Thursday, January 22, 2004
MAELS AWAY FROM BIG DOUGH
That title only works if you pronounce it as "Miles."
Maels didn't break 90 on the gun in his San Salvador workout with a ton of agents watching. Safe to say his stock crashed as bad as the Euros' Beagle spacecraft did on Mars. If I were Pat Gillick and Bob Engle, I'd stay in Costa Rica a few more days, maybe soak up the sights and stuff, because hopefully Maels wasn't the only reason they were down there. If they want to, they can go check out where all the Rawlings baseballs are made and stitched up, but of course, that would mean they would see the nice work conditions that I'm sure they have at the ol' Rawlings baseball-making factory.
Other things off the wire...
Some lame Bavasi quotes, but nothing much. Just the status quo until Kazu is completely off the books, basically to the effect of no post-Kaz speculation until it's official.
Freddy Garcia had successful surgery to repair his ruptured eardrums. Trainer Rick Griffin says the eardrum thing didn't have anything to do with Freddy's struggles. I almost hoped that the eardrums and the struggles were linked so that Mariner fans could hope for more upside from Garcia. Of course, this is Rick Griffin, a member of the Mariner medical staff, and we know what great things they've done to the minor-league arms and Carlos Guillen's TB (thanks, Steve). Also, it's Freddy frigging Garcia. Anything, ANYTHING can get into this guy's head -- I don't think it's a stretch by any means to think that the eardrum thing got into his head, preoccupied him and made him pitch crappily.
I've been thinking about this Eric Gagne arbitration thing for a while and I'm not sure where I'm going with it. The Dodgers are offering $5M and Gagne wants $8M. I'm trying to gauge this with the Sasaki situation. Sasaki had two good years for the Mariners (after a bunch in Japan...but it's Japan) and got his nutty extension in 2002 that netted him the $8.5M/yr figure. Eric Gagne has nailed down 107 saves over the past two years, won the Cy Young Award last year, and just turned 28. Most of us agreed that Kazu Sasaki was grossly overpaid with his extension. Is Gagne asking for too much? I don't know if any closer is ever worth $8M/yr. Derek says only three relievers might be worth $8M/yr, and their names are Wagner, Gagne, and Rivera. I'd have to agree.
Know what sucks? Reading textbooks. Hell, reading anything that you don't have a passing interest in sucks. I know I'm a guy who hates reading, but I like my reading in short, article-sized doses. Scientific papers? Hell no. Dry and term-heavy; I know that's not good for being a geology major, but hey, I hate reading, and that's who I am. That said, I gotta read four chapters on cartography tonight, and do a one-page outline/review for each. It's not hard, just cumbersome, and I have no attention span. And I have to write two pages (due tomorrow) about my upcoming project. I don't know what my topic is yet. I'm thinking pro sports stadiums, and I'll rank different cities by how much taxpayer money was spent on the stadiums? Who knows.
Maels didn't break 90 on the gun in his San Salvador workout with a ton of agents watching. Safe to say his stock crashed as bad as the Euros' Beagle spacecraft did on Mars. If I were Pat Gillick and Bob Engle, I'd stay in Costa Rica a few more days, maybe soak up the sights and stuff, because hopefully Maels wasn't the only reason they were down there. If they want to, they can go check out where all the Rawlings baseballs are made and stitched up, but of course, that would mean they would see the nice work conditions that I'm sure they have at the ol' Rawlings baseball-making factory.
Other things off the wire...
Some lame Bavasi quotes, but nothing much. Just the status quo until Kazu is completely off the books, basically to the effect of no post-Kaz speculation until it's official.
Freddy Garcia had successful surgery to repair his ruptured eardrums. Trainer Rick Griffin says the eardrum thing didn't have anything to do with Freddy's struggles. I almost hoped that the eardrums and the struggles were linked so that Mariner fans could hope for more upside from Garcia. Of course, this is Rick Griffin, a member of the Mariner medical staff, and we know what great things they've done to the minor-league arms and Carlos Guillen's TB (thanks, Steve). Also, it's Freddy frigging Garcia. Anything, ANYTHING can get into this guy's head -- I don't think it's a stretch by any means to think that the eardrum thing got into his head, preoccupied him and made him pitch crappily.
I've been thinking about this Eric Gagne arbitration thing for a while and I'm not sure where I'm going with it. The Dodgers are offering $5M and Gagne wants $8M. I'm trying to gauge this with the Sasaki situation. Sasaki had two good years for the Mariners (after a bunch in Japan...but it's Japan) and got his nutty extension in 2002 that netted him the $8.5M/yr figure. Eric Gagne has nailed down 107 saves over the past two years, won the Cy Young Award last year, and just turned 28. Most of us agreed that Kazu Sasaki was grossly overpaid with his extension. Is Gagne asking for too much? I don't know if any closer is ever worth $8M/yr. Derek says only three relievers might be worth $8M/yr, and their names are Wagner, Gagne, and Rivera. I'd have to agree.
Know what sucks? Reading textbooks. Hell, reading anything that you don't have a passing interest in sucks. I know I'm a guy who hates reading, but I like my reading in short, article-sized doses. Scientific papers? Hell no. Dry and term-heavy; I know that's not good for being a geology major, but hey, I hate reading, and that's who I am. That said, I gotta read four chapters on cartography tonight, and do a one-page outline/review for each. It's not hard, just cumbersome, and I have no attention span. And I have to write two pages (due tomorrow) about my upcoming project. I don't know what my topic is yet. I'm thinking pro sports stadiums, and I'll rank different cities by how much taxpayer money was spent on the stadiums? Who knows.
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