Monday, December 15, 2003
SCREW ICHIRO
Ichiro arbitration story from Oct. 1
"The club should not take Ichiro to arbitration," Ichiro's agent Tony Attanasio said. "If they do take him to arbitration, he would take it as a sign of disrespect. His attitude would be that he would never sign another contract with Seattle.
"Ichiro is never going to be in the position where he takes so much money it inhibits or restricts the club from doing something it has to do," he said. "He also doesn't want to be known as someone who is taken advantage of. There's a happy medium there I'm sure the club will be able to find."
After hitting .350 as a rookie, Suzuki's average fell to .321 in 2002 and to .312 this season. The Mariners have missed the playoffs for two straight seasons after advancing to the AL championship series in 2000 and 2001.
Attanasio said Suzuki doesn't want so much money that the Mariners can't afford to surround him with good players.
"Simultaneously, if the club tries to take advantage of that by coming in too low, that would be a problem," the agent said.
David stole most of my thunder on the Ichiro situation, so I'll be short and sweet here...
I WAS INSULTED BY THE LAST TWO SECOND HALVES (2002 AND 2003). I was also insulted by the numerous ground ball outs and the flyouts. Not to mention Joe Morgan's intolerable asskissing of His Heiness.
A sign of disrespect?
Hell, a sign of disrespect would be telling Edgar Martinez that he should come back for one more season to win a championship, even if the team signs hacks like Raul Ibanez. A sign of disrespect for me as a Mariners fan was when I was told by Pat Gillick and the M's brass that Rey Sanchez was a great midseason pickup. Not to mention the award winning midseason pickups of Doug Creek, Matt White, and Armando Benitez, to name a few.
Obviously, the news of Ichiro's arbitration situtation has been known for a while, and we've hit on it a few times here. But we are getting closer and closer to December 20.
If Ichiro was so worried about not wanting to affect the M's abilities to improve the ballclub, then he and his agent should have kept their mouths shut. Believe it or not, Ichiro's comments about arbitration and etc. may have cost the M's Miguel Tejada. Free agent players who are looking at new cities do tend to listen and read everything about their prospective teams, including Ichiro's comments.
It is obvious that the Mariners love Ichiro. He brings in a lot of money with his presence. But that doesn't matter to me one bit. I'm not a Japanese tourist who just cares about Ichiro's one lone hit in five at bats during a 9-1 blowout game on a Tuesday summer night against Billy Traber, i.e. Billy No Talent. I'm a Mariner fan who's simply wishing and hoping for a world championship to come to Safeco Field. Give me quality players over tourist favorites like Ichiro.
Speaking of "quality" players, at least in the M's point of view, the Times is reporting that Scott Spiezio has been offered a 3 year deal, somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 million. He likes Seattle, because it's the home of grunge. Hell, if they did sign Spiezio, Safeco Field would be sure to have the riffs of Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage" cranked up. That being said, Spiezio would be way overpaid if that deal were to go down. There's no argument here.
Back to Ichiro...
Take 3 years, somewhere in the neighborhood of 7-8 million a season, and be content with that. Ichiro is not a 10 million dollar player. Not even close.
We shall see what happens...
"The club should not take Ichiro to arbitration," Ichiro's agent Tony Attanasio said. "If they do take him to arbitration, he would take it as a sign of disrespect. His attitude would be that he would never sign another contract with Seattle.
"Ichiro is never going to be in the position where he takes so much money it inhibits or restricts the club from doing something it has to do," he said. "He also doesn't want to be known as someone who is taken advantage of. There's a happy medium there I'm sure the club will be able to find."
After hitting .350 as a rookie, Suzuki's average fell to .321 in 2002 and to .312 this season. The Mariners have missed the playoffs for two straight seasons after advancing to the AL championship series in 2000 and 2001.
Attanasio said Suzuki doesn't want so much money that the Mariners can't afford to surround him with good players.
"Simultaneously, if the club tries to take advantage of that by coming in too low, that would be a problem," the agent said.
David stole most of my thunder on the Ichiro situation, so I'll be short and sweet here...
I WAS INSULTED BY THE LAST TWO SECOND HALVES (2002 AND 2003). I was also insulted by the numerous ground ball outs and the flyouts. Not to mention Joe Morgan's intolerable asskissing of His Heiness.
A sign of disrespect?
Hell, a sign of disrespect would be telling Edgar Martinez that he should come back for one more season to win a championship, even if the team signs hacks like Raul Ibanez. A sign of disrespect for me as a Mariners fan was when I was told by Pat Gillick and the M's brass that Rey Sanchez was a great midseason pickup. Not to mention the award winning midseason pickups of Doug Creek, Matt White, and Armando Benitez, to name a few.
Obviously, the news of Ichiro's arbitration situtation has been known for a while, and we've hit on it a few times here. But we are getting closer and closer to December 20.
If Ichiro was so worried about not wanting to affect the M's abilities to improve the ballclub, then he and his agent should have kept their mouths shut. Believe it or not, Ichiro's comments about arbitration and etc. may have cost the M's Miguel Tejada. Free agent players who are looking at new cities do tend to listen and read everything about their prospective teams, including Ichiro's comments.
It is obvious that the Mariners love Ichiro. He brings in a lot of money with his presence. But that doesn't matter to me one bit. I'm not a Japanese tourist who just cares about Ichiro's one lone hit in five at bats during a 9-1 blowout game on a Tuesday summer night against Billy Traber, i.e. Billy No Talent. I'm a Mariner fan who's simply wishing and hoping for a world championship to come to Safeco Field. Give me quality players over tourist favorites like Ichiro.
Speaking of "quality" players, at least in the M's point of view, the Times is reporting that Scott Spiezio has been offered a 3 year deal, somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 million. He likes Seattle, because it's the home of grunge. Hell, if they did sign Spiezio, Safeco Field would be sure to have the riffs of Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage" cranked up. That being said, Spiezio would be way overpaid if that deal were to go down. There's no argument here.
Back to Ichiro...
Take 3 years, somewhere in the neighborhood of 7-8 million a season, and be content with that. Ichiro is not a 10 million dollar player. Not even close.
We shall see what happens...
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