I was going to hold off on this, but it is rapidly making its way around the blogosphere so I decided it was best to get it out there.
It would appear that the Seattle Mariners are close, or have possibly already signed, free agent Brad Wilkerson. Geoff Baker said earlier on radio and confirmed on his blog that "the Mariners already have a one-year deal with free-agent Brad Wilkerson in their back pocket for the moment a Bedard trade is finalized." He went on to speculate that the deal could be worth as much as $8M.
Seattle P-I's John Hickey just posted a blog about the same thing, though it appeared to be based on other reports, not necessarily on his own inside information.
This also goes along with MLB Trade Rumor's post from Saturday that we passed along.
We already know, Seattle would have been better off re-signing Jose Guillen, so no need to remind everyone. Wilkerson won't be too bad, no matter what happens with Adam Jones. Low averages, high strikeout rates, but he will add some pop to the bottom half of the lineup and is defensively versatile, despite being average in the field at best. You can read why Patrick is against Wilkerson here.
Baker was not the first to talk of a Wilkerson/Wladimir Balentien platoon, an arrangement that would likely please many a Mariner fan.
How do you all feel about adding Wilkerson to the team?
Monday, January 28, 2008
Seattle to Sign Wilkerson
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4 comments:
Wilkerson is not the answer to contend in 08.
Barry Bonds is.
Kill me now.
oh christ.
barry bonds is not the answer. only MAYBE if we had no viable option at DH, unfortunatly we have the very untradeable Jose Vidro.
Bonds should not be playing in the field at all, especially at Safeco. Bonds shouldn't even be playing baseball with everything surrounding him.
go back in the archives, I posted about Bonds back in November. my prediction of where he'll end up is wrong, but i think i discuss why he is a bad fit.
so bench vidro. he shouldn't be playing anyways, the team needs power and somebody that can get on base.
I would have no problem benching Vidro if it meant bringing in a different impact bat, but I don't see management doing it. You would love to see baseball always come fist, but the fact that Vidro is making millions makes him hard to have on the bench. It would keep his 2009 option from vesting, which is good.
This is what I wrote back in mid-Novemember.
"It would be a PR disaster, team chemistry suicide and a huge waste of $10-15 million. Yes, Bonds can still knock out 25 or so homers in limited play time, and yes be one of the few players that would thrive at Safeco Field, but I just don't see this happening. First of all, USA Today said that the signing of Barry Bonds would rely on a trade involving Richie Sexson. This seems simple enough, because you couldn't waste millions of dollars on Barry Bonds before erasing the millions of dollars you wasted on Richie Sexson first. Second, with or without Sexson, the Mariners don't have room him, there is a clog between the left field, first base and DH positions. Third, even if we could afford him there is more pressing needs on this ballclub. Starting pitching, anyone? That's where the money should go. The fourth reason and probably the most important reason the Mariners won't sign Barry Bonds is the fact that we have a lot of young talent on this team, a few potential superstars in Jones, Clement and Balentien. Barry Bonds would show those guys exactly how NOT to go about their business, how NOT handle the media and how NOT be a good teammate."
I just don't see why you would want to bring so much negative attention to a team that has a hard enough time getting any attention at all.
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