December 12, 2006
Batista to the Mariners
The Seattle Mariners lost Gil Meche but gained Miguel Batista. I'm not sure who I'd rather have on my team. Meche strikes out batters. Miguel no longer does, unless he's pitching in relief. But Batista is very good at preventing home runs over his career. Given that he's pitched a good number of his innings in places like Arizona and Toronto, that's impressive. In fact, if you put him on the road, he's second in the majors since 1996 to Kevin Brown. It's an okay signing, and they're not overpaying, especially given this market.
Doesn't seem like a good fit for Safeco if he's good at preventing home runs. I guess that means he'll give up a heap of groundball hits and walks (which he does from my memory of him with the Jays). That kind of neutralizes the pitcher-park advantage. Also, for Mariners fans, the guy is crazy, and frustrating. He's got 800 hundred pitches, and likes to use them all, especially the ones that aren't working on any given start. Good stuff, but he way overthinks on the mound.
Great, you're telling me we got Ryan Franklin, Poet Laureate.
Whatever happened to Kevin Brown?
