I’m not going to lie, I’m glad that baseball is over. I’m not happy with the final result of the World Series, but I am relieved that 2009 has finally drawn to a close. Now it is time to get on with, as Ryan Rowland-Smith so eloquently put it on his Twitter account, “all the silly rumors”. The silly rumors are indeed silly, and occasionally nerve-wracking, but it keeps us alive during the bleak baseball-free winter.  Additionally, if you’re feeling particularly snarky about the WS results, Ryan Divish has a captioning contest at his blog. I submitted one…

There has been more mention of Randy Johnson, but not about his restaurant this time; USS Mariner thinks that maybe we should look at him as a viable option for 2010. With every fiber of my little baseball-loving being, I wholeheartedly agree. Seeing Johnson pitch in person for the first time during the Giants game that I went to earlier this year (Felix bobblehead night!), I became acutely aware of what longer-time Mariners fans must have felt while watching Johnson when he was in his prime. Johnson was pitching against Jason Vargas, and frankly, I’m still surprised we won that game (2-0). Getting to take part in the standing ovation as RJ left the field gave me a slight case of the sniffles – however,  it’s a malady that I’d be glad to come down with a few times a year. And can you imagine RJ and Felix Hernandez on the same team? A healthy Johnson would make a lot of Mariners fans pretty happy…

USSM also put our free agent list up earlier today. While there is a rumor that Ken Griffey Jr’s agent will be meeting with the FO soon, I’m super-torn on this. Regardless of the whole intangibles thing that Griff obviously provided this year, having him come back would be strange. The impromptu field march that took place after the last game might feel slightly more hollow, slightly less meaningful if it hadn’t really been ‘goodbye’…wouldn’t it? I can’t say I’m completely opposed to it, but there also comes a point where you cut your losses, accept that you did what you needed to do, and move on. There is a full stop where you just have to know that you’re done writing the song, and any further mixing is just going to suck the art out of it. There are other songs to be written, other moves to be made, other shows to play.

I don’t want Russell Branyan to leave, and will squish my eyes shut real tight and use mind power to make sure it doesn’t happen. Ready, set, GO! Erik Bedard I think I have to be over. When he was good, he was very very good – but when he was injured, he was awful. I’ve gotten tired of having so many broken toys – why can’t we have nice things? I get the distinct impression they’ll keep Jack Wilson, and just continue to work on his hitting, much as they’ll continue to work on Ian Snell’s foot (which did indeed improve his pitching). It’s fairly ridiculous, the amount of confidence I have in our current coaching staff. Miguel Batista feels that there will be a 99.9% chance he won’t be in an Ms uniform next year. Much like Jim Street, I feel he’s being generous. I doubt Mike Sweeney will be back, though there was a certain (very) small faction of us rooting for him to take a third base coaching position after the departure of Bruce Hines; that dream (as crazy as it might have been) has been stifled, as the FO has secured another third base coach already. Endy Chavez I never got around to loving, and am still a bit annoyed with Yuni for that – then again, had Chavez not been injured, we might not have butterfly effected ourselves into the second half of the season as we did. Who knows? I don’t think I’m saying anything groundbreaking or new by wanting Adrian Beltre to stick around.

Also of some interest is the fact that a certain Mr Tim Lincecum got himself a fancy misdemeanor by getting pulled over while speeding with some marijuana in his car. He was not under the influence, it was just there. Not the first time a ball player has done something a little less than bright, but it shocks me exactly ‘this’ much = 0. I am actually a little glad he wasn’t on the Mariners roster when this happened, though it would have been far more of a gimme if he had lived in Seattle instead of San Fransisco. We also might have been the butt of some hilarious jokes. So maybe I could make the sacrifice just this once, because, y’know, that whole skilled pitcher thing…

 

EDIT: And so it begins. Sweeney and Beltre have filed.