Uncle Si":3b7h23ek said:
HawkFan72":3b7h23ek said:
IndyHawk":3b7h23ek said:
You forgot the "kid"..But yeah we developed a lot that left by fa or trades..Hopefully that has changed..
I didn't forget him. He asked to get out of Seattle in his prime, so he doesn't make the list.
He goes on the same list as ARod, Adam Jones, Sin Soo Choo, Asdrubal Cabrera, Jason Varitek, Derek Lowe, etc etc...of great talents the M's let get away. They were never career-long Mariners. You could maybe count Randy Johnson on there too, even though he had already pitched in the major leagues for the Expos when we got him and wasn't really developed by the Mariners. Ichiro was already a star in Japan, he wasn't developed by the Mariners.
Of guys that the Mariners drafted or acquired when they were minor leaguers, who went on to become stars and stay with the Mariners for their career, it really has only been Felix and Edgar Martinez and now Seager in the last 30 years. That's really bad.
go ahead and name players who came up through a farm system, became stars and stayed with their team their entire career over the last 30 years
Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera
(still thinking, i know there are others, but its rarely more than 2-3 a team)
its not a long list.
Its not the Mariners. It happens across baseball. Of that list, Jones and Varitek are the ones that seemed to "get away"
Chipper Jones, Todd Helton, Jimmy Rollins, Joe Mauer, Chase Utley, David Wright, Michael Young, Bernie Williams, Jeff Bagwell, Cal Ripken, Craig Biggio, Tony Gwynn are a few more.
You're right though, it is probably not as extreme as I made it out to be. Just frustrating to see so many good players get shipped out or leave when it seems like other teams are able to keep their stars. But yeah, it's probably not more than 3 per team. It just feels like it.
I think now is the age of baseball where we will see more young stars stay with their teams, as young players are being locked up early. I'm glad, that's how it should be.