No Joker for M's

Joe Randa, a.k.a. The Joker (because of the huge smile that is often on his face), re-signed with the Kansas City Royals today.

These seem to be the Mariners most likely options for third base:
1) Re-sign Carlos Guillen and shift him over to third
2) Give Jeff Cirillo one last shot (maybe his eye surgery and new workout routine will help)
3) Call up an unproven Justine Leone and see what he can do, possibly platooning him with Willie Bloomquist

Baseball books

Books make great gifts, so here are a few baseball related ones published this year that would be perfect for your favorite baseball junkie (feel free to make more recommendations in the Comments section):

· Out of Left Field: How the Mariners Made Baseball Fly in Seattle (By Art Thiel)
read Derek Zumsteg's review in Seattle Weekly

· Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (By Michael Lewis)

· The Teammates (By David Halberstam)

· New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (By Bill James)

· Sandy Koufax : A Lefty's Legacy (By Jane Leavy)

· Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Lineups (By Rob Neyer)

· Pride of October: What it Was to Be Young and a Yankee (By Bill Madden)

· Perfect I'm Not: Boomer on Beer, Brawls, Backaches, and Baseball (By David Wells and Chris Kreski)

Community involvement

While trying to find reliable contract numbers for a few Mariners, I stumbled across something interesting on Yahoo Sports. On each player's profile page, they have a link for community involvement.

Yes, MLBPA and Yahoo have a partnership, but it is still good to see the bright side of athletes for a change instead of stories about arrests and court cases.

Fall league update

Here is an update on what some players in the Mariners organization are doing in fall/winter leagues:

Willie Bloomquist - Mayageuz (Puerto Rico)
33AB, .212 AVE, .325 OBP, .273 SLG

Felix Hernandez - Lara Cardenales (Venezuela)
1-1, 4.58ERA, 17.2 IP, 22 H, 15K/5BB

Luis Ugueto - Lara Cardenales (Venezuela)
74AB, .365 AVE, .429 OBP, .500 SLG

A.J. Zapp - Lara Cardenales (Venezuela)
49AB, .143 AVE, .236 OBP, .286 SLG

Jamal Strong - Peoria Javelinas (Arizona)
72AB, .250 AVE, .309 OBP, .333 SLG

Jamie Bubela - Peoria Javelinas (Arizona)
83AB, .301 AVE, .359 OBP, .386 SLG

Hunter Brown - Peoria Javelinas (Arizona)
59AB, .271 AVE, .411 OBP, .424 SLG

Matt Thornton - Peoria Javelinas (Arizona)
0-2, 9.22 ERA, 13.2 IP, 18 H, 10K/13BB

Jim Horner - Peoria Javelinas (Arizona)
25AB, .240 AVE, .321 OBP, .440 SLG

George Sherill - Peoria Javelinas (Arizona)
0-0, 2.70 ERA, 13.1IP, 14 H, 10K/5BB

Chae Seung Baek - Peoria Javelinas (Arizona)
0-1, 5.61 ERA, 25.2 IP, 28 H, 20K/6BB

You can visit Baseball America for more Arizona Fall League, Mexican Pacific League, Puerto Rican League and Venezuelan Winter League stats.

Even more Matsui

ESPN.com has yet another article on Kazuo Matsui. They also list which players from Japan might try to come to the Major League Baseball next.

Spring Training schedule set

The Mariners have released their 2004 Spring Training schedule. Highlights include a charity game versus the Padres and a two-game trip to San Diego's new Petco Park.

Garcia in pinstripes?

Rumor is that the Yankees are interested in Freddy Garcia if the Mariners do not offer him a contract. They are also interested in Bartolo Colon and Javier Vasquez (as well as re-signing Andy Pettitte).

Lee Seung-yeop to visit M's

The Korea Times is reporting that Lee Seung-yeop is scheduled to meet with the Mariners. It says the Samsung Lions first baseman and his agent will meet with the Mariners on Friday.

I previously mentioned Lee after he broke the Asian single-season home run record.

You can visit his official site at http://www.seungyeoplee.com/.

Ibanez signed

Well, it's official.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity to return to the Mariners,” said Raul Ibanez. “I enjoy playing at Safeco Field and the fans in Seattle have always been great to me.”

“Raul is a perfect fit for our ballclub,” added Mariners manager Bob Melvin. “He’s got a great swing for our stadium and I’m glad we were able to bring him back.”

This will be the second stint for Ibanez with the Mariners. He was drafted by the M's in the 36th-round of the 1992 June Draft and played in 231 games from 1996-2000.

I don't know what to think about the press release mentioning that Ibanez was among the AL leaders in sacrifice flies.

Tuesday's tidbits

· The Everett Aqua Sox have released their 2004 schedule.

· The Yankees have been asked to consider playing their 2004 opener in Japan. The Mariners apparently have opted out of making the trip.

· The M's are known to be interested in Kazuo Matsui, but will they go after Tejada instead?

