When I head the news about this exchange of Brandons, a flurry of emotions flooded through me. First curiosity, then excitement, and finally fear. Well, considering I've never been a Blue Jays fan, nor been to Toronto, I cannot give the same in depth analysis that 3744nSheffield kindly shared with us. But I am a Mariners fan with Google at my fingertips, so this is what I was able to find on Wikipedia. 

Has Z proven that he is a mere mortal, or has he pulled off another major League deal in disguise? Only time will tell, but for now, I found some troubling excerpts from his profile on Wikipedia.

In the offseason following League's breakout 2006, he engaged in strength conditioning, while, at the behest of the Blue Jays, did not pitch until spring training. As a result, he overdeveloped some shoulder muscles, resulting in a significant drop in the velocity of his sinker.[2] This led to being placed on the 60-day disabled list, and League was largely ineffective for the 2007 season. 

Ok, lesson learned, but there's more. 

He has had high potential throughout his career but has never lived up to expectation. Recently, he has developed a splitter that he now uses as a strikeout pitch. However, struggles with command have landed him with a higher than normal ERA.

Crap, higher ERA, not living up to potential. Sound familiar? Doesn't Z check the back of baseball cards before making trades? This is just a disaster waiting to happen. The Seattle Media machine might continue to put pressure on League depending on Brandon Morrow's performance. He better hope Morrow gets a demotion, or else League will fare no better than Eric Bedard, Jeff Weaver, or Carlos Silva, or worse, get a minor League demotion himself. Hope he doesn't decide to stir in Milton Bradley's corner of the locker room. When League starts to put up less than big League numbers, and becomes a major League disappointment, don't say you weren't warned. 

One thing we can look forward to is Brandon League bobblehead night. And being the only team in the League (no pun intended) with two goggled pitchers. 

via www.mopupduty.com

So as the year winds down and the excitement of the Cliff Lee trade settles, we look forward to our various holiday celebrations to give each other a pat on the back for making it through another year. Let's use this opportunity to either reflect on 2009 or look forward to 2010. I choose to look ahead rather than look in the past.

What I am looking forward to in 2010:

Turning 21
Graduating college
The subsequent summer road trip to Las Vegas
Summer concerts
The Chevy Volt (and other plug in electric cars coming out in that year)
Iron Man 2
The Mariners
UW Football

Anyone got a list of what they are looking forward to in 2010?

Also, anyone know the best brick and mortar place to sell back video games? I want to sell some of my Wii games I never play anymore quickly, but GameStop use their monopsony power to rip off gamers, so I am looking for some alternatives. I realize ebay/amazon might be the best solution, but that takes too much time and shipping costs. 

Hey guys, 

Social Networking night is on Tuesday, August 11th. 

Join us for the first ever Mariners Social Media Happy Hour from 5-7pm at the Safeco Field Ellis Pavilion. There will be a panel discussion with Seattle social media experts and a specially-priced happy hour food & drink menu.

Plus, Mariners pitcher, blogger and Twitter personality Ryan Rowland-Smith (@hyphen18) will be a special on hand for a special Q&A session.

Everyone in attendance gets a free "I Follow @hyphen18" T-shirt and will be invited to Tweet during the event and the Mariners game.

So we will get to meet the Sexy Aussie from Down Under himself (I will struggle to maintain my composure), as well as an assortment of people involved in the media or marketing, the social media panel. For someone like me who is majoring in Business with a concentration in marketing, this is an incredible opportunity. Even if you don't care about marketing, this would still be a fun event, you get a Hyphen T-shirt, and discounted game tickets! Anyone else going to be there? 

In light of the event, I present to you this:

Update: I feel stupid now for posting this. I am going to the game Wednesday with co-workers from my new job instead of Tuesday. This is too bad, I wish I could meet RRS, but I am sure I will get another chance sometime. Sorry guys, I hope whoever does end up going has fun and posts any pictures they get with RRS. 

So here is the tale of Eli Whiteside that I created. I had to attached it through pictures since the copy and paste didn't quite work out. I've heard things around here about the story of Eli Whiteside, because despite his overall mediocrity, his surname is quite fascinating to some of us (me included). This is what happens when you are bored and buzzed on a Saturday night. Enjoy and be sure to answer the poll. 

Don't worry, I am not actually posting any lolcats for the fear of getting banned, but I was heading out to the game and wanted to see if any of my Lookouting Landing brethren will be going. It should be good, as it will be Felix's final start before the All-Star game. Hopefully he will further prove why he had been selected for his first All-Star game. Also, hopefully he can stop this two game skid, and give us 9 innings so we don't see another bullpen implosion. 

So here is the website: http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/05/19/funny-pictures-cheezburger-nite-seattle-mariners/

Enter at your own risk!

This is especially sad:

michiko May 22, 2009 at 12:50 pm

yay!! i live in seattle!! (=

• Mrrphh May 22, 2009 at 2:50 pm

  Wanna du a cheezmeet? Mrrphh@gmail.com

Hi guys, 

I am a Mariners fan here in Seattle. Earlier today, I joined a league on Baseball-manager-online, and I chose to be the Brewers. After thinking about it, I do not have an NL team, and the Brewers would possibly be a smart team to follow. The Mariners now have Zdurencik as GM, who is currently working hard to reverse the failures of Bill Bavasi. Of course, it will take more than a season to do so. It seemed like he did a great job as the scouting director for you guys. 

So I am asking if you guys would like to introduce me to yourselves, and the team, and basically tell me what I should know about the team that the MSM tends to miss? 

