Dear Jeff,

Thank you for your email – our apologies for the delayed response. We received a
number of e-mails prior to signing Carl Everett and they were shared with some
of the organizational vice presidents. We welcome your comments and appreciate
the passion with which you have expressed your opinion. As you may have heard,
the Seattle Mariners have signed Carl Everett to a one-year contract.

We believe Carl Everett will be an asset to the Mariners both on and off the
field. We are aware of the issues that Carl had in the past, but we believe he
has dealt with them and has successfully moved on. We hope fans will give him a
chance here in Seattle.

As with every player we sign, Bill Bavasi and his staff have done a thorough job
researching Carl. They have talked to numerous people throughout the game of
baseball, including Ozzie Guillen, his manager last season. They are confident
that Carl’s intensity, enthusiasm and competitive spirit will be a good for our
team both on the field and in the clubhouse. As a switch-hitter, he will
provide our lineup with versatility and the left-handed run production we need.

In addition, we like that Carl was a big contributor to a World Series
Championship team in Chicago last year, when he batted .251 with 23 home runs
and 87 RBI. In the post-season, he batted .300.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to let us know your thoughts. We are
looking forward to the 2006 season. We believe we have a good foundation in
place with exciting young players like Felix Hernandez, Yuniesky Betancourt and
Jose Lopez, and experienced veterans like Jamie Moyer, Richie Sexson, Adrian
Beltre and Raul Ibañez. We still have work to do, but our goal is to become a
championship caliber team as quickly as possible. We hope you will be there
with us for all the excitement of Mariners baseball in 2006 and beyond.

Seattle Mariners Fancare

Lessee, what’s gone right? Johjima fell into Bill B.’s lap, and he shook hands rather than standing up. Small credit there, but credit still. The Torrealba trade was nicely worked; that shows _someone_ in the FO understands the value of minorleaguers in other systems. I’m by no means sure that Bill is the one with the understanding, but still this was a nice little deal. Guardado and Moyer are somewhat problematic retentions, but they are popular, still effective, and reasonably priced in relation to the market; not bad moves, with real upsides, but structurally dictated since they’re already here, i.e. no-brainers more or less.

The entirety of the _majorleaguers_ linked to the Ms in rumors or actual signings is an almost incredibly bad lot. Everett, Ponson, Washburn, Morris: one simply cannot, CANNOT improve a team significantly with dross of that tensile strength, and all of those guys are almost ridiculously expensive for their lack of production. Juan Pierre is no improvement on anyone here, and a bunch more expensive. I like Reed for Clement if it’s balanced with more coming back from Boston; I suspect that the Bosox proposed this one, though, not the Ms. Bavasi doesn’t have a lot of major leaguers to trade—it’s Reed alone, unless he wants to put Beltre or Guardado in play which evidently he has no stomach for. In that sense, I’d want to cut Bavasi some slack for getting shut out of one of the best trading markets in years—but he’s paid to find a way, and he hasn’t. Nice guy finishing out of the money is what he is.

If beyond Johjima and Moyer it turns out that Everett, Washburn, and a few NRIs is the best Bavasi can do to save his job, I would far, far rather that the team fires him now so that in losing 90+ again the organization at least isn’t saddled with more albatross contracts. I don’t need to watch more guys of the Cirillo-Baldwin-Aurilia calibre which is exactly what we’re talking about here, rejects for loser organizations. A _very_ depressing offseason so far.

And Garland is significantly better than Washburn. He’s a groundball guy who throws strikes and has solid average stuff. But there’s no way he’s worth the $10-12 mil he’ll get in arbitration plus the three good players/prospects it will take to trade for him.

In other words … pass.

I created a good part of the analytical paradigm that the statistical analysts advocate, and certainly I believe in that paradigm and I advocate it within the Red Sox front office. But at the same time, the real world is too complicated to be explained by that paradigm. It is one thing to build an analytical paradigm that leaves out leadership, hustle, focus, intensity, courage and self-confidence; it is a very, very different thing to say that leadership, hustle, courage and self-confidence do not exist or do not play a role on real-world baseball teams. The people who think that way…not to be rude, but they’re children. They may be 40-year-old children, they may be 70-year-old children, but their thinking is immature.

“MLB.com has learned that the Mariners are no longer pursuing right-hander Scott Elarton. They remain in the mix for Scott Boras clients Kevin Millwood and Jarrod Washburn.”

Speaking of which, it’s a good week to visit Vancouver. Steamworks is pouring their RoggenWeizen.