Bedard Deal Almost Done; M’s Instant Contenders
Via FanHouse and Geoff Baker’s Seattle Times blog comes the news that Erik Bedard, as long anticipated, is about to become a Mariner. Seattle has called back Adam Jones from the Venezuelan Winter League, in which the playoffs are underway. That’s a rare move and something the Mariners wouldn’t do unless they had a really good reason. Of course, Jones comes right out and admits he’s about to be traded.
“(Bill Bavasi) called me yesterday and told me the news. I’ve got to go to Baltimore tomorrow morning and handle things there. I’m the centerpiece of the deal on the Mariners side.“
We’ll have more on this tomorrow as the deal develops and we get more details.
Until then, here’s a quick take. The Mariners are very, very serious players, both in the AL West and the AL Wild Card. This wasn’t a bad team last year and they just matched the best pitcher in the league for five months of the season with King Felix, an ace in the making. For the Orioles, and their fans, get used to the cellar. This isn’t the wrong move — Bedard wasn’t going to propel them to any more than .500 before he hit free agency — but it’s got to be an especially tough one to take. Baltimore, not Oakland, looks like the worst team in the AL by a wide margin. About all they can hang their hat on is having 2/3rds of one of the best young outfields in the league with Jones and Markakis.
Fantasy-wise this is a boon for both Jones and Bedard. Jones will receive regular playing time in a park where he could hit 30 homers, while Bedard moves out of the AL East and into a pitcher-friendly venue.
Wild Card contenders? If a team that got outscored by 19 runs last year finishes ahead of two teams out of the NYY/BOS/CLE/DET group…I will be quite surprised.
I agree…I think their chances of contending for the AL West crown are better than their chances at winning the Wild Card.
Look, I wouldn’t put Seattle ahead of that group either, but let’s keep in mind that Bedard and Carlos Silva are replacing Jeff Weaver (gross) and Horacio Ramirez (grosser) in the rotation.
The Mariners have the makings of a very good pitching staff and they have a GREAT bullpen — something that I believe can help a team overcome a poor run differential. Ramirez and Weaver gave up 191 runs last year in 47 starts.
It’s time to start thinking of them as a possible playoff team.
This is a terrible deal for the Mariners. While Bedard is a very good pitcher, the talent they are giving up for him is far too much.
They will be fortunate to finish with a .500 record this year - and this is coming from a life long M’s fan.
The M’s will have 2 very good front-line pitchers, but they have yet to address their inability to hit the ball, they still have the worst DH in all of baseball (Jose Vidro), and Raul Ibanez’s wrecked knees in LF are another year older.
I don’t necessarily disagree with you long-term, but I haven’t seen the players besides Jones and Sherrill that are supposed to be included. Any inkling of what they will be sending to Baltimore besides those two?
It’s certainly a deal that is about the here and now, but I’d rather have Bedard than Jones and Sherrill. The Mariners are in much the same boat as the White Sox … slightly better than mediocre, but not well-stocked for the long haul. If they don’t add someone like Bedard now, it’s very unlikely they’re a playoff team. Granted, even with Bedard their postseason chances are probably below 40 percent, but without him they’re looking at a very, very mediocre team in the short run AND a long-term rebuilding project.
I’d love to hammer Bavasi over this … he’s one of the worst GMs around … but I’m not there yet.
I’m not sure if you’ve read up about Jones, but he’s going to be a monster. He absolutely destroyed PCL pitching for over a year, and is defensively fantastic as well. The problem he faced in Seattle is a manager (both Hargrove and McClaren) who absolutely refuses to play young talent as he seems devoted to the veteran players. Look at how long he stuck with Sexson last year, or Vidro, even though there were better lineups available to him.
I read an article that compared the 08 Mariners with Bedard to the 07 Blue Jays, and it seemed to be a pretty accurate comparison. The M’s just don’t have any offensive options.
It’s not really about Adam Jones, though, is it? Bedard is ostensibly more valuable than Jones and he doesn’t require an extension at this moment. Jones has proven very little on the major league level and he doesn’t play a position that’s as scarce as Bedard.
He’s going to be part of the price for Bedard. Period. And I don’t think the M’s should balk at giving up Jones alone for a player of Bedard’s caliber. It’s about what else they’re giving up in the deal that could tip the scales. If the deal also includes Jeff Clement and Chris Tillman, all of a sudden it starts to look worse and worse.
I’ll concede that scoring runs is going to be a problem, which is why I still rate the Mariners’ chances of making the playoffs below 40 percent, but the Angels are beatable as currently constructed.
In addition, there are some things the Mariners could still do in the short-term to shore up their offense. It looks like they’ll add Brad Wilkerson the minute a trade goes down. They should also consider dealing for Coco Crisp and moving Ichiro back to right field as well as signing Barry Bonds as a DH.