Trapped Underground

Today, I got on the Orange line train at East Falls Church and headed toward New Carrolton.  At the next stop, Ballston, the train was offloaded.  I had to wait for the next train.  The train was packed.  It caused me to be 20 minutes late to work.  I ended up staying 20 minutes late at work to make up for it which really caused me to get home late. 

On the way from work to the train station, I stopped at CVS to get an antacid and a drink to wash it down.  I got to Eastern Market station a little after 5.  As I came into the station I saw a Blue Line train sitting there with its doors open.  After a few minutes it left and there were announcements that someone had been struck at Clarendon and that there would be delays.  I texted Jana and told her I wouldn't be home for a while.  She offered to pick me up, but I was woried about her coming into DC as I had read that the occupy DC protesters were blocking streets.  I told her that maybe she could pick me up in Rosslyn (first stop in Virginia).  The Orange line train finally approached. We slowly made our way through stations and I began to monitor Twitter.  I kept reading stories from Rosslyn that the escalators had broken and that it was packed.  People then were saying that the trains were stopping at Rosslyn and a shuttle bus was required to get to Ballston.  By this time I was pulling away from Foggy Bottom (the last stop in DC) so I had not other options than to go to Rosslyn.  I texted Jana to see if she could pick me up.  There was no communication from the train operator until we were almost to Rosslyn, which left anyone not monitoring Twitter little time to make alternate plans. 

It was an unbelievable seen when I got off the train.  There were people everywhere and we were barely moving.  The people were jammed up against the end of the platform where the trains were still coming and dropping people off.

When I finally got to the escalators they were all shut off.  The escalators at Rosslyn are some of the steepest and longest I have been on.  I wasn't worried about making it to the top, but I was worried about the people who weren't healthy or older not being able to make it up.  Walking up those escalators appeared to be their only option. 

The first time I saw a Metro employee was when I finally reached the top of the escalators.  He was barking at people to keep moving.  Thanks guy.  My long trek home was not even close to over at this point.  I along with hundreds others poured out of the station to the side street where the shuttle buses were supposed to be.  Luckily Jana was picking me up because I didn't see any.  There were so many people there that the people were standing out in the street.  Jana had told me that she couldn't get anywhere close to the station so I started walking up the hill out of Rosslyn.  As I was walking I saw firetrucks and ambulances go by.  My first thought was that someone had had a heart attack or panic attack in the station or someone had been trampled.  I finally met up with Jana and we were on our way.  The traffic was terrible and barely moved on Wilson.  It was again due to the person who had attempted suicide because the firetrucks and ambulances at that station were blocking one of the two lanes on Wilson Street a few miles in front of us.  I left my house at 5:58 AM and arrived at home at 7:30 PM.  What a miserable horrible experience.

The thing that worries me the most is that Metro seems unprepared by a crisis situation.  What if this was a bomb at Clarendon? 

Buying a car in Virginia

When we found out my wife was going to be working again this fall we decided it was time to buy a second car.  My daughter would be going to preschool and there would be days that I would need to pick her up or just be available if she were to get sick. 

I started looking on craigslist mostly at older Honda Civics.  I wanted a cheap reliable ride that gets good gas mileage (don't we all).  I found a 2000 Honda Civic EX coupe with 140,000 miles on it for $3,300.  It had a manual transmission.  The only problem was that it was 33 miles away.  I decided that it was a good enough value, if I could talk him down to $3,000, for me to make the trip.  I got out there and started looking at the car.  The first thing I noticed was that it was covered in rust around the engine.  The rear bumper would need to be replaced, there was rust underneath the car, and the driver's side door and front fender had been repainted.  I drove the car anyway and it drove pretty good, but the rust scared me off.  I made the long trip home without a new (to me) car. 

