The Mariners announced yesterday that Manager John McLaren and General Manager Bill Bavasi will both be back next year. McLaren took over in mid-season, the team was 40-41 under his guidance. 2008 will be Bavasi's fourth year as Mariners GM. Out in blogland, they've been calling for McLaren's head since the M's went on a 15 of 17 losing jag, one of the biggest collapses by a contending team in baseball history. The main complaint:......

Three years ago, we all hoped for aging middle infielder Omar Vizquel to fail a physical so the M's wouldn't complete an agreed-upon deal for him. And our pleas were heard. Well, M's fans, break out your prayers to the patron saint of aged middle infielders failing physicals again, because we need another favor from him. Pending a physical, the M's are going to deal two good young prospects, Chris Snelling and Emiliano Fruto, for......

The Mariners announced in a letter to fans yesterday that Mike Hargrove will be back as manager. The man has now led his charges to six consecutive losing seasons--two here, four in Baltimore. Over at USS Mariner, the masses are in revolt--if "revolt" can be defined as "leaving angry comments on a blog." JayR says: The Hargrove thing is enough to make me write to the Mariners and tell them I am serously considering not......

Mariners franchise wins leader Jamie Moyer, who is apparently as discardable as a day-old croissant, beat the Cubs last night and became the oldest Phillie pitcher to win a game (Moyer's 43). It was also Moyer's first win in the National League since 1988, when he pitched the Cubs past the Pirates on the last day of the season. We think Moyer will like returning to the National League. In his final start for the......

Want a definition of star-crossed? Two words: Chris Snelling. Sure, you could go to mythology or literature or religion, but the world of sport exists to show us that the truth of life is suffering, pain, failure, and frequent surgery. The Seattle Mariners prospect made it back to the bigs last night after a long saga involving seven surgeries in a four-year career, including five on his left knee, one of which kept him out......

A few hours ago we were very happy with Mariners GM Bill Bavasi. He ridded the team of one of its most sour spots, and brought up a kid who, despite wicked injury troubles, we can't help but want to love. Now comes a move that garners a mixed reaction: Bavasi just traded minor league centerfielder Shin-Soo Choo and a player to be named later to the Cleveland Indians for 1B/DH Ben Broussard, completing the......

The Mariners released Carl Everett today, to overwhelming joy of the M's blogosphere. Better yet, they brought up Chris Snelling, the Job of the Mariners minor league system, whose string of awful injury luck began in this game. Carl, the well-known dinosaur denier, gave us some good times--he won two games with walk-off home runs, for one thing. He also served as the launching pad for a little tiff between us at Seattlest and the......