We’ve all been waiting for the last few days to see if Adrian Beltre would be playing in the World Baseball Classic.  We knew that the Mariners didn’t want him going and that he wanted to go if he felt healthy, and thought that Seattle would allow him to make the call on his own.
That’s [...]

The never-ending stream of Ken Griffey fluff stories and anecdotes this year could soon get old, but this particular one put a smile on my face.
Shannon Drayer has a very worthwhile blog post about top prospect Greg Halman, which includes a passage about what it was like for him to meet his childhood idol (Griffey, [...]

Shannon Drayer:
Walker’s injury may have knocked him out of the closer race as when asked for the umpteenth time this spring who the closer candidates were Wak responded, Batista, Lowe and Corcoran. Corcoran made a good impression yesterday, and Lowe will throw today. As for Randy Messenger who threw two innings yesterday Wak said that [...]

Erik Bedard did a rare interview with KJR that can be heard here.  It’s a great listen and definitely worth the time, so check it out.  It’s amazing how much more likeable he comes across in his own words compared to the way the disgruntled media tends to paint him after they fail to extract [...]

Last week Jeff from Lookout Landing posted this excerpt from a Shannon Drayer blog entry:
Sojo is familiar with many young Mariners as he manages the Lara team that the M’s send players to in winter ball. Jose Lopez elects to play winter ball every year on his own and showed up at camp this year [...]

A revised listing of Seattle Mariners Spring Training games on FSN-NW:

I’ll pin this to the sidebar for now as a quick reference.  As I figure out what games will be on other networks I’ll go ahead and add them (feel free to help me out).

LHSP Ryan “der Schnabel” Feierabend has a bum elbow and could be out for the year if he has Tommy John surgery.
As unfortunate as this is for Feierabend, this isn’t horrible news.  Yeah, Seattle loses some depth, but Feierabend had at least three lefties above him on the back of the rotation LHSP depth chart [...]

Cleveland Indians 3B Andy Marte somehow cleared waivers today.
How does this happen?
Marte on waivers represented a FREE 25 year old who has showed big power throughout his minor league career.  Baseball America ranked him as baseball’s 40th best prospect in 2003, 9th in 2004 and 14th in 2006.
Yeah, he strikes out, and no, he doesn’t [...]

Some odds and ends to get some new conversation going:

Mike Wilson managed to clear waivers and has been re-signed by the Mariners on a minor league deal.  Some call him a lost cause, but I’m glad to keep him in the system for now.  [link]
Phillippe Aumont will be pitching for team Canada in the WBC [...]

To make room for Ken Griffey Jr. on the 40-man roster, the Seattle Mariners placed OF Mike Wilson on release waivers.
Wilson can be claimed by other teams for 72 hours.  If no one wants him he’ll become a free agent, at which point the Mariners can re-sign him to a minor league deal.  Wilson has [...]