A few months ago, you might remember, I ranted pretty heavily against all those annoying pop-up ads that come as a result of surfing the old WWW. Numerous readers offered their suggestions, and while I appreciated them, I didn’t do anything to prevent pop-ups until this week. I’ve been using the Google Toolbar since Monday — it’s already blocked 190 pop-ups, and not a single one has gotten through. Best of all, it’s completely free to use. (I’ve been using the toolbar for awhile now, but only this week picked up on its pop-up blocking ability.) Needless to say, I’m giving the Google Toolbar my full endorsement.
John Hickey of the PI has details of the Winn/Franklin deals and also reports from the winter meetings in New Orleans that the M’s are hunting for Miguel Tejada… and looking to… wait for it… “On the Cirillo front, the Mariners are hoping to be able to package him in a deal, either with a pitcher, up to and including starter Freddy Garcia, or to take one of someone else’s troubles. “
Hee hee hee. It was funny when I first heard it (was it PL Finnegan?) and it’s still funny.
But here’s the part I differ with:
“The rumor mill says the Tejada camp is extremely interested in a long-term contract, seven or eight years. However, deals like that don’t come around much any more. Alex Rodriguez’s 10-year deal with the Rangers pretty much killed off the longer-is-better notion.
“After three consecutive last-place finishes with Rodriguez as the shortstop, Texas must rebuild. “
Alex’s contract isn’t the problem in Texas, it’s that they’ve spent all the rest of their money stupidly on Chan Ho Park and other moves any baseball fan off the street could have told them were dumb. Alex is a durable shortstop who plays good defense and hits the cover off the ball, a unique and almost unpriceable talent. That his contract is long, or expensive, is not now and has never been why Texas has been bad. It’s an excuse, not a reason.
Now, I don’t argue with the larger wisdom of avoiding long-term deals — except that as the market swings back that direction, we’re likely to see some team (Milwaukee, if they’re smart) do what the early years of last batch of great Cleveland teams did: sign their best young players to long-term deals early, offering them security at a time they don’t have to, in return for giving up years of free agency. Long-term deals aren’t the problem, necc.: it’s the kind of massive long-term deals that aging veterans were getting that turned into killers.
Anyway.
Ryan Franklin’s new deal is $4.3M over two years, in case you hadn’t heard.
Aha!
I’ve got it! It’s a hoax!
I can only hope this isn’t true, but if it is…
The good news here is that Omar has only one more year left on his contract (i.e., 2004 and that’s all). He’s a better hitter than he was during his first go-round in Seattle, though it’s getting closer, and his defense has certainly taken a step backwards with age (he’ll be 37 in April). From the M’s perspective, this looks like a one-year stopgap until Jose Lopez takes over in 2005. That’s not a terrible thing, but for much less money — and without giving up anything in trade — they could have accomplished the same thing by re-signing Rey Sanchez for a year.
Man, I hope the Cleveland Indians Report jumped the gun on this one.
Update: By all accounts, this report is a hoax. Insert collective sigh of relief… now.
In stunning news, Vladimir Guerrero is reportedly going to sign with the Cleveland Indians for 4 years and $60 million. The Indians will then clear salary space by trading Omar Vizquel to Seattle.
Stunning, and terrible, news. 4 years, $60 million for Vlad is an absolute bargain, and dumping the remains of Omar Vizquel on the M’s is pouring salt in the open wound.
Clarification: This link is not meant as a confirmation of the validity of this story, which may or may not be true. I have met Joe Ptak, author of CIR, and can vouch for his credentials as a reliable source of Indians information. However, circumstances surrounding the post call the authenticity into question, and the riots in the streets should be withheld until the story is either confirmed or denied by someone involved with a major league organization.
Three new M’s blogs in a day! Our cup overfloweth. U.S.S. Mariner frequent correspondent Jeff Sullivan offers Leone for Third. Guess who he wants to see at the hot corner. Go on, guess.
Two new entries in the M’s blogosphere today, not sure if they’re ready to be outed, but I’ve always been a strong proponent of a strong Mariners fan community, so go check ’em out. And folks, if you don’t want your website outed early, try not to show up in our referer logs. Hee hee hee.
And if anyone knows where Dave of “Dave’s Mariners Blog” is, could you wake him up? It’s been a month since we got a posting out of that guy.
Quote of the day: I was talking to some smart guy about the M’s front office situation and he said “At least it’s not a good GM that’s being wasted — it would really suck if they hired Billy Beane and Gillick was still running things.”
Debate rages: Bavillick (submitted by reader AMZ) or Gillvasi? Cast your vote now.
Updated: it’s neck and neck for this pointless and ultimately futile gesture of defiance!
Wait, so Mike Cameron isn’t worth more than 1y/4m to the team, but Winn’s worth 3y/3.75m? How… what… I don’t…
Details on Randy Winn’s contract are in. It’s a two-year deal with a dual option for the third year — the team has an option for $5M, but if they decline it, it becomes Winn’s option at $3.75M. The deal breaks down as follows:
2004: $3.5M
2005: $3.75M ($125K bonus for 650 plate appearances)
2006: Club option $5M or player option $3.75M, plus the same $125K clause as 2005
There don’t appear to be monetary details on Ryan Franklin’s two-year deal as of yet.