Posts tagged Carlos Silva at FanHouse

The Mets' pursuit of Derek Lowe has recently hit a snag, and -- according to this source -- that would be the fact that he's a much better pitcher than Carlos Silva. You see, Silva signed a four year-$48 million contract with the Mariners before last season. Now, Lowe's being offered three years and $36 million. Apparently Lowe finds his "distasteful" because he feels he is "far superior" to Silva.

You can't really blame him, on the surface. Even before the disastrous 2008 season -- in which Silva was one of the worst pitchers in the league -- Lowe was the far superior pitcher. The Mariners, frankly, made an awful signing. Silva was coming off a season in which he was barely above average in ERA and sported a 1.31 WHIP. He doesn't strike guys out, and he gives up tons of hits (1,335 hits in under 1,100 career innings).

Lowe, on the other hand, has only had one below average season in his entire career, and he's coming off a stellar second half. You have to assume as he ages he won't deteriorate quite as quickly as others might, because he's a pitch-to-contact ground ball hurler. He can suvive on guile, a la Jamie Moyer.

From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

The title to this particular column isn't so much based on the possibility of Ken Griffey, Jr., actually doing anything specific to harm any of us. Instead, it's supposed to be not-so-veiled M.C. Hammer reference. Yes, I am freaking hip like that.

BUT ... I am also freaking aged like that, at least in the sense that my childhood was filled with Hammer cassette tapes, Streetfighter and Upper Deck baseball cards. (What the hell else do you think bloggers are raised on?) And for someone my age or thereabouts, there is no greater UD card than the 1989 Ken Griffey, Jr., Seattle Mariners rookie card.

This is because Griffey as a Mariner defined everything that was good and pure and awesome and not Barry Bonds about baseball; he has(d) the sweetest swing of the modern era, he ran like an antelope, albeit completely in control, through the outfield and he had a cannon arm.

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.

The Mariners went into 2008 as playoff contenders in the eyes of some, and a sub-.500 team that wasn't going to be able to score enough runs to compete in the minds of others. The latter camp was closer in its expectation, but nobody could have foreseen just how far Seattle would fall.

The offense was bad, as expected, finishing 13th in the AL in runs, OBP, and SLG. The more surprising issue was that the pitching, a unit which looked to be solid at the outset of the year, fell apart as well. Offseason acquisition Erik Bedard and previously dominant closer J.J. Putz both battled injuries, and weren't particularly impressive when they did pitch. They also got some abysmal performances from the back end of the rotation, with Carlos Silva, Ryan Feierabend and Miguel Batista combining for a 6.55 ERA in 308 innings.

It's worth noting that all the blame for the run prevention issues shouldn't fall solely to the pitchers, as the Mariners were 13th in the AL in defensive efficiency.

The Seattle Mariners lost to the Tampa Bay Rays last night, which is something they're quite good at this season. I mean, they do it with a precision that nobody else in baseball has been able to match in 2008, and call me crazy, but I think they ought to be commended for that. So congratulations, Mariners. You guys are better at losing than anybody else, and you should be proud.

Unfortunately, some folks on the Mariners feel differently about this situation. Instead of taking pride in their ability to lose, some of the guys find Seattle's amazing consistency to be aggravating. Take Carlos Silva for example, who doesn't appreciate his teammates attitudes this season, and he's not afraid to tell us about it.

"I don't care if we are 40 games behind, we should have played better than this," Silva said. "For me, every game is important. For me, if we are where we are right now, we should take it one game at a time and play one day at a time. Thinking, 'We've got to win this game.' And when the day is over, 'We've got to win the next one.'

"Maybe half of the team wants to do the best they can. Take the starting rotation ... every time we cross that line, we want to do our best. No matter how many games we are behind. But maybe half of the team doesn't have that mentality. They are only thinking of finishing strong. And to put up their numbers. That's great, but that affects us. As a team, that doesn't work out."

As Mr. Watson told you yesterday, the Seattle Mariners finally went ahead and did what we'd all been waiting for them to do for a few weeks now: they fired general manager Bill Bavasi. In other words, Monday was probably the best day that Seattle sports fans have had in a while, and a cause for celebration.

With the pending move of the Sonics, and the Mariners struggles this season, there hasn't been much to cheer about in the Emerald City lately. Still, while there's some debate in New York about the Mets firing Willie Randolph (was it deserved? did they go about it the right way? etc.), I don't think there's much debate amongst Mariners fans about how they feel for this move. If they're upset about anything, it's probably that Bavasi was the only one to go and that the team can't fire Richie Sexson.

As Watson mentioned in his post yesterday, Bavasi's tenure in Seattle is not one littered with success. He gave questionable contracts to Sexson, Carlos Silva, and Adrian Beltre (though I think Beltre has been a good addition to the club), actually gave Jeff Weaver $8 million to suck for a season, and made trades like sending Carlos Guillen to Detroit for Ramon Santiago. Those are some devastating moves, and yet, that's only part of what Bavasi did to help bring this organization down.

It's pretty much become a fact of life when it comes to baseball. Every spring as the country prepares for the new baseball season to start, there's word that this will finally be the year that the Minnesota Twins crash back to earth, and finish towards the bottom of the AL Central. I know I've been guilty of it a few times, as I think I've predicted the Twins downfall the last three or four seasons.

