Jeff Sullivan has a good -but scary- article up about David Aardsma and why he is good – but scary. It could indeed have been shortened to “regression to the mean”, but it’s nice to see some explanation about what that means and what sort of impact it might have on us this year. Even with Aardsma’s 38 saves, he still worked Franklin Gutierrez over in center with the fly ball outs he managed to dole to opposing batters last year, and Aardsma games -while exciting and squeak-inducing to yours truly- were always an exercise in seeing how long one was truly capable of holding one’s breath. I can’t remember what team it was against, but during one game last year when Aardsma was starting to establish himself as closer, we were up by some 3 runs or so, and Aardsma came in and promptly kicked dirt all over that lead, blowing his save, and earning some well-deserved loud verbal ire from the guy sitting next to me. I was more annoyed with Mr Armchair Closer than I was with ours, because I hate piling anger on top of failure; but it is a good example of Aardsma’s ability to inflame both love and hate in the people watching him do his thing. Love was more the case last year (though you wouldn’t have known it by the lack of cheering when Saliva’s “Ladies and Gentlemen” kicked on and Aardsma ran out of the pen – ahem, Seattle), but maybe this year we truly may need to give Mark Lowe some responsibility later in the game. Ever the optimist and consistent fan of the closer, I hope not.

Also pointed out by Jeff Sullivan (and a ton of other people around the web and on sports radio today)  is this little gem of “journalism” from someone at ESPN who apparently enjoys stirring the pot. Sorry, but there was definitely a point where this subject turned into sensationalism, rather than reporting anything important. Or maybe I’m not sorry – personally, I would have left the guy alone a long time ago. Fortunately, Milton Bradley comes off in that interview (and, like Sullivan, I encourage you to actually watch it) as level-headed and sane, rather than crazying it up in the manner that ESPN’s Colleen Dominguez seems to want him to. Her badgering insistence on whether or not the hate mail that Bradley received in Chicago came from “inside the organization” makes her look bloodthirsty and baiting for a headline or some sort of reaction other than what Bradley was willing to give her. Sad. If this is at all the sort of thing Bradley had to deal with during his tenure in Chicago, I don’t blame him for wanting to leave. Seriously. I will keep my other opinions of this interview to myself – suffice to say if Dominguez were on a message board, she’d immediately be branded a “troll”. Bradley’s here now, and I plan to give him the benefit of the doubt. We need some fire, and I think Bradley will bring it – with the atmosphere here, I want to believe he’ll bring it in a good way, and I steadfastly refuse to allow his past to color his future.

Cliff Lee had a good first outing today, and if the clip I saw a short while ago on MLBN of a sweet play from second to short to first is any indication, hot damn, people – we have a team that can play baseball! The breakdown went pretty quickly, and the camera angle was from a fair distance, so I could not tell the players involved, but that was a sweet play like I’ve rarely seen Mariners play. I am now very much looking forward to seeing more, more, MORE!

Now, however, if you’ll excuse me, the Pirates are playing my Orioles on MLBN HD, and I’d like to see what Felix Pie, Adam Jones and company have to offer this year.

Pardon the blur – I’m not much of a macro-picture taker.

I do, however, feel so much more secure about Opening Day. It’s one of those things where you know you’re going, but without tickets, you’re still in a bit of a haze – this was the pinch I needed to believe it.

There. I feel a lot better now.

Fortunately for me, Shannon Drayer – far superior to the Brewers’ broadcast and with a lot more access -  chose to go to the Maryvale game rather than stay in Glendale with the White Sox. Our big club guys playing some other big club’s guys is a baseball game, sure, but I’m more curious lately about the new guys and Jose Lopez testing out at third. Drayer’s impressions of Lopez’s attitude about his errors and lack of ability to move to his right give me a bit of hope for his future at his new post. He says he feels comfortable there now, and that his errors were just what amounts to mistakes that he can work on and fix. I hope so; I’m still nervous about it translating to the big stage, but I’d love for him to find a home in a place the team can use him more, if that’s  what this is all about (rather than a last-ditch effort to see what his range is before they dump or trade him). I have nothing against Lopez. It’s not like a Yuni Betancourt situation, where he’s flat-out refusing to work or do what the management tells him to. Lopez has always been a likable player, to me at least – and he’s always been a Mariner.

