Q.  Do the Mariners have the coin to bid against Boston?

A.  My answer is always the same.  Every org in baseball has dozens of attractive prospects. 

In practical terms, almost any team could trade for Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, or Adrian Gonzalez -- if it could pay the superstar after it acquired him.

If Zduriencik had given them a week to argue about it ... the pundits would guaranteed us, no way did Seattle have the wherewithal to trade for Cliff Lee.  Am I right?

And supposing the pundits did surmise we could get Cliff Lee, do you think the analysis would have revolved around lower-minors hotshots Tyson Gillies and J.C. Ramirez, or would the analysis have revolved around Dustin Ackley**, Brandon Morrow*, Matt Tuiasosopo, Michael Saunders, and Jose Lopez?

One thing we can tell yer, is that the GM's value trade commodities differently than do the pundits.

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Q.  So you don't need publicly-lauded players to complete a blockbuster?

A.  Not one player the M's traded for Cliff Lee had played above even class-A baseball.  (Except Aumont got 17 innings in AA at the end of the year with a 5.00 ERA.)

Who did Zduriencik get back for J.J. Putz?  A #4 outfielder and a handful of guys on nobody's blue-chip list.

When the M's traded Mark Langston, it was an awfully sour press conference discussing Brian Holman, Randy Johnson and Gene Harris.

Billy Beane trades a Hudson or Mulder or Dan Haren?  He's going to have his game face on.  He wants T-A-L-E-N-T, players he believes in for the long haul.

Again, the Lee trade ... Philly wanted Tyson Gillies.  They're not flipping through a baseball periodical and picking three names.  They're identifying talent they are excited about based on their own research.

.........

You trade a superstar, it's not about "winning the trade" on Baseball Tonight and getting two days of P.R.

The Mariners have any number of players, especially hitters, that San Diego would be excited about.

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Q.  But San Diego will want somebody to show the fans.  Philly didn't need that.

A.  True, sometimes a team (like the Jays with Halladay) wants a specific kind of prospect:  an ML-ready blue-chip middle infielder, for example.

But this doesn't usually dominate a situation like SD's.  Remember the Orioles were taking bids from the Dodgers, Mets, M's, and others on Bedard, and their goal was just to max out the return (though I would have preferred the Dodgers' offer had I been Baltimore).

San Diego is going to want at least one player it can showcase in 2010, no doubt.  Whether Saunders qualifies, or Jose Lopez, or Matt Tuiasosopo, and/or Shawn Kelley, I dunno...

Do the Mariners have the talent to trade for Adrian Gonzalez?  They've got the talent to trade for five of them.

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Q.  Anything else?

A.  On his radio spot in January, Zduriencik was asked about the Winter Meetings.  Question was, how many times today was there a deal on the table that either party could have accepted and you'd have gotten it done?

Zduriencik answered him:  six.  Maybe more.

:- O

Three to nine times a day during the winter meetings, either Zduriencik, a player agent, or a fellow GM made a firm proposal that could have been accepted.

.............

Blengino was asked by Drayer, later, Is it a letdown when you get close and then a deal falls through?

Blengino answered her:  Not at all.  That's what happens 90% of the time, so you're used to it.

When it does go through, Tony sez, some people are huggers, some like Blengino are big-handshakers... Zduriencik's a fist-pumper.

Honestly, it's nice to know that Zduriencik's crew are working the crowd as we speak, and they're working it with bad intentions.  They're buyers, not liars.

Cheers,

Dr D