- Fox Sports' Rosenthal/Morosi rumor central links the M's to Rich Harden, suggesting that the M's are showing "strong interest". It's not the first report to link the two parties, but it's the latest and the most legitimate, which makes it exciting - of all the pitchers out there right now, Harden might be the best fit for the 2010 Mariners, as he has extraordinary upside and enough risk to keep his price manageable. There are no performance questions about Harden. He's proven himself to be consistently effective in both leagues. The only question is health, and that makes him the right kind of risk. I know one of the big critiques of Bill Bavasi was his tendency to get hung up on individual names and labels and end up paying too much to get them, but I can't help myself here. Harden Harden Harden
- Remember Aroldis Chapman? There hasn't been a whole lot said about him lately since he changed agents, but there was this from SI:
In recent days, however, Chapman's rumored price tag has shifted from Daisuke Matsuzaka money ($52 million over six years) to the more realistic Stephen Strasburg range ($15.1 million over four years). SI.com sources place at least one big-market club's offer at $12 million over three years...One source told SI.com that the left-hander's fastball did not exceed 92 mph during a private workout last month.
- I don't remember hearing about this, but at least according to a source of Yahoo!'s Tim Brown, Chuck Armstrong nixed a deal that would've sent Adrian Beltre to San Francisco back in mid-2008. I have no idea who was involved and therefore can't say with any degree of certainty whether Armstrong did the right thing, but social experiments are fun, so I can't believe Armstrong vetoed a deal that would've brought us Pablo Sandoval and Jonathan Sanchez. Shame on you, Chuck.
- Joining the ranks of the 30+ times projected at Fangraphs: Matt Tuiasosopo, Adam Moore, Rob Johnson, Jack Hannahan, Bill Hall, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Ian Snell, and David Aardsma. You people are crazy. On the other hand, six of the seven lowest projected wOBAs belong to Mariners, so I guess you're also somewhat reasonable.You don't see a lot of zealous sensibility these days.
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