Catching Back-Up

Well, after about five days and 1500+ miles on the road across 4 states in 3 different stadiums I’m back. It would seem that there would be a few things I kind of missed out on the last few days, huh? It’s amazing how little and yet how much can happen over a short amount of time.

While you’ve heard everyone else touch on everything that’s gone down I’ve not really gotten to talk about anything so this is where I’d like to rehash the last five days doing so the only way I know how: bullet point thoughts!

• I’ve gone back and forth on trading Erik Bedard and I’m back on the trade bandwagon. In fact I’m a little annoyed at this point that I wavered, the Mariners are now showing their true colors and while they have a remarkable pitching staff there are still too many holes on this team that need to be filled either by outside resources or internal ones that are going to need time to develop.Bedard is one means by which to obtain those resources. A team may not give up huge pieces for him (i.e. Justin Smoak) but this team just needs more options.

• Bedard isn’t going to provide anymore real long term value to this team at this point in the season. A few wins this year provided by his pitching is purely a morale victory in my opinion.I realize that some of the youngsters such as Michael Pineda, Dustin Ackley, and Justin Smoak need to experience something other than losing. But by removing Bedard and his, at VERY best, 3 wins from the season equation nothing is really lost by the Mariners.Instead Bedard could produce a couple of pieces such as for example Matt Carpenter and Lance Lynn of the St. Louis Cardinals. Neither huge pieces by any means but both could be potential contributers.

• Something to also consider with MLBTraderumors.com updating their Elias free-agent rankings, Erik Bedard doesn’t look to even by on the radar to earn Type-B status. If for some reason things fall apart between the front office and Bedard, the Mariners wouldn’t receive any compensation.Another thought is that the Mariners could still resign Bedard even after they trade him. It wouldn’t be the first time it happened and while it’s unlikely it’s still a faint possibility.

• June/July comes around, guys start swapping jerseys, prospects fly back and forth, and teams with their new found pieces start moving away from the pack and towards playoff glory, and fans become disappointed with their teams.I know it’s disappointing that with the Mariners only being 4 games out right now that they aren’t “going for it”. But trading prospects for marginal upgrades in an effort to do something now screams 1997 all over again.

• No one remembers 1997 outside of the fact that was the year that we traded Jose Cruz Jr., Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe for three middling relief pitchers that didn’t do anything for us. Sure we got a banner but that banner was won by 6 games against an extremely weak division.We went for it and instead of getting to the World Series we saw two of those players play key roles in a 2004 world series for the Red Sox and Jose Cruz Jr was worth 13 WAR over his team in Toronto under club control. I understand that not every year you get a chance to compete.

• No better example can be found than that of Minnesota, but we can also agree that it’s entirely possible that the Twins could come back and make a race of it later on as the year goes on and if not they’ll come back strong next year. 2013 might not be guaranteed but if this organization continue to grow talent and produce key pieces such as Pineda, Ackley, Seager, Franklin, Walker and Paxton this organization will put itself back in position to compete year in and year out.

• Speaking of Pineda and all that trouble that Dave Cameron stirred up over on the Brock and Salk page with the idea of trading him. I’m fine with trading anyone outside of Felix Hernandez for a bounty. Hernandez is off limits in my mind for a number of reason.That said it would have to be a treasure chest of prospects and any team willing to give up that much for a young pitcher doesn’t plan on competing when that pitcher comes into his prime.

• No team gives that much up for something unproven.If say a team came to the Mariners this coming trade deadline and offered their best prospect a long with two other prospects in their top 10 for either Fister or Vargas it’s a no brainier. You pull that trigger. But again it just doesn’t make sense on the opposing teams side.

• I’m glad to see Josh Bard getting a chance. The guy has always been good to me on MLB 2k11 and I’d be ecstatic if he just provided league average defense and a wOBA north of .300.

• I continue to be disappointed by the fact that Adam Moore got injured this season. This was really his chance to show the world something. It’s just so frustrating. We can just only hope that he comes back strong next year.

• Chaz Roe, Edward Paredes are not losses. I had hope at one point that Parades would become a decent LOOGY in the George Sherrill mold but uhh… I don’t see that happening now.

• Dan Cortes continues to struggle with throwing strikes and he may not ever really figure it out. But, the time is coming that the Mariners need to give him a big league shot. Ignoring his ERA (5.54) he currently has FIP of 2.92. Nothing has been said about him recently but he’s been on my mind lately.

• Speaking of no one talking about him, Greg Halman, despite striking out 3 times in the last two games, has shown the propensity for working counts and doing some exciting things on the field. I get that he’s a wild card but I can’t see him being anymore than Carlos Peguero.

• Jon Heyman recently polled a few agents, executives and general managers on the future of Jose Reyes, Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols. While, I’m not so concerned about Reyes or Pujols, I do wonder about Fielder and the ever speculated Seattle connection.  25 million for 5-7 years is a lot of money to invest and more importantly it’s a lot of time.

• Any player of that potential is going to be over paid. We have to just understand that and expect it going into the off-season. The question is are we willing to be the ones to overpay. Signing Fielder at 20 million dollars would put the Mariners in a position for the next two years of having 60 percent of the payroll in 3 players.

• I saved this bullet point for last because I want it to resonate with the reader. Just because I think the Mariners should trade Erik Bedard doesn’t mean I don’t think the Mariners are completely out of it or that I think they should give up on the season.Sure, the team looked absolutely terrible this past week and half but, there is still a chance that the Mariners can figure something out on offense between Ackley, Smoak and Ichiro. Put together a passable offense with some of the amazing pitching performance that we’ve had and you could see the Mariners still take on the Rangers and the Angels.

• Sure, as I said previously, this team has a holes in it and they need to be filled if the Mariners are going to compete long term. But they have enough pieces to potentially make the rest of this season interesting.I’m not ready to pack it all in but at the same time I think the Mariners need to make moves that are best for the organization in the future.