Tuesday, December 09, 2003
Mariners do not want to lose the lead late in the game...
the problem will be getting the lead in the first place. After allowing Arthur Rhodes to depart they have replaced him by signing Twins closer Eddie Guardado. Now, I have no problem with seeing Guardado in the pen. He was better than Rhodes last year for sure (ARP: 11.8 vs. 5.1, Pitcher VORP 22 vs. 8.4), but this had a lot to do with Rhodes hiding an injury for most of the year. My problem is that this really does not solve any of the M's problems. There is still only one left-hander in the bullpen, and the offence has not been improved (I don't consider replacing Cameron with Ibanez an improvement). Again the M's are spending a ton of money on their bullpen while doing nothing about their hitting and having a cubic crapload of good young pitchers in their farm system who they refuse to use OR trade for hitting.
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