From the PI on next years lineup options:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/334056_jones03.html

What will the Mariners do with Adam Jones?

By DAVID ANDRIESEN
P-I REPORTER

It’s a problem a lot of teams would like to have, but it’s a problem nonetheless.

The Mariners have three spots in the outfield, three quality outfielders, and one of baseball’s best prospects with no place to play.

Adam Jones, 22, made a mockery of Triple-A this summer (.314, 25 homers, 84 RBIs in 101 games) and doesn’t figure to see Tacoma again. And it wouldn’t advance his development next year to let him sit on the bench and start once a week.

Jones needs to play. But how? That’s the central issue facing the Mariners this winter — or at least the central issue not involving pitching.

Center fielder Ichiro Suzuki is the franchise centerpiece. Left fielder Raul Ibanez is a popular veteran who has led the team in RBIs each of the past two seasons. Right fielder Jose Guillen was a pleasant surprise; the Mariners are working hard to keep him.

Somebody is going to have to go, or change positions, to solve the Jones problem.

“We have some very difficult decisions,” manager John McLaren said. “There will be a lot of discussion about what we need to do and so on.

“With that said, Raul had a solid year for us. He’s still a very productive major league player and a good major league player and a total professional. And Jose Vidro had a nice year for us, and he’s a very productive player. … We’ve got to figure out what’s going to happen with Guillen, and then things start happening from there.”

Here’s a look at some of the scenarios that could get Jones into the 2008 lineup:

Let Guillen go. It might be the simplest solution to not bring back the one 2007 outfielder who isn’t under contract (Guillen’s contract has a mutual option, but it’s easy for the Mariners to buy out). But the Mariners love what they got from Guillen — a .290 average, 23 homers, 99 RBIs and a refreshing, not destructive, fire in the clubhouse.Guillen is looking for a lot of money, four years at more than $40 million, and it’s hard to say what kind of market he’d find out there given his past behavior and injury issues. The Mariners are his first choice, and keeping him around is theirs.

Trade Ibanez: Shipping out a veteran clubhouse leader would be a very un-Mariner-like thing to do, but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.He’ll turn 36 next season and his health has been shaky, but he’d still be valuable on the trade market given his productivity the past two years (228 RBIs) and the fact that he’s due a relatively modest $5.5 million in the final year of his contract.

Make Ibanez the DH, trade Vidro: With the Mariners’ glut of outfielders and his advancing age, a move to designated hitter seems like an obvious step for Ibanez. Trouble is, they already have a DH they’re fairly happy with and paying a big chunk to.Vidro is under contract for 2008 at $8.5 million, though the Nationals are paying $2.5 million of that. He would be tough to move, but if the Mariners are committed to getting Jones in the lineup and committed to Ibanez, it might be something they have to try to do.

Move Ibanez to first base, trade Richie Sexson: The ultimate scenario for the Mariners would be to give Jones a regular job while also replacing their weakest link. That could be accomplished, but at a steep price.Batting .205 while making $14 million this season, Sexson was not only the worst value in baseball but one of the worst in baseball history. At this point, it might seem a long shot to get another team interested at any price, let alone the $14 million he’s due in the final year of his contract in 2008.

But at the right price, he could be a tantalizing risk, especially for a team in the National League, where Sexson had his best years. An NL executive estimated that the Mariners would have to pay “at least $10 million” of Sexson’s salary.

Paying someone eight figures to play for someone else isn’t ideal — especially if he were to regain his form — but it could be a bullet worth biting. The Mariners are going to have to pay Sexson one way or another. It ultimately comes down to whether they think they have a stronger team with or without him.

Trade Jones: Unthinkable? The Mariners are on record as saying he’s untouchable.But there’s one name that might be able to change that: Johan Santana. The Minnesota left-hander, arguably baseball’s best pitcher, is thought to be available this winter for the right package, and that package will include any team’s best prospect. The Mariners’ pitching needs outweigh their offensive needs, and for a pitcher like Santana, Jones might be touchable after all.

But the odds are we’ll see Jones in the outfield next Opening Day. They just have to figure out how to make it happen.

“He’s going to fit in somewhere, someplace, someday, I’ll tell you that,” McLaren said. “I don’t know exactly where, but he’s going to fit in somewhere.”

Indians at Red Sox, ALCS Game Six

All the Indians were able to do against Curt Schilling in Game Two of this series was score five runs off nine hits in 4.2 innings. The Red Sox better hope that Schilling pitches more like the postseason master, with the sub-2.00 postseason ERA before Game Two’s manhandling. Otherwise, the season’s toast.

On the same token, it’s not as if Cleveland starter Fausto Carmona had much of a start to write home about either, as he threw just seven first strikes to the 20 Boston batters he faced in Game Two.

Trot Nixon is getting the start for the Indians tonight, to be taunted by Boston fans as he takes his place in Fenway’s right field. J.D. Drew is starting in right for the Red Sox, while Jacoby Ellsbury (yayyy!) is starting in center for the Red Sox over the disappointing Coco Crisp.

Here’s hoping that Manny acts like an idiot again, while the Tribe wins to finally make it to the Series….

The over-looked Rockie

The balloting for the 2007 NL MVP may have been all but locked up on the night of September 25, when Prince Fielder hit his seocnd home-run of the game in against the Cardinals.  Despite the fact that there is an unwritten rule in baseball that the Player with the Most Home-runs is immediately a front-runner for that league’s MVP, young Prince did pretty much all he could as he carried the Brewers on his back in their quixotic quest for the first postseason appearance in a quarter-century.  Sadly for fans in Milwaukee it was not to be- leaving many a dry pants in the land of Cheeseheads.  Still, with his emergence as an offensive force to be reckoned with and the heart of the Brewers line-up, Prince Fielder is the prohibitive favorite to win this year’s NL MVP award.

