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:......

Not since September 2003 have the M's been in a 2nd vs. 1st division battle this late in the year. With Adrian Beltre hitting the shit out of the ball (30 RBI in July) and the best bullpen in the league, the M's look like contenders. They can prove it a three game series with the Angels that starts tonight. And the team's fate could well be decided by the Weaver family. Jeff goes for......

You've heard this: Pizza is like sex: even when it's bad, it's still pretty good. Same with West Side Story. When the music's by Bernstein and the story's by Shakespeare, you could cast Tone Loc and Rhea Perlman in the leads and still have something great. The 5th Avenue Theater's production of West Side Story is better than just good sex--it's a fingers-gripped-around-the-headboard, eyes-rolled-back-in-head latex buster. And just like amazing sex, we had... Goosebumps......

Vitals: 24 yo RHP. Born in Manakin Sabot, VA. 6-5, 200. 19-12, 3.66 career. 2-1, 2.75 in 2007. $1.03 million salary. Arsenal: Mid to high 90s fastball, sweeping curve, changeup. Recent Battles: Beat King Felix last April in a much-touted battle of young fireballers. Held M's to 4 hits in seven innings. Our Best Weapon: Beltre's our best fastball hitter. Hopefully he can lay off of Verlander's soft stuff and gear up for the heater.......

Vitals: 24 yo RHP. Born in Kennewick, WA. 6-2, 220. 46-53, 4.67 career. 1-0, 3.69 in 2007. $4.5 million salary. Arsenal: Mid-90s fastball, nasty slider, change. Recent Battles: The M's faced Bonderman last on September 5th, knocking him out of the game with a three-run fourth. This game was notable for being Joel Pineiro's 58th, and last, win as a Mariner. Our Best Weapon: Ibanez is 8-17 career against Bonderman. The Internet Says: In 2002,......

Vitals: 27 yo RHP. Born in Tainan, Taiwan. 6-3, 225. 27-13, 3.84 career. 0-2, 5.84 in 2007. $489,500 salary. Arsenal: A hard-sinking mid-90s fastball that's so effective, he throws it 75% of the time (most pitchers throw about 65% fastballs). Wang's almost a two-pitch pitcher, because he throws his slider almost exclusively to righties, and his change (a forkball) almost exclusively to lefties. Wang's hard-sinking fastball gave him the highest groundball/flyball ratio in the American......

Before the 2007 season began, we said local Hall of Famer and Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Mark Hendrickson sucked, silly HOF induction or not. And the stats don’t lie—he sucked. Yesterday, to our shit-eating chagrin, he proved he deserved the call … to replace sore Jason Schmidt in the Dodgers rotation. After six scoreless innings on the hill at Chavez Ravine, Hendrickson’s got this line for the season: 27 IP, 24 Ks, 5 BB,......

After their one-game sweep of Texas earlier this week, the M's brought out the brooms again with a two-game sweep of Oakland. This weekend, they'll try for a traditional three-game sweep against the very three-game-sweepable Kansas City Royals. Here's the weekend schedule: Fri: Jorge De La Rosa (2-1, 3.04) vs. Ho-Ram (1-1, 6.30) at 7:05. Tickets. Sat: Gil Meche (1-1, 2.55) vs. Jeff Weaver (0-3, 13.91) at 6:05. Tickets. Sun: Brian Bannister (0-0, 6.23) vs.......

Mariners with Felix Hernandez Record: 2-0 Payroll: $106,516,833 Mariners without Felix Hernandez Record: 3-9 Payroll: $106,096,833 Sometimes, words can't tell the story as well as numbers. Look at that--the $106 million of player that Mariners GM Bill Bavasi recruited to surround Felix Hernandez can't manage to win more than 25% of its games. To put it another way--0.39% of the Mariners' payroll is responsible for 40% of its wins. The blueprint for the season was......

--Much to our surprise, the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby is not Shawn Kemp. --Adam Morrison gets a fine handed to him, Warren Moon gets a breathalyser handed to him, and Jeff Weaver gets his ass handed to him. --Little Nemo in the dead letter office. --There was a bench-clearing altercation in today's otherwise-awful M's game. --Turns out the military doesn't always want to hear about toxic gas. M-4 tank crews of the......

Vitals: 27 year old RHP. Born in Spring, TX. 6-5, 220lb. Acquired in 2005 from the Marlins via trade. 58-45, 3.84 career. 1-0, 1.80 in 2007. $6.7 million salary. Arsenal: Mid-90s fastball, 12-6 curve, and a rapidly-improving change that he throws mostly to lefties. Recent Battles: Beckett's only faced the M's once--it was last April. He went seven innings, gave up six hits and one earned run, and got a win. Our Best Weapon: Ben......

--Spokane loved its ice skating event and apparently the ice skating event loved Spokane back. --Jon Stewart was spotted at the Vista hooha in New York over the weekend. And last we heard Gates was scheduled to be on the Daily show tonight. --Pretty Girls Make Graves are over. --LineOut reacts to the New York Times' "Blipster" piece. --An email from the Mariners to Seattlest has confirmed the Jeff Weaver signing. --Last week in this......

Jeff Weaver had a terrible 2006, but then had a couple of good games in the postseason and earned himself a contract for next year. Sound familiar? Yes, it appears the M's are going to be the losers of the Jeff Weaver sweepstakes, signing a guy who had a 6.29 ERA in 16 American League starts last year. How bad was Weaver? Put it this way: the Mariners beat him three times. At least it's......