Late Harvard philosopher John Rawls wrote a letter in 1981 describing, in 6 points, why baseball is the best game ever.  Read the whole thing here.

Here's my favorite (emphasis mine):

Fifth: baseball is the only game where scoring is not done with the ball, and this has the remarkable effect of concentrating the excitement of plays at different points of the field at the same time. Will the runner cross the plate before the fielder gets to the ball and throws it to home plate, and so on.

[Via Kottke]

From Baker's article this morning comes this:

The Seattle rotation was a prime topic of discussion Thursday when it came to its impact on a bullpen that collapsed last August. Newly hired bullpen coach Norm Charlton, a minor-league coach for the team last season, suggested former manager Mike Hargrove might have inflamed the problem by overworking the relievers in April, May and June in order to pad his win total and save his job.

Current manager John McLaren, the bench coach last season before replacing Hargrove as manager on July 2, was asked whether there was any validity to what Charlton suspected.

"Yes," McLaren said.

Yeah, the bullpen was used a lot last year but what did you expect when you had HoRam, Weaver, et. al. going 3+ innings a start?  Was Hargrove supposed to give up and leave those guys in?  

Well, at least we know that McLaren won't be trying to "pad his win total" in 2008.  

This reminds me of how Mike Schooler lost his job with the Mariners.  He was pretty upset with Piniella over his demotion from the closer's role and said to a reporter about Lou, "He's focused too much on winning."  The next day he was released.  

It was fun while it lasted but USSM wins it all.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Just saw a blurb on ESPN saying Meche is out indefinitely with a strained oblique.  If true (I can't find a link to a report) it seems like Foppert has the opening he was looking for.

A blessing in disguise?

                                                                       ------------------------------------------------

http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/news/2005/051206.htm

(COOPERSTOWN, NY): The 10 finalists for the 2006 Ford C. Frick Award have been selected, and the ballot features three candidates chosen by fans in an exclusive online vote conducted in November at www.baseballhalloffame.org. The remaining seven broadcasters were chosen by a research committee from the Cooperstown-based museum. The 10 finalists for the 2006 award, with the winner to be announced on Feb. 21:

Tom Cheek
Bill King
Ken Coleman
Tony Kubek
Dizzy Dean
Denny Mathews
Jacques Doucet
Graham McNamee
Gene Elston
Dave Niehaus

Throughout the month of November, more than 105,000 fan votes were cast exclusively at the Hall of Fame's Web site - the highest vote total in the three-year history of the online fan voting component to determine Frick ballot selections -with King (25,380), Niehaus (17,091) and Doucet (15,002) selected by fans for the ballot through the online vote. The final ballot, also containing seven selections from a Hall of Fame research committee, features a mix of pioneers, early radio stars and current-day broadcasters. Five of the 10 members of the Frick Award ballot are living.

Art Thiel's column today describing Lincoln's approach to baseball makes me sick to have spent so much money on the Mariners over the course of the past decade.

I'm nearly convinced that the Mariners won't win anything as long as Lincoln is at the helm simply because winning isn't his first priority.  This isn't technically news (we've been aware of Lincoln's approach for awhile) but each time I read something like this it makes it more difficult to rationalize being a fan of this business, er, team.

Winn to Houston for Backe; Boone to the Padres; Moyer to [contender]...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/230217_mtrades27.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2002349142_mari27.html

I understand a Winn deal (clears room for Snelling); I understand a Boone deal (clears room for Lopez); but a Moyer deal doesn't do much for me.  Not sure why but I'd rather keep Moyer at this point.  Misplaced sentimentality, probably.

I thought the main story on Wikipedia tonight was really interesting.  At first glance I thought it was another Sidd Finch story of a pitcher who throws unheard of gas.  Come to find out this guy actually existed.

Very interesting story.  Anyone know of him before?  Have I been living in a cave?

In Locke's "column" today he wrote that bad chemistry is the reason the Mariners suck.  Do you think Dave got drunk last night and forgot he had a deadline?  

He continually references the Sonics recent success and attributes it to good chemistry and then makes comparisons to the Mariners citing the opposite as the reason for their failure.  

Uh, Dave, perhaps the M's aren't good because, well, some of their players, uh, suck.  

Maybe?

I made it to Cheney tonight and saw Felix throw 7 innings before I left.  In those 7 innings, he gave up 4 hits and no runs.  I think he had 9 K's, too.  

A few observations (most of which has been said before):

For a few batters I stood behind a scout with a jugs gun.  Felix threw a 97 mph fastball followed by an 83 mph change-up.  It was sick.  His curve ball, at times, was devastating.  I think most people know the guy has other-worldly stuff so what I was most interested in observing was his demeanor.  

When he was warming up in the pen it was obvious he was working on the location of his change-up.  When he'd miss a spot he'd be visibly upset and snap at the ball as it was thrown back at him.  When he hit his spot he appeared satisfied.

The game went much the same way.  If Felix hit his spot he'd swagger around the back of the mound or swagger off the field.  If he didn't hit his spot or he disagreed with the umpire's call (which happened a few times) he would show his displeasure quite openly.  

What does this mean?  I think it means he's 19 years old.  

A couple things I'm certain of:

1. Felix's stuff compares favorably to any pitcher currently in the major leagues.  
2. I'm glad he's in AAA.  He's young.  Real young.  Mentally, I'm not sure he's ready for the big leagues and all that goes with being on that stage.  However, his stuff is so good it's impossible that he'll not be in the big leagues this season.  Whether that's in September or sooner, I think when he gets the call-up he'll be there to stay.

Unrelated:  Mike Morse is one big dude.  Not only that, I think he irons the bill of his hat.  It's unnaturally flat.