Not in the snippet is that if they'd waited one more week, they'd have postponed these players' free-agency by a whole year! What an organization.

If only there was an available Free Agent bat that could get on base in the middle of the order for the M's?

Not in the snippet is that if they'd waited one more week, they'd have postponed these players' free-agency by a whole year!

Bavasi is just going to trade them away for a bag of magic beans anyway.

If only there was an available Free Agent bat that could get on base in the middle of the order for the M's?

Yes, who indeed?

This reminds me, what the heck happened to Erubiel Durazo? His last season, 2005, was mediocre and then he fell off the face of the map. Injuries?

Alex Rodriguez --> Alfonso Soriano --> Brad Wilkerson.

Smart dealing, Rangers!

Wilkerson signed a $4 million, one-year contract before spring training

I would have signed to write a daily haiku for the Mariners' press releases for a tenth of that.

This reminds me, what the heck happened to Erubiel Durazo? His last season, 2005, was mediocre and then he fell off the face of the map. Injuries?

Yes. Last I heard, he was playing in the Mexican leagues.

Just think, they could've had The Big Hurt for the minimum.

Wilkerson will be remembered as the last Expo ever. He last wore the uniform during a tour of Japan in the fall of 2004, after the season was over.
Oh, and he also hit the last Expo homerun (October 2, 2004, of Brendan Looper at Shea).
And he's the leader in team history with 12 homeruns as a leadoff hitter.

Not in the snippet is that if they'd waited one more week, they'd have postponed these players' free-agency by a whole year! What an organization.

What is the rule?

"Just think, they could've had The Big Hurt for the minimum."

We don't know that they didn't try. At least one team, and possibly more, did try to get Frank Thomas but he chose the A's considering his good recent history there

Wilkerson can't possibly be worse than Jason Michaels, can he? I assume he can't handle center field at this point, but Gutierrez can.

Sign him up, Mark. Sign him up. Not that I expect much from Wilkerson, but my personal preference is to switch useless placeholders every year or two. That way, by the time I begin to develop tics every time they come to the plate in a clutch situation, they're gone and replaced by a new guy who doesn't give me tics.

edit: Thought better of what I just wrote and decided to delete it.

And he's the leader in team history with 12 homeruns as a leadoff hitter.

Wow! I thought for sure that was wrong. Tim Raines hit 96 HR as an Expo, but only 4 leading off a game, whereas he hit 5 in 115 games in 1993 for the White Sox.

edit:

To follow up, I know Raines didn't always hit #1 for the Expos. I just checked his yearly splits, and he hit 56 HR as an Expo leadoff hitter, and only 4 of those came leading off the game. What are the odds of that occuring by random chance?

Oh, and he also hit the last Expo homerun (October 2, 2004, of Brendan Looper at Shea).

I saw his first HR, a just-barely fly ball at the Big Owe.

Not in the snippet is that if they'd waited one more week, they'd have postponed these players' free-agency by a whole year!

I don't believe this is the case. You need 172 days to qualify for a year. A full season generally last 183 days. The Mariners have already played 26 games. Waiting would only affect possible Super 2 status.

"Just think, they could've had The Big Hurt for the minimum."

We don't know that they didn't try. At least one team, and possibly more, did try to get Frank Thomas but he chose the A's considering his good recent history there

According to Thomas' agent, the M's did try, but they weren't willing to guarantee him enough playing time. Instead, the M's let him sign with a division rival. That move is not awesome (for the M's) on so many levels.

Not in the snippet is that if they'd waited one more week, they'd have postponed these players' free-agency by a whole year! What an organization.

What is the rule?

15% of the players with between two and three years of service time qualify for arbitration. Teams aren't really safe unless they wait they promote someone until after May 20 or so. If more teams catch on to this game, they may edge it forward another week or so. Of course, the Mariners can always option them out for a few weeks in the next year or two.

Edit: It's not a fixed date to qualify for Super 2 status. It depends on what the other teams are doing.

Oh, and I see now it was actually one of my favourite ever in-person games - it ended in the 10th on a Mike Mordecai walk-off-walk!

"Just think, they could've had The Big Hurt for the minimum."

Yeah, but he doesn't play right field.

RE: The M's trying to get Frank Thomas.

I was watching some M's game on MLB.TV last week on the other team's feed. The announcers brought it up and said that M's announcer Rick Rizzs told them that the team wanted batting average from the DH position because they felt they had enough power. The way it was phrased was as though Rizzs had gotten that word from the front office, and not just dumb announcer speculation. If that is the case, LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!111

Maybe Rick Rizzs is calling the shots around the Mariners' offices these days. He has enough self-confidence to bend Bavasi to his will.

Vaux is correct; both players already have 27 days of service from their call-ups last year, so keeping them under 172 days through season's end would've required leaving them down until next Thursday. Delaying arbitration would've required keeping them down about seven more weeks.

Vaux is correct; both players already have 27 days of service from their call-ups last year, so keeping them under 172 days through season's end would've required leaving them down until next Thursday

You can't tell me now that Bavasi isn't a player's GM

I've always had a soft spot in my head for Greg Norton. I wouldn't mind if the Sox brought him back at some point, just for old times' sake.

Alex Rodriguez --> Alfonso Soriano --> Brad Wilkerson.

Smart dealing, Rangers!

You're looking at it all wrong, the Rangers also got Financial Flexibility! I'm sure the Ranger fans are all looking forward to watching all those home runs Mr. Flexibility is going to hit this year.

I'm sure the Ranger fans are all looking forward to watching all those home runs Mr. Flexibility is going to hit this year.

Actually, we're looking forward to all the pitching Hicks is going to buy with the $7M/year he's not having to send to the Yanks.

Oh...wait...

This Jason Jennings fellow is working out pretty well.

You're looking at it all wrong, the Rangers also got Financial Flexibility!

And don't you know football fans in Liverpool are thankful for that!

I can't fault the Rangers for Jennings. That's the kind of low-risk/high-reward signing that I love. Just a couple years ago he was an effective pitcher on Planet Coors.

Of course, I wish they had stashed him on the 60-day DL instead of DFA'ing Botts, but shows what I know about running a franchise.

Baseball Primer needs to buy a franchise and make it open-source. Between all the great minds we have here, I'm sure we could make a team competitive in no time. Of course, there's the whole entry fee issue (I'm unemployed, but I could scrape together $20 - are the other 9,999,999 of you with me?), but...nice fantasy, at least.

Not in the snippet is that if they'd waited one more week, they'd have postponed these players' free-agency by a whole year! What an organization.

Shouldn't you guys be happy that Clement and Balentin will be paid a market rates earlier?

According to Thomas' agent, the M's did try, but they weren't willing to guarantee him enough playing time. Instead, the M's let him sign with a division rival. That move is not awesome (for the M's) on so many levels.

You're right. They do have Jose Vidro's feelings to think about.

Dave Cameron has an interesting take on the ethics of manipulating service time to benefit the club.