Shattenkirk's Bald Spot Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 Damn, the Jays aren't playing the Mariners in the summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted March 22, 2010 Author Share Posted March 22, 2010 I'm stoked for this season - going to try and get down to 5-6 Mariners games (beautiful stadium) and more playoff games if they make it. Safeco is beautiful. I've also been to Petco in San Diego, which is also stunning. They both look so much better than where the Jays play (Rogers center or something?), the Jays are still my second fav team though. Should be a great year! Go M's!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AriGold Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 Just bought my Red Sox vs Mariners tickets for July 23, 24, 25 !! SOOOOO PUMPED.......... GO SOX !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted March 22, 2010 Author Share Posted March 22, 2010 Just bought my Red Sox vs Mariners tickets for July 23, 24, 25 !! SOOOOO PUMPED.......... GO SOX !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Sikes Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 I am sure they would have been a better team if they remained healthy but to put them suddenly above the Phillies I don't see. Only the Pirates had a worse record in the NL. The Mets still have huge question marks in health all over. Beltran and Reyes are still not back. Even so the Mets have been underachieving for years now compared to what people expected them to do on paper. They haven't really been nasty since 2006. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted March 22, 2010 Author Share Posted March 22, 2010 Forgot about this thread so sorry for the way late response. I am sure they would have been a better team if they remained healthy but to put them suddenly above the Phillies I don't see. Only the Pirates had a worse record in the NL. The Mets still have huge question marks in health all over. Beltran and Reyes are still not back. Even so the Mets have been underachieving for years now compared to what people expected them to do on paper. They haven't really been nasty since 2006. Even if they are healthy I don't see how you can still put them over the Phillies. They where still 1st in the NL in offense and defense. They were 6th in pitching and they improved that they now how Halladay all season and Cole Hamels who struggled last year spent up to 4 days a week every week through the winter training to get back on track and is now looking like the Cy Young candidate he was expected to be. JC Romero who was our key left handed set up man didn't play much last season due to suspension and injury but he will be back soon to help the Bullpen. The only question mark is Brad Lidge. Is he going to play like last season or the season before. We will see what happens during the season but I am confident the Phillies will run the division again. 8 years and 184 million. Averages out to 23 million a year. Great player but I wouldn't have given him that much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maritz Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Mariners vs Jays in May booya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coraline Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Ahem, Washington Nationals? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drink! Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 8 years and 184 million. Averages out to 23 million a year. Great player but I wouldn't have given him that much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M31 Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Baseball sucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maritz Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Baseball sucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PowerIce Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Aren't they? I was looking yesterday and thought they were... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUPERTKBD Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Baseball sucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coraline Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 3rd largest contract in the history of Major League baseball, behind Clemens and A-Rod I don't know, Mauer is such a beast it's not even funny. I think he's worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted March 23, 2010 Author Share Posted March 23, 2010 Well Mauer is a beast and one of the most talented players in all of baseball but from the Twins standpoint I am not sure if it is a good move for them in the long run. Unless I am mistaken Minnesota is a small market team with one of the smallest salary caps in the MLB. His contract takes up like 25% of there cap. At that price it is kind of like will they have the money to even keep most of there good players around and stay competitive. There is a reason majority of the biggest contracts in baseball are associated with the Yankees and there 200+ million dollar payroll. Rumors are Pujols will be traded because the Cardinals don't want to tie the team down that much financially to one player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coraline Posted March 24, 2010 Share Posted March 24, 2010 A few things probably conspired to make Mauer a logical choice to be the one they lavished the huge contract on. 1. New stadium: they're expecting a revenue spike, for one, and they need to show that they are going to put a strong product on the field, especially to sell the new luxury boxes etc. 2. Recent success: the Twins are a contender. Selling off prime assets is the sign of a rebuilding team, and the Twins can't afford to do that, when they're built to win now. 3. Mauer is homegrown and a Twins draft pick: this guy is the biggest sports star in the Twin Cities. Maybe tied with Adrian Peterson. He's the fan favourite and he wants to be there, and he's a team guy. 4. Mauer is a catcher: a catcher who can hit is like a lefty ace pitcher or power hitting second baseman or to a lesser extent a five-tool centre fielder, ie a rare and valuable commodity. Mauer not only can hit, he's the reigning batting champion who's just shown he also has power, and can not only defend, but is the two-time reigning Gold Glove winner. In short, he's probably the league's most irreplaceable player at this moment. He's more important to their team than the rest of the players on it combined. Bottom line, they had to keep Mauer, no matter the cost. As to Pujols, if the Cardinals can pony up 17 million a year for Holliday, they'll give Pujols whatever it takes. St Louis is going to always be around the middle of the payroll scale (they aren't a small market, last year's payroll was 93 million), but they have until the end of 2011 to re-up Pujols, on whom they have on option for next season. I bet they'll work something out by the end of this year. It'll probably be in the 25 million range or up because he has a fairly legitimate case that he's better than Teixeira in every aspect of the game, and probably closer to Alex Rodriguez in value. (I think he's probably better than ARod). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted March 24, 2010 Author Share Posted March 24, 2010 The new stadium should help but still they won't be a big market team. Most likely will just pull them to the middle of the pool. That is still a pretty big price for a normal team to spend on 1 player. I have no doubt that Joe Mauer is a great and rare talent but just from the Twins standpoint I wonder if that is the best move for them, in baseball with the wide range of salaries certain teams have to be managed differently. For example a team like Oakland has had a slew of great players play for them, but they have to cycle them since they don't have a big cap they ride them for a few years then trade them for a package of strong prospects. Still they have seasons where they do very well. Same deal with the Florida Marlins. Lots of strong young players that come up with them then get moved when they are due for a big raise. Yet they still won a couple of World Series. The Twins have more money then both of those teams but still not a whole lot. What I am getting at is baseball is probably the most complete team sport. One player can only do so much you still need to have strong starting pitching at least 3 of them. Plus a strong bullpen. As well as the other position players. With Mauer making as much as he is it will be hard for them to fill a complete team and be able to hang with a lot of the other elite teams. They aren't really all that good of a team to begin with in my opinion. Yes, they did make the playoffs but with a record of 87-76, which was the worst record in the entire playoffs including wildcards. That division was terrible all over they had majority of there wins from beating up that division outside of that division they were a far under .500 team. 29-43 was there record vs the rest of the AL. Plus don't forget they did get blasted out of the 1st round by the Yankees in a 3-0 sweeping. They still have a lot to fix. As for the Cardinals I was going mainly off articles that I read which has a lot of speculation that they would part with him. At 93 million in cap they still aren't a huge market team that is just in the upper middle. They were ranked 13th in payroll last year. The signing of Matt Holiday only holds them back from resigning Pujols. They would have to move a big contract or two just to be able to fit Pujols in the cap. Then on top of that they would have to move players like Adam Wainwright who still is making dirt. As well as many other players. It involves them reshaping the team. Compared to moving Pujols for a slew of elite prospects and keeping the rest of the team together then spending the saved money on a big FA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted March 24, 2010 Author Share Posted March 24, 2010 double post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted March 25, 2010 Author Share Posted March 25, 2010 triple post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted March 25, 2010 Author Share Posted March 25, 2010 quadruple post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.