M’s Close Year With Trade

The Mariners finished off the 2014 calendar year by making a trade to help the big league club on Tuesday, sending former Tacoma pitcher Brandon Maurer to the San Diego Padres for veteran outfielder Seth Smith.

Maurer struggled at the major league level as a starting pitcher, but he flourished after a move to the bullpen. San Diego will have to decide which role they want to use him in.

Smith is a left-handed hitter, and makes a nice platoon partner with recently acquired Justin Ruggiano. The duo should be able to handle right field for the Mariners.

Smith is coming off (arguably) the best season of his career last year – which is saying something, considering he had previously played in the thin air of Colorado and spent last year playing in the pitcher’s park in San Diego.

This deal, as all do, has an influence on the Rainiers: everybody just moved up a spot on the bullpen ladder, so at the moment it looks like Carson Smith has a spot in the big league bullpen and not Tacoma’s. Things can always change during spring training, though.

Lots more on the trade below.

Links:

• We’ll start with the news story on the trade from the Seattle Times.
• Jeff Sullivan writes that the trade was obvious.
• Matt Sussman had the best tweet of the trade.
• ESPN’s Christina Kahrl summed up the risk of trading Maurer: what if he becomes a decent starting pitcher, or a star closer?
• Grant Brisbee looked at the roster holes on every American League team and when he got to the Mariners he found none.
• Logan Bawcom cleared waivers and was outrighted to the Tacoma roster. We’ll ink a spot for him in the 2015 Tacoma bullpen.
• I was hoping he wouldn’t do this, but… Ryan Divish reviewed our preseason picks for 2014. Whoops!
• Signing Robinson Cano changed the course of the Mariners franchise, Bob Dutton writes. Dutton also has a blog post about areas the Mariners still need to address for 2015 – this was written before the Seth Smith trade, but it does include some other areas the team can still improve.
• Jerry Brewer writes that 2015 is the year the Mariners need to end their 13-year playoff drought.
• Prior to his annual rankings, John Sickels opened up a Mariners minor league system discussion thread.
• One-time Tacoma shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera signed with the Tampa Bay Rays – and this might create a road block for former Rainiers infielder Nick Franklin.
• Ex-Rainiers hitting coach Jeff Pentland emerged as a candidate for the Yankees job.
• The Yankees traded ex-Rainiers and Mariners reliever Shawn Kelley to the Padres.
• Former Rainiers pitcher Doug Fister tweeted out a Starbucks gift card for fans to use. It’s all used up now, but that was a cool holiday gift from Doug.
• At the end of every year, national columnist Jayson Stark writes an article on all of the bizarre things that happened in Major League Baseball. Here is his 2014 column.
• If you are interested in broadcasting, the New York Times did a story on the amount of preparation NBA announcers do before games. It’s the same deal in baseball.
• Fun stuff making the rounds on the internet: this Japanese variety show from 2006, in which Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and Bernie Williams try to hit against a variety of extreme trick pitches.

Have a safe New Year’s Eve, and we’ll be back on a regular blogging schedule starting Monday!

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Taking A Break

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that we’re taking a break from the blog for a few days.

Most minor league baseball teams close their administrative offices from Christmas through New Years, and the Tacoma Rainiers are one of the teams that do this. For the employees, it’s payback time for all of the weekend and holidays they work during the summer months.

If any baseball news breaks on the Mariners/Rainiers front, I will post something here – but if not, well, it’s gonna be quiet until the first week of January.

Links:

• None.

Seriously, I have no links. I couldn’t find anything of note all weekend (except for Hall of Fame arguments, and I’m tired of those). It’s that time of year. Don’t fret – we’ll get through it. Spring training is only six or seven weeks away.

 

It’s Not Funny When Topps Screws Up Your First Baseball Card

Here’s something I learned in 2014: it’s not funny when Topps totally messes up your first baseball card.

I was sitting in the dugout with Rainiers catcher John Hicks. He had been with the team for about two weeks, and we had just finished recording our first pregame radio interview.

