First things first - Pravda's reporting it as a one-year deal. Financial terms weren't disclosed, but since Branyan's always been dirt cheap, I'd be surprised if we're looking at anything over $1.5-2m. For this organization, that's pocket change. There's no risk.

Moving on to more interesting stuff from Baker's latest:

Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik said he's prepared to "give Russell as many at-bats as he's had in his career.''

Branyan will get a shot at the everyday first base job.

"It looks that way,'' Zduriencik said. "I know what Russell can do.''

Things could obviously change between now and Opening Day, but as of this moment, it looks like we'll be in for some fun - Branyan's probably the strongest left-handed Mariner hitter in Safeco history, and given enough playing time, he could hit 25-30 home runs, none of them boring. Perhaps this'll spell the end of Ichiro being the biggest draw in BP. Like Richie Sexson a few years ago, Branyan's a threat to go deep every time he comes to the plate, but unlike Richie Sexson a few years ago, he doesn't carry the burden of expectations. So he's a more freeing experience. People won't be yelling at him when he strikes out in a clutch situation (and he'll do that a lot). It'll be more like "oh yeah" "what did we expect". And then when he crushes the ball he'll be treated like a hero. It's funny the way money changes the way players are received.

Russ Branyan's a stopgap. He's just a guy we brought in to hang out while we look for a longer-term solution at first base, and he's almost certainly not going to be a part of this organization's future. But he's cheap, he's entertaining, he's pretty good, and his signing is an indication that our new front office understands way more about effective roster construction than the last guys did, so I just don't see any way a reasonable person could hear about this and not be pleased. He's 95% the fun of Adam Dunn for a tiny fraction of the cost. That's good. We did good. We did good.

Just last night I was working on a story about Russ Branyan, but I saved it as a draft because I had to leave home before I could finish. Here's what I had marked down:

is a pretty good bet to put up a wOBA* around at least .345-.360

would provide the left-handed power that Raul's departure will take away

can DH

can play first base

can play third base, albeit not particularly well, which would give the front office time to figure things out in the event that they trade Beltre

is no stranger to the bench and likely wouldn't have a problem with platooning or getting irregular playing time

has never cost more than $1.25m in a single season and signed on with the Brewers last year as a minor league free agent

wouldn't be hard to dump if things don't work out

Branyan may not stick around to be a part of the future (he turns 33 in two weeks), but he is literally the perfect stopgap, and the sort of player Bavasi probably never would've given a second look. As first ML acquisitions go, I'm not sure Zduriencik could've done much better, all things considered.

More later. For now, be happy. This is a move with no downside.

Man: Hey Sean! Good afternoon. 

Man: So what's up?

Not much.

Man: Keeping busy? I see you've got a magnifying glass there on the table. Have you been outside burning ants? haha

Been looking at stuff.

Man: What kinds of stuff?

Corks.

Man: Quartz? You into rocks?

Corks.

Man: Oh, corks. Why have you been looking at corks?

Corks are weird.

Two things from John Hickey:

Goldberg [Griffey's agent] said he talked with Mariners' club president Chuck Armstrong...

...and Armstrong made it clear in no uncertain terms that new general manager Jack Zduriencik has full control and will be making the decisions on shaping the roster.

"Full control" sounds nice and all (No more commands from on high! No more blocked Washburn dumps! No more useless input from know-nothing suits!), but Armstrong is undeniably, irrefutably, hopelessly nostalgic, so we'll only know if he's telling the truth if Zduriencik arrives at the proper conclusion that Griffey has no place on this team. Because while it's one thing to make a promise, it's quite another to keep it when breaking it would give you something you really really really want.

Bakery Owner: Are you sure?
Cookie Monster: Yes, my trainer Amanda is in charge of my diet.
Bakery Owner: But why?
Cookie Monster: I'm way out of shape and I can't get better on my own.
Bakery Owner: This is what you want?
Cookie Monster: I think it's definitely going to be good for me in the long run.
Bakery Owner: Okay, then I'll just go ask her what I should do with this big box of snickerdoodles...
Cookie Monster: :leaves:
Bakery Owner:
Bakery Owner: :leaves:
Cookie Monster: :comes back:
Cookie Monster:
Cookie Monster:
Bakery Owner: :comes back:
Cookie Monster:
Bakery Owner:
Cookie Monster:
Bakery Owner: Amanda is dead.
Cookie Monster:
Bakery Owner:
Cookie Monster:
Bakery Owner:
Cookie Monster: Give me the cookies.

