M's Active in Trade Talks

A few miscellaneous rumors have come out today regarding the Mariners and the trading deadline.

1) "The Mariners are in on every available starting pitcher, and several pitchers who aren't. Aiming super-high, they've bugged the Marlins about Dontrelle Willis, the White Sox about Jon Garland and even tried to see if the Yankees were putting Andy Pettitte on the market. They're liable to get somebody, but it isn't likely to be somebody anywhere near that good. The latest talk has them hot on the trail of Houston's Jason Jennings...." --Newark Star-Ledger

Jason Jennings has shown flashes of talent in his first three years in the majors, but he hasn't found a way to stay consistent. He spent his first two years in Colorado and is now pitching in Houston. In both years with Colorado, he failed to win ten games and had a losing record. This year he's 2-6 with a 4.74 era and in his last ten games, he has given up three or more earned runs in nine of them. If he comes to Seattle don't expect him to be too much better although Safeco is a pitchers park. This is another case where we would have to worry about a career NL pitcher coming to the AL.

2) "Kenji Johjima and Ichiro both expressed pleasant surprise in the clubhouse after overhearing a TV report about the Mariners' rumored trade interest in Yankees pitcher Kei Igawa, who is also Japanese." --Seattle Times

To me this is the most intriguing of the new class of rumors. Igawa came over from Japan in the offseason after the Yankees posted $26 million to negotiate with him and then signed Igawa to a five year, $20 million contract. Though he has been a bust so far for the Yankees and has just been demoted for the second time to the minor leagues, Igawa was a star in Japan. His career ERA in Japan is 3.15 and his season ERA's were all under 3.90 from 2000-2006 (four of those seasons under 3.00). Along with his outstanding stats, he is the 5th fastest pitcher in Japanese history to reach 1000 strikeouts. By 2007 standards, Igawa is dirt cheap. He is under contract through 2011 and is owed just $4 million a year. Consider the fact that Jeff Weaver is making more than double that this year on a one year deal. New York is not the best place for a first year pitcher from Japan who doesn't speak english. The Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America keeps popping into my head. On a side note, one of Kei Igawa's hobbies is model planes. What better place than Seattle, the home of Boeing? He shouldn't cost much, I say do it right away.

3) "The Mariners, meanwhile, have serious interest in reliever Al Reyes and, possibly, Edwin Jackson. A Mets scout also was at the Trop." --St. Petersburg Times

This isn't surprising I guess. Here are the stats on these two:

Al Reyes: 1-1, 4.75 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 40 K's, 13 BB, 17 Saves (career ERA is 3.71)
Edwin Jackson: 2-10, 7.00 ERA, 1.86 WHIP, 77 K's, 51 BB (career ERA is 6.16)

Ummmm... How about a big fat NO on Jackson. Reyes would be fine, but there are bigger problems that we need to address first.