| By Chris Crawford |  | By 01-24-2011 |
There are 20 days between now and the day pitchers and catchers report for spring training on February 13 - the rest of the squad will report no later than February 18 with the first full-squad workout slated for the day after.The M's first spring game is the annual charity game versus the San Diego on the 27th with their first Cactus League matchup the following day against the same Padres.
Minor leaguers won't report until the second week of March, though these dates are more of a deadline than the day most players show up for camp.
In any case, we'll be here daily to round up the thoughts and ideas as the club heads closer to the 2011 season; lending you all anything you might need to get yourself ready.
Again on Vernon Wells
Watching the development of the trade that brought Vernon Wells over to the Angels for Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera was fascinating. First we learned that Napoli was headed to the Blue Jays -- with no idea that Wells had anything to do with the compensation -- and the questions were whether or not Jeff Mathis could hit enough to be an everyday catcher (he can't but that's besides the point now). Next came the news that Wells was going to be involved, and the thoughts changed to just how much money Los Angeles was eating to go rid themselves of that albatross of a contract. Then the tweets started coming in that the deal was done but there was no word of money changing hands, and tweeters started tweeting the impossible -- could the Jays have really just traded Wells contract without paying a dime?
Impossible. Wasn't it? And then, Jon Morosi said those fateful words: No cash involved in Wells trade. Straight 2-for-1. To steal one of Jason's favorite lines: Boom goes the dynamite. Bitches.
There's really no way to vindicate the Halo's in this move. Napoli is as good a hitter, if not better, than Wells and has $80 million dollars fewer owed to him . We'll talk more about this trade in the upcoming AL West movement piece, but to say that this is was a terrible deal for the Angels is the under statement of the year.
I still can't stop shaking my head.
What they're talking about
Jon Shields at ProBallNW examines just how good the Angels outfield defense will be compared to the rest of the division, the answer may surprise you.
For those of you who like "where are they now" pieces, Larry Larue tells us which camps we can find former Mariners trying to make new clubs.
The voice of the Tacoma Rainiers and poker enthusiast Mike Curto shows us what kind of view he'll have calling the games in the renovated Cheney stadium, with some other fun tidbits as well. Any chance I can promote Curto, we will. He's as good as it gets, and not being able to listen to him call games on the east coast is less than fun. [Editors note: Chris regularly forgets that there is this thing called the internet, so please forgive him.]
If you need a car in Peoria, get it off-site
Jason touched on it earlier, but renting a car in Arizona is expensive, and it's even worse when you rent one at Sky Harbor Airport. Some of the fun charges you can expect if you do rent a car on-site include a six dollar customer facility fee (per day), a concession recovery fee that adds on an 11 percent tax, and energy/maintenance fee that only are a dollar a day, but in this economy every dollar counts.
You're still going to pay a boat-load of taxes no matter where you chose to pick up your vehicle, but you'll save enough to do things like ... not starve to death, which is a nice bonus to me, anyway.
20-days
Comments
The following 20 comment(s) for this article are shown below:
| 1. By: eknpdx on 01-24-2011 10:46:18 My favorite "read the small print" on car rentals in ARZ is that they forbid you to take the vehicles on unpaved roads, at least that was about 3 years ago. |
| 2. By: Jason A. Churchill on 01-24-2011 12:54:52 I rented an SUV in Phx a few years back and I swear the small print included the following, almost word for word: Any act of the sexual nature that is detectable upon return of the vehicle can result in further damage fees, up to and including the value of the vehicle at the time the rental agreement was signed. That is detectable upon return? This is a case for Booth and Bones, Mulder and Scully or the Lightman Group. Lightman: "Did you?" Me: "No." Lightman: "You're lying, I can see it in your face." Me: "That's not dishonesty, Dr. Lightman, that's a combination of truth and flabbergast." Lightman: "Oh." |
| 3. By: maqman on 01-24-2011 13:02:47 I don't know which is weirder, the Toronto/Angels trade or Arizona car rental agreements. |
| 4. By: Galway on 01-24-2011 13:26:38 Jason was that in everyone's agreement or is there some history that makes it necessary for you specifically? Just wonderring |
| 5. By: Jason A. Churchill on 01-24-2011 13:33:56 Galway, Since I am not recognizable in Phoenix, or at least at Sky Harbor, it was a general agreement at the time. The only reason I found that was because my own car was stolen once and when I got it back the glove compartment had been sifted through and that agreement was on the passenger's seat. I just happened to see the bottom of the backside of the agreement. Hilarious. There were other weird things, too, like parking the car in a shady neighborhood, etc. But that is pretty normal these days, they just don't use the word shady. |
| 6. By: short on 01-24-2011 16:47:02 So this is speculative...but the Mariners are now in position to have Ackley play left field if Saunders can't hit. Do you know how the Mariners feel about Ackley's defense in the outfield? He played there in college but has been a second baseman so far in the pros. If Saunders can't hit, and Ackley can't play second...this could be the way they go. Personally I'd hate to see this happen, but they sure have loaded up on middle infielders. Along with Jack Z's statement calling out the young players, I wonder if this isn't in the back of their mind. If this sounds crazy, I'd sure like to know what their backup plan is should Saunders tank it the first two or three months of the season. |
| 7. By: Jason A. Churchill on 01-24-2011 17:20:55 short, It's a last resort. They know he can play the outfield. |
