Overall I’ve gotta say I’m quite pleased with todays game.   Excellent pitching and timely hitting are going to be the keys to this year, and today was a good example of those two things working the way we need them to.   I was definitely pleased with Bedard, although he threw a lot of pitches and had to leave after the fifth, I can’t say it was his fault.   That umpires strike zone was awful today and there was numerous pitches that could’ve gone either way, but what you could see is that the Rangers had a real tough time hitting Erik, and the only hard hit ball off of him was the homer, and even that was on a good pitch.   So overall, a good game by the M’s and hopefully a sign of things to come.

The season hasn’t even started yet and I’m already convinced of his incompetence to run this team.   It appears the Mariners are more concerned about keeping their players who are out of options rather than fielding the best team possible.   The  mariners are not in the National  league, there’s no need for a bench as deep as ours and there’s two guys on the bench in Cairo and Jimerson who we don’t even need.   Cairo is basically an older, slower version of Willie Bloomquist, and although I do like Jimerson, he just doesn’t really fit on this team.  He’s probably gonna get less playing time than Jason Ellison did last year, I mean other than an occasional defensive replacement and pinch runner, he’s not needed.   Another pitcher would be much more useful to this team, as would Jeff Norton.   I also like Cha Seung Baek, but the  Mariners should just let him go to a team that needs him and put Dickey in the pen, I mean come on, the guy deserves it.   Jimerson and Baek should have been let go and Morrow and Dickey should have made the team.   I just don’t understand it, but whatever.   We’ll see how things go, but I just don’t understand why you’d rather have two useless bench players who will barely ever get playing time over two pitchers that would be much more useful.

Wladimir Balentien was cut today in order to play "every day" at AAA Tacoma when he should be playing "every day" in the major leagues. Whatever, I just don’t understand the mariners prospect development theory.   They rush their guys who they believe have the most talent through the minor leagues at a much quicker rate than most big league teams and when one of their prospects proves to you that he’s met every task you’ve given him and the next logical step would be to let him ascend to the top of his field and play at the major league level, the mariners just let them toil and waste their talent in the minor leagues while you have a marginal talent such as Brad Wilkerson who eats up 3 mil a year and has proven the last 2 years that he’s not worthy of regular playing time at the big league level.( Below.200 avg last year with 8 dingers away from Arlington) And you have a talent like Wlad’s kickin around the outfield in Tacoma.   The Mariners theory on rushing minor leaguers is like rushing somebody to the emergency room with a gunshot wound and then making them wait in the waiting room for 3 hours to allow the doctors to try and treat some "veterans" who have a little more "experience".

  Well, whatever.  I’m not the genius who is Bill Bavasi, so I should just shut up…..oh god, I can’t even say that with a straight face.   The truth is I’m just a 23 year old dude goin to school, but I even know that of the few things that I truly do know in this life, I could do a better job of being a GM than Bill Bavasi, but then again so could a chimp who was instructed to first pick 2 flashcards with numbers such as 4 and 48 and then to spin a twister board with marginally successful big league pitchers faces on it.  But I’d bet on the chimp makin’ a better deal.

I know although we appear to have a stupid manager who makes decisions about his team based on who’s a "veteran" instead of who could actually help his team win games, I just want to state that I want Wladimir Balentien as our starting right fielder.   Wilkersons pathetic .198 batting average with 8 homers away from Arlington is the main reason why, plus Wlad is just more fun to watch and has a TON of power.   I just don’t understand why Mclaren already decided that Wilkerson’s his starting RF on opening day and didn’t even open it up to debate.   

Why so much loyalty to a guy who just signed with this team and who doesn’t perform at a high enough level to be a major league regular on a team that anticipates being in the playoffs?  It just seems stupid to me, I mean Wlads bat is major league ready and could very well match the same production that we got last year from Guillen but he’s being blocked because we signed a dude who *****.  Another nice move by the GM and manager.   We’ll see how long Mclaren sticks to his guns on this one, I’m hopin he gives up before the end of spring training.