Rainiers batting practice was over and the visiting team was hitting, the gates weren’t open yet and the music wasn’t turned up to eleven, and we sat there chatting while watching the field.

I mentioned to him that one of the autograph collecting fans had shown me Hicks’ first baseball card – which pictured him with the Arizona Diamondbacks, a team he has never played for. Hicks was drafted by the Mariners in the fourth round of the 2011, right out of the University of Virginia. He has never played for any other organization.

Hicks said he was excited to have a card – they usually only make them of first and second-round picks, so to get one as a fourth rounder was pretty cool.

But how did they get that picture? Is it even him?

He said it’s a picture from the University of Virginia, and that Topps photoshopped a Diamondbacks uniform onto it. He has no idea why they thought he was drafted by Arizona.

Especially since the back of the card clearly says that he was drafted by the Mariners. It’s right there in the upper-right corner.

At this point I laughed out loud, turned to look at him, and said something like “you’ve got to be kidding.” And that’s when I realized that this was no laughing matter.

Shaking his head with a frown on his face and a sad look in his eyes, Hicks said “that’s not all. Half of the cards say I’m a pitcher.”

Hicks’ disappointment shouldn’t have been a surprise to me. In a series of articles written by an agent for Baseball Prospectus, the author mentions several times how happy his players are when they get their first baseball card.

The Mariners think that Hicks is going to play in the major leagues. When he gets there, hopefully Topps will make a card showing him with the right team. At least they won’t have to photoshop it.

Links:

• I was reminded to write this post by the recent passing of former Topps executive Sy Berger. If you ever collected cards, read Tyler Kepner’s salute to Berger in the New York Times.
• John Hicks isn’t the only one. Topps had a big disaster with Alex Gordon‘s rookie card in 2006, and this is the story.
• The Mariners officially announced the previously reported signings of Justin Germano, Mark Lowe, and Carlos Rivero. All are on minor league deals and strong candidates to be on the Rainiers opening day roster.
• There was a three-team trade between San Diego, Tampa Bay, and Washington. Former PCL star Wil Myers was the key cog in the deal. Jonah Keri looked at the trade from each team’s perspective.
• The US is loosening its restrictions on Cuba and may lift the embargo – which will be big news in baseball. Nobody knows how this will play out yet, but Cuban baseball expert Ben Badler of Baseball America wrote about it here.
• Golf is going to be a big story in Tacoma in 2015. Manny Ramirez isn’t very good at golf.

Mariners Trade For Ruggiano; Bawcom In Baseball Limbo

The Mariners made a trade today, and two current or former Tacoma Rainiers players will be affected by the deal.

The M’s traded Double-A reliever Matt Brazis to the Chicago Cubs in order to get 32-year-old outfielder Justin Ruggiano.

You can see Ruggiano’s stats right here – he’s a right-handed hitter who usually wallops left-handed pitchers, but isn’t nearly as good against right-handers. He’s a perfect platoon outfielder.

The acquisition of Ruggiano is bad news for Stefen Romero, who now is going to have a much more difficult time cracking the Mariners opening day roster. If that means Romero starts the season in Tacoma, well… we could certainly use his bat in the lineup!

It’s also bad news for Rainiers reliever Logan Bawcom. The Mariners had to make space on their 40-man roster for Ruggiano, so they designated Bawcom for assignment.

That means Bawcom is on waivers and any other team can claim him as long as they put him on their own 40-man roster. So for the next few days, Bawcom has to sit around down there in Dallas and wait for the phone to ring. He’s in baseball limbo.

If no team claims Bawcom off waivers, he will be assigned a minor league contract with the Mariners and will likely return to the Tacoma bullpen in 2015.

Bawcom had an excellent season for Tacoma in 2013, saving 21 games and posting a 2.91 ERA – he earned his spot on the 40-man roster after that campaign. But in 2014 he had trouble getting into a groove, he landed on the disabled list for the first time in his career, and his ERA went up to 4.93.