The sixth in a non-alphabetical and irregularly updated series of review pieces for each(?) of the players we predicted last spring.

LL/USSM Community: .276/.343/.447
Actual Line: .293/.358/.479

I'm tired of writing the same stuff about Ibanez over and over again so today I give you the illustrated version of what should at this point be common knowledge.

Yes, Raul Ibanez is a good hitter. Over the last three years he's been the best hitter on the team. But hitting is only half of his job, and while he's been able to hold his own in that department for a while, his defense has slipped to the point at which he could leave his glove in the outfield and go get some snacks during play and still provide a reasonable approximation of his physical ability. Overall he's been a below-average player these last two years, and at 36 years old, his best days are behind him, meaning whoever gives him a three-year contract to reward his professionalism and RBI totals will be paying a guy who simply doesn't help the team win. A small drop in his offense going forward will get him pushing the boundary of 1 WAR, and any significant age-related decline will sink his value in a hurry. He's just a bad gamble. Shame on the team that gives Raul the money he's going to get.

Raul, I appreciate all the run production and hard work, but your canonization is a shining example of everything that was wrong with the prior front office. Although I like you fine as a guy and as a role model for some of the younger players, I am beyond ready to move on and replace you with someone who gets more done, so with that in mind, good luck, and thanks for the laughs. Your defense may have contributed to the killing of a season, but your .gifs were what saved it. And that counts for something.

About damn time.

Baker:

Also, Zduriencik has had conversations about another free-agent and may have an answer in 48 hours.

LaRue:

As the coaches were being introduced, GM Jack Zduriencik said he had one contract offer on the table to an unnamed free agent...

Hickey:

GM Jack Zduriencik said in a conference call Monday afternoon that he has one offer out to a free agent. He wouldn't say who it would be, but did say he hoped to have an answer ''in the next 24-48 hours.''

The free agent is:

-a position player
-not Mark Teixeira
-not Griffey
-not Manny Ramirez
-not Barry Bonds

...which leaves us with but several dozen possibilities.

If it turns out to be Ben Broussard my heart will melt.

Good news from Larry LaRue. After Raul declines and goes away to be someone else's hilassacre, we'll land a pair of picks, and thereby avoid the retarded Jose Guillen mistake we made last winter. You want evidence that the new administration is better than the old one? There you go. Good heavens was that ever stupid.

In addition, we're bringing in two new coaches. Ty Van Burkleo comes over from Oakland to be Wakamatsu's new drinking buddy, and Lee Tinsley will regale baserunners and first basemen alike with stories of how he totally sucked in Sega's World Series Baseball '94. I expect he'll also give good advice, because if Tinsley learned anything from his own career, it's that standing on first base is a rare privilege, not a right, and you shouldn't try to pull anything stupid because you never know if you'll ever be back there again. Isn't that right, Lee? You were a bad little player, weren't you? Weren't you? Yes you were. awww

Fun fact: in 1996, Tinsley was successful on eight of twenty steal attempts.

The fifth in a non-alphabetical and irregularly updated series of review pieces for each(?) of the players we predicted last spring.

LL/USSM Community: .288/.340/.506
Actual Line: .266/.327/.457

Healer of sick and slayer of evil, in 2008 Adrian Beltre put in yet another strong and underappreciated full season of work. He flew out of the gate with a scorching first month, almost singlehandedly keeping a bad lineup good enough to remain competitive, and while a lousy May pulled him back down to Earth, he was done in by a .156 BABIP that in no way reflected how well he was hitting the ball. Things started to even out over the rest of the summer, and although Raul Ibanez finished with the numbers, a convincing argument could be made that for much of the year Beltre was making the best contact on the team. And all the while he was doing it with a torn ligament in his thumb, an injury to which he finally succumbed in September so that he can be ready for spring training. 

