Quick thoughts on trade

We finally have a major move to judge Zduriencik and the early signs are incredibly promising:

• He realizes 100 loss teams don't need to worry about their closer, and sells high. Sounds simple, but not every team believes this no matter how obvious.
  
• He saw the same thing I saw with JJ. A guy who put an incredible 2007 together that frankly is something we should never expect to see again. JJ far exceeded what we ever could have expected to get from him as a closer, and he sells a year early instead of a year too late. Combined with the injury and declining fastball, he gets rid of Putz at the right time.
• The importance of defense. This is the biggest story by far in the trade. Instead of the old way of looking at baseball-card stats and ignoring defense, we have a real GM. Would the Mariners of the past 8 years ever make this trade? No way. We have real GM. Let that sink in.
• He assembles talent, and let's his manager and staff provide input on how they will make it work. Rather than say "Player X is our new left fielder" he understands words like "platoon" or "earn" are not bad. If Wlad wants to play in the outfield, he needs to show he belongs. This is light years ahead of last year when Bedard is suddenly announced as the opening day starter before spring training begins. Players will have to perform and I love to hear that. A far cry from what we've seen the previous years under Hargrove and Bavasi.

Way to go Jack. I know you're not done, and I hope you don't screw up the Morrow situation.

Sign Fields.

Keep Morrow in the rotation, sending him to AAA if you have too.

Find some more baseball players and tell me Yuni is no longer our opening day SS and I'm ready for opening day.