For my loyal readers, sorry for the hiatus, as I was out of town at a trade show.
So much to cover from while I was gone, including the two big NL Central pitcher trades (you might be surprised as to which one I think will have the bigger impact) and Tampa Bay suddenly falling into the tank (are Rays fans scared yet?). But I want to start with something near and dear to Mariners fans, especially those on this blog.
Sometimes in sports, you feel like Someone Out There is Listening. I've been howling for the head of Bill Bavasi since before I started hollering for it on this blog--and last month, he got the sack from ownership. Even more than Bavasi, though, I've been hollering about the Big Mistake that was Richie Sexson, a ballplayer with declining skills who, even at the height of his high-strikeout longball powers, was a poor fit for Safeco.
Sexson's career was heading downhill even before he came to Seattle, after an injury-shortened campaign with Arizona, where his batting average dropped to .233, and his strikeouts were heading higher once more, after a bit of a lull in his 2002 season. He flashed some power (9 HRs in 90 ABs), but that wasn't surprising in the homer-friendly confines of BoB (as the DBacks' park was called back then).
Sexson's 2001 and 2003 seasons look almost identical--45 HRs, 124 RBI, .272/.379/.548 in '03, 45 HRs, 125 RBI, .271/.342/.547 in '01--and Bavasi was gambling that the one-year increase in batting eye (the one that bumped his OBP up thirty-seven points) would hold. That's a big gamble to take when you sign a guy to a 4 year, $50M contract, in a ballpark that rewards smart hitting and not slugging. Safeco is the place where Ichiro collects his hits, and where home run hitters go to die. At the very least, with a guy coming off of shouider surgery, Bavasi might have signed him to an incentive-laden one-year deal with good club options. Or, of course, not sign him at all.
But, anxious to make his stamp, Bavasi signed him, then signed Adrian Beltre the next day, hoping that Beltre's sudden surge in power and plate discipline--doubling his home run output in 2003 while almost doubling his walks--would continue.
Was anyone else surprised when both of these gambles didn't pay off? Both guys reverted to their free-swinging ways, with Sexson showing that his drive to play had fallen away along with his shoulder injury, while Beltre merely reverted to his pre-2003 ways, slugging in the mid-400s (no great shakes for a third baseman) and striking out 100+ times, with a K:BB ratio back around his career standard of 3:1 (no great shakes for any player).
Tim Kurkjian discussed on Baseball Tonight how Sexson was absolutely befuddled at being booed at home, even as his average tickled the low 200s and his home runs were coming about every 20 ABs, as opposed to the 13-15 range he'd shown in Milwaukee. Did he think he was an asset defensively, or did he really think he was making a contribution to Seattle? Perhaps he thought the breezes he stirred with each mammoth swipe at empty air were cooling the Mariners fans, and we should be grateful for that.
After presumably shopping him to everyone from the Yankees to the International League, and finding nobody willing to even trade a bunch of unwashed jockstraps for the privilege of paying the rest of Sexson's contract for the year (about $35K per strikeout) for a guy they might be able to platoon, the Mariners did the tough thing and released him outright yesterday. Someone, somewhere might be able to offer him the league minimum to be a punchless pinch hitter, or as insurance in case lightning strikes all of their DH and 1B candidates at once, but in all likelihood, Sexson's seen his last days as a major-league regular.
He seems like a nice enough guy--and comes from Portland, Oregon, where I live--but I can't be happier that he's gone, at least from the Mariners. It doesn't really matter if they pay him to sit on the bench or to play for another team, he wasn't contributing on the field. And a guy too thick (or self-centered) to understand why his Mendoza-line batting average elicits boos from hometown fans probably isn't contributing much in the clubhouse, either.
Seattle doesn't have too many great options at first sack--using Jeff Clement there removes him from his more valuable position behind the plate, while Kenji Johjima (recently signed to a three-year extension) doesn't produce enough offensively at first. Ditto Vidro or Cairo, other guys Riggleman might choose to put there. They could always try for a trade to bring in a big bopper, or just try out some of their minor league talent. But they're indubitably better off.
Not only does releasing Sexson rid them of a drag on their roster and batting average, it also sends a message to the rest of the team that price tags don't mean anything: produce or begone. Mariners fans, too, feel like the team might be returning to respectability, at least by fielding a team that's earning what they're being paid. (I'd rather see Miguel Cairo hit .212/.292/.259 at $850K than see Sexson put up worse numbers at seven times the price).
It's been a bit like that girl your best buddy has been dating, the One That's No Good For Him. You've been telling him to dump her for months, if not years, but he's had so much time invested in her--can he really find someone better? Yes, you keep telling him, he can. Trust me, you say. And one day, he listens. He breaks up with her and blubbers for a while, morosely cradling his beer in some lonely bar, but you know in the long run this is better for him.
So, yesterday, the Mariners dumped the first of those Players Who Are No Good For Them in Sexson. If they can't unload Vidro--as heavy and unpalatable an albatross as Sexson was--he ought to follow soon after. Sure, it will hurt for a while, but it will be better in the long run.
Trust me.