******* sweet.   Although it’s spring training, there’s just a different feeling in the air when they actually start playin games.   March 3rd will be the first televised game on FSN for the M’s, so mark that one on the calendars.   I love this time of year, because honestly, the couple of months after the super bowl are quite possibly the most boring time of the year for me seeing as how I hate any form of basketball and  noone even airs hockey games anymore.  Especially in Seattle.   Well I’ll hope to keep much more active with my posting from here on out, so stay tuned!

  As we all know, spring training is approaching, and I just wanted to leave my two cents in relation to what I would personally do with this teams roster if I were the manager, and I know it may sound crazy to some of you, but I honestly think that fielding this roster everyday would give us the best possible chance at winning this year.   Balentien and Clement both have major league ready bats, and without them this lineup has a serious lack of power.   Vidro may blow, but he doesn’t blow as bad as Lopez, and Vidro’s bat makes up for his lack of defense at second, plus he’s not as bad there as he was with the Nationals, because he had bad knees back then, and a full year of DHing has allowed for his knees to heal up.   So anyways, no matter how unrealistic this may sound due to the managements aversion to playing veterans, here goes……

1. Ichiro CF

2. Beltre 3B

3. Ibanez LF

4. Sexson 1B

5. Johjima C

6. Clement DH/C/1B

7. Balentien RF

8. Vidro 2B

9. Betancourt SS

   Honestly, top to bottom I think that’s the best hitting talent this team can put together on a daily basis, and seeing how this teams biggest weakness is its offense, I think fielding these 9 batters will give us the best chance to win this year.   If anyone agrees or disagrees I’d like to hear it.   As for the bench, I see probably somethin like Bloomquist IF/OF, Jimerson PR/OF, Wilkerson 1B/OF and then one of Lopez, Burke or Morse.

   As for the rotation, I think everyone knows how that’s gonna turn out but I’ll post it anyways.

1. Bedard

2. Hernandez

3. Batista

4. Washburn

5. Silva

   Then comes the tough part, the bullpen.   I think it’ll shake out like this.

Closer: JJ Putz

8th: Morrow, O’Flaherty

7th: Green, Rowland-Smith, Lowe

Longman: R.A. Dickey

And that should do it.   I know I’m not the manager of this team, and there’s next to know chance in **** things will turn out this way, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t.   If the Mariners are really serious about winning this year, then I think that this team will give them the best chance at doing so.

Jesus Christ.   In quite possibly the most drawn out trade in the history of baseball, Erik Bedard is finally a Mariner.   I was refusing to post anything more on the subject until the deal was officially done, and at long last it is.    It’s a big pickup for the M’s, and gives them a good shot at winning this year, but we gave up a CRAPLOAD of talent for Bedard.   

   I’ve come to the conclusion that Bill Bavasi’s skills of negotiation are pretty **** terrible.   I mean really, I realise that Bedard is an ace, and therefore you’ll need to give up a decent package to get him, but come on!!   Our best hitting prospect (Jones), our best pitching prospect (Tillman), our best lefty reliever (Sherrill), a major league ready middle reliever in Mickolio and a big lefty starter with a lot of potential (Butler).    

   That’s just way too much if you ask me.   I mean it looks like Bavasi just came out and said "I want Bedard, what do I have to do?"  and Macphail named his price, just blurting out a package he’d want in return, not really thinking Bavasi’d actually go through with it.   It’s kinda like if you had a really sweet car that was really fast and was better than most cars out on the road, and someone says "How much do you want for that car?"  and you just blurt out "A million dollars!".   Well apparently Bill Bavasi would make that deal in a heartbeat.   No skills of negotiation.   

  This deal could’ve been made without atleast Sherrill, but Bavasi has no balls.    He just kinda painted himself in to a corner by letting everyone know that we were going after Bedard and we were gonna get him no matter what it took.   And he did, and it took A LOT.  That’s what happens when you have a GM who’s always afraid of losing his job and will do whatever it takes to make fans happy that the team is winning.  They say "Who cares?" to the future and only care about saving their own ***.

