Dodgers Would Allow Ms To Talk To Ng, White

Does anyone know who "Ng" is pronounced?

Some of the exact people I hope the Jays are going to contact when they fire JP.

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Nice looking (new) site but it's almost impossible to load using IE and still terribly slow with Safari. Maybe less than 63+ items loading at startup would help :)

This does seem to take forever to load! Reasonably fast on my Treo though.

Any theories on why the M's would wait until the offseason to hire a permanent GM? With so decent tradeable commodities (Bedard, Beltre, Ibanez, maybe Washburn or Batista as partial salary dumps) and a fast-approaching non-waiver deadline, it seems like ownership should really want to let the new front office make these deals to shape the future of the organization. Or maybe they just really trust the interim GM. But if I was interviewing for the job (hah!), I would really want to be responsible for these moves rather than potentially being stuck with some mediocre moves by the interim predecessor.

Here are a few suggestions for the M's:

(1) Beltre to the Dodgers (welcome home!) for LaRoche and a decent lower-level arm. Dodgers get an offensive and defensive upgrade for 2008-09 and can groom Dewitt as their long-term 3rd baseman. The Mariners get a cheap, talented 3rd baseman who can shift to DH if the injury problems continue. The Dodgers pick up a few 2010 draft picks after Beltre leaves.

(2) Bedard to the Rays for Jeremy Hellickson (or McGee or Price), Jeff Niemann, and either Edwin Jackson or Andy Sonnastine. The Rays said earlier this year that they would add payroll under the right circumstances. Bedard would give them an extremely formidible rotation (Kazmir, Shields, Bedard, Garza, #5) and gives them extra time to develop Price/McGee/Davis. Hellickson is a very good prospect who is having more success than McGee/Davis (albeit at a lower level). Niemann is a former top prospect who's stock is down but could still emerge as a #3. Sonnastine/Jackson are decent back-end guys who are young enough to show continued growth.

(3) Batista/Washburn/Silva to anyone willing to offer up a mildly interesting prospect without forcing the M's to eat too much salary. Washburn and Batista aren't too bad of contracts (signed through 2009). Probably have to eat a little more of Silva's contract, but the Phillies have been linked to him a lot in the past and could use a groundball innings-eater.

(4) Trade Ibanez for a prospect (maybe Rays?). He'll probably retain his Type A status, but the only way the Mariners get extra picks in the 2009 draft is if they offer him arbitration. Personally, I think this is pretty risky and the M's very well could end up with no picks and get stuck overpaying him in 2009. If they can get a mildly interesting prospect, they should take it and let someone else worry about offering Ibanez arbitration.

Ng and White seem like consensus good GM candidates. In some ways, Seattle seems like a nice place to GM (less media scrutiny than NY, Boston, LA, Chicago; high payroll; nice place to live in the summer). Plus the new GM probably gets the #1 overall pick in the 2009 draft.