U.S.S. Mariner

There’s sad news tonight, folks — Ken Cloude has signed a minor league contract with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. I wish him the best, but somehow reuniting with Lou doesn’t seem like the best career choice. First Mabry, now Cloude… the organization is falling apart.
Also, I notice that the Yankees have declined their contract [...]

The Mariners have declined to bring John Mabry back for next year, the Everett Herald reports. Manny cleared waivers, so the team didn’t bite on him. Thanks to reader Michael Lewis for the link.

Forgive me for a slightly contemplative mood and a completely unrelated post to the usual topics at hand.
For me, November 1st, 2002 is one of those days that I will always remember. My parents talk of where they were when JFK was shot, we landed on the moon, or the space shuttle [...]

If nobody else is talking about it, I might as well — the M’s have hired Paul Molitor as their new hitting instructor. The most interesting part of this typically bland AP story, however, is this: When Molitor was interviewed recently, [Bret] Boone and [Edgar] Martinez were in the building and got word of his [...]

Update! Because I don’t want to leapfrog Dave’s post: problem’s solved, thanks again to the helpful intervention of readers, I’m up and running again. Content, content, content tonight. And I promise now to not to talk about what it cost to set up the site, as the site has now clearly given more back to [...]

The Red Sox placed Manny Ramirez on waivers yesterday, allowing any team that wants to inherit his contract to take him off of Boston’s hands. These are irrovocable waivers, so if anyone claims Ramirez, the Red Sox lose him and are not awarded any kind of compensation. These waivers are different than the [...]

David may well be right, but let’s be honest — giving the M’s more draft picks is like giving a twenty to a drunk bum you meet in the malt liquor section. The team’s only going to blow any picks they pick up this off-season on tall left-handed high school pitchers.

The free agent rankings from the Elias Sports Bureau are here, and they’re as wacky as ever. The best player in the American League this year; Roy Halladay. Yep, this is our system.
Anyways, this is what matters to Mariner fans. Type A free agents, if offered arbitration, will net the Mariners a [...]

By the way, Bartolo Colon is officially insane. I can’t imagine anyone will give him more than the 3 year, $33 million dollar contract the White Sox offered, especially considering that Colon will almost certainly be a Type A free agent and cost the signing team a draft choice as compensation.
Here’s to [...]

Oh, and Jon Wells of the Official Unofficial Mariner Program of the U.S.S. Mariner, the Grand Salami, emailed us this gem:
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At the Mariners very own website — the truth about the ‘03 payroll. Not even close to $92 million…
Q: Where did the Mariners rank in total payroll in 2003? Thank you very much for the [...]