I promised Bob a baseball article. I was going to write about the Mariners blowing the team up, but since they are clearly not heading in that direction lets write about something else. Yesterday the Mariners traded for Ryan Healy, a power hitting low OBP, 1st baseman from my favorite team the Oakland A’s. I’m going to predict what they will do next.
Last season the Mariners clearly struggled with injuries in their starting rotation. Everyone from Felix to break out star James Paxton was on DL. By the middle of June, no one knew the names in the rotation. The solution to that is signing two or more starting pitchers. I would say trade for rotation help, but except Kyle Lewis the Mariners have no one to offer for top tier SP on trade market. One of the names the Mariners may sign is Shohei Otani, the Japan Babe Ruth. Otani to the Mariners makes sense in a way. Seattle has a solid Asian community and they have a history of signing Japanese players, including Ichario Suzuki. I’m not checking spelling, so fuck you. The issue is that every team in baseball is after Otani, and there is no guarantee he will sign with Seattle. It would be fun if it happened, well at least for Bob it would.
Two more realistic candidates for the Mariners to sign our Alex Cobb, and Lance Lynn. I’m predicting one of them will sign with Mariners. Both may go for something around 4 years 80 Million at high end, or four years 60 million at low end. Lynn had a breakout year in a way with the Cardinals, Cobb has a issue with injuries, so the Mariners may stay clear from him. Latst year Cobb was 12-10 with a 3.66 E.R.A and 179 Ip’s. Lance Lynn was 11-8 with a 3.43 E.R.A and 186.1 IP’S. I think Lynn would go with a hopefully healthy James Paxton, and hopefully rebounded Felix Hernandez to establish a solid 1-3 in rotation. The other option for Mariners is signing Yu Darvish, who is a better pitcher than both despite the World Series performance. Darvish may also help in the pursuit of Otani. Low end options include Jason Vargas, and Doug Fister.
Personally I would have considered blowing the Mariners up, but they are sort of in a no man’s world with aging vets. They have to compete now, and hope the regression to Cruz, and Cano is not too terrible.
There you go Bob. Keal post a photo of Ryan Healy.