Playing through injuries is nothing new for this team. Much to my chagrin, it seems like half the guys have done it. But the difference is that, where the Silvas and Batistas and Ibanezes of the world either directly or indirectly used their injuries to explain away ineffectiveness, Beltre downplayed his pain and somehow managed to sustain around the same level of performance as before. The discomfort was obvious whenever he caught a line drive or got jammed by a pitch, but he never talked about it, and he never made excuses. He just went out there and played, celebrating his triumphs and accepting responsibility for his mistakes. If you're determined to play through an injury, this is the way to do it. Make sure it doesn't kill your performance, and then don't talk about it. If people play through pain to look tough and heroic, pointing it out all the time kind of negates the whole idea. In this sort of circumstance, the strongest leader is the silent one.

It wasn't just Beltre's offense that he managed to keep up despite the injury - for five and a half months, his defense was absolutely out of this world. And I mean that. Just look at what he did:

UZR: +29 runs
PMR: +17 plays
RZR: +32 plays
+/-: +32 plays

Altogether, those stats paint the picture of a guy who was 20 or 25 runs above average for his position in the field last year. 20 or 25 runs. Now obviously that isn't his true talent level, since that would be borderline insane, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. While Adrian Beltre's offense was hurt by a little bad luck in 2008, he made up for it in the field, and the overall package came together to make him the best player on the team. Which I understand is kind of damning with faint praise, but it's true nevertheless. Beltre was better than Ichiro, he was better than Lopez, he was better than Felix, and he was better than Ibanez. In 2008, Adrian Beltre was the greatest Mariner.

As of next April, he's in line to be the greatest Mariner once more. Or he might be ~tied with Ichiro and Felix. But the point remains. Beltre may not repeat as the +29 run UZR third basemen he was in 2008, but he's established a true talent somewhere between +10 < x < +20, and his offense should get a boost from a healthy left hand and a BABIP that improves on last year's .279. Put it all together and you've got a 3.5-4 WAR star player, a guy who'd be worth a good $17m or so on the open market. Adrian Beltre may not get his results in the most obvious way, but he still gets his results, and he's set to be a hell of a value, just as he's been for the last three years. Which answers the question of why we love him so much. We don't love him because he's funny, or because he has weird little ticks. We love him because he's one of the best baseball players this team has had in a good long time.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what puts him front and center this offseason. As maybe the best player on the team, Beltre stands as one of our most marketable assets, and when you're looking to rebuild an organization, desirable veterans with one year left under contract tend to be the first to go. And why wouldn't they? Veterans generally don't want to stick around and re-sign with a rebuilding franchise, so if they're going to leave down the road anyway, you might as well make them available, just to see. It only makes sense.

As painful as it is to think about, the front office needs to make a decision on Beltre, and they need to make it soon. Either they want him to be a part of this team's future or they don't. If they want him to stick around for the long run, they need to approach him, make their rebuliding intentions clear, and ask him if he'd be willing to re-sign. If he were to say yes, they'd need to start negotiating an extension before he has time to change his mind. If he were to say no (or maybe), they'd need to deal with it the same way they should if they didn't want him to stick around in the first place - make him available, take some offers, and pull the trigger on the best one if the return is better than whatever compensation picks they could get after the year. Because if Beltre doesn't want to re-sign with a project, it doesn't really do us that much good to keep him.

Assuming that we're getting ready to tear things down and start over, I can't imagine that Beltre has much interest in staying. He wants to win. He's only been in the playoffs once - for four games - and a player only has so many opportunities to pick a new team while he still has something left to contribute. So while I'm not going to draft my tearful goodbye just yet, I'm preparing myself. I expect to hear Beltre's name surface in a new rumor pretty much every morning. I expect to hear at some point that discussions are intensifying. And before too long I expect to hear that a deal went down. There're no guarantees, but given enough demand that there's a good enough return on the table, it seems like the best course of action for all parties involved. Including me. Even if it feels like someone ripping my heart through my ribs.

I guess I shouldn't get ahead of myself. As of this writing, Adrian Beltre's still a Mariner, and he's one of the best Mariners we've got. But because that may not last much longer, all I ask is that with every passing day, each and every one of you appreciates him. That each and every one of you appreciates the shit out of him. If only because somebody has to, and one man can't do it alone. No matter how fucking insane he might be.

Jesus