Seattle Mariners All-Time Fantasy Draft: Meet the Squads

Over the course of 3 days, eight writers from our site participated in our first ever Seattle Mariners All-Time Mock Draft. Today we present the teams and ask for your help.

Now before we unveil the rosters, there a few things you need to know. First, only players who had appeared in a Mariners regular season game were eligible. Second, the participants were asked to fill out an 8 man defense, plus one starting pitcher, reliever, and designated hitter. So while some really good players went undrafted, it wasn’t because of neglect, just positional need.

Now we are going to ask for your help to crown the best team. Voting will begin at 5 pm PT on March 8th on our Twitter (@sodomojoFS) and Facebook.  But keep in mind, this is a Mariners only roster. Meaning we are asking you to judge rosters based solely on what each individual player did when they were a member of the Mariners. Our writers didn’t draft Adrian Beltre for his years with the Rangers, just the Mariners. Keep that in mind.

Each writer has prepared a brief explanation of their draft and why they feel there team deserves to be crowned the best(full draft board by clicking here). We have decided to break this up into a classic bracket where the one seed battles the eight seed, using draft order to set the seeds. Let’s get started with our first matchup.

Team Nooney vs Team Chantler

Nooney

I will start this by saying that I have had so much fun drafting this team. Getting Ken Griffey Jr.with the first overall pick was an easy decision to make. But as the draft went along, I realized that some positions were so scarce compared to others. In hindsight, drafting Freddie Garcia as early as I did was a mistake. But overall, I feel that my team can compete at a very high level against other teams.

My lineup would be as follows:

Harold Reynolds, 2B

Adrian Beltre, 3B

Ken Griffey Jr. CF

Richie Sexson, 1B

Ken Phelps, DH

Ken Griffey Sr, LF

Dave Henderson, RF

Miguel Olivo, C

Julio Cruz, SS

Obviously, there is a big talent drop off as the lineup drops. Griffey Sr was a pick from the heart, as he barely played through 2 seasons at the end of his career. But I had to grab him to play with Jr one last time.

All in all, this team is talented. It has speed at the top and bottom of the lineup and they take their walks. Ken Phelps May was not a Hall of Fame talent, but his OBP was off the charts. Hendu was also a pick from the heart but fits well here.

Chantler

This draft was a lot of fun, but having the last pick in the first round made things a bit more challenging. While it was a snake draft (meaning I had the first pick of the second round), I knew I’d wait long periods of time before my next round of picks, so I had to take risks I didn’t originally intend to take.

That led me to focus on the rules of the exercise: You get the player they were while they played with the Mariners. That meant I focused on players that maybe weren’t part of the organization for long, but excelled during their time here. I’m pretty happy with my team, especially my lineup. This team can thump!

I’d set up my batting order as follows:

1. Phil Bradley CF RHB – Five years as a Mariner and averaged 10 HRs, 21 SBs a year. Averaged a .830 OPS during his time in Seattle (.301 average and .382 OBP). Would be the ideal leadoff hitter for this team.

2. Jose Cruz Jr. LF Switch Hitter – This was a pick that embodied my philosophy of focusing on their time as a Mariner. Cruz played only 49 games in Seattle, but in those 49 games, he hit .268 while adding 12 HR, and 34 RBI. With the lack of options in left field for the Mariners over the years, I was thrilled to get Cruz Jr. and install him in the two hole.

3.Robinson Cano 2B LHB –  I did not plan on recreating the heart of the Mariners order from last year with my team, but I wasn’t complaining when I was able to snag Cano and Nelson Cruz back to back in the 1st/2nd round. Cano was great during his time here, averaging 21.4 HRs a year to go with an average .296/.353/.472 triple slash.

4.Nelson Cruz DH RHB – Nelly fits in the cleanup spot in my lineup as is brings the loudest thump of anyone in this lineup (and that’s say something as this whole lineup brings it). Over five years Cruz’s average triple slash was .284/.362/.546.

5.Paul Sorrento 1B LHB – A lefty stick to protect Cruz. Sorrento was solid in his two years here slashing on average .279/.358/.511 to go along with an average of about 27 HR.

6. Jose Guillen RF RHB – Another pick that wasn’t here long, but in his one season with the Mariners Guillen hit 23 HR to go with 99 RBI and a triple slash of .290/.353/.460.

7. Jim Presley 3B RHB – That man that kept Edgar Martinez in the minor leagues for too long fits great in the seventh spot in my lineup. A solid contributor to the Mariners, he gets overshadowed a bit because many believe he caused Edgar to toil away in Triple-A, but I’ll take his .250/.293/.426 average triple slash to go with his average of 19.1 HR a season.

8.Kenji Johjima C RHB – Kenji was solid for the Mariners during his four years here and he provides an adequate defense with solid offense from the catching spot. Averaged .268/.310/.411 over four years.

9.Brad Miller SS LHB – The weakest link in my lineup as the Mariners experienced the pre-power version of Miller; however, Miller still averaged just about 10 HR a year while slashing .248/.313/.394

SP – Cliff Lee – Another pick of a player that wasn’t here long, Lee was phenomenal in his short time in Seattle. Lee went 8-3 in 13 starts while compiling a 2.34 ERA.

RP – Arthur Rhodes – Strong setup man with a nasty streak. Rhodes struck out 315 batters in 283 innings as a Mariner.

Why is my team the best? The lineup is deep, balanced, gets on base, and has plenty of guys to drive in runs. Plus there is more than enough firepower in the lineup to change the game with one swing of the bat. Lee will give a great start and Rhodes will bring his strikeout ability to the end of the game.