Lost in all the dismay and handwringing about the historically woeful season the Mariners are having at the plate, we're ignoring perhaps an even more epic display of ineptness going on within our very decision.  Inspired by Jeff's tweet on the subject, I took a look at Brandon Wood's season to see just how truly bad he's been.  What I found surprised even me.

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I want to say this from the outset.  It's probable that Ken Griffey, Jr. is overrated, at least in terms of his actual on the field accomplishments.  He's certainly a no-doubt, first-ballot Hall of Famer, and one of the 50 or so best players in baseball history.  If you want to argue the merits of peak performance versus career achievement, you might even be able to bump him up near the top 25.  Of course, if you're feeling particularly generous, you might try to account for all the partial seasons he played, mostly in the 2000s in Cincinnati, but doing so is always a tricky proposition, since Junior isn't exactly the first great player to struggle with injuries, especially in the second half of his career.

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So I'm thinking about heading down to the Bay Area for Opening Day this year to try and catch the first couple M's games of the season.  Any Bay Area-based Mariners fans planning on being there?  What about folks from up here?

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So A-Rod just admitted to Peter Gammons that he took some form of PED for three years when he was in Texas (01-03).  Story.

I find it fascinating that he's really gonna be the first active, big-name guy to admit to using PEDs.  Giambi sort of did, but he just gave that generic apology for "what I did," and he ended up coming out looking better than most people.

I wonder if this is going to change the way people look at him: whatever people want to say about his lack of clutchness, or hate him for being paid so much, or for using PEDs, you have to admit it takes a certain amount of courage to be fairly forthright about using PEDs.  I think a lot of fans are tired of being lied to, so maybe they cut A-Rod a break for being honest (even if it's after being outed, which is more than could be said about a lot of other guys).

Looks like John Lackey is going to miss the first month of the season(link is to Rotoworld).  Escobar is already out, and who knows if Lackey will be back on time.  Perhaps the M's can get out to an early lead in the division?  I'm still not that optimistic, but if the Angels keep lowering the bar at some point the Mariners should be able to throw themselves over it.

Anyone else here going?  Want to get some drinks after, to drain away the sorrow of even fairly intelligent folk like Geoff thinking the Bedard trade is a good idea?

I'll be there, figure it'll be a fairly good way to spend my night off...go here for more info.

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To get Javier Vazquez from the White Sox?  Despite what Baker said yesterday in his blog, I do see Javy as being a significant upgrade over the back end of this rotation.  He's had some rough years ERA-wise, but his strikeout and walk numbers have always been strong, and his flyball tendencies would be far less damaging at Safeco then they were at US Cellular or BOB.  I'd certainly consider dealing Wlad + decent pitcher for him.

Is perhaps the scariest thing ever, at least in terms of a visual:

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I can't even decide which picture is worse.  However, if Weaver manages to throw another shutout against the Red Sox I may have to stop making fun of him at every opportunity...naw, who am I kidding?  That will never happen.

Why not this Sunday?  I know it's short turn-around for most folks, but it's also the next start for the King and against our hated rivals the Padres!  It's a 1:05 start time, which is good news for those of us who work nights and thus can't partake of fun things like evening baseball games very often.

We all know he's been terrible.  The worst pitcher in Mariner history.  But did you realize that the team has been outscored 54-13 in games Reefer Jaw starts?  That translates into a 1458 RA/351 RS differential, or a 9-153 Pythagorean record over the full season.  The scarier thing is that Ho has been almost as bad.

When Will it End?

Seriously, this has to be one of the most trying days of my sports fan life.

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Seriously, his most recent piece about Ichiro is a load of garbage.  I wish the guy were capable of writing intelligently about baseball, because it would be nice to have a Mariners fan who doubled as a nationally-known writer, but instead we get the same sort of crap that we're always subjected too: Ichiro isn't a leader because he doesn't talk to reporters enough/score enough runs/bunt enough.  Yes, you read that right.

Just saw that Ken plans to wear number 42 on April 15 as a way to honor the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier.

But why stop there?  Why not turn this into a grand gesture which would really illustrate what baseball owes Robinson?  Sometimes it feels like baseball sort of half-asses these things, but they certainly got it right when they universally retired 42 ten years ago.

Goddamn, this Mariners offseason has me really pissed off.  I thought I'd reached a sort of resigned detachment, but the news of the Snelling trade made me realize that I still do care about the team.  Only now, I'm hoping they do poorly enough that Bavasi and Grover are gone ASAP, the ownership group decides to sell the team, and whoever the new owner is has the stones to tear down this festering pile of crap and start over.

Anyhow, here are a few thoughts.

ESPN.com is reporting that Carlos Lee is headed to Texas in a 3 person deal

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I'm gonna be going to tomorrow's game to get my first-ever chance to see Felix in person (I've been living in New York the last four years).  I don't necessarily HAVE to go with anyone, but if any of you were thinking about going down (or planning to already), then it might be cool to have someone to hang out with so we could both boo Willie Bloomquist or Beltre or something.

Hit a home run today, and is hitting .281 in Florida.  This is a guy we gave away for free.  Granted, he cost us Matt Thornton to get, but still, it bothers me that we'd throw away a potentially valuable commodity just so that we could get C-Rex and Lawton ABs.

It's as if no one who runs this team has any idea what the fuck they're doing.  They've got Reed sitting half the time, despite the fact that he was supposedly the prize catch in the Freddy Garcia deal.  They've got Lopez bunting, despite the fact that he leads the team in slugging.

I just wonder if there's any reason at all to hope they get better.