· MLB.com has a small feature on M's minor leaguer Jaime Bubela.

Winn vs. Ibanez

Here are the basic stats for Randy Winn and Raul Ibanez over the last three years:

2003     AB   R   H 2B 3B HR RBI BB  SO SB/CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
Winn    600 103 177 37  4 11  75 41 108 23/5  .295 .346 .425 .771
Ibanez  608  95 179 33  5 18  90 49  81  8/4  .294 .345 .454 .799

2002     AB   R   H 2B 3B HR RBI BB  SO SB/CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
Winn    607  87 181 39  9 14  75 55 109 27/8  .298 .360 .461 .821
Ibanez  497  70 146 37  6 24 103 40  76  5/3  .294 .346 .537 .883 

2001     AB   R   H 2B 3B HR RBI BB  SO SB/CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
Winn    429  54 117 25  6  6  60 38  81 12/10 .273 .339 .401 .740
Ibanez  279  44  78 11  5 13  54 32  51  0/2  .280 .353 .495 .848

2003 VORP: Winn 25.2, Ibanez 16.3
2002 VORP: Winn 42.5, Ibanez 30.7
2003 EqA: Winn .280, Ibanez .268
2002 EqA: Winn .294, Ibanez .295

Offense
Ibanez has the edge on power, but how much of that depends on hitting at Kauffman Stadium versus Safeco Field is the big question. There is some question about Ibanez's ability to hit for power against left-handed pitching. Both hit about the same number of doubles and triples.

Their batting averages have been nearly identical for the past two seasons, although Ibanez does not hit nearly as well against left-handed pitching as the switch-hitting Winn.

Winn has a clear advantage when it comes to stolen bases. He also looks better from a sabermetric view, leading Ibanez in both VORP and Equivalent Average.

Perhaps Winn's biggest downfall compared to Ibanez is his strikeout/walk ratio. Both players could stand to take a few more walks though.

I won't compare runs and RBIs since Winn spent most of the season batting 2nd, 6th or 7th while Ibanez batted 4th or 5th.

Defense
Although their defensive stats (fielding percentage, zone rating, range factor) are similar, I think most people would agree that Winn is the better outfielder. Winn can also play center, but he is certainly no Mike Cameron. Ibanez played over 80 games at first base in the last three years and can fill in there if needed.

Conclusion
Winn and Ibanez look like pretty similar players to me. Ibanez has a little more pop in his bat, but Winn has better speed and probably a slight edge in defense. I'm not really sure why Ibanez is reportedly one of the Mariners' top priorities, especially when his slugging percentage dropped 83 points compared to 2002 (and was 40 points lower than in 2001).

Their 2002 contracts were both around the $3 million mark. I don't think I'd pay much more for Ibanez over Winn, I hope the M's wouldn't either.

Let the bidding begin

Several teams are trying to land reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa. Here are the latest updates:

Mariners
· M's show Shiggy a move (P-I)

Mets
· Hasegawa, Mets have talked (MLB.com)
· Mets, Hasegawa in contact (Daily Yomiuri)

New York Yankees
· Yanks in Curt talks (New York Daily News, near bottom)

Phillies
· Wade's wish list starts with pitching (Philadelphia Inquirer, near bottom)

The last article also mentions the Phillies may be interested in Freddy Garcia should he become available.

Ichiro negotiations

John Hickey reports that Tony Attanasio, the agent for Ichiro, will be in Seattle the next couple days to try to hammer out a contract. The Mariners reportedly have started the negotiations with an offer of $10 million a year, but the player and his agent have higher goals.

What is Ichiro really worth? Vote in our poll.

On a related note, does anybody else think it is odd that these talks are going on while Bill Bavasi is in Arizona? Granted, Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong have more of a background with Ichiro, but you'd think that you would want your new GM there.

Bloomquist to PR

Willie Bloomquist is finally getting some playing time... in Puerto Rico.

Bloomquist will spend the next six weeks playing for Mayaguez. The team is being managed by M's bullpen coach Orlando Gomez.

Blog update

We've been experiencing some comment spam for a couple weeks, but things took a turn for the worse over the weekend. I've had to install a plugin that will prevent messages with certain words or URLs in them.

If you notice anything strange or find comments that look like spam, please let me know.

Bavasi named GM

Bill Bavasi today was named general manager of the Seattle Mariners.

Bavasi, general manager of the Anaheim Angels from 1994-99, was most recently the head of the farm system for the Dodgers.

Four Gold Gloves for M's

John Olerud, Bret Boone, Ichiro Suzuki and Mike Cameron were all winners of the Gold Glove award, sponsored by Rawlings. A complete list of 2003 AL winners can be found here. NL winners will be announced tomorrow.

You can learn more about the award and view a list of previous winners at Rawling's web site.

Edgar signs

The Mariners have signed Edgar Martinez for the 2004 season. He agreed to a one-year contract. Per club policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed.