This 'N That

Context. Matters. Always has. Always will. Most 'net folks who read anything I write (thanks to both of you by the way), know that context is like a sermon on Easter for me. You almost always know what you're going to hear. At least you know there is going to be some sort of reference to the word. So What's Your Point Padna? I Ain't Got The Time To Read Your Snippets AND Doc's Novels Too! What does "Crazy" "Jurassic" "Intolerant" "Child Abusing" Carl Everett bring to the Mariners? Without agreeing with any of those labels, Padna's position is that Everett will bring both pizazz and punch. What I will not do is the number crunching that has been going on ad nauseum trying to illustrate that "Randy Winn gave you x VORP per $ while Everett gives you x minus some fraction VORP per $, so why are the M's doing this?" This is not an Everett versus Winn comp in the first place, since Winn has already been translated into Foppert, Carvajal, and Gonzales. Are the M's in a better position now having translated Winn and signed Everett. I think the answer is obvious. While it's possible that none of the arms will pan out (that's always possible as we've found out), I'd much rather be in the position now of having the guys they have than how it looked even six months ago. Clubhouse fire and more long balls address two of the M's primary needs. So Why Washburn and Not Millwood? Instead of answering myself that question, it's important to note two things: The first, of course, is that we don't even know whether the premise of the question is even valid. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that the M's could not sign Millwood if they wanted him, provided he was okay with coming here. But I'm not going to rehash the budget issues now. We can do that in July when we need three months of future FA. "Either your signature or your brains will be on that contract tomorrow. The choice is yours." The second is that last I heard, extortion was still illegal. There's no guarantee that Millwood even wants to come here. It sure has been curiously quiet...... Context.....uh....Dep't What happens if the top targets do not want to come here? What does the org do? You've just had two seasons bad enough to have your fanbase erode to the point of threatening all that you've built. You cannot simply say, get younger and develop your kids in the business environment that exists now. Granted, the M's put themselves in the position they're in. But they do not have the luxury of not including a plan to make immediate improvements. If that means paying the going market rate for Civic instead of star, then so be it. The whole point of stars and scrubs is that you don't buy the Civic because you're averse to the Lexus. You buy a Civic when the Lexus is not available and you have a business reason to do so. This is a perfectly good time to invest in that Civic. It's not like you've got a Roy Oswalt who wants to come here and you're chiseling him. You can't wait on Boras and get left without a chair when the music stops. Signing Washburn now does two things. 1. It puts a strong lefty starter at Safeco, which we all know is a pretty good thing. 2. It maintains a decisive tone with an agent like Boras that "if you want the best deal, take my deal now or we need to move to our next plan." That kind of tone will bode well for future negotiations. Which, of course, there will be. BB always needs to keep that in mind.