Originally posted by WillistheWall:
What I don't get is the Mariners have found ways to make moves without killing themselves, a few other teams have. Why can't sabean? Either he makes a horrible move or he doesn't make one at all, and neither of those wind up good for us
I think he is just not creative enough. That, or the new regime has taken the power of the purse away from him and must sign off on the money involved in whatever he considers.
Anything that involves trading current our contract albatrosses or signing a big $$ bat would require more thinking and goodwill than Sabean currently owns with other teams. If you look at it we really have only one team (Pirates) with which we have a recent history of trades. Other than C Ryan Doumit there isn't much left in their lineup as fars as ML ready talent at our need positions.
Clearly nothing significant will be done until they have a long term estimate on the cost of Lincecum and B-Weezy. Obviously it would be good to get Tim to agree to some sort of structured increases over a period of years the way the Phillies got Halladay. Hia agent says they only want a 1 year deal which will bridge the gap until they can get him beyond the teams control and into pure free-agency.
Since most clubs (other than the Giants with Benitez and Mets with K-Rod) don't break the bank for closers Wilson should not get a ton of money through arbitration and they probably won't have to go too deep in the pockets to keep him.
If they can't get Timmy to agree to a workable framework for 5 years + you can probably kiss him goodbye in 2012.