   I’m very happy we got Bedard, I don’t wanna confuse anybody.   It’s not every day your team acquires one of the best pitchers in the game, but 4 quality pitchers and a potential star outfielder for 1 Ace starter is a bit much.

   This may be the most concrete piece of evidence that the Jones-Bedard deal is definitely going through.   The Mariners have absolutely no reason to sign Brad Wilkerson unless Adam Jones is no longer a Mariner, and he apparently is not.   It appears that the Mariners may have given up a better package of players than New York did to acquire Santana, but that’s debatable, and the Mariners would have had no shot at Re-signing Santana and would have had him for just 1 year, unlike the 2 years atleast that we would be getting with Bedard, so it’s pointless to make that argument.

Basically what’s up with this deal is that the owner of the Orioles wants to prove to his GM that he’s the big shot who makes the big decisions when it comes to his team, so he’s pretending like this deal hinges on what he ultimately decides, but in actuality there have been two GM’s in Bill Bavasi and Andy Macphail that have worked diligently for upwards of a month to make this deal happen, and now it’s agreed to by Macphail.   If Peter Angelos nixes this deal he might as well not have a GM.   That’s why I believe this trade will happen, because Angelos has stated he will give complete control of baseball operations over to Andy Macphail, and if that’s truly the case, this deal gets done.

  I know there’s some mixed emotions on this trade, and it blows to give up Adam Jones, but we got one of the best pitchers in baseball ON OUR TEAM!!!!!  Holy **** I can’t wait until this season starts. 

 
Now I know some of you will say you shouldn’t give up the future of your team to possibly improve on the 88 wins we had in ’07, and others will say the M’s have no shot at beating the Angels, but I say F that ****.  If you’re a true fan you always believe your team can win, I mean noone expected the Diamondbacks or Rockies to do as well as they did last year, but the fact remains that they got to the NLDS and World Series respectively, overcoming all preseason expectations.

   My overall opinion on this whole trade is that the Seattle Mariners had a pretty decent offense last year, ranking 7th in the American League in scoring with 794 runs despite having their regular everyday first baseman bat just .205 with 21 homers  and only 63 RBI’s while spending about 3 quarters of the season in the middle of their batting order and a second baseman who hit just .252 with 11 dingers all year.  And That’s just the offensive side of the ball.    Coupling that with a rotation that was just god awful after Felix Hernandez, Miguel Batista and Jarrod Washburn and you come away wondering "How the **** DID the mariners win 88 games last year?"  I mean think about it, they were able to win 88 games with the lead singer of Puddle of Mudd Wes Scantlin!! (AKA Jeff Weaver) (Google their pics, it’s weird)…… along with the rotting carcass of Horacio Ramirez moseyin’ his way on up to the mound every fifth day all "Weekend At Bernie’s" style,  in a futile attempt to contribute to making 47!! starts between the two of them.    Now the Mariners have replaced Ramirez ( 8 W  7L  98 IP, 40 K  7.16 ERA) and Weaver (7W  13L  146 IP  80 K  6.20 ERA) with Carlos Silva (13W  14L   202 IP  89 K  4.19 ERA) and ERIK ******* BEDARD!!! (13W  5L  182 IP  221 K  3.16 ERA).

   I don’t know about you, but I believe that if this team can get some sort of production out of whoever plays right field (Balentien- Wilkerson platoon?) and hopefully, somehow, Richie Sexson adjusts his swing to the point where he doesn’t look like a *******’ retarded Tyrannosaurus at the plate,(If you’ve seen him swing, you’ll know)  I think that with the bullpen and starting pitching  this team has, they have a very legitimate shot at making the playoffs and winning the AL West.   Yes, I said it.   Now we all know that once you make the playoffs, the one constant theme that seems to resonate among teams that do well in the playoffs and win championships is Good Starting Pitching.     Imagine how a team must feel going in to the ALCS against the Mariners and you know that you have to win 3 games to advance to the ALDS and the first two pitchers you face are Erik Bedard and Felix Hernandez.   Odds are your team will be going home very shortly. 