If you haven’t been reading it, ProBallNW has been running a player-by-player breakdown of the 40-man roster. Soooo…read it. Jon’s most recent post on Ryan Rowland-Smith makes me all sorts of happy, and it includes video of Hyphen taking some tosses with Josh Bard in the Peoria pen. As a side note, hearing the slap of baseballs on glove leather is really not helping decrease my enthusiasm for the proper start of the season.

In somewhat Mariners-related news (only because he’s an Ms bat killer) Joe Nathan of the Minnesota Twins may have to have Tommy John. This makes me very sad for Twins fans (seriously, I’m not being glib), but makes me feel that the Mariners are just a little bit safer in the long run if it turns out that Nathan is out for the season. I know that sounds horrible, and I don’t wish injury on anyone, but Nathan is terrifying, and the less we have to see of him the better.

The cable technician showed up today and fixed the splitter on our house, since the MLBN HD channel wasn’t working. The  channel came on just in time for me to see Stephen Strasburg toss a few to some Detroit Tigers hitters. Now, however, Miguel Batista is on the hill and just gave up a hit and allowed a steal. Well, OK, maybe he didn’t allow it technically, but I’m blaming him anyway. Have fun with that, DC fans. I have to say, MLBN looks much better in HD…I almost hate to say it, but this might be a love/hate relationship for a while. I’ll try and keep my complaints here to a minimum. It’s a new relationship, I should probably give it time…

Jason Vargas starts today against the Cleveland Indians. I guess I’ll be (sadly) watching GameDay for that one, too, unless 710AM decides they want to run it.

After the last post, I did indeed fire off an email to the PR person for MLB Network, letting her know of my dissatisfaction with not being able to see the game. I’d estimate it took me a good while to get everything out, trying to sound succinct but still angry, while maintaining a decent level of politeness (I will admit to using the word “horseshit” in regards to the MLB’s desire to suck money out of it’s fans vs. them realizing that we pretty much make or break them, but otherwise, I was flashing the manners as much as possible). I want to be passionate without looking like a complete lunatic, and I think I accomplished. I had the 1975 All Star game on in the background (and if I never see that much of Pete Rose again, it will be too soon), and took some time trying to make my point. I hit send, and then the weirdest thing happened…

The Mariners/Brewers game came on.

Literally the second after I sent my complaint, the audio on my TV changed, and when I looked up, it was Mariners blue and teal and Brewers blue and beer color? tan I was seeing, instead of the dye disasters that passed for style back in the 70s (really, Oakland – that color yellow is absolutely unacceptable). Mere moments after that, Jose Lopez made his first error at third base, just as Shannon Drayer had mentioned earlier on Twitter. Unfortunately, this was a Brewers broadcast, so more time was spent on talking with players and coaches on their team than on the actual game, which is totally understandable, but I was hoping to see more of Lopez. I am fully well aware that beggars can’t be choosers, however, so I’d prefer to put up rather than shut up.

Not being much of a minor league follower (something I’m hoping to remedy this year if at all possible), this was my first look at Dustin Ackley, Alex Liddi, Mauricio Robles, and Josh Fields, and the first time I was able to see Eric Byrnes, Milton Bradley, and Ryan Garko in Mariners uniforms, working through a losing game. Dustin Ackley hit a triple in the top of the 7th, a shot that bounced off the back of the center field wall over Jim Edmonds’ head. Mike Carp managed a double in the 8th off Todd Coffey with two out, but did not make it to the plate. Mike Wilson also dealt a triple in the top of the 9th, and I remembered how much I like Mike Wilson and hope he does well for us. He’s got a nice set of wheels, and watching him leg it to third was a treat. Those events were pretty much the most exciting things to happen when the cameras did choose to focus on the actual game, rather than interviewing the players or local reporters. The only runs we got past the Brew Crew was a 2-out RBI courtesy of Adam Moore, and Wilson’s last-minute blast drove some kid in who looked like his tail was on fire (numbers but no names on our practice jerseys, sadly). Final score 6-2, Milwaukee.

I guess the other half of today’s split squad fared much better, beating the White Sox. And as further proof that the universe daily conspires against me, just one more middle finger to push the angst levels up, guess who pitched against us in the game that wasn’t broadcast?

Photo courtesy Ron Vesely/MLB Photos via Getty Images

The irony! It burns!

