Before we get started, I’d just like to clarify something I said yesterday. I made a flippant comment about anti-depressants. Just for the record, I’m not actually on any medication. However, if I were, I wouldn’t deny that fact for 14 years before coming clean.

Speaking of which, can we all just agree to ignore baseball’s version of Voldemort until he goes away? I realize I’m not helping the cause here, but I’ll be brief.

• Now that PR has admitted to betting on baseball, he is a known cheater and a known liar. This helps his case for reinstatement how? This helps his credibility how?
• Some folks don’t think PR belongs in the Hall of Fame even after his admission. That doesn’t sit well with me. I say, if he pays his admission, you have to let him in. To do otherwise would be discrimination, plain and simple.
• Does it bother anyone else that the initials of the key players in this mess are PR and BS? Has anything good ever come out of the union of PR and BS?

I could get worked up about this a lot more than I already am, but what’s the use. It’s a pathetic story that won’t have a happy ending no matter how it plays out. The weeds in my backyard have more integrity than PR. And frankly, at this point, they are more deserving of my attention.

More Cirillo Thoughts

It’s not mailbag day, but this showed up in my in-box, from Steve Nelson of Mariners Wheelhouse:

Just cruised on over to see the Padres bloggers’ uptake on Cirillo. Most of us here in the Seattle blogging community think San Diego is the clear winner on this deal.

Honestly, in my own selfish way, I neglected even to think of the deal from the Seattle’s standpoint. Now that I do, I have to ask: What’s in it for the M’s? Seriously. I could understand looking to shed Cirillo’s contract, but they didn’t even manage to do that. And for whatever else anyone may think of Cirillo, at least the guy used to be good. Kevin Jarvis and Wiki Gonzalez used to be, um, Padres.

I caught a snippet of Kevin Towers on the local news last night, and he reiterated that Cirillo will not be starting here. Towers also mentioned that Cirillo’s potential trade value during the season was a factor in acquiring him. Shades of Ed Sprague?

As for the Seattle blogging community, can you feel the love:

• Mariners Wheelhouse — [Mariners' GM Bill] Bavasi is going to need to get more minutes on his cell phone this week. Every GM in baseball with crap they want to get rid of is going to start calling Bavasi, anxious to do deals and see what other useful players they can pry out of Seattle.
• Sports and Bremertonians — Thanks a lot Al Harris. If it weren’t for your sorry dreadlocked ass, I wouldn’t even care too much about Kevin friggin Jarvis being a Mariner this week. But NOOOOOOOOO, you just had to intercept that pass from Matt Hasselbeck, making Seattle sports fans sad one more time.
• At Least The Red Sox Have 1918 — Cirillo was due to make $6.7 million. Jarvis, Hansen, and Gonzalez are due about $5.5 million next year and are, combined, approximately three times as useless as Jeff Cirillo.
• The Safest Blog on the Web — The main problems seem to be that [1] we are not filling holes but rather acquiring players for positions we don’t need, as if Bavasi fears that a disease will plague the earth that will ravage first basemen and catchers only, and [2] this team is rapidly ageing.
• U.S.S. Mariner — Dave [blogger David Cameron] has discussed Gonzalez and Jarvis at length… basically, they’re both crap. Hansen is sort of a Dave Magadan-type left-handed bat off the bench, except not quite as good. At age 35, his best skill is getting on base by drawing a pinch-hit walk.

I don’t know what to say. I didn’t think the trade looked that great from the Pads’ perspective, but looking at it from the other side, I’m a little horrified by this. I would like to offer M’s fans some words of comfort here, but I really can’t. So I’ll be graceful and say a quiet thanks.

More links:

• Six-player trade with M’s expected (NC Times)
• Padres complete deal for Cirillo (U-T). The minor-leaguer headed to Seattle is reported to be former #1 pick Vince Faison
• Baseball Primer — Give your two cents over at Primer

And for those of you keeping score at home, here are the changes from Opening Day last year to today:

And of course a healthy Trevor Hoffman. The lineup features Hernandez, Nevin, Greene, and Giles in the place of Gonzalez, White, Vazquez, and Kotsay. The rotation offers Wells and Hitchcock/Valdes instead of Perez and Jarivs. The bullpen, obviously, is much improved.

Actually, when you step back and take a good look at the big picture, there’s a renewed sense of optimism. Such is baseball in January. Savor it now, for Opening Day will be here before we know it.