I/O Mike Sweeney:  Per the Live! broadcast, it is "hilarious" that a team, not able to hit its way out of a paper bag, is even thinking about cutting the one guy who's hitting .750.

Career .300 hitter, reminds Baka, slugged .500 last year "as soon as his back was healed" and this spring is simply continuing what Sweeney was doing when we last saw him in September.

Sweeney is way slimmed down from 2009 is the report, both down in bodyfat and actually slimmer in the chest and arms.  Looks 30 years old.

His triple on Thursday was no accident -- Sweeney is actually pretty fast now.  Scored on a wild pitch "and if Junior is on third there, the farthest he gets is about five feet off the bag."  This is exactly the kind of play that shows the coaching staff, in spring, that Mike Sweeney can still bring it.

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CRUNCH:  Sweeney is an ex-catcher, ex-1B for the Royals, who is rather unlikely to whiff a shin-high throw.  He's actually quite unlikely to whiff a one-hopper, either, for that matter.

With Sweeney having lost a lot of weight, you've really got to ask whether he isn't a more reliable defensive 1B right now than Ryan Garko.  In any case, Sweeney's 1B mitt certainly makes it feasible to send Garko down during Lee's suspension and/or injury rehab.

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Of course, the Mariners brought in Garko thrilled that they had acquired "a starting-caliber player" merely to fill a role. 

Hey, did you know that b-ref.com now carries LH vs RH double-splits vs. starting LHP's?  Ingenious!  It isolates to what happens before the specialist matchups come in. 

Garko comes out smelling like a rose here:  vs LHP starters last year, he had a 952 OPS.  That's tall cotton.  Mucho OBP, 400-and-plenty, to go along with the power.

When Don Wakamatsu is making out a lineup card for inning 1, that really is what concerns him:  how the starters do against the starters.  Gotta love b-ref.com's splits on this one.

So there's that.  Sticking with Garko, you really are getting a specialized weapon there.  Nobody said baseball was easy...

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I can see a 5-man bench including both Garko and Sweeney.  Every day you're going to be able to field a hitter who has had good luck against that day's starter, and with the M's offense, they need that mix-and-match.

But if it's Sweeney or Garko, well, mayhaps the M's are taking the fresh data and re-thinking the paradigm. 

Sweeney's leadership matters, a lot.  You've got Milton Bradley and you're hoping for a 900 OPS+ out of the man.  Baker was quite irate, as Baker-irate goes, at Junior for making the M's decide between Sweeney and Garko.  He did allow, however, "you can't even think about bringing Milton Bradley in without Junior."

As with Ichiro, don't forget to tip the clubbie when you set your career high in OPS+ ...

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