Ok, so after the incredibe experience that I had this past Wednesday, it had me thinking. And I finally thought, why reserve a Private or Group suite for Lookout Landing, and just have a whole room exclusive to Lookout Landing members. 

So these were the two Suites that I was thinking of, check out the information by going to the links below. 

Private Suite

Group Suite

Basically, the Private Suite should fit up to about 24 people (4 people standing), and the Group Suite could fit up to 49 people (9 people standing). I broke down how much it could cost each of us if we chose to do this. 

Private Suite - $2,400 in total. About $120 per person. (The standing tickets have to be bought separately) I believe catering is extra here, but when broken down, it could cost an additional 30-40 when considering food and drinks. Before you cringe, may I explain why this would be sweet (no pun intended). Basically, outdoor seating and a private room, all for ourselves, with a TV, bar, etc, while getting to watch the game, not to mention parking at the stadium is paid for four cars. 

Group Suite - Now this is the one I would prefer, but who knows if we could get 40-49 people to come along. Basically, Total cost would be $4,100, which breaks down to $102.5 per person (9 extra have to be bought separately). But in this deal includes $1,055 towards food and drinks, a larger outdoor seating area, large indoor seating area, with a bar, concierge service, HDTV, etc. Parking is also paid for six cars, I guess we would be carpooling or whatnot. This would be excellent, and would be right above the hit it here cafe. 

I think the prices are greater when teams like the Red Sox or Yankees are in town, so maybe we can see the Mariners play the Rays or some other break out team this year if possible. I realize this is a crazy idea, but I was thinking that doing an LL softball game and then going here at night would be an incredible day. Let me know what you guys think!

Probably best now to keep track of everyone who would be on board for this. This would probably be scheduled in advanced, at a time from mid to late June, seeing that that is the time frame that works best for people's schedules. These are the games that are happening at home in Mid to Late June

June 19-21 - Arizona

June 23-25 - San Diego

Choose which one you would prefer. 

List (16(21?)):

Fin

camomilk

James F'n X

Decatur

Decatur's Dad

d0nkey

Enrique

FWombat

seattlecougar

appleshampoo

Corco (Maybe)

Jaejo

Willy Mays Haze

Fett42

Ike Clanton (maybe)

Sinking Away

Rachmaninoff

GoodKeith

Jeff?

Matthew?

Graham?

A good idea suggested may be to bump up the contribution to about $120 or so (would be about $105). The extra $15 would be a donation to pay Jeff, Matthew, and Graham's way into the suite, kind of as a way to say thanks for all of their hard work on the site. I haven't yet been contacted by any of these gentlemen, so I put their name down tentatively, because I couldn't guess why they would turn down this offer.

Hey, that game was fucking incredible! Had a blast, even with all things considered. Special thanks to Nick (Appleshampoo), Graham, and my friend Jeff (not LL Jeff) for joining me tonight. Having intelligent company really does make a difference when it comes to going to baseball games. I do not think I could've asked for a better mix of offense, defense, and pitching from the Mariners (well, nix Batista, but other than that it was good). I would really want to try one of these LL meet ups again later in the season. It was fun. 

Also, it should be a warning not to say something potentially stupid on the internet. I think I dodged a bullet, but I learned my lesson. 

Hey guys,

So I bought four tickets to the April 15th, game after the home opener, back in late February, thinking that I would be able to find three other people to join me. Well, that isn't the case, since it is on a Wednesday night, and apparently most people I know would rather study for school or get up early for work the next day then have an awesome time at the ball park. 

I figure it won't be quite like Opening Day, but it should still be quite an exciting atmosphere. Now the deal is, I still want to go, but haven't found anyone since the people I originally asked had plans that came up. So, I figured, this would be a great way to meet some LLers and have an intelligent conversation about baseball while watching the game and getting drunk. I am wanting to meet up maybe around 5 or so at Safeco to be able to watch the M's batting practice and maybe get an autograph. 

It will be completely free, only two requirements. First, I will still be coming along, and second, be old enough to buy beer, because I am not and I need someone who is. 

Post here if you are wanting to go, and I'll shoot you an e-mail and figure out what works best for us. 

O yes, and the seats are in Section 109, Row 26 (I believe lower OF reserved start at 23), seats 18-21. 

If anyone is going to the game, let it be known so that there could be a potential LL meetup before or during the game. I figure some guys might already be there, (Brett, Sec 108), so we could have a mini meet up before hand. 

Jeff Zimmerman that is. 

If you are like me, you are probably thinking "Who the fuck is this guy?"

In another low-risk, high-reward transaction, the Mariners on Tuesday signed former Rangers right-hander Jeff Zimmerman to a Minor League contract.

It appears that even Jim Street has caught Z-fever, even though he is late on the bandwagon. 

It has been more than eight years since the 36-year-old reliever pitched in the big leagues, but Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik said a recent tryout in Arizona was impressive and the hurler passed a physical that spanned Monday and Tuesday in Seattle.

Zimmerman will begin workouts at the Peoria Sports Complex on Wednesday, and he will be on a program that, according to Zduriencik: "Will get him ready to pitch for us this year. I can't tell you the time frame."

It appears that Zduriencik continues to build his team of relievers. Seriously, Jeff, I don't think you realized what the consequences would be for making fun of Jim Bowden's outfielder fetish. Wonder what position Zimmerman will play? Closer? 3rd base? No, probably a bench role, as he appears to be signed for his veteran grittiness. 

Zimmerman will join relievers Chad Cordero and Tyler Johnson in an extended spring program in Peoria, Ariz.

"That might be the best extended group ever assembled," Zduriencik said.

Chad Cordero - the unluckiest comeback attempt in MLB history.