The one cool thing the Network did manage to do right today was a  30 Clubs in 30 Days on the Baltimore Orioles, complete with Matt Wieters interview, and a breakdown of the team. The outfield combination of Nick Markakis, Nolan Reimold and Adam Jones was referred to by the show’s hosts as the “best…in baseball”, which of course I take issue with. Adam Jones is a Golden Glove guy, but he is not Ichiro and Franklin Gutierrez, and what can I say, I’m biased. They also talked to newly-named DH Luke Scott, who says he spent time training in the offseason by swinging an axe at a tree. I’ve heard a minor rumor that Scott was not happy about his DH situation, but maybe some wielding of a sharp tool at a defenseless tree during the break got a little of that out of his system.  I’d like to see the Orioles do better this year. They’ve had a pretty bad struggle the last few years.

As a totally weird aside, I decided after class today that I would head to the Team Store at SafeCo to pick up this shirt that I saw the other day when I was looking for another shirt. As I walked in the door, I nearly ran into (almost literally) Chuck Armstrong. I had to go home and check an online photo to make an absolutely positive ID, but sure enough, it was him. He was half-joking to one of the employees about trying to push sweatshirts, as it had just started doing that bizarro snow/rain thing it was doing earlier this afternoon. Had I been a little more on the ball, I would have thanked him for the people he’s hired and the things that have been done with the club. Maybe next time I run into the President of the Seattle Mariners, I’ll be more on my toes.

I guess logic and business don’t always go hand in hand, and the MLB Network isn’t actually here for the fans, as they give the impression during their many commercials talking about how awesome they are. If this situation doesn’t improve, I will simply cancel the channel – I’m not going to pay to not see things. Ridiculous.

OK, no more negativity for today; I promise this could have been a lot worse, and I am truly reining it in here…

• I started on the path to holding up my end of the season ticket bargain today by spending 4+ hours at the Jerwa’s house, mowing and trimming the lawn, weeding (like the on-your-hands-and-knees kind of weeding, I am not a wuss), picking up dead yard debris, and stuffing everything into yard bags. Oh, and sweeping. Lots of sweeping. My back hurts now, and it was very cold outside, the weather having taken a rather ominous turn for the worse this morning. I love baseball, I love baseball, I love baseball…
• While I was making war with my friends’ yard, I was listening to…basketball on the radio. Yes. Basketball. My Nano is all messed up, and I neglected to bring a CD player with me, so radio was all I had. The Mariners Spring Training game that was going to be broadcast today was rained out. But all was not lost for the boys. They couldn’t play ball, but they could play. A few weeks ago, Mike Sweeney came up with an idea for the rookies to do an American Idol-style clubhouse competition of sorts. Shannon Drayer has her write-up about it here (poor, poor Steve Baron), and Jim Street has his here. Oh, the money I would pay to be able to see Matt Tuiasosopo do the Haka…
• I am quite pleased to say that I have finally gotten the MLB Network. I was able to watch a White Sox/Dodgers Spring Trainer yesterday, after listening to most of the Mariners/Padres game on the radio. I am hoping that having this channel will mean that I’ll get to see a few Orioles or Diamondbacks games this year. I’ve heard mixed reviews about the programming choices, but it’s relatively inexpensive to add to our TV package, and it’s been fun so far.
• This is old news by now, but wasn’t really heavily circulated: the Tacoma Rainiers have announced plans to upgrade Cheney Stadium, and it looks like they’re going all out to make their improvements. Their FaceBook page has some renderings, so check them out there. This doesn’t get me tickets to their Opening Day on April 8th (I have a very one-track mind), but it’s great that the Mariners organization is stepping up the game for their minor league team.
• The Ms are 2-2 in Spring Training so far.  Though I’m really happy to have baseball back, I’m determined to not take this all as seriously as I did last year. ESPN has made that a little easier for me by deciding to not air the games on their station as much as KOMO did last year. I love Brock and Salk, but hearing a talk radio show that is still spending a lot of time focusing on  football when I know that there is Mariners baseball being played somewhere on the face of this earth is disheartening, to say the least. I was truly thankful for the guys being down there the first full week of pitchers and catchers, but now I want to hear the games that the team I support are playing. GameDay just doesn’t cut it, and this is a local team! I’d likely have harsher words about this if there hadn’t been a rainout today, but I am still looking at writing a letter to the powers that be, especially if there is more of the same this week. I thought one of the goals of sports radio was to get fans jacked up for their team, and ESPN is not showing me any love there. And I know I’m not alone.  Bad form, guys.