| 8. By: Rick Randall on 01-24-2011 17:22:51 And Saunders will most likely get the whole season, regardless of how good/bad he is...as he should. M's aren't going anywhere in 2011 no matter who is in LF. |
| 9. By: short on 01-24-2011 18:53:13 So what would be the preferred backup plan if July rolls around and Saunders is hitting no better than he did at the end of last year (sub .200 average, little power)? Do we have any other players in the minors that are close to ready for a shot in the bigs? Personally I suspect we'll see either June Saunders (low OBP with decent power) or July Saunders (high OBP with low power) for the first couple of months. The question is whether he can deliver a higher OBP to go with his power and hopefully he'll have at least four months to do so. |
| 10. By: Jason A. Churchill on 01-24-2011 19:41:23 How much time depends. Is Saunders flailing and striking out and looking completely lost? If he's still doing that nightly in mid-June, it's probably time to send him down, get him straight. And whether or not that is the answer does NOT depend on who else you can plug into the position. And WHO CARES who you plug into the position at that point. 2011 is about looking for long-term answers and reacting accordingly. The tough part for Saunders is, left field (and DH) is one of the only spots where the M's are likely to have an opportunity to upgrade the power and run production on offense long-term from where it is now. That isn't happening at 3B as long as Figgins is in town and it's not happening in right field. Smoak is going to get a long look, even longer than Saunders -- he's fully expected to be the answer, not that he's Mark Teixeira, because he's not. So Saunders' leash won't be all season, and it depends on progress -- not his raw statistics. |
| 11. By: Megamanflx1 on 01-24-2011 22:04:37 Jason et al- a two part question, if I may be so bold. A)If Smoak gets a long leash this year to prove himself but he's NOT Teixiera, who is his comp then? B) If not Suanders by mid june, do we see some itiration of Halman/ Chavez/ Pimentel? Or possibly someone who is not being talked about much whose got a great skill set but is just too young at the moment? |
| 12. By: sexymarinersfan on 01-25-2011 02:51:30 Justin Smoak will probably hit around .260 with 20 homers and 70 RBI give or take a few on each. He's built like a young Aubrey Huff except that he hits from both sides of the plate. |
| 13. By: Megamanflx1 on 01-25-2011 06:46:02 Aubrey Huff? Forgive me if I don't immediately leap out of my seat and cheer- for some reason I was lead to believe that his ceiling would be something like .290/35/120.....fully realizing that his ceiling will be achievable some time in maybe 2013-2015, so your .260/20/70 is probably what I would expect from him this year-am I way off base in my expectation level? |
| 14. By: aerichner on 01-25-2011 08:27:49 If at age 26-28 Smoak can give me what Huff did in his 26-28 seasons (without the matador defense) then I'm a happy camper. I expect less this year but in 2 years if he can post a similar season to where Huff was then that'd be awesome |
| 15. By: DKulich44 on 01-25-2011 10:04:11 If Smoak only gives us ~9.0 oWAR through 26-28 I'd say this team is in big trouble, unless his defense is fantastic. |
| 16. By: StandinPat on 01-25-2011 11:21:05 "Justin Smoak will probably hit around .260 with 20 homers and 70 RBI" " I was lead to believe that his ceiling would be something like .290/35/120" Why exactly are we citing RBI's when talking about Smoak's value again? Smoak can literally be the best hitter in baseball and post uninspiring RBI totals if the hitters around him stink. "If Smoak only gives us ~9.0 oWAR through 26-28 I'd say this team is in big trouble, unless his defense is fantastic. " Defense is included in WAR, so if he was worth ~3 wins a year with fantastic defense, that would mean his offense would be coming up quite short. |
| 17. By: short on 01-25-2011 13:32:42 I think the M's would be happy with the .266/.352/.451, 22 HR season from Smoak that fans are projecting on Fangraphs, assuming he plays above-average defense at first base. Of the young players that are likely to play important roles this season I'm the least worried about Smoak, and that includes Ackley whose defense is likely to hinder his overall contribution even if his hitting is ok. Oh, and pet peeve: "led" is the past tense of a verb, "lead" (when pronounced like "led") is a noun. I think every single person on the internet gets them mixed up. |
| 18. By: DKulich44 on 01-25-2011 13:36:01 Pat, I used oWAR since aerichner said he expected Smoak to be better than Huff on defense and also it's harder to predict. Thus over those 3 years Huff was worth about 9 oWAR (strictly offensive WAR), which would be quite low for Smoak's peak years if we're expecting him to be in the middle of the Mariner's lineup. Even with fantastic defense, that still only puts Smoak's total WAR somewhere between 4-5 a year. Scouting says his defense shouldn't be that good, though, but I think we can reasonably expect Smoak to put up 4-5 win seasons just based on his bat. Or I hope so at least. |
| 19. By: StandinPat on 01-26-2011 11:22:05 Kulich, This is the first time I'd heard about oWAR or seen it used. I just assumed you meant WAR and a finger slipped on the keyboard. File that one under "my bad." I'm curious though, does oWAR have positional adjustments? Is there any advanatge to using it over wOBA when solely looking at offense? As far as Smoak, obviously this year and possibly next will have some ups and downs but I agree 4-5 wins a year in his peak stretch is a pretty reasonable expectation. |
| 20. By: DKulich44 on 01-26-2011 19:23:12 Pat, Got ya, didn't mean to sound flippant or angry or whatever. That's what I figured and I totally agree that he's obviously a work in progress, but I'm not as worried about him hitting his peak as it seems most are after last season. As for oWAR, it's from B-Ref and I just used it because it was easily extrapolated over those 3 years that were referenced. I used it show that if Smoak is comparable to Huff from 26-28, I don't think it's a good sign for his development or the Mariners. |
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