At Mariner Central, Crusty Juggler linked us to Dejan Kovacevic's report that the Mariners are talking extension with Jack Wilson.  Kovacevic says that the Jack is offering Jack "a two-year contract worth more than" the Pirates' two-year ultimatum right before the Pirates traded him, "$8M."

We M's fans could hope wanly that this meant $8M for both years together, but that is of course not what Pittsburgh would have offered Wilson in a hail-mary right before trading him.  Wilson's previous contract called for $8M per year, and Wilson was playing well for the Pirates.

So apparently Jack Wilson is the shortstop that Zduriencik plans to win his next pennant with, and he's going to pay him what, $8-10M per season to do it.

*edit to add that G-Money pointed out, to my complete amazement, that 2/$8M was exactly the situation.

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=== Flip Card Dept. ===

Right at the time of the trade, we opined that Jack Wilson is a reasonable choice for SS if you're trying to win the pennant.

Our read at the time was that:

1. Wilson was probably a legit impact glove,
2. He'd hit a solid 80 OPS+, a pesky-type 80 against good pitching,
3. That in math terms, this added to average-mediocre,
4. As such, would be about a push for his $8M salary,
5. Jack was a good illustration that RLP's aren't as easy to find as we think.
   

SSI, as well as 20th-century baseball consensus, has always believed that glove specialists are perfectly fine at SS and CF.   Jack Wilson was fine with me both in theory and in this specific case.

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After watching Jack for a month, we compared him to historical Yankee shortstops like Phil Rizzuto, and, on a higher level, Derek Jeter:  spray the ball around the diamond, don't get punished too much by the LH home park, play real tough, add personality to your club, challenge the other contenders, look them in the eye.

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One month after that, Sept. 7, we called attention to the fact that in the AL and in Safeco, Wilson was hitting like Ronny Cedeno. 

It does not matter how good you are with the glove:  .220/.250/.300 is a sucking chest wound.  The fundamental rules of the game of rounders do not allow any one glove to compensate for an empty .250 OBP; there isn't a human being on the planet who can catch enough batted balls to cancel a 220/250/300 batting line, because balls just don't come into your area often enough.  

Pitchers can compensate for empty .200 AVG's.  :- )   They touch the ball every play.  Gloves can't.

For comparison's sake, Yuniesky Betancourt hits 275/300/400, not 220/250/300.   Willie Bloomquist hits 260/320/330.

Gloves are fine.  .250 OBP's aren't.  Neither are .290 OBP's.  If Jack Wilson were to post a .280 OBP the next two years, that would turn out to be a very expensive RLP.

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=== What, Me Worry?, Dept. ===

Right after that, Don Wakamatsu flatly stated that Jack Wilson's bat would be fine, and that you can't judge Wilson by his Seattle tenure, because he was injured.

IceX, I think, led the cyber-counter that Jack Wilson has not, and will not, be any stranger to the DL anyway.

Dr. D would throw in here that what Wok means is that Wilson was hurt in such a way that it affected him swinging the bat.

This isn't a sabr call in any way whatsoever.  You've got the word of a great baseball man -- two great baseball men -- that Wilson is going to hit.  Better than he did, anyway.

Good to hear it.

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Part II