Ibanez to Philly
Dec/080
Raul Ibanez was a pretty good Mariner. One of the few bright spots on a bad team, but at the same time he was everything that was wrong with the Mariners. He was bad at defense and the team didn’t realize it. He was more valuable at 1B or DH and the team didn’t realize it. He was signed for his track record and not for what he might do going forward. He did a good job, but his leaving is symbolic of the M’s future with Jack Zduriencik. No more overpaid veterans who will be bad by the end of their contract, we’ll leave that to the Phillies.
They do realize they signed him for his age 37 -39 seasons right? And are paying $10m/year for it? Here I was thinking the Mets would be the stupid NL East team to sign him. Pat the Bat turned down a 2yr/22M offer earlier, but you have to wonder if a third year would have kept him. For a couple more million they could have had someone 5 years younger who isn’t as atrocious in the outfield. Terrible signing.
I feel bad for Raul though, he seems like a nice guy (look at that picture! He bowls!) and the Philly fans are just going to absolutely murder him. His defense is terrible, will get worse and his OPS has only one way to go. I guess he’ll deserve it, but still.
Arbitration
Dec/080
I know a lot about baseball, but arbitration confuses me. Instead of a player becoming a free agent he is given the option of going to court and having his play examined by a judge who then rewards him a contract commensurate to his performance? Something like that. Anyways when a player turns it down and signs with another team his original team is compensated with draft picks. Sometimes it’s one, sometimes it’s two depending on how valuable a player was at fantasy. (I heard last season the Mariners offered Jeff Weaver arbitration and they lost all their draft picks, but that’s just a rumor.) Anyways, here’s a roundup of the arbitration cases I care about.
The Mariners offered Raul Ibanez arbitration.
The Brewers offered CC Sabathia, Ben Sheets and Brian Shouse arbitration.
These are all good things. Raul Ibanez seems destined to misplay a fly ball in a playoff game at Wrigley Field and the Mariners will be compensated with two picks heading into their first draft under their newly hired draft guru. Exciting stuff.
The Brewers are a bit more interesting. Shouse is a pretty low risk gamble and Sabathia is a no brainer as it’s instantly two picks if (when) he leaves. Sheets is pretty interesting. The talk is that he is injured and teams are luke warm to him so he may come back, but doesn’t offering him arbitration say to the rest of baseball “we believe he’s healthy” as they know more about him than anyone else? Or is that what they want teams to think so they can go into this year’s draft with 5 first round picks? I still say he comes back, but it’s interesting to think about.
Let him go Jack
Nov/080
The Cubs want Raul Ibanez. Let them have him. Off of MLBTR.
Ibanez would play right field for the Cubs, even though he allowed 18 more bases than the average left fielder this year.–MLBTR
They’ve got to be nuts. You could watch one Mariners game and see how bad Ibanez was in the outfield. Pick one of the 153 and you’ll find a bad play, guaranteed. I’m no whiz with defensive metrics, but without Ichiro and Reed in center I could see that number being even higher. He definitely doesn’t have the arm for right, that’s for sure. Ibanez is best served being a DH or a bad first basemen at this point.
This move has all the fingerprints of Lou Piniella wanting more bats. (It’s like he played all those years with Bucky Dent and said to himself “Never again.”) The lineup would be pretty deadly (At best Ibanez bats fifth in that lineup, more likely sixth), but they’d need to score a lot to make up for Soriano and Ibanez in the corners. A lot, a lot.
Seriously, Jack. If there is rumors that both the Mets and Cubs want Ibanez, he’s not going to stay. Offer him arbitration, get turned down, take the draft picks and let his defense become someone else’s problem.