I was getting prepared to start writing this, and then Matthew told me from the next room over that the Sounders just made a huge and hugely controversial trade. So it's not like this post is going to be read by anybody anyway, since Seattle-area sports fans are all reading about that. But I'm still going to get this out there, because my whole life people have told me that I shouldn't bottle things up, since that just leads to an explosion. You shouldn't ever bottle anything up. Except so, so many delicious things.

A link was passed along to me today, to a post on a blog called Plunk Everyone. Within the post, the author went team-by-team and identified the ten all-time players (each) who had the highest winning percentages when they were in the starting lineup. The example given in the intro is that the Diamondbacks won 58 percent of their games when Tony Womack was in the starting lineup. That example immediately tells you that what follows is more interesting than meaningful, but there's room for things to be both interesting and meaningful. I think the Mariners' list is both interesting and meaningful. The Mariners' list:

I definitely wasn't expecting to see Richie Sexson pop up, but then it's not like 47.2% is anything to be proud of. More significant is the guy at the very top. The Mariners have had a higher winning percentage with Mike Cameron in the starting lineup than they have with any other player in the starting lineup in franchise history (given a 500-start minimum).

Setting the start minimum at 500 admittedly keeps the player pool pretty small. And a huge part of Cameron's record is that he was a Mariner at the right time, since those 2000-2003 teams were something else. But then Cameron was also a huge part of those 2000-2003 teams. According to Baseball-Reference, his four-year WAR was 19.0. According to FanGraphs, his four-year WAR was 19.7. Players with similar WARs over the same span of time: Jorge Posada, Larry Walker, Bret Boone and Shawn Green. I am very much aware of the limitations of WAR, but this is just to illustrate the point that Mike Cameron was fuckin awesome.

And then his contract ran out and the Mariners didn't offer him arbitration. He was 30 years old, coming off a season in which he was worth about five wins at a $7 million salary, and the Mariners didn't offer him arbitration. They just let him go. They signed Raul Ibanez for three years, and they just let Cammy go, without so much as a compensation pick. You can try to read the explanation here, but I should warn you that it's very stupid. We had a good idea that it was stupid at the time. We have a better idea that it was stupid now. So stupid. The Mike Cameron situation isn't why the Mariners went from being very good to very bad, but it was a contributor.

Mike Cameron: awesome Seattle Mariner, and current owner of a Seattle Mariners franchise record. It's a shame the way it wound up, but at least we got to have Cammy for a while, and at least for his sake he got out before shit turned rotten. I suppose it's all in how you look at it.

This will probably not turn out to be interesting since it is being posted on (nominally) a baseball blog, but I am curious.

"Yeah, you'll totally see the ball better," they said to Trayvon Robinson, holding back laughs.

Here is an open thread for the press conference and any other related material you want to discuss. The talking scheduled to begin at 2pm local time. Live cast links:

King5 (video + audio)
Kiro7 (video + audio)
710 ESPN (audio)
Seattle.gov (video + audio)

I note that, removed a bit in time from the initial surprise of such progress in discussions, this is after all only talk about a new arena. There aren't teams yet, nor are they guaranteed. I think both the NBA and NHL should want to be in Seattle. I have total faith that the market here is better than currently inhabited markets. However, neither league is likely to expand and relocation still do have to go through the commissioners. So there's still David Stern and Gary Bettman in the way. I mean, what could go wrong with those two involved, right?

Still, this is new development and gaining teams in those leagues would be a significant boon to the neighborhood economy. Roughly they'd go from 100 distinct sporting event days per year to about 150. I'm collecting some select quotes and statements below the fold.

Continue reading this post »

Steve Delabar sat listening to his mp3 player as the flight attendant instructed passengers that bags that had to be checked at the gate would be retrievable in the walkway and not at baggage claim.

Two of these in a row has started us down a potentially dangerously slippery slope. Eventually we might be doing nothing but recording podcasts with all of our time. At least, that's how it works right? You take one step toward something and that means infinity steps are for sure going to happen?

Lookout Landing Podcast with Jeff and Matthew

iTunes link! RSS/XML link!

To those two of you who explicitly stated interest and any of those that silently have interest in helping us edit these things, here's a copy of the "raw" .mp3 audio file in stereo format. If you want to grab that and mix it however you deem best and then e-mail me either a sufficiently sized sample or the whole thing, we'll consider it. And thanks for volunteering. I hope you are satisfied with thanks because thanks are all you are likely to get.

I try to remain skeptical while not pessimistic about news. I prefer actions to words as words can be deliberately used for manipulation whereas actions, well those can be manipulative too, but the action still gets done. In the baseball world, this is nowhere more apparent than in managerial quotes, which I highlighted last summer. It's also readily seen with offseason rumors. You are all probably going to be saner if you just chill and wait for actual moves to occur rather than stressing out over tadpoles that will never develop into frogs.

Such has been my stance on the arena talks that have leaked recently and the inevitable hopes for a rekindled NBA and new-to-Seattle NHL teams. However

this might start being worth paying attention to.

[17:51 UPDATE]: Seattle Times chips in with a short piece backing up, but not confirming, that talks are close. News conference scheduled for 2pm tomorrow.