Q. What is the attitude of the reincarnated jemanji towards the rest of the Mariners' blog-o-sphere?

A. Jeff Sullivan -- about whom we've always been politely appreciative -- cowboy'ed up for this tremendous article.  In it, he encourages all of us to Rodney King it and Just All Get Along.

Granted, Jeffy is in an altered state-of-mind, daffily euphoric like the rest of us, over the GM and manager that he sees as a lifeline-tossed-over-the-side.  :- )  But that's all to the good.  He says,

It seems like, as we've put more distance between ourselves and last season, when it comes to points of intra-blogosphere disagreement we've been able to raise the level of dialogue and reduce the amount of snark and dismissiveness of which we were all guilty, and that can only be good for everyone.

Amen, brother.   Point taken and seconded.

Jeffy is the college party boy who, at the marriage of his favorite uncle Zoink, stands up teary-eyed and raps the glass for the "time for us all to grow up" speech that leaves everybody somber.  Dr. D's own reaction to this is to, without irony, raise his glass and nod.

Lookout Landing points out, along the way,

Because who wants to feud with a beat writer who actually has the stones to ask Raul Ibanez about his defense?

ROTFL!  Wade jumps into the passing lane, rockets downcourt, and rips the rim off.

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Geoff Baker, as we've been saying since he got here, deserves the cyber-"C" on his jersey.  He's the guy with the access, the guy who is equal parts athlete and math-literate, and the guy who has set the tone for friendly cooperation.  He is apparently grabbing the sled by the ropes and yanking it over so it's bearing straight down the hill.

There are all of us Jeffs and then there's the Geoff around here...

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D-O-V's has always respected Prospect Insider. A few ups and downs occurred over things that we won't get into -- obviously, spending time on them would counter the spirit of Jeff's call and of this post.

We've always enjoyed Jason's feel for the game of baseball ... his feel for the right questions to ask an insider, which (and this is saying a lot) exceeds even Kap-i-Tan Baker's ... and the fact is that Jason has more minor-league-relevant access than anybody, which is a nice resource for the community.

Past ups-and-downs notwithstanding, jemanji (for his part) views PI as a friend.

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USSM, you'll grant, is not going to be a viable partner for D-O-V tattoo-sharing, given the persona non grata and other policies.  But do be aware that for our own part, when we disagree with an analysis that they have publicly disseminated, it will not be with any motivation whatsoever to leave them looking "corrected."

Also, we will make an extra effort to acknowledge where we agree.  This will, from our side of the table, hopefully leave a non-antagonistic tone.  Undoubtedly this is what we should have been doing from the start.

Be aware also, that as it comes to evaluation of their ability as analysts, we have never offered any opinion other than that they are very fine baseball analysts.  IMHO, their lead analyst has improved lately, also, from even the former high level, perhaps through their interaction with Tango, Hardball Times and others.

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So, for example, a comparison has been floated -- by USSM and LL -- that Mike Carp's reasonable ceiling is to hit like Lyle Overbay.  I don't agree with that, but also don't consider the position one not to be taken seriously.  In offering our own comment on that judgment, it won't be for the purpose of trying to start a food fight.

One thing that I have always found amusing -- in the good-natured sense -- is how I seem to be able to honestly disagree with one single analyst on so many "gray area" evaluations.  We remember Jim Bowden telling Gary Huckabay that he wouldn't hire a sabermetrician because there's never a dime's worth of difference between them.... "you like pitchers who strike out a lot of people, walk very few, and keep the ball on the ground.  No kidding, Sherlock.  Us dummy scouts would have never thought of that."

USSM offers interesting, quality analysis.  I'm sure they'll remain the most visible Mariners blog from the national point of view.

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Mariner Central is curious whether to link us via D-O-V, or SSI, or whether we're going to do a bi-monthly article there, or what's going on.  We'll know in a week or two, amigos.  :grouphug:

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Fanhome and Dave Clark, as well as JFro's sites, etc., have never been anything but friendly-neighbors-on-the-block, from my own point of view, at least.  Hence Fanhome's linkup at D-O-V, for example.

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The Klat group commissioned us to do some writing by-the-article, so we're gettin' the feet on the ground within that process.  Each time all of y'all click on a "rate this article" button, and especially each time you link up one of our articles offsite, it's huge to me, so thanks to those of you who have.

Not sure when the right IT job will come through, and how that will affect anything.  If MSNBC hires us to mess up their website it will of course bring the 5 articles a day to a screeching halt, but hopefully by then we'll have the knack of posting 3-a-week without throwing the rest of our lives off kilter :- )

With a little luck, Klat will agree that detectovision.com itself is a streamlined path to the kind of traffic and networking they are after.  But if not, we'll no doubt morph into using all three sites (PB, SSI, DOV) for our comedy stylings.

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What gets posted in the blog-o-sphere is fair game -- locally and nationally.  The Seattle internet is the best in baseball, one of the most visible in baseball, and the open-table contributes to that.

Like Master Sullivan says, it will be even better served as the era of Zduriencik and Wakamatsu ushers in a brighter mood all around.  :- )

Jolly good shew,

jemanji