Odds And Ends: Atkins, Ortiz, Bedard

So let me get this straight. Ortiz has been horrible for 1/3 of the season, and only now are they considering checking his eyes?

i was thinking exactly the same things, c7cxk. and he wasn't himself last year, either. and he's getting a little older.

"[Pirates president Frank Coonelly] even says he expects the Pirates to contend."

Frank, you're holding your newspaper upside down.

Something tells me this "Ortiz vision problem" is nothing but a premise for him to go on an extended DL.

Who in there right mind would trade for Atkins? Even when he does hit well, it's inflated by his home numbers. My guess is the Cubs will be dumb enough to give up good prospects for him to replace Ramirez.

As somebody who has worn glasses for a long time, I can tell you you really have no idea the first time the problem crops up that anything was wrong. Maybe its different for somebody whose eyes are declining as they age versus somebody like me who needed them in grade school, but I can tell you in hindsight I probably needed glasses for several years before I actually got them.

I don't find it unreasonable to think it has gone a while before he got a vision test. Routine ones only come up once every year or two, and when you're trying to diagnose a hitting problem I imagine it starts with "does everything feel alright?" and then turns into hours of reviewing tape. Hell, it's possible they saw something in the tapes they worked on correcting even though it wasn't the problem.

Maybe it is and maybe it isn't the problem right now, but boy could blurry vision ever destroy your ability to identify pitches. I'm not a Red Sox fan; has he been swinging at bad pitches or has he been late swinging at good pitches? Both could be related to age, but chances are only one would be related to vision.

Seattle would you tank already please? Phils fans want 4 months of Bedard, not 2 months

Posted by: wayne gomes | June 05, 2009 at 10:54 AM
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Hmmm, im starting to wonder if we will even get rid of him now. There is talk that he loves it here in Seattle, then Z says that we are going to wait to see if we can turn this around and compete in our crappy division. I would love to sign Bedard to a long term deal. I know a lot of Mariners Fans and sports talk here in Seattle would say otherwise..... But I would love to keep him. Even better, I would love to trade him and get the prospects, but also have him back at the end of the year. That would be my ideal situation.

I think that Mariners players are very content with the new front office and coaching staff. It would benefit the M's to sign Bedard to an extension. How much are teams willing to pay for him? With the market expected to be similar to last years I would say that 3YR/45M or 4YR/60M would be reasonable. He is posting a beautiful; 2.37ERA, 60.2IP, 18BB and 61K's. Its obvious that some fans in Seattle are still upset about the 5 for 1 deal that brought Bedard to the M's and take out their anger on Bedard. After all Erik didn't make the trade he's just a player. Now that he is healthy it would be wise for the M's to resign him. With Batista and Washburn money coming off the books they can definitely afford to keep this ace around.