Comments on: Restoring the rosters: No. 1 – Seattle

By: Purity Guaranteed

Purity Guaranteed — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:27:24 +0000

“More to the point, the ’98/’99 Yankees included (since retired) Paul O’Neill, Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius, Joe Girardi, Bernie Williams, David Cone, Jeff Nelson…”
More MORE to the point is that both Tino Martinez and Jeff Nelson were acquired from Seattle after breaking in with the Mariners. If you want to get into crappy trades involving now-retired players, the Mariners are probably at the top of that list, too.

By: MrGenre

MrGenre — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:36:34 +0000

This is a really interesting way to look at player development. I think what would be a little more telling is to just analyze 5 year increments of time. 80-85, 85-90, etc. That might warrant a more realistic view of who drafts well consistently and who just gets lucky. I also think of Ichiro and Joh as acquisitions picked up from another team and that they might skew these stats a little bit.
But as an M’s fan, I’m not complaining.

By: roto-addicts.com

roto-addicts.com — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:51:18 +0000

Matthew,
What a great series! I agree with some who noted that the Yankees should be rated a few notches lower. I probably would have moved the Rockies up a bit (I had forgotten that Figgins was with the Rockies). And as a lifelong Reds fan, it was disconcerting to open up each post and see them at #30 over and over again. At least I have 1990 and the Big Red Machine to remind me why I still follow this team.

By: Joey B

Joey B — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:08:00 +0000

While Bavasi was to blame, you’d have thought someone else in the FO would step up and question his decisions. Wasn’t anyone in a review position to ask ‘Horacio has a 148/128 K/W ratio over the past three seasons with Atl.” or Silva with his equally dismal K/IP performance?
I know that the best road to success is a 5-deep rotation, but if you start shelling out big bucks for #4 and #5 type SPs, you can’t afford anything else.
It should’ve been self-evident, but if you sign 5 Silva’s for $12M each, you’ll have an ordinary, at best, rotation, and you’ll have, at most, $40M left for a closer, 9 position players, a bench and a BP. It can’t be done, and the math is not that difficult.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:28:54 +0000

[i]“You have to Have Edgar Martinez. You just have to.”[/i] Edgar is not on any 25-man roster. That’s the point of this exercise. More to the point, the ’98/’99 Yankees included (since retired) Paul O’Neill, Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius, Joe Girardi, Bernie Williams, David Cone, Jeff Nelson… Meaning it’s an irrelevant comparison. So, taking players currently on MLB rosters is the exercise. Got it?
Given that, I think you could argue for any of the top five teams. It’s a fun exercise subjective to different interpretations based on how each individual values performance. It’s about as accurate as the BCS.

By: ron

ron — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:01:58 +0000

You have to Have Edgar Martinez. You just have to.

By: Capper

Capper — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:40:27 +0000

No Edgar Martinez???!!! Blasphomy!!!!!

By: hey hop

hey hop — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:21:15 +0000

Not only do the Yankees buy, but they also haven’t done squat in the playoffs for years — let’s call it the A-Rod jinx.

By: hey hop2

hey hop2 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:19:03 +0000

please learn to completely miss the point of this article a little more, that would be fantastic… how many of those ’98/’99 Yanks were originally signed by Bombers?

By: hey hop

hey hop — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:51:55 +0000

the yankees dont produce, they buy

By: hop

hop — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:53:38 +0000

Sorry this team isnt winning SQUAT! “98\”99 Yanks would murder this team just as they did back in the day. The M’s are forever losers and will always be so!

By: deep_to_right

deep_to_right — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:50:18 +0000

No – that was Woody Woodward. Gillick didn’t do much trade wise to hurt the team (I think his nickname was Stand Pat). His drafts and length of contracts to free agents on the decline did cripple this team though.

By: VolsnCards5

VolsnCards5 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:26:11 +0000

Then you are missing the entire point of this exercise LunchBag

By: nats apologist

nats apologist — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:24:01 +0000

So which major league team would you say first signed Ichiro if it wasn’t Seattle?
Unbelievably poor trades, even pre-Bavasi. Did Gillick do the Varitek,Lowe/Heathcliff trade?

By: LunchBag

LunchBag — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:50:41 +0000

I haven’t really looked at the other “rosters”, but I wouldn’t really consider Ichiro (or any of the other Japanese players who came to the Major Leagues through the Japanese League) to be a player who was “originally signed” by the Mariners.

By: Hark

Hark — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:49:30 +0000

No, they had no development in Felix Hernandez, Ken Griffey, Omar Vizuel or Alex Rodriguez. I mean, Felix didn’t break into, and hasn’t been playing on, the big league club in late 2005; Griffey didn’t come up through the farm system to debut in ’89; Vizquel didn’t earn his first Gold Glove with the M’s, nor hit .294 in ’92 for the third highest BA of his career. A-Rod didn’t earn a batting title or go 40/40 with the M’s. Jones, Cabera, Choo all didn’t see any time in the majors with Seattle before being traded. Nope. They’re farm system is wack.
Are you serious? Seattle signs and produces excellent talent. And then Bill Bavasi traded it all away.
Wow.

By: Ari

Ari — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:17:55 +0000

“So, the No. 1 team in baseball at producing talent hasn’t gone to the postseason since 2001 and has never played in a World Series.”
I think it would be more accurate to say “the No. 1 team in baseball at signing talent”. Nothing in this study has ever suggested that the team deserves credit for developing, or in essence, “producing”, any of these guys.