Major League Baseball, as it has nothing to write about, has decided to provide pointless articles on such fascinating subjects as what Marco Scutaro had for breakfast and John Lackey’s favorite shade of blue. Needless to say, I wouldn’t advise reading this lame fan fodder. It’s the offseason, nothing is happening, and MLB.com is freaking out. But reading this unnerved me quite a bit: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091128&content_id=7724250&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
Money can’t buy happiness, but for everything else, there’s Hank Steinbrenner’s DebitMastercard. If  Roy Halladay ends up a Yankee, the next four to five years would be awful. Think about what this would entail: The Yanks would have [...]

Well, A Happy Thanksgiving to you and all your beloved on this wonderful of holidays. One of my personal favorite days of the year. As we are sitting around mulling over the football games and tending to the family, I felt it my duty to give back a little on this day. Since this being award season and all, I figured I’d hand out some hardware of my own.
I know everyone else has beaten this to death and the saber metric guys are thrilled and the heat string fans are disappointed. Ol’ Josh Wilson will be testing the free-agent waters. I [...]

Assuming we don’t get a second baseman in return, which is quite unlikely, we’re obviously going to need someone to replace him. In Geoff Baker’s recent article on the subject of trading Jose Lopez, he mentions both Orlando Hudson and Placido Polanco as potential free agent replacements, as well as the possibility of Matt Tuiasosopo or Bill Hall filling the void.
Orlando Hudson could be a really nice fit, but he doesn’t want to come to the American League, so if the Mariners do want him, they may end up having to overpay to pry him from the National League, and [...]

Rewind three years.  It’s the 2006 baseball offseason and “General Manager” Bill Bavasi has just signed Jeff Weaver and traded Rafael Soriano for Horatio Ramirez. The laughable Richie Sexson is set to play at first base, Yuniesky Betancourt at shortstop, Jose Guillen in right field, and Raul Ibanez in left. The Mariners are doing it the wrong way.  They’re looking at ERA, pitching wins, batting average. Bill Bavasi probably can’t tell Jermaine Dye’s defense from Ichiro’s. The fanbase is, for the most part, unhappy, pessimistic, and tired of overpriced veterans taking away playing time from young talent.
2006 was a bad [...]

Just for the record, the Fansided Sports Blog Network will be undergoing some layout changes in the near future. Stay tuned for further developments.
In that vein, SoDoMojo could be getting its own domain sometime in the future, and Harrison, Griffin, and I are curious if any readers have layout or web design suggestions for us. At this point, we’re not sure what it’ll look like, but we can promise you that it will involve lots of images of Franklin Gutierrez.
-Taylor
PS: The Jack Cust to the Mariners rumors you may be hearing have no basis in reality. It’s not going to [...]

Each team must make the determination on how to use each individual player to maximize not just their own set of talents but also to effectively work within the team talent base.  Player A may be an effective player in Center Fielder. However, should the team acquire player B who is a far more effective player in that position you must then determine how to make use Player A’s talent set.
Of course everyone and their brother wants to bring in Curtis Granderson to their team. What if he was traded to the Mariners? Where we already have a very skilled (arguably the best) center fielder in Franklin Gutierrez. [...]

Ackley was either going to end up in the outfield, probably at a  corner position, or at second base.  Now we have our answer.
Don’t be worried.  Actually, if I were you, I would be relieved.  This means the M’s like Saunders in left field, Gutierrez in center, and Ichiro in right for the next 3-4 years.  It could also mean that they don’t like Jose Lopez at second base, and we all knew his defense was meh and his bat would be much better suited to a different ballpark.
We don’t have to worry about Ackley’s bat.  Some baseball analysts buy [...]

Chris Jakubauksas was claimed by the Pirates today, and Robert Manuel (whom we acquired from the Reds in the Balentien trade) was claimed by the Red Sox. Neither of them are a huge loss or going to be horribly missed, but it is a little surprising. Manuel had a shot at becoming a serviceable 7th inning guy, while you all probably know all about Jakubauskas.
This does make the 2010 bullpen situation just a little bit foggier. Ah well.

Mike over at East Coast Mariner with more on off season SP targets, Here

Geoff Baker has some thoughts on re-signing Branyan, but more interestingly some Bill James stuff, Here

Larry Stone with his thoughts on the three way trade rumor from today, Here

Tony Blengino was on 710 tonight with the stat of the week, and good stuff on defense, interview Here

Dave Cameron at USSM looks at Ryan Doumit, Here

I realized that I never actually wrote anything about the Mariners claiming starting pitcher Yusmeiro Petit off of waivers, and even though it happened weeks ago, I feel like I should at least get some thoughts out about it.
Basic stuff on Petit: He’s right handed, about to be 25 years old, he was once a pretty highly regarded prospect with the Mets, and he hasn’t pitched well as of yet in the major leagues*.
His stuff won’t blow you away, but he’s got a couple of okay pitches, and he throws strikes. Because of those two things, he does have a [...]