Did something happen? (Blogs)

UPDATE: J from Mariner Minors left a comment on this post and I am updating the post with a larger excerpt to somewhat reflect his feelings on the trade.

Just notice which side has the exclamation points in their titles.

From the M's part of the blogosphere

Mariner Minors: Bedard Trade Done, Paint Dries, Grass Needs Mowing

At the beginning of this ordeal (do I begin printing t-shirts, “I survived a trade with the Orioles and all I got was this lousy Cy Young candidate”?), I remember hearing something to the effect of “well, Bill wants to go through with this thing, but if it were up to Bob [Fontaine] we’d hold on to the kids”. Many out there would expect me to take Bob’s side in this, and why not? Considering that I felt leery about giving up Jermaine Clark and Derrick van Dusen for two months of Ismael Valdez back in ’02, no doubt it is a minor miracle that I didn’t suffer an aneurysm upon hearing the mere rumors of this trade, though that would serve to explain my erratic posting schedule (boss, let’s go with that).

UPDATED BIT HERE:

The Mariners dealt mostly from their depth and gave up players they should feel uncomfortable losing. This is always going to be the case in a trade of this magnitude. Bedard has his own questions, but the M’s believe that he a pitcher on the rise and could be the final piece. I don’t personally agree as I think the offense is still going to be very streaky for us, but I also think that the pitching staff ought to be more cohesive and certain hitters cannot help but do better. We have two aces now, if they can stay healthy, and we managed not to deal Clement, Morrow, and Triu, all of whom we’ll probably be counting on soon.

Lookout Landing: How not to make your case to M's fans and Probability vs. Certainty

Picture the following:

Two friends are arguing over the likely outcome of a set of ten coin tosses.

One declares - quite sensibly, since these coins are known to be fair - that he expects said coins to be distributed evenly.

The other, more radical in thought, feels that they'll come up all heads but one.

The coins are flipped. Nine heads, one tails.

'Ah', says the second friend, quite happy, 'You were wrong. That's why we flip the coins!'

Just read the whole post. It will be clear what Graham is talking about.

USS Mariner: It's Done

So, now that’s official, and practically everything that could be written about this trade has been, I’d like to offer up one last question to those who think the Mariners have done well this off-season in revamping their pitching staff. Assuming that Erik Bedard and Carlos Silva both stay healthy and make their 34 starts, what do you expect the Mariners record to be in those 68 games?

36-32? 38-30? 40-28? I’d imagine that it’s almost certainly going to be somewhere in that range.

The Mariners record in the 68 games in 2008 that were started by Jeff Weaver, Horacio Ramirez, Cha Seung Baek, and Ryan Feierabend? 32-36.

Yep, for all the talk about how terrible the back end of the Mariners rotation was last year (and in terms of individual performance, it was), the Mariners were a .470 club when their #4/#5 starters were on the hill. Even if you believe they’ll be a .560 club with Bedard and Silva on the hill, and if you believe that neither will miss a start all season, then you’re expecting the team to go 38-30 in those 68 games. That’s a 6 win improvement.

Over on the Oriole side:
Camden Chat: It's Done!

Same package that we've heard forever, Jones, Sherrill, Tillman, Butler and Mickolio.

Bout friggin time; now lets see what we can do with Roberts. If they start now, they should have something worked out by the trading deadline.

Oriole Magic: Bedard: The Day After

While there are some people who really dislike the trade for the fact we traded a good pitcher like Erik Bedard, I’ll say this — anytime you can trade one guy for five, especially in the state the Orioles are currently in - you do it.

Yes, the team is sadly sacrificing talent for the road ahead, especially in giving up Bedard; however, this move is about the future and not the here and now. Obviously, the Mariners needed to get Bedard to compete in a tough AL West with the Angels.

Dempsey's Army: Finally! Erik Bedard is a Mariner!

I will admit that I had mixed feelings about trading away Erik Bedard. I would have much rather seen him signed to a long term deal. The truth of the matter was, Bedard didn't want to stay through a rebuilding process and even if he did, there's no guarantee the Orioles will be good enough to contend in 4 or 5 years as the farm system is now. So he had to be traded and we had to get good return for him.

I think we did.

Further consolation is that Mariner fans hate this deal. A lot. That means it's a good trade for us, no?