    Bedard and Felix could be like Randy Johnson- Curt Schilling circa 2001 Diamondbacks.
The D-Backs just rode those 2 guys right on through the postseason and on to a World Championship.   Do you remember the lineup that year?  I’ll refresh your memory.   The main contributors were as follows…

1) 2B Tony Womack    .266 AVG.  .307 OBP  128 hits.

2) SS Craig Counsell   ..275 AVG  .359OBP  126 hits.

3) LF Luis Gonzalez   . 325 AVG  .429 OBP  57 HRs  142 RBI

4) 3B Matt Williams  .275 AVG  .314 OBP 16 HRs  65 RBI

5) CF Steve Finley  .275 AVG  .337 OBP  14 HRs  73 RBI

6) 1B  Mark Grace  .298 AVG  .386 OBP  15 HRs  78 RBI

7) RF Reggie Sanders  .263 AVG  .337 OBP  33 HRs  90RBI

8) C Damian Miller  .271 AVG  .337 OBP  13 HRs  47 RBI

   Now, to me, that’s a pretty unremarkable bunch overall.   Nothin’ the 2008 Mariners couldn’t replicate, and trust me, our bullpen is much better than that of the ’01 D-Backs.  Now I’m not sayin’  this is 2001 anymore, and obviously the landscape of baseball has changed drastically in the past 7 years, but the point is that it can be done.   The ’01 D-Backs were able to prove that an overall mediocre lineup that plays defense well,  has a serviceable bullpen and a good solid back end of the rotation full of innings eaters, et al. Miguel  Batista, (’01 and now) truly has the ability to play well enough throughout the course of the regular season to make the playoffs and once there to dominate the competition, as long as you have two Ace caliber pitchers who are at the pinnacle of their athletic prowess.

   Now also imagine the Mariners contending for the AL West next year and they begin one of those trademark tailspins that we’ve grown so accustomed to in the thick of the playoff chase the past two seasons…. well now those tailspins will be more like tail 180′s due to the fact that the losing streaks aren’t going to last very long with two ace caliber starting pitchers going out there every fifth day.   Odds are one of them are going to be on their game enough to put a stop to any skid before they ever even start.

   I’m sorry, but I just disagree with what seems to be the overwhelming opinion that this deal is going to be detrimental to the Mariners.   Many writers, bloggers and anyone who gives a **** about the mariners has debated over this trade til they were blue in the face, with an overwhelming opinion being that keeping Adam Jones is the better decision in the long run and that the Mariners shouldn’t be looking to win right now because they’ don’t have enough talent to contend, and last year was a fluke.   

That simply isn’t true.    I mean would you rather waste the last few years where Ichiro is still an exceptional talent in this league and not give him the opportunity to win a World Series with the Mariners?   Ichiro has worked too hard and is too good of a player to let these years go to waste, and the only reason he re-signed with the mariners is because he was promised by GM Bill Bavasi that the Mariners would really make an attempt at winning now, and I truly believe that is what Bavasi has done with this trade.

   The Mariners really are a talented enough team to make the playoffs, to do well in the playoffs and to win a world series THIS YEAR and that is because of this trade and this trade alone.   I think that if we would have stuck with Adam Jones in right field, and filled the last rotation spot with Horacio Ramirez or Brandon Morrow that I honestly couldn’t sit here and say that I think the Mariners have a legitimate shot at a World Series, and winning the World Series is truly all that matters.   I for one like feeling this way to begin a season, it’s been a while since I’ve felt like the Mariners have a shot and I think all Mariner fans deserve it.   This move has the potential to put this team over the top and hopefully it proves to be the move that finally brings a title to Seattle, because this city needs one in the worst way.