 200 miles of I-95 is good for baseball.
  8. And Seattle is not a baseball town anyway. Something something coffee grunge rain Microsoft funny joke! You have not heard this one before!
  9. So it's a deal, right?
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8 comments:

  1. lauri4:56 PM

    amen.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dan Suitor5:04 PM

    There WAS a good reason for the Mariners to make the trade two years ago, when the Red Sox offered them the opportunity to take five out of eight of the following:

    Clay Buchholz
    Daniel Bard
    Justin Masterson
    Josh Reddick
    Felix Doubront
    Nick Hagadone
    Michael Bowden
    Yamico Navarro

    I don't know for sure, but a Buchholz/Bard/Masterson/Reddick/someone else pack is a quite appealing from both a player and a cost standpoint. Who even knows if the M's can resign Felix Hernandez? If they can't, that package looks embarrassingly good in hindsight.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dan Suitor5:05 PM

    As per the Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/marinersblog/2009591133_mariners_turned_down_three-way.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. CW6:26 PM

    This reminds of the following conversation that always makes me want to start punting puppies:

    Me: Yeah, I'm a Pirates fan.

    Person: Oh, that must suck.  Any reason to watch this year?

    Me: It is pretty terrible, yeah, but we actually have a guy that MLB Network voted the best centerfielder in baseba-

    Person: HOW LONG UNTIL THEY TRADE HIM TO BOSTON?

    Me: The only player the Pirates actually traded in his prime when his contract wasn't about to expire and be impossible for the Pirates to pick up was Aramis Ramirez, and that was eight years ago, when the GM was a guy who could only get a job as a scout for the Cubs after we fired him, probably to pay him back for that trade.  Everyone else was pretty much traded around the right time, although no organization is perfect.

    [Pause]

    Me: ...you don't actually know anything about baseball, do you?

    Person: THE SAWX ARE THE BEST.

    ReplyDelete
  5. J. Bowman6:32 PM

    "<span><span>m</span><span>ariners_turned_down_three-way.html</span>"</span>

    Maybe it was a three way with two dudes.

    ReplyDelete
  6. kevbo nobo7:28 AM

    also known as the devil's threesom

    ReplyDelete
  7. StvMg2:49 PM

    I really like Rosenthal's stuff in general, but I just didn't understand the logic in trading Felix for a bunch of prospects, even ones as highly touted as the ones he mentioned (though Yankee prospects are notoriously overpraised). As Rosenthal mentioned in the story, Felix isn't much older than many of the prospects that were being bandied about. And why trade him so shortly after you just signed the guy to an extension?

    ReplyDelete
  8. J. Bowman3:35 PM

    Because, as the headline says, this trade works for everyone.


    Okay, it doesn't actually work for the Mariners. Or anybody in the AL East other than the Yankees. Or, really, any team at all that isn't the Yankees. Or AL West fans who might like a chance to see a great pitcher like Hernandez more than once a year (if the schedules line up with the West Coast trip, that is). But other than, that, everyone. If the Mariners don't make this trade for the greater good, it would only be out of spite.

    ReplyDelete