A week or so later we had Hurricane Irene.  I drove our van right after the hurricane and it was not running correctly.  It had very little power and when I finally got to about 25 mph it shut off.  This got me worried enough that I rented a car for the next week so my wife would have a way to get to work.  Later that day I got into the van and it drove great again.  It was almost as if it had to dry out after the hurricane.  I had already paid for the rental car so I figured we'd take advantage of it.  I had Monday off and looked for more cars on craigslist.  I found a 1999 Honda Accord EX sedan with 139,000 miles for $3,500.  The ad on CL said that it was a supernice (one word) car.  I emailed the guy and he told me that it was really clean and nice and that the car had no problems.  I made an appointment with him for that day around 5:30.  He too was located far away from my house in Gainesville, VA (29 miles away).  The drive out there required me to drive on I66, one of the busiest freeways at rush hour.  I left at 4 to make sure I got there in time.  It was stop and go the whole way.  One time when I stopped the car behind me didn't.  I was rear ended by a college age girl with Vermont plates.  I was in the rental car.  I parked the car in the middle lane and got out to inspect the damage.  There is no shoulder on this freeway.  There didn't appear to be any damage to either car even though I felt like we got hit hard.  Luckily my daughter was OK too.  I got her information in case something came up as cars whizzed by us and was back on my way to look at the Accord.  I met the guy in front of a Dick's Sporting Goods.  Immediately, I could see this car was not as clean as advertised.  There was visible rust bubbling up through the paint in many places.  There was a ton of rust under the hood.  The interior was filthy and stained.  I couldn't believe this guy wasted my time.  I decided to drive it anyway.  I got out on the highway and the check engine light came on.  I breaked at a stop light and the front breaks shuttered badly.  The car was a POS.  I think my daughter was more disappointed than me.  She really wanted a new car.

I decided after the first two experiences that I might want to increase the amount of money I was going to spend to like 6,000 to 7,000.  I emailed 4 people I was interested in their cars and got no response.  Again none of the cars that I liked on CL were remotely close to my house.  I still haven't found a car and am going to keep looking.  Hopefully, I have better luck than the first two that I looked at.

Strasburg Mania!

I got a tip from someone and was able to buy tickets for yesterday's Nats Dodgers game long before it was announced that Stephen Strasburg was going to pitch that day.  This allowed me to get great seats for only $5.50 plus fees from Stubhub.

Earlier in the day, the weather people predicted a 100% chance of rain and that there would be thunder and lightning.  It was not looking good that I'd get to see him pitch.  The reports that I was reading said that if the game was rained out he would pitch during the day of a day night doubleheader the next day.  There's no way I'd be able to make that.  The other thing to worry about was that if there was any rain delay he was not going to pitch either.

We got to the game about an hour early and took our seat.  The tarp was still on the field, but it wasn't raining so there was hope.  Around 6:35 Strasburg made the slow walk to rightfield to the delight of the 3,000 or so fans that were there.  As he came out to warm up the tarp was also removed.  We had good seats to watch him warm up.  We were right on the fence in front of the fair pole on the first base side of the field.  The bullpen was just behind the right field wall.  A lot of people came over to try and get pictures of Strasburg and there was a palpable sense of excitement around us.  He looked good and confident warming up.  I'm sure he had to be nervous, but it didn't show at all.

Here are a few other photos I took of him warming up:

Here are some pics of Strasburg walking from the bullpen to the mound:



Strasburg walking in with Wilson Ramos

Strasburg looked nearly as good as he did before the injury.  The Dodgers were swinging early and often trying to make contact with his fastball and hope that it found a hole.  Dee Brown found one in the outfield and made it to second on his speed.  The other "hit" he gave up was when a ball found a hole in Ian Desmond's glove.  Ian Desmond easily had three errors in the game tonight and was not credited for one.  I think this game is example 1A for why FIP and xFIP are better indicators of pitcher performance than ERA since the subjectivity of the official scorer can make an ERA much worse than it should be.  Anyway, Strasburg was throwing hard.  Most of his fastballs were 96 or 97.  I saw a few 99's on the board.  It seemed like the Dodgers were laying off of his curve and change, but I could be wrong.  He finished with 4 strikeouts on only 56 pitches.  It only rained a little while he was pitching and didn't start raining hard until the 7th inning or so which gave me a perfect excuse to leave early on a work night.  Overall, it was a great experience and I'm glad that the weather cooperated.

Here is a video of the President's Race.  Teddy almost won.

NFC West Prediction

Wow, everyone on ESPN is picking Seattle to finish 4th this year. While I'm not excited about TJack I don't think that the Seahawks will finish last. This is a terrible division. The 49ers for one have lost most of their defense this offseason and did not replace any of them. They have good weapons on offense, but I don't think Alex Smith is much better than TJack. Gore is better than Lynch, but Seattle has better receivers and I would call the Tight ends a wash with maybe a slight advantage to SF. San Fran is my 4th place team. I think the Cardinals are going to be third this year. They traded their best DB for an unproven QB. What's the difference between Kolb, TJack, and Smith? The difference is that everyone already knows that TJack and Smith are bad. We will find out soon enough that Kolb is too. He will be an upgrade over what they had last year which was pathetic so I think they will be slightly improved. Losing Ryan Williams after trading Hightower though will leave them thin at runningback. The division will be a battle between the Rams and the Hawks. Bradford is far and away the best QB in the division and I think that he is the difference maker to put that team on top. The rest of their talent, imo, is no better (probably worse) than the Seahawks.

