Well, 413 comments on the Seattle Times article here and the only Slog post since is about baseball. Y'all are disappointing me.

NO FAT CHICKS ALLOWED!

At least I'm expecting the M's to be terrible this year. Nothing's worse than going into a season with relatively high hopes, only to have them dashed on the rocks of historically bad offense.

Well, the Rays came out of the AL east and went to the world series a year after losing 96 games, so I'd say it isn't impossible for the Ms to at least make the playoffs.

"And yes, the Cubs will suck this year."

But not as bad as the Mariners.

As a fellow Cub fan: yes, our baseball club will suck this year. It's never too early to say "Wait 'til next year..."

Will be a tough season for M's fans. On the field, plus missing the voice of Dave N on the radio.

And Bradley will be a dead man walking by the time the 25th rolls around.

to steal one from milton bradley, "FUCK ken griffey JUNIOR". this from an M's fan of thirty years. kenny is a CHOKE.

You know, just a few years ago the M's were the third-richest team in all of baseball, in terms of revenue, and the fourth-richest in all of American sports -- only the Yankees, Redskins, and Red Sox (barely) were higher than us on the Deloitte Touche ranking. Cowboys, Mets, Dodgers -- couldn't come near us.

But our payroll never kept pace with the big boys, and even when it did, it mostly went to poorly-judged elderly has-beens instead of good players. And we stunk. The ten-year decline in the M's has taken place in one of the richest income environments in sports history.

Now, of course, the crowds are less than half what they were, and that income ranking is way down there. But we still have a respectable payroll, if not a top-tier one; but now we're giving the money to....whom, exactly? David Aardsma? We have one guy on the team who can hit (who's 37) and one guy who can pitch. A few guys here and there who can play defense. But we still think like a small-money team, just as we did in the wealthy days, so we'll never improve the club by more than a WAR here and a half a WAR there. And we'll lose ninety games.

If it wasn't for the sheer luck of drafting Griffey and Rodriguez, and a fortuitous trade for Randy Johnson, this club never would have had so much as a winning record, after 35 years.

So why do I care again?

Sweet sweet words indeed. Bradley must have some serious dirt on Mariners brass. Spill it Milton!

"Lindy v. Dan = Over" should count as three words or five words, so the premise is faulty.

Maybe Griffey will come out of retirement just like Baseball's-Worst-Hall-Of-Famer Ryne Sandberg did.

@10 Have a little faith in Jack Z. Give the man some time.

Fnarf: Ichiro. That's why. Not why we think the team will be great or even good, but why we keep paying attention.

@10 Fnarf - The M's were shopping Aardsma before his hip problem was found. Expect to see him showcased whenever he comes back and then quickly moved for prospects. Jack Z is definitely not committed to him.

As an aside, the funniest comment about Aardsma I've seen came from someone hating on him for making a major league roster and replacing Hank Aaron as the first entry in the Baseball Almanac. So we can keep bitching about him even after he's gone.

Griffy back as a consultant? On what? The best places to snooze in Safeco? What are Lincoln and Armstrong going to do next? Charge us 10 bucks to watch him sit in a rocking chair?

Griffey as a consultant is pretty funny. You would be hard pressed to find a HOFer from the past 50 years who put as little effort into the job as Griffey. The amazing thing is that, despite barely trying half the time, the guy was one of the best in the game. Imagine what he could have done if he studied pitchers like Bonds did, or baserunning like Rickey. He was a guess hitter with a perfect swing and a speedster who never learned to slide. He also apparently never learned to stretch or workout very hard. I'm not exactly sure what legitimate baseball skill he is qualified to teach.

It's really just a PR job, a way to halt the exodus of advertizing clients from a sinking ship. We have to assume that Junior got his mommy & daddy to OK this, as everything he's done has been about "family". Junior indeed.

Junior INDEED!