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Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Posted by Ryan Divish @ 02:12:19 pm
 I just got back to the office and got the call. There's a conference call set up for reporters at 2:30 p.m. I'm assuming the signing of Wilkerson means that a deal for Bedard can't be too far down the road because Wilkerson didn't take an offer to be a left-handed bat off the bench for the Red Sox because he was still looking for the chance to play every day. But who knows. Signing Wilkerson probably was one of the contingency plans Mariners GM Bill Bavasi spoke about during last week's press conference.
Categories: General
• 13 comments
Posted by Ryan Divish @ 02:24:26 am
Ummmmm that would be me. How do I know this? Because it's 2:33 a.m. and I'm posting this. Well, that and I have no life. Also, there isn't much on at this time of night, not even on Skinemax. The Baltimore Sun is reporting that Peter Angelos didn't veto the trade as many people thought. Notice, they didn't say he wasn't holding the trade up. There's also some nice history of Angelos' interference in trades in this story. Anyway, Jim Street of MLB.com reports that the Orioles might be trying to sign Erik Bedard to an extension. Here's the story. As we said before, it's going to take big years, at least five, and big money (we're talking close to Santana money) to get Bedard to stay. Why? Well, the guy is tired of losing. Think about how good his numbers are for a team that finished 69-93 last season. The Orioles haven't been a winner for awhile, and they won't be for awhile longer. So even if Bedard gets, say, a $100 million, he'll still be playing for a team that has little if any chance to make the postseason. Now, he could not resign, go to the Mariners for two years and still possibly make almost as much money in a year or two. But he could also flame out and lose all that guaranteed money. What would you do? Also, I thought I'd include this: If you get frustrated being an M's fan, just look at what the Orioles' fans have to look forward to. Roch Kubatko's column does it pretty good justice.
Categories: General
• 4 comments
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
Posted by Ryan Divish @ 10:59:06 pm
 OK, here’s the latest story out of Baltimore from the Sun. The piece I found interesting is that the Orioles were annoyed by Adam Jones speaking about the discussions. Apparently there is rumor swirling around the Baltimore area that the reason the deal is being held up is a concern that Adam Jones may have a degenerative hip condition. I have ow idea where or how this rumor started. The guys over at the Baltimore Sun, who are good guys and solid journalists, are treating it as nothing more than a wild rumor. Roch Kubatko mentions it in his blog. I covered more than 50 Rainiers games last season and saw Jones every day, and I never saw him so much as limp during my time. In fact, he was pretty durable. He only missed a handful of games, and they were all for minor dings that are commonplace during the season. But the idea of a degenerative-hip problem hits the Orioles where they live. In 1999, they signed then-free agent slugger Albert Belle to a five-year, $65 million contract. After just one season, it was discovered Belle had a degenerative-hip arthritic condition - he fought his way through an injury shortened 2000 season and never played again. But because of that, Angelos has been obsessed with getting the most in-depth medical background he can for any player he’s going to sign or trade for. And so any sort of peep about a possible health issue with the Mariners' centerpiece of the Bedard deal is going to be a cause for concern and extreme checking. That being said, I'd be really surprised if Jones had anything wrong with him. I think it's people just looking for reasons or excuses. Then again I could be wrong. After all, I thought Britney Spears would make a great mom too. More to come tomorrow I'm sure....
Categories: General
• 7 comments
Posted by Ryan Divish @ 03:20:52 pm
You should really check out this photo montage of this year's Mariners' fan fest done by the News Tribune's Russ Carmack. There's some pretty cool shots. Here's a sample. 
Categories: General
Posted by Ryan Divish @ 02:31:54 pm
Monday, January 28th, 2008
Posted by Ryan Divish @ 04:00:49 pm
The Baltimore Sun just posted a story, saying basically the framework of the proposed trade is up, but that nothing has been finalized. As expected it looks like Orioles owner Peter Angelos could be the one holding up it up as he wants final approval on the deal Here's the link to the story. It appears Adam Jones hasn't even left Venezuela yet, according to KOMO's Shannon Drayer.
