I have a friend Matt back home who says that (Toronto Maple Leafs forward and inspiration for completely awesome Nike commercials) Mats Sundin is "so awesome he's plural." Like him, I also have a disproportionate amount of pride in my name, and consider Jeffs to be the planet's unequivocal paragons of virtue and respect. Which is why I was so thrilled to hear that the Mariners just added another one at the expense of some guy named Yorman, who clearly isn't cut out for anything but the Got The Least Ass In High School International Tournament Of Champions.
On the surface it's a swap of a 22 year old 3.64 ERA in AA for a 24 year old .625 OPS in A+, but...well actually that kind of tells the story right there. But while I would've rather dropped the worthless Sean White and hung on to Bazardo for at least a little while longer to see what happens, he seems to have left his velocity at the doctor's office, as injuries have forced him into throwing a substantially softer fastball than he used to. And that velocity will probably never come back, at least not all the way, meaning at this point he's basically a back-of-the-rotation minor league starter surviving on his past reputation. If he ever makes the Majors, it'll almost certainly be as a middle reliever, the most replaceable commodity in baseball.
Oh well. It was the right idea - getting Bazardo and Mike Flannery for Ron freaking Villone was great at the time - but the thing about pitching prospects is that they're about as reliable as Dave Niehaus calling a fly ball. The important thing is to never stop hoarding, and to not be discouraged when one of your more promising live arms goes to hell before your eyes. Make enough smart acquisitions and eventually you're going to get rewarded.
As for Frazier, he's mildly interesting, but as a former 3rd round pick out of Rutgers he's never really hit considering his age relative to the league, and 2006 was downright humiliating. The tools are there, but collegiate pedigree aside, Frazier's basically the new BJ Garbe. Barring a miracle, this trade is going to be the biggest news he makes for the rest of his career.