I never now what to root for in these situations. It would be good for Bawcom’s career if he was claimed by another club and got to stay on a 40-man roster. On the other hand, Bawcom has been a valuable member of the Rainiers both on and off the field – he even shared the 2014 Rainiers Community Award with Forrest Snow.

All we can do is wait and see how it plays out.

Links:

• Here’s more from the Seattle Times on the Justin Ruggiano acquisition, and here we have Baseball America’s run-down on the deal.
• Ruggiano is a useful player who provides a lot of roster flexibility, Jeff Sullivan writes as only he can.
• From Baseball America’s latest batch of minor league transactions, we learn the Mariners signed Carlos Rivero to a minor league deal. Rivero was originally claimed off waivers from Boston, then was non-tendered and became a free agent. Now the M’s have signed him on a minor league deal and Rivero is a candidate to hit in the middle of the lineup for your 2015 Tacoma Rainiers. He’s currently leading the Venezuelan Winter League with 14 home runs.
• The Mariners are still looking for outfield help – Ryan Divish runs through a litany of uninspiring choices.
• Bob Dutton explored the possibility of the Mariners trading for Justin Upton.
• Old pal Mike Morse inked a two-year contract with the Miami Marlins. I think Morse still lives in Florida – if so, that may have been a factor in his decision.
• Matt Tuiasosopo is going to spring training with Baltimore on a minor league contract.
• Former Rainiers and Mariners pitcher Brandon Morrow will try to get healthy with a new team: the San Diego Padres.
• Larry Stone has a column on Rod Belcher, the longtime Seattle sports broadcaster who passed away last weekend.
• In the PCL, the Salt Lake Bees announced their coaching staff led by new manager Dave Anderson.

Unproductive Weekend

The Mariners missed out on a couple of free agents players of note this weekend – one major leaguer, and one minor leaguer.

There were plenty of reports that the Mariners were serious players for veteran outfielder Melky Cabrera, but Melky had other offers, too – and he decided to sign with the Chicago White Sox.

The White Sox have been extremely aggressive this off-season, trying to turn a 75-win team into a wild card (or even division title?) contender. Melky is a great add for them – just like he would’ve been for the Mariners.

Then at the Triple-A level, 2014 Tacoma Rainiers all-star infielder Gabriel Noriega signed as a free agent with the Kansas City Royals. It’s a minor league deal that probably includes an invitation to major league spring training.

The Mariners signed Noriega as a teenager and he worked his way up to Triple-A, but was not added to the 40-man roster. Because he’s played six full seasons in the minors, he was granted free agency.

I assume that the Mariners tried to re-sign him (we could certainly use him in Tacoma), but Noriega probably looked at the situation like this: both Brad Miller and Chris Taylor shot past him and reached the majors, and Ketel Marte is going to be the Triple-A shortstop and is one of the organization’s top prospects, Kyle Seager just signed for $100 million, Robinson Cano is here forever… it’s time to try a different organization with more potential for upward mobility.

Hopefully Noriega will get a shot at the big leagues with the Royals.

Links:

• In his notebook from Saturday, Bob Dutton reports that the Mariners are probably going to keep Brad Miller at shortstop.
• John McGrath can’t believe that Kendrys Morales got a two-year contract from the Royals.
• Larry Stone revealed his Hall Of Fame ballot and explained why Edgar Martinez isn’t getting elected.
• The Seattle Times ran a story on new Mariner Nelson Cruz.
• In this blog for ESPN Insiders, former GM Jim Bowden suggests that the Mariners could get Justin Upton from Atlanta for prospects Ketel Marte and Edwin Diaz. Upton is a free agent after 2015 so you only get him for one year, but… that’s interesting.
• PCL President Branch Rickey – who won an award at the Winter Meetings – told a great story about a pregame promotion gone wrong involving jackrabbits.
• This is a fun read: Joe Posnanski ranked the 25 best players who are not in the Hall of Fame – with no restrictions at all. Several ex-Rainiers, an ex-Tacoma Tiger, and some ex-Mariners are on the list.
• Former Seattle Rainiers broadcaster Rod Belcher passed away at age 94. He had quite a career.
• Also passing away: Sy Berger, father of the modern baseball card. Here is his New York Times obituary.