Posted by Ryan Divish @ 02:40:50 pm
The breaking news is that there really is no new news to report. As I type this, Erik Bedard is still an Oriole and Adam Jones is still a Mariner. Now that can change in a moment's notice. Roch Kubatko's blog on the Baltimore Sun has another post about his thoughts on the deal and how everything has went down. It's pretty interesting, particularly his comments about how controlling Andy MacPhail is about leaked information. He makes Bill Bavasi, a notoriously reserved guy, seem like a media dream. ESPN being ESPN also has to weigh in with their experts. Jayson Stark, who is as good as it gets in the business, offers some interesting info in his story. The biggest factor Stark mentions is the need for Peter Angelos to "green light" the deal. He also mentions possible replacements for Jones for the Mariners, including Luis Gonzalez, which had been rumored for a while and Brad Wilkerson. Stark was on KJR today talking with Mitch in the Morning. You can listen to it here. The whole Angelos thing can be tricky, remember he has a habit of vetoing trades he doesn't like. Apparently, he just nixed a deal for Brian Roberts being traded to the Cubs. He did the same thing with proposed trade for Roberts with the Braves for last season, as well as a trade that would have sent Miguel Tejada to the Angels last season as well. According to reports, besides Jones, lefthander George Sherrill, pitchers Chris Tillman, Kam Mickolio and possibly another player would be headed to Baltimore. We'll get into that stuff a little later.
Categories: General
Sunday, January 27th, 2008
Posted by Ryan Divish @ 07:54:31 pm
Larry is unable to update the blog (more on a different day), so I thought I'd post some info. Most Seattle news outlets including the News Tribune are reporting that Adam Jones has left his winter league team and is headed to Baltimore. Here's the link to our story. But Baltimore GM Andy MacPhail is denying the rumors saying no deal is done to the Baltimore sun. Here's the story. Here's the Sun's Orioles blog that has some various updates on the situation.
Categories: General
• 4 comments
Friday, January 18th, 2008
Posted by Larry LaRue @ 06:45:10 pm
 Horacio Ramirez had a bad season, lost his job and got a raise when the Seattle Mariners agreed to pay him $2.75 million and avoid salary arbitration. Times may be hard, but not in baseball. After starting just 20 games – because of injuries and ineffectiveness – Ramirez finished the season 8-7 with a 7.16 earned run average in 2007. He averaged just under five innings per start. The team hopes new pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre can salvage the leftie’s career, and that’s no small chore. Like many finesse pitchers, Ramirez can sail through his share of easy innings. His problem lies in escaping major rallies, and without an ‘out pitch’ he didn’t often do that last season. It’s doubtful his fastball will improve, and off-speed pitches are tough to throw with the bases juiced – so what is Ramirez going to have to do? Count more on sinkers and breaking balls and mixing pitches. By the way, that $2.75 million he’ll get in 2008? It puts him 11th on the team in salaries. Here’s the top 15: 1. Ichiro Suzuki, $17 million 2. Richie Sexson, $14 million 3. Adrian Beltre, $12 million 4. Carlos Silva, $12 million 5. Jarrod Washburn, $10 million 6 Miguel Batista, $9 million 7. Jose Vidro, $8.5 million 8. Raul Ibanez, $5.5 million 9. Kenji Johjima $5.2 million 10. J.J. Putz, $3.4 million 11. Horacio Ramirez, $2.75 million 12. Yuniesky Betancourt, $1.25 million 13. George Sherrill, $980,000 14. Willie Bloomquist, $950,000 15. Miguel Cairo, $850,000
Categories: General
• 8 comments
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
Posted by Larry LaRue @ 05:15:46 pm
 By simply going about their off-season business, the Seattle Mariners seem to to feeding the Erik Bedard rumors on a daily basis. This time, the team signed left-handed reliever George Sherrill to avoid arbitration with him – and immediately, the perception was that Sherrill had been signed soley to improve the chances of including him in a trade to Baltimore. They invite lefty Arthur Rhodes to camp, even though elbow reconstruction probably won’t allow him to pitch until May, and analysts wonder if Seattle is hoping he can replace Sherrill, who of course will be in Baltimore by then. Yes, it’s Hot Stove time, and the heat is making everyone silly. The Mariners pulled Adam Jones from the lineup of his winter league playoff team last weekend, in part because they’d heard the Orioles were going to move Bedard. Turns out, the Orioles were close – but to a deal with the Cubs, not the Mariners. It fell through. Jones is back in the lineup. And Bedard remains in play. The media hasn’t helped the situation. As weeks go by, the ‘list’ of players headed to Baltimore changes and grows and has now mutated to cover virtually every top prospect in the Seattle system. The truth is, beyond Jones, no one is certain what players the two teams have discussed – and it hasn’t mattered much yet, since they can’t seem to reach the point of making the trade happen. In the meantime, the Mariners covet Bedard and are going about the business of putting together a team that may not include him.