Here is my prediction:

Rams 9-7
Hawks 7-9
Cards 6-10
4whiners 4-12 (Hopefully we see some Colin Caepernick. I enjoyed watching him in college)

It's time for Ichiro to move down in the Mariners batting order

Ichiro has been the best leadoff hitter in all of baseball over the last 10 years, but this year he has been one of the worst.  He is hurting his team by batting at the top of the lineup.  His on base percentage is only .311.  For his career he's been a .372 on base percentage.  His OBP is being pulled down by his un-Ichiro-like batting average of .269.  He's a career .327 hitter.  It would be better for the team if he was batting 8 or 9 in the lineup and have a guy like Dustin Ackley or maybe even Trayvon Robinson batting leadoff.  Obviously 2 games of Trayvon is too small a sample, but he has shown an ability to take walks and get on base in the minors.  He's also fast enough to steal a base. 

It is sad to witness the end of a great career, but smart franchises don't let what someone has done for the team in the past dictate what course they take in the future.  Baseball is about winning games and if Ichiro batting leadoff hurts a team then he should be taken out of that spot. 

3 days in Craigslist hell

Last Friday I emailed a few people offering the low ball amount of $60 for their Apple tvs that they were advertising on Craigslist.  Most of them were asking between $70 and $80.  I figured if I got one person to bite I would go for it, otherwise I would wait.  My main purpose in getting the Apple tv was so that I could stream baseball games from mlb.tv and to stream video from Netflix and Hulu plus.  I was very excited about these possibilities as I have been watching baseball on my computer monitor and netflix through the Wii, which is not HD and not a great picture.  I finally got a bite on Friday afternoon, but the girl said that she would be out of town until Sunday.  She said I could pick it up then.  On Sunday, I had family in town and we went to dinner.  I asked her if I could pick it up on Monday instead and she said that was fine.  I took Jana to her tutoring job on Monday and patiently waited by the phone for the Apple tv.  I got the call at 3:50 and headed out the door around 4 to go pick it up.  I set the navigation and headed to Oakton, VA which did not look to be very far on the navigation.  It said it would take about 20 minutes.  I had to pick up Jana at 5 so I figured I would have plenty of time to pick it up and then pick her up.  Then I got into the middle of the worst traffic in the country.  I sat on the 50 forever.  It took me over an hour to get to this girl's house and by the time I got there I was hot and frustrated as I had a very tired Clara in the back seat complaining about every single song on the radio.  When the girl opened the door I could see that it probably was not the Apple tv that I wanted.  I had wanted the 2nd generation which is small and black.  The one she handed me was large and white.  I was frustrated, but I told myself the only difference was the size and color so I took it anyway.  At this point it was 5:15 and Jana had been off work for 15 minutes.  I had texted her and asked her to walk down the street to the Wendy's and wait for me there.  I knew she would be upset with me for making her wait and it made me mad that I had let her down.  I was also worried because she was not in the best part of town.  I rushed back and luckily this time I was going the opposite direction of traffic.  It was nearly 6 when I finally picked her up.  On the drive to pick up Jana, Clara decided to complain about being hungry and thirsty along with music selection.  I couldn't help her out.  I hadn't planned on being gone so long so I didn't bring any snacks or drinks.  I went in and grabbed Clara some nuggets at Wendy's and asked Jana about her day.  She was in a very good mood considering how long she had to wait for me.  I told her that I think I may have bought the wrong one and her mood turned slightly sour (as it should have), but she was very understanding and loving which I greatly appreciated as frustrated as I was. 

When we got home (after a stop at Chipotle because no one was in the mood to cook dinner) I tested out my new toy.  It did lots of cool things.  It synced up with my computer and my iTouch.  It had access to youtube.  It was in HD.  It did not, however, have netflix or mlb.tv or Hulu plus.  I decided I had better try to sell it on Craigslist.  So I created an ad that night offering it for $60 and explaining what it was and why I was selling it. 

