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Saturday, December 20, 2003

FREDDY RE-SIGNED 

1 year, 6.875 million

Garcia has averaged 220 innings over the past three seasons, and over his five-year major league career he has a 72-43 record and 3.97 ERA. At his best, he's one of the top pitchers in baseball.

His inconsistency, though, has been maddening for the Mariners. Garcia slumped to a 12-14 record with a 4.51 ERA last season after going 18-6 in 2001 and 16-10 in 2002.

In May, he lost three straight starts, with his ERA climbing to 5.90, allowing nine runs during a 10-run inning in a loss to the New York Yankees and seven runs in a loss at Cleveland.

He straightened things out, rebounding to allow only two runs over a span of 24 1-3 innings, a 0.74 ERA. In July and August, he went 0-6 with a 10.03 ERA -- the longest losing streak of his career.

In 2002, Garcia went 11-5 with a 3.44 ERA before making his second trip to the All-Star game, then 5-5 with a 5.66 ERA in the second half.

Garcia has been Seattle's opening-day starter for the past three years. He joined the Mariners along with John Halama in the October 1998 trade that sent Randy Johnson to Houston.


I've always been a Freddy Garcia fan. Sure, he's pissed me off a couple of times with some pretty horrific outings. But at the same time, I would have hated to see him non-tendered, leaving the Mariners with nothing.

Now, just because Garcia re-signed today doesn't mean that he will be a Mariner in 2004.

There's a chance he could still be traded. But I hope he isn't traded straight up for Jose friggin Valentin. That would not be good at all.

If Garcia does stay in Seattle for the 2004 season, then that isn't such a bad thing. Yes, he has struggled since the 2002 All Star Break. But Garcia has talent. When he's on, he is one of the best pitchers in the American League, if not all of baseball.

A Jamie Moyer/Freddy Garcia/Joel Pineiro/Gil Meche/Ryan Franklin starting rotation doesn't sound too bad to me. The M's could do a lot worse here.

We'll see what happens. Let's hope that our idiot of a general manager doesn't trade Garcia for a bag of dog turd and James Baldwin's Preparation H collection.

"KILL" BILL: WELL, I WAS WRONG...FREDDY WASN'T NON-TENDERED

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