Categories: General
• 12 comments
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
Posted by Larry LaRue @ 12:28:02 pm
 Rich Gossage finally made the Hall of Fame, ending years of head-shaking by those who watched him pitch and knew he belonged. Those who disagreed were married to the numbers. Gossage never saved more than 33 games in a season, had as many as 30 only twice in a 22-year career. That says as much about the era he worked in, however, as about the Goose. After winning nine games and saving 26 – with a 1.84 earned run average – for the Chicago White Sox in 1975, the team was so unimpressed with his bullpen work it made him a starting pitcher the next year. The closers who made the Hall ahead of him were Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersley and Bruce Sutter, and all deserved the honor. All, however, had specialty pitches – from Wilhelm’s knuckler to Sutter’s split-fingered fastball. Fingers and Eckersley used sliders as an out pitch. Goose was all fastballs, and with his moustache and glare from the mound he seemed as much a fictional character as anyone in the game. Ken Griffey Jr. remembered being in the Yankee clubhouse as a kid, and feeling at home – except when confronted with Gossage. “He’d lay there on the training table for the first four or five innings of a game, with a newspaper over his face,” Griffey said years later. “We were never sure if he was alive under there. Then he’d get up, and he’d have that look on his face and we’d run.” In 1994, Gossage joined the Seattle Mariners on the final day of spring training. Oakland had released him, and he was no longer a closer. He asked old teammate Lou Piniella for a tryout. Lou gave it to him, and the Mariners signed him. It wasn’t charity. Piniella used Gossage as a middle-of-the-game stopper, bringing him into jams in the fifth and sixth innings with one message: Keep us in this game. The Goose responded. In 36 games, he went 3-0 – got one save – and had a 3.77 ERA. And he taught young Mariners pitchers that it didn't matter when you entered a game. “I live for that one inning, even if it’s the sixth instead of the ninth,” Gossage said. “Games are won and lost in the sixth, too.” He was as fierce a competitor as ever took the mound. As a closer, there were no secrets with Gossage – he was going to challenge everyone he faces with that fastball. If it took two innings, no problem. Occasionally, it took more. “You know why he’s so good out there?” Piniella once asked. “Sometimes, he’s just tougher than the other guy. He couldn’t stand losing. When it mattered most, Goose was just tougher.” The Hall of Fame is better with his presence. So was baseball.
Categories: General
• 2 comments
Monday, January 7th, 2008
Posted by Larry LaRue @ 06:40:21 pm
Something to ponder as we will ourselves through another dark, damp week in the Northwest - spring training is on the horizon. Seattle Mariners pitchers and catchers report for physicals on Feb. 13 in Peoria, Ariz. One day later, they will be on the field for the first time. There will be more than a few introductions - coaches Mel Stottlemyre, Norm Charlton, Jim Riggleman, Sam Perlozzo and Eddie Rodriguez are new, along with returning hitting coach Jeff Pentland. As it stands now, the depth chart for would-be starters is deep. You have to pencil in Felix Hernandez, Jarrod Washburn, Carlos Silva and Miguel Batista - and then the fun begins. In the running for that fifth spot are Cha Seung Baek, R.A. Dickey, Brandon Morrow, Horacio Ramirez and Ryan Rowland-Smith.
Categories: General
• 3 comments
Sunday, January 6th, 2008
Posted by Larry LaRue @ 11:18:21 am
 The one thing Shane Monahan could always do was talk. In parts of two seasons with the Seattle Mariners – in 1998 and 1999 – his mouth was a problem for him. After his first week in the majors, veteran players wouldn’t speak to him. “He knows everything already,” Jay Buhner said. Monahan’s attitude and his mouth cost him. He’d tell anyone who’d listen how good he was. Mention a player starting ahead of him – Glenallen Hill or John Mabry, for instance – and Monahan would talk about how bad they were and how the only reason they played more than he did was manager Lou Piniella. Eventually, when Monahan was let go by the team, he left it without a friend. To the end, he talked – promising to embarrass the franchise by coming back in another uniform and beating them. He never got that chance. Twenty-nine other teams passed on Monahan, who was driving a beer truck a year later. When Monahan talked publicly again last week, it was about the use of greenies (amphetamines) and performance enhancing drugs in the Seattle clubhouse. He said, in essence, that everyone was using them except Dan Wilson, who he never saw take anything. Piniella, he said, had to know about all that. In the time Monahan was a Mariner, David Segui carried a little black medical bag with him everywhere, and kept it openly in his clubhouse locker while he was at the Kingdome. So did Hill, now a coach with the Colorado Rockies whose name turned up in the Mitchell Report. So, like truck drivers and college students, ball players took speed upon occasion. And like everyone else in society, they learned the drug would keep them awake for days but not help performance. Monahan’s comments may well have been an earnest effort to come clean, but by painting the whole clubhouse with one brush he took on an entire franchise. That wasn’t fair. So were most Mariners in those days. And if Piniella was supposed to know about the few who weren’t, the question is how? No one has ever suggested any player ever took performance enhancing drugs while sitting in a clubhouse. Still, that doesn’t mean he lied. What he did was exaggerate, and that undermined the truth he tried to tell.
