I added links to some of the newer blogs, or at least blogs we didn’t yet have links for:
Dead Reckoning (M’s News Blog)
Bavasi Stinks
Sabermariners and
San Shin
Enjoy. I’m also getting to work on a new Big Board, one without Kazuhiro Sasaki.
Three cheers for Mike Sugimoto. Yesterday morning, I wish for a Mariners News Blog, and a few hours later, voila! A great addition to the blogosphere. We’ll have it linked on the sidebar shortly.
I like it when pitchers and catchers report. It reminds me that baseball is getting ready to start, that preparations are being made for spring training and the season, and that the long winter, when those of us stuck up here in Seattle endure short days with no sunlight (except today… ahhhhh) for months on end, idly contemplating suicide because at even Hell is at least hot and dry, is finally passing.
And while I advocated trying to get Pudge to bite on a 2-year deal for mucho money, I have to say.. for him, if he’s smart, knowing what others have pointed about the decline of great-hitting catchers, he was likely correct to take a 4-year deal for $40m than a 2-year deal for $30 and then hope to get re-signed again afterwards and try and make that $10m up.
Random thoughts.
1. How cool would a Mariners News Blog be, in the spirit of the Baseball News Blog, providing frequently updated links to help us find the good stuff throughout the blogosphere? Very cool, to answer my own question. Someone should make this happen.
2. Why are tuxes so freaking expensive to rent? Seriously, is there another industry in the world where you can rent an item for one day and charge 75 % of the sale price of the item? And if its “traditional” to say the exact same thing to your spouse, why can’t it be traditional to wear the exact same thing as everyone else, so that your groomsmen don’t fork out hundreds of dollars to rent different tuxes for every wedding?
3. Am I the only one hoping that the time lapse between the reports that the M’s were interested in Ron Villone and now means that someone in the front office might have noticed that he’s not very good?
4. Living in the hotbed of college basketball is awesome. Tickets to the Wake Forest-North Carolina game on Saturday are being scalped in the hundreds, for a regular season game that will have little to no impact on the two teams seasons. The crowd intensity at a college hoops game is unmatched in regular season sporting events. And, on that note, if anyone can help me obtain a ticket to Cameron Indoor to see a Duke home game, I’ll be forever grateful.
5. Am I the only one who hates it when pitchers and catchers report? Its like going to a restaurant and watching the waiter serve the people next to you their food. For two weeks. No games. No meaningful action. Lame quotes. But just interesting enough to remind you of what you’re missing.
Derek’s right, I wasn’t going to bring it up. Despite the fact that this will probably kill Justin Spiro’s credibility in the eyes of most, I really don’t think it should. He got burned by an overzealous source. It happens to everyone who reports on what those “who wish to remain annonymous” tell them.
As I’ve made a good number of friends in the industry over the past two years, many of whom like to tell their friends things “off the record”, I’ve learned that some of it is interesting, some of it is ridiculous, and some of it is just crap. 99 percent of it is speculation, or their opinion, or in some cases, something they want to test public reactions on by getting it out there. I’ve kept a ton of stuff to myself that people wanted me to spread, simply because I don’t care to be the source of rumors. Some people like that gig, and live for breaking stories. I could care less if I’m the first or the fifteenth person to report something, as long as I provide something that is interesting to read. There are times I’ll sit on something until its announced as planned out of respect for the club. I’m sitting on an announcement that a major league club has hired a minor league baseball writer as an area scout right now (that will come out later this week, probably, not like most of you will care either way). I don’t feel a journalistic responsibility to make public everything I know. At the same time, I don’t expect everything that we post to be held to the same standards of a news reporting agency.
I’ll report some stuff, and I’ll refute some stuff, when I feel like its necessary. The Pudge-to-Seattle rumor was so blatently wrong that I felt like I should shoot it down. But, don’t give up on Justin Spiro because of this. I’ve never talked to him, and I don’t know anything about him, but he’s not the first guy to get burned by a source, and he won’t be the last.
