You may have seen this already, because Deanna posted it in the comments of USSMariner. However, in case you missed it, check it out. It's a nice blend of disgusting and hilarious. My mouth was open the entire time I was listening to it. I can't believe someone actually spent money on this crap...

I was sad to learn that an awesome little bookstore I just found about a month ago is closing. I went in there a few weeks ago and bought a few books. Mr. Ishii was extremely nice and I was looking forward to visiting him on a regular basis. Ishii’s store has a large collection of baseball books that will all be 50% off for the rest of the month. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

 

Also, while we’re talking about bookstores, I will be at the Mind Game / BP2006 Preview at Third Place Books at 6:30 on Saturday, will you?

 

- In the first round of the 1990 MLB draft (which, by the way, is technically the “Rule 4 Draft” – no joke), the Mariners selected Marc Newfield with the 6^th overall pick, Dan Wilson was taken by the Reds with the 7^th pick, and Carl Everett was the 10^th player taken overall, by the Yankees.

 

- “Peter Gammons sucks. People like him because he throws so much against the wall, and some of it comes true. He hears something and then throws it out there, and some of it is true, so it makes him sound like a genius. But he knows nothing. He knows nothing unless somebody tells him something. That’s it.”

 

- He doesn’t think golf is a sport.

 

- “Gays being gay is wrong.”

 

- He thinks Wrigley Field is the worst stadium in the Majors and said, “They need to implode Wrigley.”

 

- “I like Rod Stewart’s music.”

 

- Of the 223 Major Leaguers with at least 400 PA last season, Everett ranked 184^th in OBP (.311).

 

- Everett ranks 23^rd out of active players in HBP (84); and for switch-hitters, Everett ranks 6^th in the history of baseball.

 

- Last season, at home (the extremely hitter-friendly U.S. Cellular Field), Everett put up this line: .217/.285/.438.

 

- Over the past 10 seasons, Everett has played in an average of 120 games per season. The Mariners signed him for his age-35 season and probably his age-36 season.

 

- Bill Bavasi said at Everett’s press conference, “We liked his home run and RBI-per-at-bat ratio.” Is anyone else worried that the M’s front office is actually looking at RBI:AB ratios? WTF mate? For what it’s worth…according to the stats on The Hardball Times, of the 143 qualified hitters, Everett ranked 37th in HR/AB and 29th in RBI/AB.

 

- Everett went to the same high school (Hillsborough High School) as Dwight Gooden, Gary Sheffield and minor leaguer, Elijah Dukes…all outstanding citizens.

I know I haven't done too many non-baseball posts, but I just wanted to let everyone know that last Friday (December 9th), I asked my girlfriend, Cheryl, to marry me. Cheryl and I have been dating for more than four years and were good friends before that. She is beautiful, hilarious, smart, and supportive, and she is my best friend. I'm lucky to be able to spend the rest of my life with such a wonderful person. Here are some pictures...

Cheryl was a student teacher in a 3rd grade classroom. On her last day of student teaching, the class was throwing a party for her. I arranged with her teacher that they would play a game of "Heads Up, Seven Up." When Cheryl's head was down, I snuck in with a poster and had some of the children hold it. When Cheryl lifted her head, there I was with a ring. It was really exciting and really cute.

But, most importantly, she said yes! Yay!

So I was looking at Baseball Prospectus today and was really surprised by one of the little charts they put up. I'll bet you didn't realize that, based on VORP, Randy Winn was the 11th best outfielder in MLB last season. I know...holy shit, right?

Here are the only other outfielders with a better VORP than the Randinator last season...

Jason Bay, Miguel Cabrera, Vladimir Guerrero, Manny Ramirez, Brian Giles, Andruw Jones, Ken Griffey Jr., Bobby Abreu, Gary Sheffield and Adam Dunn. Not too bad company. Plus, I bet Randy Winn's defense was better than a few of those guys as well.

Sometimes you don't realize what you had until it's gone...

The girls over at On The DL do an excellent job of keeping me entertained. In fact, they’ve actually inspired me to search WebShots and find my own funny pictures of ballplayers. So, kick back, take your mind off of the possibility of Carl Everett in Mariners’ blue and teal and enjoy some pictures of baseball players!

