Odds and Ends: Bedard, Griffey, Minaya

congrats to Krivsky on the new position...as a reds fan i hated to see the way that he was treated by the reds organization after all the good that he had done.

This sudden Bedard-bashing is silly. Bedard ALWAYS starts slow; you'd have to expect that. And the deal for Bedard was ill-advised for Seattle because Bavasi misjudged their chances at winning, not because Bedard wasn't worth trading a ton for, if you were a team that needed one great pitcher to go over the top.

"And the deal for Bedard was ill-advised for Seattle because Bavasi misjudged their chances at winning"

Well put. When I first heard about Bedard to Seattle, I thought he was a good pick up if they thought they could win this year. At the same time, I thought he was a risky investment. He's no Rich Harden, but I don't think people should be too surprised that he's hurt again. He's a relatively small guy and they tend to be fragile when they can bring the heat.

One more thing, his injuries have been the back and the hip, NOT THE ARM, which tells me we are okay... When the arm gets f*cked up, then we have cause for concern!

BaseballGuru, you're back. I'm curios though, why did you stop commenting for a while.

Joe, to answer your question... In all sincerity, I was tired of all the bull sh*t and went to blog elsewhere where I can target some Mariners fans for being low down dogs! Who boycotts a team that puts 117MM into their payroll... If you don't win, it's not management's fault, not when you have the 5th highest payroll in baseball.

Anywho, the other reason I disappeared for a while was my dogs had puppies and 6 weeks ago one of them got sick and I had to hand feed the puppy every hour on the hour and then that got me behind on school, when I finally got around to my classes after the puppy died, it consumed the next four-five weeks of my time playing catch up. Then as fate would have it one of the two remaining puppies got sick and I was back hand feeding the puppy and while he was bigger, more healthy, and had a greater chance of survival, I finally gave in a few days ago and offered him to the vet. Told the vet they could keep the puppy or sell it when he's healthy, just please take care of him... I couldn't afford over $1000 in vet bills for everything that needed to be done, it was about $150.00 a day in vet costs. So now I'm on break from school and don't have unhealthy puppies to worry about... You guys only have to put up with me for about a week though as I'm going back to school and will be working two jobs to bring my fiancee to the states... So as much as you all will hate to see me go *cough* bullsh*t *cough*, I will be on occasionally, but not as much... Probably a couple hours a week if I'm lucky and I may throw out a handful of responses if I'm feelin' extra saucy about a topic!

I do agree with Guru ... ownership does want to win. Unfortunately, those good intentions DID NOT match up with smart management. The M's failed this year because they significantly over-stated their potential based off last years win/loss record.

That doesn't change the fact that the M's are still an awful team (although not the worst in baseball by a long shot). They just need to go through and do a correct self-assessment to determine where they are today and how they can get to the next level tomorrow.

For my two cents I would say that this team is far away from contending. That leaves two choices ... blow the thing up and focus on being competitive in '10 or '11 OR try to buy your way out of mediocrity.

Personally, I don't think they can spend enough to right the mistakes of Bavasi. They need to hold a fire sale and shed themselves of bad contracts (eating dollars if necessary) and start acquiring talent back for those more valuable trade pieces.

It will be ugly but the M's have a good core of young talent. Develop that talent, fill in the gaps with FA or trades and look towards a brighter future.

Especially with 4 of the last 5 seasons being losing ones, I can't see them keeping their fan base unless they get to .500 this year or super close to it. 75 wins minimum. If these fans walk away, it would take the playoffs to get a sellout again...

I agree with BaseballGuru that the Seattle Mariners do need to make some trades for the future. The Seattle Mariners in my view do not have much of a chance to get to the playoffs. Though they do have some good trading chips they could trade for some prospects. I agree with BaseballGuru that they could trade Ichiro Suzuki and Kenji Johjima and trade/DFA Richie Sexson and Jose Vidro. However, if the Mariners want to get a couple of good prospects for Johjima, then they better wait. Johjima as some Mariner fans know has not been off to the best start. For example, he is hitting only .218 with 2 homers and 17 RBIs in his first 60 games of the season. If the Mariners were to trade him now, then they would not get a whole lot from trading Kenji Johjima for he can do way better then what he is doing now. I say wait for him to get hot between now and the trading deadline so when a club is despite for a catcher, they could go for him and ante up to the Mariners. Other names who I think the Mariners could trade are Raul Ibanez, Jarrod Washburn, Erik Bedard, and if a team is that despite for a starter, Carlos Silva. However, now would not be a good time for the Mariners to trade them for they do not have full value yet. I say wait until we get closer to the trading deadline for these players might get hot between now and the trading deadline. That way, teams might even be despite to trade for these players and like I said before, ante up. However, the only players who I see getting interest from other clubs are Raul Ibanez and Erik Bedard. Raul Ibanez could provide a playoff contending team a corner outfielder with power and veteran leadership along with Bedard providing a solid ace for a contending team's rotation. However, I don't see Bedard being traded unless some team offers a big package for him for the Mariners gave up a lot of young and talented players for him.

"I even missed hearing Darkstar make fun of my egotistical nature and being able to go tell him to f*ck his mother!"

Yeah, I remember that. Funny stuff there at the time.

BASETURDGURU- You make me laugh,I heard you run your mouth before the season started and I only have to say THX for Tillman,Sherill,Jones,Butler.No one want's Sexson and all them 40ish players.Hope is all u have along with dreams. GO BALTIMORE!

Bedard would be a terrible move for the Dodgers, and Beltre isn't happening given the way he left the first time and that almost all of the Dodgers' power is from the right side. The Dodgers' pitching problems have been almost exclusively injury related, which doesn't fit well with an oft-injured guy like Bedard. Further, they already have plenty of left-handed pitching (for the first time in an eon) anyway. Besides, if Sabathia stays with Cleveland or doesn't extend somewhere, he is likely going to be a Dodger next year anyway.

The only pitcher worth trading for out of Seattle is Felix, and they aren't letting him go anywhere. Then again, a package of Ethier, McDonald and LaRoche for Felix and Ichiro would sound a lot better.