EDIT: It appears that where ESPN fails, the MLB Network does me a solid – there is a split squad game tomorrow, vs both the White Sox and Milwaukee. The Milwaukee game is being broadcast at 4pm PST. This channel is already paying for itself!

EDIT 2: Yeah. I feel like a moron – it’s at the bottom of Drayer’s article, which I neglected to check out at first because I’d been so keen to find out about the song-and-dance thing. Lesson learned, no blogging when tired.

I was listening to Mike and Mike in the Morning today, and Mike Golic was talking about Barry Zito’s intentional drilling of Prince Fielder at a Spring Training game yesterday, retaliation for a bit of an “over celebrated” walkoff homer during last year’s run for the Wild Card. Golic’s assessment was that Zito was being a whiner (my word, not his) for meting out punishment for the Fielder move, which happened at the end of the game and didn’t involve Fielder admiring his dinger, but only celebrating with his teammates. His main argument seemed to center around football players who are allowed a little bit of joy in the end zone after a big play. While I think that any comparison of the two games is absolutely ludicrous, it did start me thinking about both sides of the coin.

Boiled down to the game’s essence, baseball is mano y mano, pitcher vs. batter. Football is, frankly, a bunch of guys vs. a bunch of guys. Sure there is room for clotheslining someone if you think they’ve committed some egregious sin to show you up during the game, but there is so much more a one-on-one duel in baseball…let me put it this way – if some football player runs a pass and scores, he ran it because he got past all the guys on the other team, and his teammates were helping him do that. When a hitter knocks one over the wall, it’s just the hitter, and he did that against just the pitcher. It is quite obvious to the 30,000+ people in the stands who screwed up and who took advantage of that mistake. After over 100 years of game history, it’s expected that the pitcher hangs his head and curses, and that the batter acts like he’s been there before. But Fielder didn’t look longingly at his hit, nor did he point at or in any way acknowledge the pitcher who threw it. He simply took his lap, and came back and jumped around with his teammates…

You know who else did that last year?

Ichiro Suzuki. Don’t tell me the groin chop with all the guys at the plate after his walkoff against Mariano Rivera has been forgotten already (it was even on the Christmas card I received from the ticket office), because I’m willing to bet that it’s still fresh in Rivera’s mind. That was Ichiro doing exactly the same thing that Prince Fielder did. We play the Yankees ten times this year. Ten opportunities for them to pull a Zito. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, but it will be interesting to see what happens. The Giants had all offseason to stew over the Fielder issue. The Yankees have had all offseason tempered by a World Series win, but it’s my understanding that baseball players’ memories are very long. Obviously, I’d like them to be adults about it and understand that we were just having fun…but so were the Brewers. Watch out, Ichi…

Anyway, on to some photos before I have to wash this dye out of my hair…

Taken during the Yankees series last year. I don’t know who this guy was, but it was undoubtedly the classiest player jersey I’d ever seen for an opposing team. I get so tired of seeing everything sprayed with Jeter’s name, so this was a nice change. I applaud the wearer (even though he had no idea I was taking a photo of his back), good form!

Ichiro doing what Ichiro does, around his little right field square. I’d think this was an odd picture except that it’s such a common sight. Come to think of it, you really don’t see that many players taking as much care and time during the game to keep themselves stretched out as Ichiro does.  Sure, a guy might reach down and touch a toe once in a while or something, but it wouldn’t surprise me if you could set a watch by Ichi’s game routine.

Mark Lowe taking some time to warmup mid-way into a game. I’m so glad he’s sticking around for another year. He used to scare me something fierce, but has since turned into a bright spot in the game, and we’re better for it. Plus, he helps John Wetteland rock the weird, and I can dig it.

Happy Friday, everyone!

The game was neck-and-neck most of the way. None of our big names were playing today, really, but the Mariners team consisting of mostly minor leaguers beat a Padres team that included Matt Stairs and Adrian Gonzalez. The big shock came in the bottom of the 8th with the bases loaded, when Tommy Everidge took Radhames Liz yard to widen the small 2-run gain we had just made on them earlier that inning. There was even an Everidge fan talking to me via Twitter who called it seconds before it happened. Amazing! Had I been able to hear the crowd or see it for myself, I probably would have been jumping around the room,  but it was just me listening to Brock and Salk on the headphones and laptopping the game, so the best I could manage was a dropped jaw and -most likely- a big smile. I know Spring Training doesn’t mean much, but it’s hard not to get excited when something like that happens. Would have loved to have been there.

