Comments on The Mariners-Orioles Deal May (Finally) Be Done

That's hot. They run all sorts of tests to make sure we're buying good stock...

After they see if Bedard can touch his toes, I hope they test him for steroids. Ya know, just in case.

Sherrill will be fine. Jones? I wish him the best (meaning that I hope he don't turn into Jose Cruz Jr.).

Of course, Shaq just passed his physical for the Phoenix Suns, and he hasn't even been able to play for a month or so. Maybe they just check their blood pressure and call it good.

Worst. Deal. Ever.

Does that mean the Mariners are going away as well? Only one left after them!

Sherrill just became Baltimore's new closer; Jones is their new stud All-Star center fielder; and two of the three pitchers are going to be in the major-league rotation in a year or two. All of these guys except Sherrill will be under Baltimore team control for almost no salary for 5-6 years. Meanwhile we get two years of a really good starter with no guarantees after that. The Mets gave up FAR LESS for FAR MORE -- the best pitcher in the game.

We'll be the worst team in baseball in 2010.

There are no guarantees, but we'll see, Fnarf.

Give me the exact commodity we need this year - one which is in extremely short supply in the league - and I think we give the Angels a run for their money. I'm all for playing to win this year. And next; the two year deal is a big difference.

I think Bedard improves automatically by leaving the division in which all he sees is Sox, Yankees and Jays batting line-ups.

What a horrible deal this is. The mets gave up far less for Johan fucking Santana.

Bavasi should be shot.

The Twins shit the bed on Santana, holding on to him until they could get nothing in return. That's not Bavasi's fault.

And now that I've defended Bavasi, I'm going to soak my head in pee. Feels so relatively clean!

It sucks to lose Jones, Sherrill and three pitching prospects. But it's great to get a top shelf pitcher like Bedard and finally have enough rotation depth to run a #5 starter out there without cringing.

I'm torn on how I feel about this. The M's just shot their future in the foot, but they always do that. It's great to add an ace, but it's a 'put your eggs in one basket deal' where one arm injury can wreck all the value in this trade... and when Bedard becomes a free agent, who says he doesn't walk and leave the M's with nothing?

All I can say is I hope they exceed expectations over the next couple seasons.

Bedard's coming to pitch for a team that cannot play defense for shit. Ichiro's decent in center, but Ibanez is historically godawful in left, the new guy Wilkerson is a tree in right, Sexson's the worst 1B in the history of the world, and Lopez and Betancourt are mediocre. The only guy on the whole team who's significantly above average is Beltre.

We had an outstanding defensive outfielder. Name of Adamn Jones. He's gone now.

Yeah, "there are no guarantees", Lloyd, but minor league performance is exactly as good a predictor of future performance as major league performance is. Jones is not a maybe, he's an IS RIGHT NOW. For somebody else.

And Sherrill's going to have a better year in the pen for Baltimore than Putz is, just watch.

We're going to win 78 games tops.

Bevasi has a one year deal. Hence he is selling off the future for immedidate success (which likely will not happen) to save his job. Giving him a one year deal was a very bad idea. Either can him right away or give him a longer term deal so he has incentive to build for the future. They should have gone for the former option. This will go down as an awful trade, as Jones by all accounts will be an amazing player

I'm with Gomez's sentiments on this, and I'll bet you a beer, Fnarf, that the M's win more than 78 games. (My favorite bet - that the Devil Rays will not finish in last place - is out the window this year.)

I don't know why you're so down on Richie's defense. From the million games I've watched, he's solid.

Basically, the M's will play better defense behind an improved pitching staff. Many of the guys you mentioned played pretty distracted defense last year. I think that changes this year with an actual #1 in the house.

Oh, and I'd bet you two beers if goddamned Soriano was still here. There's a trade for ya.

A LOT of teams have loafers in the outfield corners and at first base. And Betancourt is NOT mediocre. Loses his focus, makes the occasional mistake, sure, but he makes a ton of plays the average shortstop doesn't make.

I think the USSM cynicism towards the team has considerable merit, but don't fall for the reader trap of taking that cynicism too far, right over into outright pessimism. This team has holes for sure, but it doesn't suck all that much more than other teams short of the top contenders. Lots of teams have slow outfielders and crappy first basemen. Richie Sexson's one of the worst 1Bs per defensive metrics, but we're not talking about a guy who couldn't stop a grounder to save his life, simply a guy who doesn't get to as many as the average guy at his position. 'Worst' in this case is marginally relative, not an absolute damning.

Keep in mind that Jose Guillen, though he hit well, was one of the worst right fielders in baseball last year, that Sexson was equally bad as well AND couldn't hit, that Betancourt was error prone, Raul couldn't hit shit half the year, Jose Vidro hit for as much power as I do and couldn't outrun a dump truck in neutral, Horacio Ramirez and Jeff Weaver couldn't pitch for shit much of the time... and the Mariners STILL won 88 games. With a whole bunch of things going wrong. Sure, they outperformed metrics, but can we say that the 2008 team will have as many glaring holes and miscues this year as last? I'm not so sure.

Plus, they're playing in arguably the weakest division in MLB right now: Oakland is starting from scratch, Texas always sucks, and the Angels made little marginal improvement, plus they actually consider Jon Garland a rotation upgrade, and think Garret Anderson is still a MOTO bat.