Of course, if Antonetti’s the GM come October, I have a lot more confidence in that.

It’s not ideal to see the Mariners ride over-30 veterans until they suck, rather than ditch them a year early, but it’s defensible given that you don’t want Raul anywhere near the OF, and sticking in TWO RHB rookies in the OF in a park that’s DOOOOOOM TO RIGHTIES is probably pushing it. Guillen’s a useful player, and the contract’s not awful.

I haven’t given up hope yet. Still think there is a small chance they can back their way into the wildcard but I wouldn’t bet on it.

3 years 30 million sounds a reasonable deal for Guillen in this market. He delivered the goods after so many acquisitions shrivelled up and died after coming to the Safe. And furthermore, there seems to be no sign that he’s holding back some pent up craziness to be unleashed once the contract’s signed.

We all want Wlad and AJ to be monster MLB bats, but none of us know exactly how much they can give this team now or in 2008. But we’re pretty sure of what Guillen gives us, and not in the HoRam sense of ’sure’.

That’s a lot of money, but for a team that brings in a lot of money and has a lot of talented, inexpensive kids in a lot of roster spots, that’s not too a big deal.

Also, it must be mentioned that extending Guillen is also a goodwill gesture. He performed and the team rewarded him with a nice contract extension. That reflects well on the org to others and may be seen as an encouraging sign by future free agents that could motivate good talent to sign here.

We HAVE to trade Sexson and every team knows it. We won’t get much, but we’ll get even less. But even after trading Sexson, we’re now locked into Jones, Ichiro, Guillen, Vidro, and Ibanez for 2008 and all but Ibanez for 2009 (assuming the team doesn’t extend him again and Vidro vests). That doesn’t leave a place to get Balentin playing time or more importantly to even look at options on the free agent market of via trade. If we want to acquire a bat at the trading deadline, we don’t have a place to put him.

I’d rather let Guillen walk or just take the one-year option and have some flexibility going forward. I expect we can find a player who’s half as good for 1/3 the price. Or perhaps, using platoons can get just as much value for 1/2 the price.

It’d be nice to think we’ll see AJ in left, so the ONLY way a Guillen extension works is if we see one of Vidro/Ibanez move to 1st, and the other move to DH. Which gives us limited power and bad 1B defense. Then, you’ve still got Richie and Broussard to consider.

Bill Bavasi has painted himself into a corner. Last offseason, it seemed crazy that a team as bad as the Ms had been was basically “set” going into the offseason/spring training. It’s going to be the same this year – every position is either filled or logjammed. How can we improve the position players? Answer is, we can’t. (well, we could give up on Lopez, and trade him for Biggio, I suppose…)

How I wish one of AJ/Wlad were left-handed, then we’d have a chance. Assuming they develop as their skillsets say they could (big if, I know), the best Ms outfield would be AJ/Ichiro/Wlad. Then, some combination of Broussard/Ibanez/Vidro/Sexson/LH_Free_Agent at 1B/DH.

Guillen is doing far better than I’d expected this year, and has certainly been an asset. I just worry about clogging up the team with a “veteran” who won’t sit, and can’t hit righties…