I hate saying it so ridiculously early, but I think San Diego is going to be very sad this year. They seem generally disinterested in signing the guy who is widely regarded as their best player, and according to a friend of mine who is a fan, they seem hell-bent on running their organization into the ground. I’m not trying to be condescending at all, but I really do feel badly for their fans. One of the games in my ticket package is a Pads game, I think it’s sometime in May. I hope they at least put up a fight. If they win, I might even be happy for them…

I am having a huge case of the  guilts today for falling asleep around the 5th inning of yesterday’s extra-innings Spring Training game. I tried to stay awake, but I only got a few hours of sleep the other night, and that coupled with how warm it was in the living room with the heat on resulted in me falling asleep with the headphones on and the laptop perched precariously on my knees. I feel somehow less of a fan for letting my exhaustion get the best of me, but plan to try and make up for it during today’s noon-time charity game against the San Diego Padres.

Fortunately for those of us who allowed a need for sleep to override our excitement for early-year baseball, Griffin at SodoMojo.com was on it like butter. Game notes at the link. Shannon Drayer also has some liveblogging going on at her site.

Some other recent-ish links:

• Ryan Feierabend is feeling perky these days, and will start a game this coming Sunday. I’ve always liked him, though, like my irrational love for Garrett Olson, I’m not sure why. He’s just one of those players that I wish well.
• Geoff Baker has some video from yesterday’s meeting of giants Ken Griffey Jr and Tim Lincecum; or at least, Lincecum’s reaction to it. I think it’s kind of cool that baseball players are susceptible to being starstruck, even when they’re stars themselves. It’s a keen reminder that they’re just guys doing a job – a dream job for some, but it’s still their job.
• USS Mariner has added a new writer, and he posted an interesting link to an article about a pretty cool innovation for pitchers that might help pitching mechanics in the future. Yay for Science! The video is fascinating – if you haven’t already, watch it.

EDIT: No redemption for me this afternoon. Looks like today’s game is not being broadcast on ESPN. Terrible bummer, but listening to Brock and Salk anyway because I’ve nothing else to do today. And also because I love them, but mainly because I have little else to do.

In other news, I think that an Opening Day pre-game meetup with anyone who wants to show their shiny happy faces is in order. So if you want to come and chill with me and Conor Dowley before the 3.40pm game on Monday, April 12th. We’ll be at the Elysian Fields brewpub across the street from Qwest at 542 1st Ave S, and we’ll be there at noon.  The pub allows children in their main dining area, and of course they serve food, hard alcohol, and a wonderful selection of their own beers (if you’ve never had their pumpkin ale in the Fall, you’re missing out!) Any questions about this one, feel free to ask; the Elysian is a frequent pre-game haunt for me, so I should be able to help with any concerns anyone might have. Come and toast the 2010 season, grab some beer that is a wee bit cheaper than $8.50 a pint, and talk some baseball. GO MARINERS! Welcome back, boys!

So what happened?

Well, frankly, I’ve been thinking about this situation ever since January. Baseball is a drug, and I am definitely an addict. I thought I could go cold turkey, but I was so, so wrong. At first it was a bit of a light daydream sort of thing, where it was ‘oh, wouldn’t this be nice, but I have school and no job, it’ll never happen‘. FanFest rolled around, and my friend Rob went to get his 16-game bleacher seat, right in front of me, flaunting it like a jerk. When pitchers and catchers reported, I started to feel like a Bugs Bunny cartoon, with a devil and angel version of David Aardsma on each shoulder (which is ridiculous, because that would weigh a ton), but this time both of them were screaming “DO IT!” But still I had no idea where I was going to get any money. About two weeks or so ago, I got so tired of dealing with the shoulder pain and screaming, that I was on the verge of selling a bunch of CDs, my drum kit, and whatever else in the house might have been sell-able. I talked to my friends Brandon and Jessica about the drum set thing – since I’m technically “in a band” with them, I figured they should have some say in it – and Brandon talked me out of it, at least for now.

Then it hit me. I could do odd jobs for friends…but this is where things get super-weird.

