Merry Christmas--From the Seattle Mariners

I received a Happy Holidays e-mail from the Seattle Mariners the other day.

What kind of Christmas present do I receive this year? Jose Vidro!!!!

And what a present! Vidro, 32, sucks. He was pretty good once. A second baseman who hit for a good average with decent power, he would have been a good grab 7 years ago. Mariners General Manager Bill Bavasi, desperate to hold on to his job, decided to trade Chris Snelling and Emiliano Fruto to the Nationals for Vidro to improve the team at DH. Jose Vidro is no DH. The DH he most compares to is Jay Gibbons of the Orioles, who also sucks. On the other hand, his #2 most similar batter through age 31 is Jeff Cirillo, Mariner Legend. Or maybe not.

To make this Christmas present even more special, the Mariners bought out his no-trade clause with a 2009 option! I can't wait for Jose Vidro in 2009. Will he hit .220?

The people at USS Mariner overrate Snelling. He's an injury-prone outfielder who if healthy, should be decent. He was certainly tradable. But the problem here is the problem with old-style general managers like Bavasi. They think past quality equals present value. Snelling would be at least as good a DH as Vidro. The difference. Whereas Vidro costs about $6 million a year, Snelling costs $400,000. They could have spent that $6 million improving the pitching staff or working to acquire a bat that is worth the money.

The best post on the trade comes from Dave at USS Mariner, who simply argues that Bavasi and Mariner management are incompetent. That sums it up. Last year, they signed Jarrod Washburn rather than pay a few extra million for Kevin Millwood. They traded Carlos Guillen for nothing because of a DWI arrest and his supposed bad influence on Freddy Garcia, who they later also traded. They've signed such luminaries as Carl Everett, Matt Lawton, and Pokey Reese over the past few years, none of which have done anything. Anyone could do this good, including me. Get rid of Bavasi now.

In case this Christmas wasn't good enough, the Mariners have also traded Rafael Soriano for Horacio Ramirez and signed Miguel Batista to a 3 year deal.

Merry Christmas indeed. Merry Fucking Christmas.