"I keep hearing Artie Moreno is on the cusp of a $4 billion TV deal in Anaheim. So if that’s the case he’s going to have some coin to throw around."

Mike Salk:
This idea of a protection theory, I don't know whether it exists or not, but that when you have a couple of big bats in your lineup it allows everybody else to reach their potential or maybe even go beyond it. When you look back at the lack of maybe a big time power threat or run producer in the middle, do you think that had an effect on some of the other guys and the slow starts they had?

Jack Zduriencik:
Yes, I do. I really do. We made efforts to get a bat in the Winter time. I made an offer to Russell right out of the shoot last year and he turned it down. That was one that we wanted to keep and we ended up trading for him later on after he went elsewhere. Yeah I do think it's a factor, three-run homers do an awful lot for you and we designed this club, this year, because of the ball park and where we were at with some other issues and we were counting on some players to come in and have a bounce back year--didn't happen. I do think whenever you get somebody, in football or basketball you might call it a playmaker. If you have a playmaker in baseball in the middle of your lineup, in our case it would have been a big bat, yeah I think it would have helped, it would have eased the pain. Momentum was a big thing. We started out bad and there were a lot of series early in the year, several of them that I was just like, "Wow, we gave that game away. We gave this game away. We didn't do the things we could of win to this game." Then all of a sudden it begins to snowball and it was hard. It was hard for these guys to come back and then injuries started and then it really made it difficult.

RRS is part of the Mariner's new sponsorship with Ford. They will give him cars to drive and he is going to tweet about them.

"Before last year's July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline, the team closest to acquiring Gonzalez was Seattle, which had a six-for-one deal on the table. But, the source said, then-general manager Kevin Towers was holding out for one more player and the deal fell apart."