I have in the past offered to do manual labor for people when I’ve been unemployed or found myself needing a little extra money. Nobody usually takes me up on it, because they’re unemployed, or they could just do it themselves. But this time, I hit a totally unexpected jackpot…As anyone who has been reading this for any period of time knows, my friend Jessica was in a pretty bad car accident now over a year and a half ago; it compounded a hip issue she’d already had, and resulted in a lot more problems than just a regular car accident might have afforded.  I’ve talked here many times about the two of us zipping around SafeCo with her in a wheelchair, both of us taking pictures, talking about her softball days, etc.  Her husband Brandon is the same Brandon I’ve gone to the past three USSM/Lookout Landing meetings with. Jessica obviously can’t do yardwork, and Brandon is just not a yardwork guy. They were in the process of hiring a yard service when I asked if anyone needed any work done…

See where this is going?

To make sure this train got on the tracks ASAP, the Jerwas told me they’d pay for my two tickets up front, and then buy themselves a third. If I can’t find someone to go with on a given game, they both go with me, and if they find they have to miss a game, we find someone else who wants to buy the third ticket. My job is to have in-depth conversations with their lawn, weeds, and trees about being good little plants on as regular a basis as the weather and our schedules allow this year. Everyone wins!

To make matters even more awesome, buying season tickets of course allowed me the ability to get two tickets for myself and Conor of ProBallNW.com (who really needs to write more, and I’m sure Mr Jon Shields would agree with me) to go to Opening Day! Opening Day tickets will also be in the view reserved section, hopefully close to the Greek food kiosk I hear is going to be open up there. Seriously, I need to be in a seat with a gyro in my paws on Opening Day, or all hell will break loose!

There. I feel SO much better now! As soon as the traffic dies down this morning, I’m going to go out and do a little jig in the street!

It looks like FSN has added another game to their broadcast schedule, so there’s something else to look forward to – it’s on a Thursday, and I will not have any school that day, so the winner is me, as the kids say on the internets. Doug Fister will be the starter for next Wednesday’s game. Geoff Baker also has an article about new “Axe” bats the players are using, and a post featuring Jay Buhner with crazy eyes. They look interesting, but I wonder how much more prone they’ll be to slipping out of a batter’s grasp because of the taper on the handle?

Ryan Rowland-Smith is working on throwing a cutter, which is cool. Three cheers for a wider arsenal!  I understand Cliff Lee throws a cutter, too (though not as frequently as a fastball), so hopefully he can give Hyphen some pointers. Also, I heard via Twitter late last night that RRS just got done filming his commercial for this season. I’m hoping that enough of our team sticks around this year that all the commercials are usable all season long. 2008 was certainly miserable like that – after the loss of Jose Vidro, Richie Sexson, and then considering how badly Yuniesky Betancourt started playing, eventually all we were left with was that damn fungo commercial, and the revocation of the tagline “My oh my” because nobody wanted to hear it when we were down by so many games less than halfway through the season. Last year’s commercials all stuck around, but they weren’t as good – I didn’t think – as some in previous years. Just my opinion, though. I did like the Felix commercial (“I’m sure your family loves you, so keep the chin up!”). I’m just excited for everything this year, and who am I kidding – I’m sure I’ll love the commercials regardless.

Baker just posted this, but it looks like we now have our very own Josh Hamilton. Sort of.  An interesting story, and I’d be curious to hear more. I like hearing about redemption and second chances – it was, after all, what made the 2009 Mariners so much fun to watch.

It’s Friday again. Only a few days away from Spring Training broadcasts, and a month and change before the Real Thing starts up.  So, on to some photos of the Real Thing.

Everyone on the bar, watching Erik Bedard’s start. I was in the 4th row, and I’m sure I may have mentioned this, but it was very hot. I take quite a few photos every game, not all of them get used during game summaries. This was one of those, but I still like it.

Guillermo Quiroz. Frankly, I’m surprised this photo came out as good as it did. I have nothing but complaints about my telephoto lens and normally don’t use it – but this one came out well, I think. One of the few games Quiroz played for us early in 2009, when he was wearing number 55, which eventually became Michael Saunders’ number.

This is one of my favorite pictures, ever. It was taken in 2008 during a Tampa Bay Rays game. The rain had stopped, the sun came out, and the roof had been opened; a few minutes later, this happened. Sadly, I haven’t framed it yet. I should remedy that. The main thing that slays me about how well this turned out is that it was taken on my crappy little $100 point-and-shoot, but it totally sums up the way I feel when I’m there, watching a game. Everything is kittens and rainbows.

