Peabody: Life, Friends Baseball

There are many, many ways to construct a roster that results in a playoff run. Trades, draft picks, free agent signings and rule five signings. So I thought it might be interesting to examine the four playoff teams in the Mariner’s history. Four teams in seven years.

On the 95 team ten guys were acquired by trade, four via draft, seven via free agent signings, three by waiver signings and one by rule five signing.

The draftees were Darren Bragg, Tino Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez.

The players via trade include Dan Wilson, Mike Blowers, Vince Coleman, Jay Buhner, Felix Fermin, Randy Johnson, Tim Belcher, Salomon Torres, Andy Benes and Bobby Ayala.

The players acquired by free agent signings were Joey Cora, Luis Sojo, Rich Amaral, Doug Strange, Chris Bosio, Edgar Martinez and Norm Charlton.

Lastly Jeff Nelson was a minor league draftee after signing from Los Angeles Dodgers.

Ten, seven, four, three and one. Trade, free agents, three waivers and minor league draft.

Just by rough, rough count turns out there were fifteen good to very good players on that roster. Tino Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Dan Wilson, Mike Blowers, Vince Coleman, Jay Buhner, Randy Johnson, Tim Belcher, Andy Benes, Joey Cora, Chris Bosio, Edgar Martinez, Norm Charlton and Jeff Nelson. Luis Sojo and Salomon Torres played a long time too, which imputes value. So did Doug Strange. Felix Fermin always catches my eye as we traded Omar Vizquel for him, which by any measure was terrible.

Twenty-one of the players were acquired by Woody Woodward. Dick Balderson had three guys and Hal Keller one. Balderson’s were Jeff Nelson, Tino Martinez and Ken Griffey, Jr. Hal Keller’s was Edgar Martinez.

Looking at the 2012 roster fourteen players via trade, nine free agents and six via draft and one rule five signing.

The fourteen players via trade were Justin Smoak, Brendan Ryan, Casper Wells, Jesus Montero, John Jaso, Mike Carp, Trayvon Robinson, Franklin Gutierrez, Eric Thames, Blake Beavan, Hector Noesi, Charley Furbush and Brandon League. At the end of 2014, it is unlikely that many of these guys will still be on the roster as driven by control and results.

The draftees are Dustin Ackley, Kyle Seager, Carter Capps, Stephen Pryor, Michael Saunders and Shawn Kelley. This is the best part of this team looking forward, except for Felix.

The free agent signings were Miguel Olivo, Chone Figgins, Kevin Millwood, Tom Wilhelmsen, Alex Liddi, Ichiro, Felix and Erasmos Ramirez. Four of these are gone already. Wlhelmsen is good, Rairez might be and Felix.

It is hard to think that to look at this roster that there are fifteen people which in time you can say that here are fifteen good to great players on it. Let alone three or four people with long careers.

Perhaps things will look better one year from now. I thought about cutting the roster by salary to compare that way, but nobody was making money on the 95 team by comparison and other than Felix nobody nobody on this roster should be. There are some players that might be beyond good, but this is the wrong comparison, the 93 team might make more sense. This team as it goes into spring training in 35 days is not a playoff team as it seems now. Perhaps after spring training the roster looks better.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 7th, 2013 at 6:14 pm by terrybenish and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.