A Little Mariner Moose Reminiscence

M's and Silva Agree to Deal

mlb.com Jim Street is reporting the mariners and carlos silva have agreed to a 4 year 44 million dollar contract. Its a good deal for the M's as it feels a big need for starting picthing. Silva will be asked to be the #3 or #4 starter. The contract is a lot but thats what the pitching market dictates these days. All in all I think it is a good signing by the mariners as they improve their rotation considerably with this move. UPDATE- Ken Rosenthal says the deal is for 48 million over 4 years.

On another note Ron Mahay and the Royals have agreed to a 2 year 8 million dollar contract and Geoff Jenkins signs a 2 year 13 million deal with the Phillies

Build for Next Year Theory

I have heard many people saying that the Mariners should build for 2009 instead of signing guys now because the free agent class next is better than this year. I find this theory completely stupid because the Santana's and Sabathia's of the class will not be in next years free agency pool as all these players will resign with whatever team they are on. Lackey, Johan and Sabathia have no chance of becoming free agents so you can stop dreaming of those possibilities. Its possible Penny, Sheets and Burnett do become free agents, but what are the chances the Mariners would be able to get any of them as most teams will be after them an will demand a lot of money.

I say try to win now, the team won 88 games last year and don't tell me look at the difference in run differential because that is bogus, Jeff Weaver and Horacio Ramirez will not be in the rotation next year. The only reason the run differential was like that last year was because of those two guys getting destroyed every game they pitched.

Of course the Mariners should play to win now, who knows what would happen next year in free agency, the Angels might go out and sign Adam Dunn or Manny Ramirez then what do we do and who wants to watch a season where the team sucks again. For all the people who say the Mariners should play for the future are wrong in my opinion, but feel free to comment on this as i would like to hear you're views.

Fans and Payroll

The general feeling that Mariner fan's are having toward the potential Carlos Silva signing is the amount of money they are willing to give him. In case you haven't heard the Mariners are close to signing Carlos Silva to a 4 year and at least 44 million deal. Fan's have been grumbling to the front office about why would you give a good #4 starter that much money. My question is why are Fan's worried about the Mariners Payroll?

The Mariners have the 7th highest team payroll in baseball at $ 106,460,833, they are owned by Nintendo and make a ton of money from Japan in marketing so why do fans complain when the Mariners sign players to big contracts. I will admit 44 million for a good #4 starter is overpaying, but in today's pitching market that is the going rate. The Mariners need two starters and even if they do trade for Bedard they still would have had to sign another pitcher as Brandon Morrow would be traded. The Mariners biggest need is pitching and if it takes that much money to acquire a decent starter then so be it.

Who are we to complain about one of the richest franchises in baseball when making any signing. After every signing the Mariners fan's complain about why they are giving so much money to this guy as it will prevent the team from signing anybody else in the future, but this is not true. The Mariners aren't going to be running out of money anytime soon so why complain about it. If the Mariners do end up signing Carlos Silva it will not be the end of the world as the Mariners have plenty of money to go around. I'm asking fan's to stop worrying about the Mariners Payroll and at least be happy the front office is trying to make the team better.

Welcome to Mariner Moose

Hello my name is Robert Turkel and i will use this blog to talk about Seattle Mariners rumors and updates as well as provide analysis.