Also, Montreal/Washington’s sole playoff appearance was in the 1981 strike season. Since winning the World Series in 1990, Cincinnati has made it to the playoffs only twice, in 1995 and 2010. Atlanta and San Francisco have both had much better recent histories.
Actually three times. The Reds made it in 2008 also.
In other news, I keep hearing rumors of a trade…Cliff Lee to the Red Sox for Josh Beckett.
The marlins start their next fire sale by dealing Anibal Sanchez and Infante to the tigers, which is big news for about ten minutes before Ichiro becomes a Yankee.
How good is Infante these days? I really haven’t watched him much at all the last couple years. He hasn’t very good hitting when he was here before though, looks like he learned to hit a bit maybe? Always been good defensively.
I approve of the trade, but losing Turner will hurt in a few years.
Rumors, or just some blogger’s woolgathering? Beckett has 10/5 rights, btw.
wolfman:
By that time, Mike Ilitch might be beyond all pain.
As a Mariners fan, I have loved watching Ichiro for the last twelve years. This is a very sad day. They gave him away for virtually nothing in return. The M’s don’t need more pitching. The thought of seeing him in pinstripes makes me want to throw up too. Why couldn’t have been any other team besides the fucking Yankees? They’re starting a series tonight too.
Ichiro to to the Yankees. I know he’s old, but damn, I’m excited to see him in pinstripes.
Eta, sorry Invisible Chimp, it would be like the Yanks dealing Jeter.
The Yankees get everybody in the end.
Worse, it’d be like trading Jeter to your hated Red Sox.
I cannot imagine a world in which that would happen…
It’s indeed sad 
Ichiro is the type of player I’ve always liked the best.
According to Howard Lincoln:
“Several weeks ago, Ichiro Suzuki, through his longtime agent, Tony Attanasio, approached Chuck Armstrong and me to ask that the Mariners consider trading him. Ichiro knows that the club is building for the future, and he felt that what was best for the team was to be traded to another club and give our younger players an opportunity to develop.”
Shame they couldn’t package Chone Figgins into the deal …
Good pickup by the Yanks, I wonder if Swisher might be heading for the DL? He was expected to sit out most of the M’s series.
And I, OTOH, am rooting for Davey Johnson’s Curse to continue until Peter Angelos either sells the team or passes on.
Five games ago, I thought for sure that they were finally, finally starting to converge towards their Pythagorean, which then stood at 39-51, which I don’t need to say is an astoundingly low Pythagorean for a team with a record above .500. But that little winning streak, including three more one-run wins to add to their prodigious total, has taken care of that for the time being. I can’t believe they’re over .500 at all, let alone 7 games over.
It’s become quite fascinating, really, wondering just how long they can keep playing this far above their heads. As I type this, they’re down by a run in the sixth in Cleveland, which probably means they’ll find a way to come from behind and win either by a run or in extra innings. They’re now 25-7 in such games, out of a total record of 51-44; if they won again by a run or in extra innings tonight, they’d have half their wins that way. Incroyable.
I hate to say this, because he’s had such a great and wonderful career, but he was traded for nothing because he’s worth nothing. He’s a 38-year-old outfielder batting .261 with no power or walks and a huge contract. I am actually surprised the Mariners didn’t have to pay someone to take him.
I agree. It still would have been nice to see him finish out his career with the Mariners.
Now, the best we can hope for is that he stinks up the place even worse every time he takes the field for the Yankees. That would be some consolation.
He’s still above average on defense. The M’s as a team hit much better in the road. Getting away from Safeco and put in a better lineup and his numbers will be much closer to his normal. The news of his demise is exaggerated. Also, the M’s are paying the Yanks part of his salary. If they had to trade him for nothing, they could have at least traded him for a bunch of nothing hitters, not pitchers.
No, it really isn’t.
His OPS+ last year was 86; this year it’s 83; that compares to a career OPS+ in the ten prior years of 117. His offensive WAR for the first ten years of his Seattle career was between 3.0 and 6.0 per season, averaging 4.3 per season; his offensive WAR last season was 0.7, and in over half a season this year, it’s 0.2. And remember, all those seasons were played at Safeco, not just the last two.
Yes, he’s playing pretty decently for his position on defense this year, but he’d have to be some magical combination of Ozzie Smith, Omar Vizquel, Willie Mays, and Cal Ripken to make up for his poor offense.
Um, yes please. Just getting Beckett out of the clubhouse would be addition by subtraction (as much as I hate that cliché). I’d like to see the Sox do something. They’re just not clicking and I’m one of the few fans who won’t put it all on Bobby V.
In other trade news, it looks like the Dempster trade to Atlanta fell apart.
One of the Seattle radio stations quoted an exec that the Mariners wanted to extend Ichiro’s contract (it expires this season). Ichiro turned them down a few weeks before the trade request was made, so they’ve known for a while that Ichiro was gone this year anyway.