U.S.S. Mariner

Blah blah blah is Ichiro demoralized blah blah Seattle sucks blah blah I have to fill a whole column and can’t write about the Super Bowl blah blah
With the Seattle Mariners in decline, and no real end in sight, the Bud Selig Classic (aka the WBC) is the best shot he’s had in three [...]

Not huge news, as the old contract ran through 2006, but still nice. From the Aquasox press release:
“The Mariners are extremely pleased to extend our affiliation in Everett,” said Mariners Vice-President of Player Development and Scouting, Benny Looper. “The AquaSox management and fans make this an easy decision as our players and staff enjoy [...]

I picked at this post for a long time and never really felt like it was done until the vote happened and Clark only got 4.4% of the vote (23 votes out of 520 cast). That means he’s not eligible again until he goes up for Veteran’s Committee consideration, and I don’t see that he’ll [...]

From Kirby Arnold at the Everett Herald:
The Mariners’ 19-year-old right-hander arrived at Safeco Field on Saturday for the first day of the team’s FanFest as the new owner of a frosted-blond hairdo, a couple of diamond earrings, a fancy pickup truck and a Shih tzu puppy named “King.”
King Felix, as Hernandez has been called by [...]

Last year, we did a series of posts leading up to the start of the season where we covered each part of the roster in a string of emails, and then posted them here. Starting today, we’re launching this year’s crop, beginning behind the plate. The goal is to post two per week, [...]

Officially endorsed car of USSM: Conor Glassey’s* ride which not only has a “Please stay alert to balls and bats leaving the field” dashboard warning and Mariner sticker, but also has this license plate holder:

* yes, the noted gnome-napper and all-around cool guy

In our never-ending quest to move up in the world of servers (You catch that outage last night? Wasn’t that great?), we put out a call a month ago for designs. Here’s the first batch, for your consideration. Please comment if you like ‘em, don’t like ‘em, and as always, if you want to give [...]

One more:
Loiaza: 196 IP, 202 H, 51 B, 131 K, 23 HR, 4.42 park-adjusted ERA. 3y, $21m
Rogers: 165 IP, 198 H, 49 BB, 80 K, 24 HR, 5.59 park-adjusted ERA. 2y, $16m
annnnd then back to Washburn.
Loiaza may be the best free agent pitching acquisition any team made this off-season.

2006 projected lines:
Pitcher A:175 IP, 183 H, 49 BB, 99 K, 24 HR, 4.70 park-adjusted ERA
Pitcher B:184 IP, 208 H, 50 BB, 92 K, 22 HR, 5 park-adjusted ERA
How about this
Pitcher A: 4y, $37.5m
Pitcher B: 1y, $4m
Yes, it’s a repeat of “Pick the Pitcher“

If you’re a Baseball Prospectus subscriber, you can go download them. I mention this in the hopes that it prevents further hijacking (you pirates). I’m not sure how much quoting is cool with my former colleagues, and PECOTAs are worth subscribing for on their own (then, so’s Steve Goldman, I’d suggest (though he also writes [...]