Beltre-o-matic
Ahhh… brief internet access.
I would qualify the sourcing on Beltre thing I called Jason with as “erratically reliable”.
I admit that when I heard it, I pretty much blew a fuse before calling Jason. I am, at heart, a huge M’s fan (you may have noticed). So forgive my contagious enthusiasm.
Last Feed Reminder
The Second Annual U.S.S. Mariner Pizza Feed is one week away. Next Saturday, Jason, Derek, and I are going to be hosting a pretty large get together of M’s fans to hang out, talk baseball, and generally have a good time. We’re bringing in some pretty cool guests, as well, and a good time will be had by all. Unless, of course, the Mariners have signed Jeromy Burnitz to a five year contract, in which case, we’ll likely turn into a mob with pitchforks and start burning things to the ground.
The details of the event are below. I am placing the food order tonight, so if you’d like attend, you pretty much need to let us know today.
When?: December 18th from 12 pm to 5 pm.
Where?: Horace Mann Elementary School in Redmond.
Who?: Derek, Jason, Dave, you, and various special guests who you’ll enjoy meeting.
How much?: $15 per person
Is there food?: Enough pizza, salad, and sides for lunch and a small dinner (New York Vinnie excluded)
Great! Now what? If you’re going to attend, you must do three things:
1. Email us with the name of each person you’re confirming attendance for.
2. You’ll receive an address in response to mail your check to. Payment in advance is required; your spot is not guaranteed until we receive your money.
3. Show up on the 18th.
See you all next Saturday.
Raining on the parade
You know whats cool about multi-author blogs? You can get conflicting rumors from the same site…
I love Jason and D, but this one doesn’t have legs. Beltre to the M’s is not a done deal. I’m guessing Derek’s source got a little jumpy. It doesn’t look like Beltre will sign at the meetings.
Beltre?
OK, hot rumor. Take this with the normal Mo Vaughn-sized grain of salt.
I just received a phone call from Derek — who would have posted this himself, except he’s away on business — who told me he got a call from someone at the Winter Meetings saying the M’s got Adrian Beltre. Now, Derek trusts the person in question or he wouldn’t have passed this along, but at the same time, it’s all rumor at this point. Please, don’t go passing this off as fact and then come back here screaming when it turns out not to be true, OK?
It took me about ten seconds to go from happy to figuring out how they’d still manage to screw this one up — Beltre plays first and they sign Koskie to play third.
Beltre or bust
Jim Caple writes on ESPN.com gets in some punches —
Had the Mariners invested money when they should have — they didn’t even spend the much-hyped Kaz Sasaki savings, as they promised they would last year — Seattle wouldn’t face the daunting task it does now: Dramatically overhauling a team so old that its clubhouse sound system should be an eight-track cassette player.
He also buys into the Sexson-Delgado-type rumors, saying that they won’t go after Beltre.
Instead, they will go after the next level of more affordable free agents, players who might be able to help significantly but aren’t going to generate Ichiro Bobblehead Night-like lines at the season ticket window.
Still, I’m not despairing. Beyond the rash of local articles mentioning the persuit of Beltre, there’s increasing recognition in the wider press that the team’s serious.
Woo-hoo! I agree with Dave (and many others) that given the state of the team, they need to either spend on Beltre/Beltran long-term or stay away from long-term deals entirely.
I think of it this way: in 2006, when hopefully the team’s looking to add the final pieces around a team with King Felix and some other young, cheap core talent, I don’t want to be resigned to “well, once Sexson and Koskie’s contracts are up next year, that’ll free up $12m we could spend on a top pitcher…”
Patience
Larry Stone, filing from Anaheim.
There was confirmation yesterday from a baseball source that the club has made an offer, reportedly significant, to third baseman Adrian Beltre, one of the jewels of the free-agent marketplace.
Glaus could conceivably play first base, but Bavasi said, “Our designs were on him and a first baseman, so that made first base not an option.”
Patience is a virtue. Good things come to those who wait. I’m sure I could bust out a few more cliches, but we’ll leave it there for now.
More good news
The Dodgers have signed Jeff Kent to a two year, $17 million contract. His position is as of yet unsettled. The Dodgers got a great year out of Alex Cora, so second base is probably his least likely position. And yes, it’s fair to say that this signing was made with the understanding that Adrian Beltre’s return isn’t as likely as the Dodgers would wish.
The Angels are supposedly on the verge of signing Steve Finley to a two year, $20 million contract that would end their pursuit of Carlos Beltran.
There’s just no way to spin this as anything but good news for Mariner fans.
This will look familiar
Marlins stadium talks aren’t going as well as the team wants, so… they’re meeting with Las Vegas! They’ll move! No, really, they will! Don’t make them move — give them what they want! They don’t want to have to move, but if they don’t get their stadium, they’ll be forced to!
If only George Argyros wasn’t occupied with other things we could really take this back to the 1980s.
Dye to White Sox
Kenny Williams has done it again. Jermaine Dye gets 2 years, $10 million from the White Sox to replace Magglio Ordonez in right field.
At this point, it’s pretty evident that the middle class of baseball players is so remarkably overvalued that a team would be best served by avoiding it completely. Acquire as many star players as possible, than fill out the roster with young players making the league minimum. There’s just no reason to pay $5 million per season for Jermaine Dye.
Glaus to Arizona
This should get things moving along on the offensive side of things.
The Diamondbacks effectively ended their contract stalemate with slugger Richie Sexson by convincing free-agent third baseman Troy Glaus to sign a four-year, $45 million contract with the club, The Arizona Republic has learned…
The 6-foot-5, 245-pound Glaus, 28, will be given a $4 million signing bonus and a salary of $8.25 million this season. He’ll make $9.25 million in 2006, $10.75 million in 2007 and $12.75 million in 2008.
This knocks Arizona out of the running for Richie Sexson. Now that Glaus is off the board, I expect Sexson and Delgado won’t be too terribly far behind. Should be a fun week.