Then they usually end up finishing on top of the AL Central, or near it, and are generally always in contention for a playoff spot come September. After finishing last season with a 79-83 record, their first sub-.500 mark in eight years, they lost their ace pitcher and their gold glove centerfielder. Surely 2008 would see the Twins plummet even further below .500, and have them competing with the Royals for fourth place, right?

Nope. After finishing a sweep of the Tigers on Sunday, the Twins completed a five-game homestand against division rivals Detroit and the White Sox with a 5-0 record. As a result, they now find themselves alone on top of the Central, 1.5 games ahead of the White Sox, and are currently the only team in the division who have won more games than they've lost. All this despite the fact they've allowed more runs than they've scored.

The Mariners 6-1 loss to the Yankees on Saturday was the final straw for manager John McLaren. Not only was it the team's fourth straight loss, dropping them to 13-18, but it was another loss in which the Mariners offense struggled mightily. So far this season the Mariners haven't lived up to the expectations put upon them.

After finishing 88-74 last season, and having added a frontline pitcher in Erik Bedard, and innings eater Carlos Silva, many thought Seattle would compete with the Angels for the division title this season. Well, while the pitching staff has done it's job, the offense has struggled all season, and McLaren ripped into them after yesterday's loss.

McLaren ordered the clubhouse door sealed tight this time after his players had filed in following their uninspired 6-1 loss to the New York Yankees on Saturday afternoon. And then, in a rapid-fire tirade that lasted only a few moments, he unloaded on his team with angry words that could be heard echoing in the hallway outside.

When it was over, the clubhouse door finally opened, and a sullen McLaren, voice shaky at times, repeated the verbal criticism for the media in a much lower tone. But it was clear from all involved that he is fed up with the lack of production from a team whose expectations have vastly exceeded results so far.

While the Mariners are hitting .252 as a team so far, not great but not horrible, they're next to last in the American League with a .314 OBP, and have hit only .239 with runners in scoring position. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you have trouble getting runners on base, and then have a tough time getting those few runners across the plate, you're going to struggle.

Whether or not McLaren's tirade will do anything to wake up Seattle's slumbering bats, well, we'll have to wait and see.

I've been pretty critical of the Twins this offseason with some of the moves they made. I didn't mind that they let Torii Hunter go, but I was a little wary of sending Matt Garza to Tampa for Delmon Young. Granted, Young is a very talented young hitter and will help pick up some of the slack for Hunter's departure, but I'm not convinced giving away young pitching talent when you're about to lose Johan Santana is the smartest way to go about things.

Then there is the whole Santana trade, which I felt the Twins didn't get nearly enough in return for. Especially when you see the package Seattle gave Baltimore for Erik Bedard. I've also been highly critical of the team re-signing Joe Nathan for so much money when they could have traded him for good young players, and could have even used some of that money to keep Johan around.

So when they do something right, like I believe they're doing by sending Francisco Liriano to the minors for a while, it's only fair that I give them credit for it.

I love Liriano, but I also fear he's not really ready to come back yet. I was worried that the Twins, who are now without Santana, Garza, and Carlos Silva, would rush Liriano back out of fear they'd fall out of the division race early, and Liriano would only end up getting hurt again.

So sending him to the minors is the safest path. He finished the spring very strong, but that doesn't mean his arm is completely ready for the big leagues yet. Letting him continue to build his arm strength in the minors for a few games will only help the Twins in the long run.

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody who follows the Mariners, but the team released pitcher Horacio Ramirez on Thursday. With the additions of Erik Bedard and Carlos Silva this offseason, the Mariners just didn't have an open spot in the rotation for Ramirez, and general manager Bill Bavasi felt that this move was the right thing to do for Horacio.

"We did not believe Horacio was going to break camp with us,'' Mariners GM Bill Bavasi said in a release. "We felt it would be in everyone's best interest to give him time to catch on with another club.''

What Bavasi didn't say was "I'm sorry I made such a horrible trade. My bad."

Aside from being the best thing for Ramirez, it was also the right thing to do for the team, as Ramirez hasn't been much help since coming over from Atlanta. The Mariners sent a strong member of their bullpen, Rafael Soriano, to the Braves for Ramirez over a year ago, and Ramirez rewarded them with an 8-7 record and an ERA of 7.16 during his time in Seattle.

As for where Ramirez is going to go now, I'm sure the Cardinals will give him a call, after all, they're giving Kyle Lohse a shot. The Rangers might show some interest thanks to their recent rash of injuries, or maybe the Nationals who are always looking for more mediocre pitching.

I know, that doesn't narrow things down much. Let me be more clear: the Mariners are in serious talks with free agent pitcher Carlos Silva and appear to have made him an offer in the neighborhood of four years/$44 million. Is that what the free agent market in baseball has come to? Because four years and $11 million a year for a guy that defines mediocre seems pretty steep.

On the surface, Silva's numbers don't look THAT bad. In fact, he's been pretty solid from 2004-2007 with the exception of 2006. A little bit of a closer look reveals something that should send teams running into the hills, though. Last year in 202 innings, Silva only struck out 89 batters. That's less than four per nine innings. Throw in his the fact that 2007 was actually one of his better strikeout years and you've got, "Giant pile of burning money!!!" written all over this potential deal, which is a role Jeff Weaver is already admirably filling out there in Seattle.

The Red Sox and Yankees have to be terrified by news like this. If Carlos Silva's worth $11 million a year, what kind of extension is Santana going to want? $20 million? $30 million? Even more than that?