Next update: Wednesday. That last link gave me an idea…

You’re Traded, You’re Traded… Everybody Is Traded

If you wear a baseball uniform for a living and you weren’t traded this morning, you are probably feeling a little unloved.

The Winter Meetings went off the rails overnight, with a wild series of trades and signings. There was a Rule 5 Draft, too.

The Dodgers completely remade their team. San Diego got Matt Kemp. Detroit gave up a top pitcher (Rick Porcello) to get Yoenis Cespedes. The Marlins are acquiring players left and right. I think the White Sox now have every relief pitcher in MLB. The Red Sox picked up three starting pitchers in 12 hours.

It seems like everybody was frantically making moves at the end of the meetings, but the Mariners were quiet. Seattle’s area of need – a corner outfielder – is still readily available and there was no need for the team to rush into a deal during the meetings.

—

As for the Rule 5 Draft, no Rainiers players were selected – in fact, the Mariners organization did not lose a single player.

The Mariners did make a pick: they selected left-handed pitcher David Rollins from the Houston Astros organization.

Rollins pitched for Double-A Corpus Christi last year, working as both a starter and a reliever. He posted a 3.81 ERA in 78 innings last year, with 77 strikeouts and 22 walks. He reportedly sits 92-to-95 MPH with his fastball.

Per Rule 5 Draft specifics, Rollins must make the Mariners opening day roster and stay on the major league team all year – or else he is automatically offered back to the Houston Astros.

So the Mariners will take a very close look at Rollins during spring training and see if he can help them as a lefty reliever. Because the Mariners are going for it in 2015, they will not keep Rollins around as a future project – he’ll have to contribute in 2015 in order to stick around. If it doesn’t appear that he can help the M’s win this year, he’ll go right back to the Astros in March.

Links:

• The Seattle front office heads home from San Diego with work still to do. This story has a good synopsis of where the M’s stand with Melky Cabrera.
• Greg Johns has a write-up on newest Mariners pitcher David Rollins.
• The Mariners still love Taijuan Walker, Bob Dutton writes in this notebook.
• Ryan Divish in San Diego: his running Day Four blog, and his final Day Three post.
• Manager Lloyd McClendon is pleased with the Mariners moves so far.
• New Dodgers GM Andrew Friedman went “buck wild” at the Winter Meetings, Ken Rosenthal reports. Rob Neyer also wrote about the Dodgers wheelings and dealings.
• Baseball America has the complete list of Rule 5 Draft picks, including selections in the minor league phase. Again, the Mariners only made one pick and they lost nobody.
• John Sickels has a capsule on each player selected in the MLB phase of the draft.
• Ah, the Baseball Trade Show. Take a tour.
• In the PCL, Memphis announced its coaching staff led by new manager Mike Shildt.

More Winter Meetings News

It’s Winter Meetings Wednesday, which is the final full day of the meetings. Things are starting to heat up, as a lot went on overnight.

The Chicago Cubs signed Tacoma native Jon Lester to a six-year contract reportedly worth $155 million. That covers his age 31-through-36 seasons. The Cubs also traded two low-level minor leaguers to Arizona for catcher Miguel Montero. Clearly, Theo Epstein and the Cubs think that their fortunes are going to turn around in the near future.

Mariners division foe Houston decided to do something about its beleaguered bullpen, signing quality free agent relief pitchers Pat Neshek and Luke Gregerson to two- and three-year deals, respectively.

Some teams (example: the Mariners) always seem to have some new hotshot relief pitcher (or several of them) coming up through the farm system and are able to easily build a bullpen on the cheap. That simply hasn’t worked out for the Astros, so they are spending some coin to get it done.