Ivan Rodriguez signed with Detroit today. We got some nasty email when Dave, writing on January 23rd, said that Justin Spiro’s (Detriot Sports Net) report that Ivan had agreed to sign with the Mariners was wrong. Particularly, that we were frequently full of ourselves and tooting our own horn for being right about things (though these same detractors were unable to provide me examples — I think we let our record speak for itself and figure our readers know what’s up).
But because I know Dave won’t, I’d like to remind those people that wrote in that Dave was right.
On the scalping issue: yaaayyy. It’s bad enough the team gets to enforce crazy regulations like “you can’t sell your tickets for below face value in front of Safeco” but that they do it while actively trying to get into the scalping business themselves is appalling. The M’s defense has been “Our way is legal, and scalpers aren’t…” but if it was legal to kill someone in Everett (is it?), would it be right to do so? I hope that this does something to remind fans that the M’s aren’t owned by a charitable organization, they’re run to make a great profit.
It’s always been insane to regard team owners as doing some public service because they sign the checks of local sports stars. If there was a way the Mariners could burn down Safeco Field and get the insurance money, we’d all be making s’mores tomorrow on the charcol at First and Royal Brougham.
Derek, in particular, will appreciate this article and the ruling which inspired it. Basically, Seattle Municipal Court Judge Jean Rietschel said the M’s are scalping tickets — illegal in Seattle — via the Ticket Marketplace section of their website, and as such, it doesn’t make sense to punish people caught scalping tickets on the street outside Safeco.
The kicker for me was this line: The judge found that if the M’s didn’t pay undercover city cops to enforce the law, including instructing them exactly where to patrol, such busts would not occur.
“I’m working in the flea market so early
I’ve been working here since my mama was a baby…”
— Prince Fleaswallow
We should in all fairness point out that Pocket Lint also said in the same chat that he would have let Winn and Garcia go in order to sign Vlad. I’m not sure how much this makes up for the rest of the Finnigan stuff we’re firing at him for, but there it is.
Confucious taught that the man to be admired was not the hero or the villan, but the steady bureaucrat who in good times and bad attempted to do as much good for the people as he could given the current adminstration.
That’s… that’s Larry Stone to me. He’s obviously smart, insightful, and for a living he gets to write about baseball. As a result, there are certain obvious restrictions placed on what he can and can’t write about the team, and he struggles with them, and sometimes he gets through, suggesting something obvious the team’s not considering, and sometimes he’s restrained from really going off. I like Larry Stone, and I have a lot of respect for the job he does.
Finnigan… I haven’t seen enough evidence to convince me if PL Finnigan is smart and an active collaborator, a coffee-house Vichy if you will, or if he’s really a W-L, RBI man who takes what he’s given and believes it. Does one deserve more respect than the other? Why?
The M’s have signed a Taiwanese infielder named Yung-Chi Chen. He’s the second player from Taiwan in the organization, joining catcher Chao Wu.
Dammit, I was just going to post that. Couldn’t have said it better. Here’s another great one:
Is this the worst bench in major league history? If Edgar gets injured, what abysmal hitter will replace him at DH? And seriously, will any Mariners bench players get a pinch hit all year? — Jeff, Bellingham
B. F.: No question, the bench is thin at this point. But the bench was supposed to be one of the strengths last year, and barely came into play. The most likely DH if Edgar gets hurt would be outfielder Quinton McCracken. Another option is use Scott Spiezio at DH, and have Willie Bloomquist play third base.
Bench barely came into play…. hmmm… well, that’s just totally false:
McLemore got 309 ABs, more than any single player got at third or short, and more than half of what your normal, 150-something-game player would get
Ben Davis played in 80 games
Bloomquist played 89 games, more than Cirillo did
Mabry somehow got into 64 games
The M’s bench was a large part of their season last year, and anyone who tells you different was either not paying attention or… well, you can draw your own conclusion.