 

Here’s a nice one of Freddy Garcia partying with some girls. I wonder what his father-in-law thinks of that!

 

Here’s David Wright with some babes at a bar mitzvah. Willie Randolph and Howard Johnson were also there, as were Walt Frazier and John Starks. They also had a mechanical bull!

 

Here’s Austin Kearns with some greasy Bengals’ fans.

 

And here’s Grady Sizemore outside a Barnes and Noble that looks like a baseball stadium.

 

Here’s some kid with Kerry Wood’s and Mark Prior’s wife. 

 

Judging from the amount of pictures, Jason Giambi goes out a lot. And by the look on his face in this one, one of these girls is totally pinching his butt!

 

Jeremy Reed’s little brother, Mark, who is a catcher in the Cubs’ organization, has his own MySpace page. Check it out. (You might need to be a member).

 

And, is it just me, or does Brandon Claussen look a lot like Willie Bloomquist?

 

This girl likes getting her picture taken with ballplayers. Here she is with Adam Dunn, who makes girls look really small! The caption to this picture says, "I FINALLY got Adam Dunn to be nice to me... I guess third time's a charm!! :) He was really cool... I can't believe it!! :)"

 

Here's some chick with Carl Pavano (Isn't she in one of those Giambi pics too?!?)

 

Jeff Francoeur at a Pat Green concert:

 

Brian Giles with a nice T-shirt.

 

I don't know who this girl is, but her dad must have something to do with the White Sox and she has some cool pictures of Chicago's playoff run and the World Series.

 

This girl went to "Hot Stove, Cool Music" and got her picture taken with Bronson Arroyo, Peter Gammons, and a bearded Theo Epstein.

 

And finally...Johnny Damon and Tim Wakefield at a golf tournament.

There's an article in the Tacoma News Tribume about the Mariners' "player acqusition consultant," Mat Olkin.
However, Corey Brock made a mistake that is pretty funny...

“Moneyball” is the 2003 book by Richard Lewis that detailed Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane’s reliance on statistical analysis.

Michael Lewis is probably thinking, "Well, at least he doesn't think Billy Beane wrote it!"

Just for reference, the average NL catcher hit only .250/.313/.388, but this is, as the title implies, a trick question. After the somewhat surprising uproar over the M's trading Torrealba, I was looking through batting statistics for catchers and realized that the Reds had a really nice tandem situation going on last year. Talk about flying under the radar...the trick is that the answer isn't one person, it's two people...Jason LaRue and Javier Valentin. They combined to put up that line which, if they were one person, would have ranked them first in doubles and in home runs by a catcher in MLB. They also would have ranked second in walks. Also, for all MLB catchers with more than 200 at bats, they would have ranked 14th in batting average, tied for 5th in OBP and 3rd in SLG. Not too shabby for a couple of guys making $3.5 million combined. All of this while playing in what Baseball Prospectus calls a "severe pitchers park." Man, I love platoons!

As if you didn't know already, the Mariners signed Jamie Moyer to a deal that is reportedly worth $5.5 million and could be worth as much as $6.5 million. There seems to be mixed reviews on the deal. Some people love it and some people think the M's overpaid. I think it's a good deal. There aren't too many pitchers out there that are going to sign one year deals, especially pitchers who will give you 200 decent innings. It might be a little steep for what you get, but you have to realize that it's only for one year and that Moyer's an icon in Seattle. That shouldn't matter, but it does. Looking over Moyer's numbers, I believe his success hinges on who's playing left field for the M's in 2006.

Check out Moyer's BABIP for the past 5 seasons: .276, .273, .287, .315, .319.

It isn't hard to tell which years we had Ichiro, Cammy and Winn, and which years we didn't...
Here's hoping that Kevin Millwood's next!

With all the news about Anna Benson yesterday and her whining about the Mets possibly trading "us," I would like to introduce you to another wife of a baseball player that could easily take Anna's place as "Hottest Wife in Baseball."

Gentlemen...meet Aaron Boone's wife, Laura Cover. *WARNING: NOT SAFE FOR WORK!*