The continued rain today just makes me long for the game to start even more. Only another few days to struggle through. I know Spring Training games aren’t important for any reason other than to get the guys warmed up and to separate the Rainiers (and the Aquasox, and the Diamond Jaxx) from the Mariners, but they’re important to me because hey, it’s baseball I don’t know the outcome of already. Also, it’s baseball. And I love it so!

Larry Stone is catching up with some ex-Mariners on the east coast. The photos of baseball happening under palm trees make me really long for much nicer weather than what I’m seeing out my window this morning. It’s neat to see our former guys – whatever your opinion of some of them – smiling and doing what they do.

The Chicago press is officially acting like a psycho ex-girlfriend. Or like John Cusak, holding a boom box over their heads on Milton Bradley’s lawn. Not only are they now pining for the drama of Milton Bradley, but they’re trying to drag Marlon Byrd down with them. I was in a relationship like this once – it gets really old when every day features a new comparison to someone’s ex. It results in a ridiculous, difficult breakup that never had to happen if the other person would have just not consented to date you in the first place. Because they’re obviously still in love with this other person that you are not. Dear Chicago; Milton Bradley doesn’t want to date you anymore. Take your flowers and get off my porch!

I’m linking it through USS Mariner just because, but via Geoff Baker comes some actual video and more news over the new training program started by Dr Marcus Elliot. They’re bailing on the weight program as it was, and changing things up to have the weights directly target the muscles the players actually use while playing. I watched it with the sound off, because I was listening to Dave Cameron talk on hotstove.com, but it is obvious that the stretch they demonstrate in the video targets pitching muscles. I almost feel bad about linking to this, because if it produces the results that it’s supposed to, other teams might know our secrets! But it’s important, so I’m linking it.

ProBallNW has started doing their player-by-player series for 2010 here. I do have to catch up on some of my reading, I guess. I have two papers due next Monday, one of which comes with a presentation (and I despise public speaking), so I have a somewhat built-in excuse, but the rest of today looks like it’s going to be a little busy. Oh, and because of an article in the Mariners Annual, I now have a very light grasp of the concept of FIP. At the very least, I know a good number from a bad number; it’s a start.

Fridays at Safeco after I go to school and ace this test…

This article on the place-switching thing with Chone Figgins and Jose Lopez makes it look a little more serious than just drills. I’m totally convinced that major league ball coaches know better than I do about such things, but I’m not totally convinced that I like the idea. For one thing, I’m accustomed to Lopi at second. Second, it seems like we need someone stronger than Lopez at the corner  – at least if he’s at second, he has a Franklin Gutierrez backup, just in case things should go Horribly, Horribly Wrong. I don’t want to use the word downgrade – I have a genuine fondness for Lopez, and while I acknowledge his defense might use a little work, I certainly don’t hate him  – but it seems like a step back for us to have someone without much range at third. Then again – as I sit here and talk myself out of my own opinions (I’ve gotten really good at it this offseason) – it does seem like one of Lopi’s current strengths is his ability to make plays to his left; so maybe this isn’t such a bad idea after all. Also, if Figgins is at second and has a lengthy contract, does that not provide a bit of a blockage to Dustin Ackley’s possible/kind of/maybe future position? I like surprises, but this is a bit of a head-scratcher. It has been repeated numerous times over the past few days that these are just drills, this is just Spring Training, everything is “wait and see”. And shuttle runs. Lots of shuttle runs.

More talk of Milton Bradley and the Mariners Clubhouse Effect (if it’s proven again this year, I may have to start calling it the “MCE”) on Brock and Salk today. A lot of words about Bradley’s competitive streak, and his ability to hit well when healthy, and his being pleased with being on a team with Ken Griffey Jr. For their part, Don Wakamatsu and Jack Zduriencik have both gone on (radio) record in the past few days, acknowledging their awareness of and respect for Bradley. I kind of wish we could just get done with it now. Everyone knows, and the more it gets hashed over, the more likely he may be to bring that mess here; and he obviously doesn’t want to – and our reporters obviously don’t want him to. So it’s out in the open, let’s move on and play ball, yeah?

Mike Sweeney is just too damn cool. Seriously – how did I ever not like this guy? Also at that link, Cliff Lee video goodness.