The Pirates re-signed veteran starter Francisco Liriano to a three-year contract. That’s an interesting story: the Pirates grabbed Liriano off the scrap pile following his dreadful 2012 season, and he has delivered two outstanding seasons in the Pittsburgh rotation and the Pirates are now hoping for three more.

There will be more moves today, and then the meetings wrap up tomorrow with the annual Rule 5 Draft (there is a Rule 5 Draft preview down in the links).

—

Nothing has happened on the Mariners front just yet, but I did get an update on the Rainiers from one of my co-workers who is down there.

Ashley Schutt handles the Rainiers baseball operations and also runs the team store, and she said she had a good meeting with the New Era representative looking at some cool new hat designs for the team store.

She was about to hit the Baseball Trade Show, which has on display everything and anything you can imagine that is baseball-related. She will meet with the people who make the Rainiers uniforms, see new products for the team store or season ticket-holder giveaway items, and try like heck to avoid creepy travelling mascots for hire.

Links:

• Stop the presses: we have positive news about Jesus Montero.
• There are rumors that the Mariners are considering trading for Dayan Viciedo of the White Sox, Bob Dutton reports. Yikes.
• Here is Ryan Divish’s Day Three rolling blog post, and this is his final Day Two thread.
• Divish wrote about the Mariners 2014 first round draft pick Alex Jackson. I think Jackson will start 2015 at Low-A Clinton.
• Greg Johns has a Wednesday update for Mariners.com.
• Jeff Sullivan explains why the Mariners should not trade Brad Miller. He makes a lot of good points.
• In PCL news, it looks like we might try some of the speed-up-the-game initiatives this season. They won’t get an argument from me.
• Congratulations to legendary San Diego Padres broadcaster Dick Enberg, who won the Frick Award today and will be honored by the Baseball Hall Of Fame.
• How good is MLB’s technical arm? HBO has turned to MLB Advanced Media to fix its struggling HBO Go streaming product.
• The Winter Meetings end with Thursday morning’s Rule 5 Draft, so here is a preview.
• You know who is available in the Rule 5 Draft? Russell Wilson. You can bring him to spring training for $50,000!

That’s it for now.

Quiet Start To Meetings For Mariners

The first day of the Winter Meetings came and went with barely a peep from the Mariners.

There were some rumors that the Mariners were “the leader” to sign free agent outfielder Melky Cabrera, but when meeting with the media late on Monday afternoon General Manager Jack Zduriencik said that they are not close to any deals.

There is a lack of urgency for Seattle right now, because they already signed Nelson Cruz before the meetings even started.

The team definitely needs one more major league outfielder, and I suppose they could use a left-handed reliever (they could just keep it in-house and go with Lucas Luetge in this spot).

Other than that the roster is pretty much set. Jack Z can afford to be patient as he watches how the off-season moves play out around baseball.

—

Elsewhere, there was some action.

The White Sox have been very active, signing the top “proven closer” on the market in David Robertson, and trading four prospects to Oakland for Jeff Samardzija.

I think the White Sox activity is at least partially spurred by the Kansas City Royals run to the World Series last year. Chicago had the AL Rookie of the Year in Jose Abreu but their pitching staff (especially the bullpen) was awful and they only won 75 games.

They must be thinking, “hey if we can get this pitching straightened out and get to 87-89 wins we can take a Wild Card. We’ve got Chris Sale and now Samardzija –  maybe we can make a run through the postseason like Kansas City.”

It’s not a crazy scenario at all.

Links:

