It's good to see the M's get their first win of the year, courtesy of our good friend Arthur Rhodes. If not for Billy signing Rhodes, the M's might still be winless!

I have to say I was shocked when I heard during the offseason the A's gave Rhodes a 3 year contract at over $9 million to be their closer. This is the same Rhodes who failed miserably when thrust into the closers role for Seattle last year. The same reliever who pitched terribly in the second half of '03 and was responsible for some huge momentum killers last hear- I seem to remember a grand slam last year that really deflated the M's. And of course how could any M's fan look back on Rhodes career with Seattle and not clearly recall two things: 1) Omar and the earring incident 2) Rhodes facing David Justice in the post season.

But thankfully Billy chose to focus on the positives, and signed Rhodes anyway. I will be shocked if Rhodes is still the closer by the end of the year, and blown away if Rhodes is closing meaningful games at the end of his contract . I suppose Billy will justify the contract by saying he couldn't afford to keep a top-shelf closer and sign Chavez. I understand when you are a small market club you have to make sacrifices somewhere, and thankfully one of those sacrifices gave up a two run lead yesterday in the 9th!