However, with the benefit of hindsight granted by their amazing postseason run, the Colorado Rockies’ late-season run to tie for the league’s wild-card spot and eventually forcing themselves into the playoffs shouldn’t be overlooked by the scribes that decide the seasonal awards.  Sadly, as it is the Colorado Rockies we’re talking about here, thanks to a traditional East Coast bias, the Rockies’ run and postseason appearance may have been interpreted as nothing more than a feel-good endnote to the 2007 season.  If it was taken with serious weight by any of the baseball writers deciding the league’s individual award winners, I’m sure that most attention will be placed on the Rockies’ team leader Matt Holliday, who by capturing the other two Triple Crown legs thanks to a .340 batting average and 137 RBIs in just his second full season has brought to mind the Blake Street Bombers of Andres Galaragga, Vinny Castilla, and Larry Walker in the Rockies’ offensive glory days of the 1990s.  By any indication, Holliday should be Fielder’s chief rival for the 2007 NL MVP, if not the outright winner.

However, I’d argue that the true MVP for the Rockies is none other than the team’s often over-looked right-fielder, Brad Hawpe.  Holliday may have been the one Rockie most responsible to get the team within striking distance of the postseason, but it was the bat of Hawpe that was practically involved in every game-turning moment of the teams’ sublime 11-game winning streak that propelled them to a wild-card tying finish and eventual win.  Let’s take a closer look at what Hawpe did the last stretch of a season, a stretch in which Holliday missed a couple of days due to a strain, an absence that could’ve cost them a postseason appearance if not for the trusty bat of Hawpe:

Sep. 18, 3-1 over the Dodgers: In the second win of the 11-game winning streak- and first game of a double-header against a Dodgers team that led them by two games in the Wild Card standings- Hawpe goes 3-for-4 with a double, scoring the team’s final run.  He strikes out in his only at-bat in the team’s 9-8 win in the nightcap, completing the double-header sweep.

Sep. 19, 6-5 over the Dodgers: Hawpe goes to 2-for-4 with the go-ahead (and eventual game-winning) two-run home-run off the Dodgers’ Jonathan Broxton.

Sep. 20, 9-4 over the Dodgers: Completing their fourth consecutive win over Los Angeles- sending them to a two-game deficit behind the Rockies in the Wild Card standings- Hawpe goes 2-for-4 with three RBIs, including a two-run double in a six-run second inning.

Sep. 21, 2-1 over the Wild Card-leading Padres: Hawpe goes 2-for-6, knocking in both runs in a game in which the Padres’ Jake Peavy allowed just Hawpe’sRBI single through seven innings before Hawpe wins it with a solo home-run in the 14th inning.

Sep. 22, 6-2 over the Padres: Hawpe goes 4-for-4 with two RBIs, both coming in the first three innings as the Rockies build a 3-0 lead they never look book on.

Sep. 23, 7-3 over the Padres: Hawpe goes 2-for-3 in the completion of the sweep, with a ninth-inning home-run.

Sep. 25, 9-7 over the Dodgers: Hawpe picks up one hit in five innings, putting the Rockies up 4-2 with an RBI single in the fifth inning.

Sep. 26, 2-0 over the Dodgers: Hawpe is hitless in three at-bats as Derek Lowe holds the team to five hits.  However, Josh Fogg does Lowe better as he tosses 6.2 scoreless innings and earns the nickname “Giant Killer.”

Sep. 27, 10-4 over the Dodgers: Hawpe goes 3-for-5 to help the Rockies pick up their seventh win in seven games against the Dodgers in the last ten days, including a solo home run in the fourth inning and a bases-clearing double in the eighth.

Sep. 28, 2-4 loss to the Diamondbacks: The D’backs’ Brandon Webb halts the Rockies streak at 11, handing Colorado their last loss of the 2007 season.  Still, Hawpe picks up an RBI double in the seventh.

Sep. 29, 11-1 over the Diamondbacks: Hawpe goes 1-for-3, knocking in Garrett Atkins with a triple in the third inning as the Rockies pile on the division winners in a sign of the LCS to come.

Sep. 30, 4-3 over the Diamondbacks: Once again being the decisive bat, Hawpe doubles twice in three at-bats, knocking in three runs including the key two-run double in the eighth that helps the team survive a rare meltdown by Manny Corpas in the ninth.

Oct. 1, 9-8 over the Padres: Playing for all the marbles, the Padres have recognized the threat Brad Hawpe has become and are determined to not let him beat them.  they hold him hitless in three at-bats, but are unable to keep him off the bases as they walk him three times, twice intentionally.  Still, it doesn’t matter as Matt Holliday was on third when Jamey Carroll lifts fly ball to right field, and we all know what happens after that.

All told, during the incredible run that landed the Rockies into the postseason, Hawpe batted .423, knocking in an incredible 20 RBIs on 22 hits.  Half of those hits went for extra-bases- including four home-runs after a stretch of 18 games without going yard- as his slugging percentage topped .800.

Matt Hoilliday may be the MVP of the Rockies’ season, but without a doubt Hawpe was the MVP of the Rockies’ September.   When the Rockies’ offense is discussed, the focus tens to be on Holliday, long-timer Todd Helton, and rookie Troy Tulowitzki, as Brad Hawpe’s offerings tend to get overlooked.  It may be unrealistic to expect that Hawpe makes a run at Price Fielder’s and teammate Holliday’s claim to the NL MVP award.  But in a more perfect world, Hawpe’s name would appear listed on more than one ballots.