Mass Hypnotism
=== Baseball Gettin' Fun Dept. ===
So the M's are 34-34 and the Rangers, as predicted here, are finding their level. Only 3.5 back. That's one series.
Care to guess what the M's were last year after 68 games?
24-44. That's -20 games below .500.
Kudos to Capt Jack and Wok for giving us an exciting ballclub in their very first years (here, or anywhere).
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=== Group Hallucination Dept. ===
I'd like for it to be fun next, year, too, which is why I keep thinking about Erik Bedard's next contract.
At our fave hangout MC, we find continual amusement in the fact that ALL of the writers think Bedard will be lucky to get $12-15M per year. Dr. D cut his "offer" :- ) to $16-18M longterm, and the reaction is, "he doesn't even deserve that short term."
It's a fair question: Is $16-18M unprecedented for a "volatile" pitcher like Erikkkk?
Do "volatile" pitchers get big money? It's a fair question, and here's my fair response. :- )
1) All pitchers are volatile, but I know what you mean.
2) The Sox spent >$100M / 6 for DiceK, who had never pitched in the majors and who had a long history of overuse.
3) A.J. Burnett just got precisely $16-17m ($16.5) times 5 years, and he had 4 injury seasons in the previous 6 years. Burnett is considerably more volatile than Erik Bedard, and he wasn't going to accept Carlos Silva money.
4) Johann Santana's elbow has been hanging by a thread for two years
5) Salaries in general are "unprecedented" each winter compared to historical salaries. If we ask, "how many volatile pitchers made the market rate that winter," the answer will be, "most of them."
Barry Zito, for example, got a HUGE deal in a contract that the Giants knew was a gamble. Old guys like Clemens, Randy Johnson, and Pettitte get giant salaries.
Andy Pettitte, slap me silly, got $17.5m.
I don't mean this in an unfriendly way, but the group hallucination that you all are having on Erik Bedard's value is pretty weird. :- ) But, again, if you can get him for Carlos Silva 4 x $12m jack, maybe plus parking money if you're feeling generous ... power to you.
Erik Bedard is a $20M pitcher.
The "risk premium" and hometown discount MIGHT get him in here for $16 or $18 a year or something. But don't think that his agent hasn't noticed the fact that he's the best pitcher in the big leagues.
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=== Junior Scratched ===
Geoff Baker reports that Junior had 2 ounces of blood (and pus) drained from his knee yesterday. So imagine yourself having a festering wound on your leg, from which 1/4 cup of fluid had to be extracted. What kind of inflammation do you think you'd have around the area?
Which reminds us of why Junior's power can look pretty warning track sometimes. Power comes from the lower half of the body. Pretty amazing that he was able to go 425 feet Friday night.
It underlines that Griffey's not a viable option for a lot of play in LF. All y'all say, because he can't play acceptable defense. It occurs to me, because the knee is worse than I thought. All the Mariners have said is, it's not an option; we can nyah-nyah each other about which problem was the cause of that. :- )
Geoff Baker's postgame puts an excellent color on the warrior mentality going on right now in the M's locker room. Geoff is a super baseball writer who has a real gift for picking out the essence of the story going on at the moment.
Cheers,
Dr D