Rain Delay

M's 2006 Roundtable

Head on over to Lookout Landing. Over there Jeff has posted the AL West Seattle Mariner's round-table, its definitely worth the read. Jeff as well as the rest of the round-table members, get into some great discussions and debates. Ranging from moves the M's made in the off-season, to King Felix.

Here's Marc Normandin of Beyond The Boxscore's take on the King.

If Hernandez is as smart a pitcher as Pedro Martinez, and can keep relatively healthy, I see him dominating at the least in a Pedro Lite sort of way, which is to say, at an astonishing level we won't fully appreciate until it's over. I'm jealous that you get to see Felix, Jeff...I was 11-12 years old when Pedro really started to dominate, and I feel like I missed out on some of it. Felix Hernandez is 12 days younger than me...

Pedro Lite? That's an interesting way to put it, but to get the full effect you've got to read the whole thing. A great round-table on the Mariners in my opinion, then again Lookout Landing is always a good read anyways.

USS Mariner brings the funny

The gang of the USS Mariner, takes a look at Bugs Bunny the greatest banned player ever.

The exclusion of non-human players like Bunny is another shameful example of the long history of injustices done by baseball's racist policies. That black and rabbit players could only play against white players in non-sanctioned exhibition matches deprived the game of some of the best talent to ever play, and from what we've seen, robbed scientists of a chance to better study phenonema with wide applicability to questions of physics that could have greatly benefited all residents of the earth, be they human or Leporidae.

Now, in the comments section I tried to be funny and saying that someone must have had a bit of free time. I was trying to be funny, but some didn't take it that way. Oh well, I found it to be an entertaining piece. It's stuff like this that you can only get from the gang at the USS Mariner.

Ibanez gets an extension

Yep, you read right. Raul Ibanez gets a 2yr $11 Million dollar extension.

Befitting his status as successor to Alvin Davis and Edgar Martinez as the soul of the Seattle team, the Mariners have given Raul Ibanez a contract extension.

A source said Thursday the club has signed the outfielder, who is in the final season of a three-year deal, for another two years at $11 million.

Wow, I'm not sure exactly how to take that. So I'll direct you over to the USS Mariner, where the discussion of Ibanez's worth is on-going, including talking about the extention.

Fun with Projections..

Head on over to Look Out Landing where Jeff is asking for input and Projections on several of the M's for the 2006. Go over check them out, and then even add your own. At the end Jeff will tally up all the projections and average them out.

Should be interesting, I just finished mine for over there. Which will make their way over here once I get to the M's preview. I've already got the Starting Rotation written, it's just down to transcribing chicken scratches in a hard bound journal to the computer. The series should start next week, if all goes as planned.

Roundtable continues..

The gang over at the USS Mariner have posted another roudtable. This time it's the Starting FIrstbaseman Richie Sexson. Can he repeat last year? Improve on it? Decline? Or will his shoulder fall off before or after the All Star Break?

Plenty of questions, and they have some of the answers. Go. Read. Now.

M's in Winterball

If you haven't checked yet, head over to Mariner Minor's. He's got the stats from M's players playing winter ball this year. One stat line makes me a tad twitchy.

IF Jose Lopez: .154/.214/.154 in 14 at-bats, run, 1/3 BB/K

Though I will give in that he's only had 14AB's. Still, he's more than likely going to be the M's starting second bagger. I have high hopes for Lopez, in my opinion is going to have a break out year. That's if he gets the starting gig. If not, it could be a long spring/summer for Lopez.

Jose Lopez's stats via The Baseball Cube

U.S.S. Mariner Love

I have to show some love to the USS Mariner, they've just kicked off thier roundtable for the 2006 season and started with my favorite position : Catcher.

I'd have to agree with most everything said. The catcher position has seen a upgrade for sure, even if KJ ends up being mediocre at best, it's still better than what we suffered through this season. There's no way that KJ could put up a -12.8 VORP like Olivo did which was best for deadlast.

Go. Now. Read.Thanks.