• Ryan Divish’s report from the Winter Meetings explains in detail why the Mariners might be best off waiting to see what happens with Melky Cabrera. In a nutshell, it seems like the market for Melky is hard to pin down right now.
• Here is Divish’s rolling blog post for Tuesday– he’ll have a few updates over the course of the day and into the evening.
• The Mariners are not going to give up a top pitching talent in exchange for one year of outfield help, Bob Dutton writes.
• Dutton has all kinds of notes from the first day of the meetings in this report. Of note: the Mariners are bullish on catcher John Hicks, who I expect to be with the Rainiers to open 2015.
• There is some demand for Mariners shortstops.
• Greg Johns raised an interesting point: the recovery timeline of Willie Bloomquist (he had knee surgery) is an important factor when considering if the M’s may trade one of their shortstops.
• Tracy Ringolsby put on his cowboy hat and told some stories about the old days of the Winter Meetings.
• Every year they name a King Of Baseball – this honor is bestowed upon an elder statesman who has spent his entire life in the game. Texas League lifer Bill Valentine was the winner this year – and he told some stories.
• Serious facility problems in Bakersfield and High Desert are among the biggest issues Minor League Baseball is trying to solve at the Winter Meetings. The Mariners are now affiliated with Bakersfield (just to be clear: the Mariners have nothing to do with the problems there).
• Looks like baseball might return to the Olympics in 2020.
• If you were the sole heir to a relative who passed away, and you unexpectedly found this $400,000 Honus Wagner baseball card in the deceased’s attic, how long would you keep it for before selling? I think I’d show it off for a year and then sell, sell, sell!
• There is a new lawsuit regarding minor league player salaries. If this is a subject that interests you, here is an easy-to-read article on Fangraphs which explains the suit and the expected outcome.

I wish all of the people at the Winter Meetings would stop posting pictures of San Diego. I look outside my window in Tacoma and it is miserable here today!

Winter Meetings Previews

Baseball executives landed in San Diego today and the Winter Meetings are underway. Thus, we have a rare Sunday afternoon blog update.

What we have here is a round-up of stories – both Mariners-related and nationally – about what to look for as the meetings get underway.

Links:

• The Mariners main priority at the Winter Meetings is to secure a right fielder, Ryan Divish writes.
• Bob Dutton of The News Tribune seems really happy to be in San Diego – here is his meetings preview.
• Divish had a round-up of Mariners news on his blog on Friday evening. Included – among many things – is an item on Danny Hultzen and expectations.
• Apparently the Mariners interest in Melky Cabrera is real.
• Greg Johns of Mariners.com answered some questions from fans.
• For a national perspective, Jayson Stark has ten hot names going into the Winter Meetings. He also polled some executives to guess where the big three of Jon Lester, Max Scherzer, and James Shields might sign.
• Ben Lindbergh of Grantland has a good Winter Meetings preview.
• Fox’s Ken Rosenthal is in San Diego and here are his ten thoughts going into the meetings.
• A neat bit of history: Colorado Springs is the smallest city to ever host baseball’s Winter Meetings, doing so in 1957.
• From the latest round of Baseball America’s minor league transactions, we learn that 2014 Rainiers and Mariners outfielder Cole Gillespie signed with the Miami Marlins. That means Gillespie will be with New Orleans in the PCL if he doesn’t make the opening day roster.

Next blog update will be late Monday if the news warrants it – if not, we’ll have a full post on Tuesday with all of the latest tidbits and links.

Baseball America’s Top M’s Prospects Released

Baseball America is the king of the prospect ranking game – they’ve been doing it the longest, and have been copied by many outlets.

Today they web-published their Mariners Top 10 Prospects package. Most of it requires a free online registration, but they do release the list and an overview article without registration. Here is their ranking:

1. Alex Jackson, OF
2. D.J. Peterson – 3B
3. Ketel Marte – SS
4. Patrick Kivlehan – 3B/1B
5. Austin Wilson – OF
6. Edwin Diaz – RHP
7. Gabriel Guerrero – OF
8. Luiz Gohara – LHP
9. Ryan Yarbrough – LHP
10. Carson Smith – RHP

And this is the link to their free system overview. If you have registered, the rest of the Top Ten will appear with scouting reports and you will also have access to a Mariners-only prospect chat.

