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DaddyO has a motion on the floor, that we hereafter cease and desist all use of the term JeDi.  Dr. D offers a solid "Second!" of the motion.  The M's might very well win 100 games next year, but Beane Jr. will always be DiPoto to me.  Well, come to think of it, he might become Beane Jr. or something.

Lot of shtick going on today.  SSI responds with a Missile-Command first person shooter approach.  Stream of consciousness on each of the 5-to-10 incoming MIRV warheads falling upon the souls of the Mariner faithful.  We pay a heavy price in terms of POTD detail, but gain in the ability to discuss.  Judging from the Shout Box, the Think Tank does not need a lot of coaching here.  The 'Tank is well aware of the nature of the problem.

.....

No need to be offended by the sight of a cemetery.  That's part of life.  No need to take out your DiPoto frustrations on Dr. D that the photo also acknowledges the Seattle-Japan connection.  That is part of Mariners life.  Well, it used to be.  You know how Dr. D feels about the end of a beautiful Sasaki / Hasegawa / Ichiro / Iwakuma era.  No, a 33-year-old role player doesn't make Dr. D feel better.  A major Korean add might have, but Aoki doesn't.  

Yes, we're aware that baseball players changing teams, that's not comparable to actual life-and-death.  We're talking about the death of a fan's hope (in JeDi) only.  We know, we know.  Still, the atmosphere around here is appropriately sullen...

.....

Last winter, the Seahawks made their offer to Russell Wilson.  After this first Seahawks offer, the two parties discussed it cordially, in the manner of wolverines discussing which of the two had the rights to a hole in the ground.  The thing was, you knew that it was going to be up to RW3 to give in.  And he did.

Bob Whitsitt, when GM'ing the Blazers, was in the middle of an RW3-type negotiation with a draft pick.  He went on the radio and assured the public that the decision was in the hands of the draft pick, whether he'd be a Blazer or whether he would not.  "In a Paul Allen organization, we get our best offer out there early.  If it's not good enough, we move in a different direction."  SSI has nothing but respect for this attitude.  You've got a rich guy who insists on returning to his employees the amount that they are worth.  Not more, but definitely not less, either.  Paul Allen, given the opportunity, would NOT have become a Robber Baron.

.....

DiPoto, by contrast, tried to leverage a Qualifying Offer into the ability to chisel away the reasonable value of Hisashi Iwakuma's contract, his security, his future, his ... :: shrug ::  Then other teams said "Huh?!  You're not going to lock that guy UP?" and jumped into the vacuum that Jerry DiPoto created.  After other teams treated Iwakuma with more respect than the Seattle Mariners did, the next thing we heard was that the Mariners were -- NOW -- "working hard" to retain Iwakuma.

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Who needs 'im

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Okay.  You're not going to be Allen-fair with everyone.  But can't you at least do it with HISASHI IWAKUMA?  Wouldn't it make sense to treat THIS man fairly, even if you don't plan to treat most people fairly?

.....

The things that grind Dr. D's gears the most here:

1) DiPoto is the brand-new guy in town and Iwakuma the dearly-beloved fan favorite.  DiPoto says "hello" to us fans by delivering a Cardinals/Three Stooges eyepoke through our facemasks.

2) Iwakuma is the guy you use to control the strike zone.

3) We were not talking 6 years and $205.5 million dollars here.  The "risk" of a third year was trifling, in 2010's-era MLB free agency.  3 x $15M is becoming more like the contract you'd give a top setup reliever.  Iwakuma was ours for the price of a Small. Dose. of Respect.

4) Beane's personality is the type that smiles wryly, with absolutely no apology, when Josh Donaldson racks up 7 WAR for the Blue Jays.  We'll go ahead and assume the same here.  We doubt you're going to see a broken and contrite spirit in the DiPoto quotes.  

5) This isn't really my kind of territory, the sourness of it, so we're going to shut it down before this list reaches 16 items.  So we'll leave it as Gordon did:  "Nice job, Jerry."

RIP Hisashi,

Jeff