Seems even stranger that you’d give a great gob of your budget to a potential out machine.

See, the mistake you’re believing is going on isn’t the strategy now that we HAVE the potential out machine; the mistake is in getting the guy in the first place.

I could draw an analogy here with the Iraq situation, but it’d be like shooting fish in a barrel. Too easy.

Just look at what they had to give up in trade and take on in salary to get Vidro – he MUST be a #3 hitter.

I wonder whether, if Beltre didn’t “need” to hit 2nd, Hargrove would put Vidro there “because he will hit lefthanded most of the time and pull grounders through the open right side when Ichiro is on 1st.”

Word is finally back on the J.J. Putz MRI and it is pretty decent. The Mariners say Putz has a mild strain of a flexor pronator muscle, part of a group of muscles in the forearm near the elbow. Long story short, he’ll have had five days between bullpen sessions by Tuesday and the team hopes the elbow stiffness and pain subsides by then.

We’ll have a chat with trainer Rick Griffin about it once this game ends, likely in another inning since the M’s trail 4-1 in the top of the ninth and have mustered only three hits all day.

Is this good news? Yes, it is, since Putz will start throwing again with a little less than a week’s delay. But the really big news will come later Tuesday, or even on Wednesday morning. That’s when we’ll know whether this “mild strain” was just a one-time occurence or a potential problem that will keep coming back or getting worse. It will all depend on how much pain Putz can tolerate and how quickly this particular muscle can bounce back.

So, is the team out of the woods? Nope.