A few thoughts on the list:

• The top five are all position players. When was the last time that happened in the Mariners system?
• They are quite high on Ketel Marte, who looked impressive in his first taste of Triple-A baseball at the end of last season.
• Carson Smith is down the list because Baseball America values starting pitching prospects over relievers. I wouldn’t be surprised if Smith spends the entire 2015 season in Seattle – although he could ride the Tacoma-to-Seattle shuttle.
• Marte, Patrick Kivlehan, and possibly Smith should be Rainiers on opening day. I think D.J. Peterson opens the season in Double-A but I’ve been wrong a hundred times before, so…
• Baseball America is still quite high on Luiz Gohara, an 18-year-old lefty from Brazil who is built like CC Sabathia. Gohara really struggled in Everett last year but he was much younger than the hitters he was facing. We’re talking three-to-five years younger in most match-ups.
• I find it interesting that they have Austin Wilson ahead of Gabriel Guerrero. Wilson is a year-and-a-half older than Guerrero and a level behind him in the system. They must think that Wilson has the proverbial “higher ceiling.”

This is the first of the “big three” Mariners prospect rankings. Baseball Prospectus and John Sickels will have their rankings later in the off-season.

—

Surely you’ve heard by now that on Wednesday afternoon the Mariners officially announced the Nelson Cruz signing, and also announced that they traded outfielder Michael Saunders to the Toronto Blue Jays for left-handed starting pitcher J.A. Happ.

The Saunders trade was imminent – it’s been clear since the end of the season that there was some sort of disconnect there, and the only question was a matter of where to and for who.

Getting Happ helps the starting pitching depth, which was a weakness. They currently have six starting pitchers, which is good because it (almost) never fails that there will be injuries in spring training.

It’s sad to see Saunders go, as he is truly a classy guy to have on the team. We watched him grow since he first showed up in Tacoma in 2008. Including rehabilitation assignments, he wore a Rainiers uniform for at least three games in seven of the last eight years!

I’ve heard that Saunders is pleased with this trade – he couldn’t control the destination, of course, so it was surprisingly cool for a Canadian to join a Toronto team that is making moves to try to win the AL East

Hopefully this trade will work out for both teams.

—

The Winter Meetings start on Sunday and will go on most of next week. The meetings are in San Diego this year – a huge improvement from the recent locations.

The Rainiers will have a contingent of five or six people who will participate in league meetings, canvass the Baseball Trade Show, meet with Mariners officials, and perhaps hire a staffer or two.

I will not be there, but I’ll be following the MLB player news/rumors from my North End Office. I’ll pass along the Mariners and Rainiers-related tidbits here on the blog.

Links:

• Bob Dutton has the story on the Michael Saunders-for-J.A. Happ trade.
• Baseball America analyzed the Saunders/Happ trade.
• After being traded, Michael Saunders sent this message to Mariners fans.
• Art Thiel quickly got answers to the three big questions for Nelson Cruz.
• The Seattle Times has a story on Cruz’s press conference.
• Dutton’s story on the Cruz signing includes some additional Mariners notes at the end.
• Larry Stone writes that Kyle Seager is a role model for other young Mariners.
• The controversial Melky Cabrera could be the final piece for the Mariners, Jerry Brewer writes.
• Patrick Kivlehan‘s hometown newspaper has a story on him today.
• Baseball America’s minor league free agent tracker says that the Mariners have signed veteran curveballer Justin Germano. Germano has been around for a while – here is his career stats page.
• A ripple effect of the Oklahoma City name change from RedHawks to Dodgers: they have to retire their mascots and get a new one.
• The Round Rock Express have a new manager: it is former PCL infielder Jason Wood. He played in this league *forever*: Edmonton 1995-1998, Nashville 2000-2001, Calgary 2002, Albuquerque 2003-2006 and 2008. That’s all or part of 12 years in the PCL, including five years with teams that no longer exist!
• Reno Aces owner Herb Simon sat down with the newspaper guys and discussed the franchise’s future.
• The Giants are signing a bunch of interesting minor league free agents. This could be seen as an attempt to add organizational depth or it could be seen as an attempt to field a winning team in the first year of their new affiliation with Sacramento. Probably both.
• There is now an Official Wine of Minor League Baseball.

Winter Meetings week coming – it’s like Christmas for those of us who like to follow the off-season rumors!