Categories: General
• 5 comments
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
Posted by Larry LaRue @ 02:27:05 pm
The Mariners hopes of landing a top-of-the-rotation pitcher may have to wait until the 2008 season has begun - the Baltimore Orioles say they're likely to open the year with Erik Bedard as their ace. From Baltimore's point of view, it's a low-risk move: Bedard cannot be a free agent until after the 2009 season. Yes, he could be injured and ruin any potential trade this year, but that risk runs both ways. Teams interested in Bedard now - and there are a handful of them - could also have staff injuries that drive their needs higher. For what looked like a spectacular off-season auction of pitching talent, only one of the Big Three arms made available has been dealt. Dan Haren went from Oakland to Arizona for a package of young players, but Johan Santana remains a Twin and Bedard is still an Oriole. Much as the Mariners want Bedard, and they have offered Adam Jones, Jeff Clement and any young pitcher they have other than Brandon Morrow, not getting him might not be a major failure. Starting the season with Jones in right field and Clement available as a left-handed hitter might strengthen Seattle's roster.
Categories: General
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
Posted by Larry LaRue @ 10:48:07 am
Welcome to the New Year and the question de jour – are the Seattle Mariners contenders yet? Start with the obvious: This team finished six games behind the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2007. The Angels have added pitching in Jon Garland, offense and defense in center fielder Torri Hunder and lost shortstop Orlando Cabrera, a leader on and off the field. Are they better? Yes, but not hugely so. The Mariners added pitching with Carlos Silva and R.A. Dickey, lost 99 RBI with the departure of free agent Jose Guillen, who will replaced in right field by phenom Adam Jones. Are they better? Marginally. The Mariners traded away Ben Broussard, a left-handed hitter the team decided would make too much money to sit on the bench. They waved goodbye to one failed experiment, Jeff Weaver, and lowered all expectations on another, Horatio Ramirez. Neither the Angels nor the Mariners have finished their off-season wish list, and the American League West may be determined by whether either gets the missing piece. The Angels wanted a big bat this off-season, but in essence replaced Cabrera with Hunter and left a hole at shortstop. They failed in efforts to land third baseman Miguel Cabrera, then missed again on Miguel Tejada. The Mariners made runs at Minnesota’s Johan Santana and Baltimore’s Erik Bedard, and still believe they have a shot at the latter if not the former. One more big bat in Anaheim would make the Angels overwhelming favorites to win the division. Landing Bedard might leave the Mariners with a rotation capable of matching the Angels. What if neither roster changes much before opening day? Then the Angels have a clear edge, but the Mariners can contend – while relying on players that didn’t contribute much last year. If Richie Sexson is done, and he’s had three good months in the last two seasons, then Seattle probably is, too. If Sexson rebounds from the disaster of ’07 with a 30-home run, 100-RBI season, the Mariners almost certainly close the gap on the Angels. If Jose Lopez is capable of a full season of solid play, not just half of one, Seattle is a better team. He batted .213 after the All-Star break, drove in just 13 runs. If Dickey, Ryan Rowland-Smith or Brandon Morrow – or even the longest of shots, Ramirez – can make the fifth spot in the Mariners rotation a plus, the Mariners again are an improved team. Then there’s the reliance on Jones, who has all the tools but hasn’t the chance to succeed or fail in the majors. As of the New Year, the Mariners are contenders with far more ‘ifs’ than the team they’re chasing. Most years, no franchise gets lucky enough to have every question answered in a positive way. The last one to do so, though, played in Seattle in 2001. Then questionable players like Mark McLemore, Aaron Sele, Stan Javier and Paul Abbott panned out and the Mariners won 116 games. This season, Seattle would happily settle for 20 less wins and take its chances.
Categories: General
• 6 comments
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Mariners Insider
Ryan Divish has been with The News Tribune since 2006, covering the Tacoma Rainiers and high school sports. Divish played baseball at Dickinson State University and also earned a journalism degree from the University of Montana. You will find news, observations, anecdotes, analysis and photographs on this blog. The purpose is to keep readers informed, but also give them a feel for the team and its players, and a place to go to read about baseball. Category
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