Keep an eye out for the AL West starting rotation previews, which should be posted within a few days. Also, either Saturday or Sunday I hope to get a preview of position battles up. Patience is a virtue, my friends.

My sincerest apologies for the recent and forthcoming dearth of Mariners-related posts, but it's a busy time for Jeff these days, and he doesn't have much time for in-depth pieces. Soon enough, loyal readers, soon enough.

MBSBL update.

First of all, San Shin was right about Matt Morris, although that was my second pick, and I made the decision partly because I think people predicting things is cool. Anyway, not much to say about Morris; he held hitters to an OBP under .300, and he adds stability and a Veteran Presence! to my rotation. The fun pick was Scot Shields, because he's another one of those "really good pitchers" without a defined role who's going to start for my team, just like Johan Santana (and Dotel, before my dream was crushed). The .668 OPS against is nice; the 2.85 ERA is nicer, and the .297 OBP is nicest. I'll be throwing one of Prior/Webb/Santana/Shields/Morris at my opponent every day during the season, which means I'll have a chance to win each time the Friendly Nine take the field.

I understand that a lot of you are pure Mariners fans, and haven't had a big trade to get excited about for a while (if ever).

Well, with regards to Bondra, lemme tell ya: it feels gooooooooooooood.

It keeps getting better!

WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

$24m/3yr deal for Maddux, with the third year being incentive-based.

Seems too expensive, and I don't like where Maddux' strikeout rate is going.

Alfonso Soriano is 28 years old, not 26.

Hicks knew about this.

This keeps getting better and better for Texas.

FINALLY!!

It's only a tie, but with Toronto losing to Boston, the Senators have tied the Leafs for first place in the division, with one fewer game played.

If not for Kolzig standing on his and each of his teammates' heads tonight, Ottawa would have won the game; not only did they outshoot the Caps by an unofficial score of 48-19, but many of those 48 shots were good looks. Ottawa is playing very good hockey right now, Toronto isn't (thank you, Trevor Kidd), and tonight represents a significant turning point in the Northeast division.

I am legitimately happy about sports for the first time in a while. Woohoo!

Update: This is probably a game that will stick in GM John Muckler's mind when he mulls over available goalies as the trade deadline nears...

NY spin, or factual statements?

Red Sox President Larry Lucchino ranted in numerous calls to Bud Selig and his top lieutenants over the past few days in a failed attempt to get the commissioner to invoke his "best interest of baseball" clause to nullify the trade sending Alex Rodriguez to the Yankees, according to two baseball officials not with the Yankees.

Given Bob DuPuy's remarks that follow, it appears to be a fictional hook designed to make the Red Sox look bad.

MBSBL news, straight from the horse's mouth:

Santana can be a starter. Some pitcher have ratings as both starters and relievers. Unfortunately my draft application cannot currently show it. I'll blog about this a little later today but for now you can use Santana as a starter or reliever.

-mh

Thank goodness.

There is good news in Texas:

Hank Blalock signed a five-year deal worth $15.25m (with an option for the first year of FA not included). That is beyond excellent.

Hicks, Hart, and the sycophant beatwriters will claim that the money saved on A-Rod went straight to Blalock, but don't believe the spin.

A little more MBSBL commentary:

The people criticizing my pickup of Cameron might be surprised to hear that he put up a .258/.377/.479 line in my other Diamond-Mind league (we simmed over the winter).

Oh, and Greg Maddux might sign with the Yankees. This doesn't really improve New York that much, but it gives them even more name value, which is something, I guess. Seems like a Yankees commentary is in order.

For those of you who missed it, the Ottawa Senators were in first place in their division for seven hours today, until the Maple Leafs did away with the Penguins.

Not to sound like a whiner, because I really don't think the trade changes that many things, but...

How appropriate.

LA hired DePodesta today.

Hooray!

I'd add commentary, but I don't think it would make me feel very good. Terrific move by the Dodgers.

If Jeff thinks Dotel in the rotation is curious, then he's going to have a field day with my next pick (if my player's still available).

I think, with manager preferences set accordingly, I'll be able to get five or six innings out of Dotel each start, which is all I need; there will be a lot of bullpen arms available in a ten-person league, and so I'll be able to turn games over to what I expect to be a fine, upstanding collection of flame-throwing middle relievers.

To quote Gabriel:

Fire Bavasi also links to a blogger who believes that keeping Soriano long-term will necessitate giving him a contract similar to Alex's Texas contract; there is simply no comparison between these players, and Soriano is not going to get an A-Rod scale contract. It may be years before anyone does.

Said blogger wasn't suggesting that Soriano would get an A-Rod-sized contract, but rather than his deal would come close to equaling what the Yankees are paying Rodriguez themselves (somewhere in the neighborhood of $112m over seven years).

Also be sure to check out Cap'n A-Rod's Fun Page.

More on the Rodriguez deal. Good read, and not just because I agree with them.

My MBSBL team has added Octavio Dotel and Ryan Klesko today. Dotel will probably find himself behind Prior/Webb/Santana in what looks to become a four-man rotation. Klesko was brought in to destroy righties (.272/.382/.497 last season in a down year) as part of a pitcher-self-esteem-killing first base platoon with Craig Wilson, who shows no mercy when he bats against a southpaw.

Wilson or Varitek will still be peddled around the league as catcher solutions.

I vehemently disagree with the Optimist that the Rangers did well in this deal. I don't really have anything to add to the Transaction Oracle evaluation of the trade, which reads as follows:

...What the Rangers get out of this? A much bleaker future than before the A-Rod trade. They pay the Yankees roughly a *third* of what A-Rod's owed for the privilege of making the team significantly worse. Soriano's a much better player than a lot of people, including myself, thought he would be, but he's not A-Rod.

If the Rangers are able to keep Soriano long-term, they'll have to give him a deal not too far from the 12-18 a year the Yanks are paying A-Rod, which'll eat into any savings and payroll flexibility.

If the Rangers are not able to keep Soriano long-term, then they've lost 10 wins a year. They had enough problems *with* the wins A-Rod brought and would be that much further from making a dent in the West.

Mike Young returns to short and should handle it pretty nicely.

Really, there's not much of a way the Rangers get any advantage in this. This wasn't a world-class offense - it was a mediocre offense in 2003 *with* the 2nd-best SS in history.

While Alex Rodriguez doesn't make the Yankees as unbeatable as people would like to think, losing him sure does make Texas a whole bunch worse.

This probably wouldn't be a good time to ask Adam to update his Texas infield/outfield previews.

It's done.

I must say, this doesn't do much to rekindle my interest in baseball.