The next day I got an email from someone asking me how low I would go.  I told her to make me an offer.  She offered $40.  After some thought, I decided I would be willing to take $50 and take a $10 loss to get rid of my mistake.  She accepted my counteroffer.  She asked me to deliver it to her in Vienna which is almost as far from my house as Oakton was.  I told her that I did not have a car for a few days (Jana had gone on a trip to see her sister), but that I could meet her at the Vienna train station.  She asked me if we could meet the next day.  I said that was fine.  The next day she told me that she would be working and asked if I could meet her at her work.  I looked it up and determined I could take two buses to get to her work that would take me about an hour.  I thought that would be ok as I needed the time to study.  At 3:06 I get an email from her that says:

"Never mind. I had someone write back to me about a 2nd generation and I would rather do that one.  So thanks but no thanks."

We had agreed on a price and a meeting place and exchanged about 8 or 9 emails.  I spent most of my lunch mapping out the bus route to her work.  Needless to say I was pretty upset. 

I have bought and sold many things on Craigslist and for the most part have had very good luck.  The last few days dealing with this crap makes me wish I would have just bought a brand new Apple tv 2nd generation for the price of $100.  If you can put a price on time I'm pretty sure I've spent at least that much money on my 1st generation Apple tv especially if you add in the gas from the car trip from hell last Monday.  I am still going to sell things on Craigslist, but in the future it's going to be more on my terms and I'm going to have a better idea of what I'm buying.

Entertainment before lunch today (warning gross)

Today, I went to lunch at the Banana Cafe and decided to eat on the outdoor patio.  While deciding what to get and enjoying some delicious chips and salsa I noticed a man walking by having a very hard time walking in a straight path.  This guy was clearly having trouble even standing up.  It was 11:30 in the morning on a Thursday and this guy was nearly blackout drunk.  He slowly wobbled by and then attempted to cross E St.  About halfway across E Street he decided he was going to cross 8th street too taking a diagonal path across both streets.  Meanwhile cars in all directions had to stop and wait.  He finally made it across and zig zagged his way to the front of 711 where he leaned his head on a large metal trash can.  He rested there for a few minutes then walked a few more feet.  He looked toward the street and projectile vomited.  He then sat down on the side of the street and appeared to pass out.  I felt bad for him, but what in the heck was he thinking.  Who gets that drunk that early in the day and then takes a walk down a busy street when it's that hot out? 

I drew a picture.

Weirdness on the Orangeline

After watching the second loss in a row by the Mariners to the Nationals.  I got on the train to head home.  After getting on the Orange Line at L'enfant and a few stops later the crowd on the train had thinned out enough that most people had a seat to themselves including me.  Around the McPherson Square or Farragut West stop a drunk looking middle aged woman got on the train.  She wobbled around looking for a seat.  She looks at me for a second and then decided to take the plunge...right into my lap.  She was wearing bar clothes (short skirt, revealing top, and very high heels).  I quickly stood up which slid her off of me and sat back down.  Throughout the ride she kept touching me with her arm and leaning on me.  I just moved so my back was kind of facing her, turned up my head phones and continued to play solitaire on my iTouch.  I kept thinking, I only have a few more stops, I can make it.  Finally my stop came and I told her I needed to get off.  She did not get up out of her seat.  She simply moved her legs to the side.  I just stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds until I realized if I didn't get going the doors were going to close and I was going to miss my stop and probably miss my bus.  So I crawled over her to get off which is what I think she wanted.  I fell on her at least once and stepped on her feet too.  I was wondering if anyone saw what was happening.  I probably would have been laughing if I saw someone forced to crawl over a drunk middle aged woman who looked like she had lived a very hard life.  After riding the subway for a year, that was definitely the strangest experience I've ever had.

Marlins

I went to 711 wearing my Mariner tshirt. A guy walks up to me all excited and says 'didn't the Marlins win the Superbowl last year.' I just stared at him. Does he mean Dolphins? Does he mean World Series? Does he think my shirt says Marlins? Seeing my puzzled look he says 'did the Marlins win the World Series last year?'. I said no it was the Giants. He said, 'yes, from San Francisco.' He then said that the Marlins have won recently though. I said I think so in maybe 2005. I said it was there second World Series I think. He says, 'Wow, nice job. I bet your happy about that.' I said I guess so. At this point I was sure he thought I was wearing a Marlins shirt, but I wanted to leave so I didn't correct him. That was probably the most I've ever talked about the Marlins with a stranger.

Mariners look legit, need to upgrade Left Field

Now that the Mariners have beaten up on New York, Boston, and Tampa Bay I think it's safe to say that this team is legit.  I don't think that they will win the division or the wild card, but I think it's possible.  Earlier in the year I thought this team was a 78 to 82 win team, but now I think they are an 85 to 87 win team.  I think it will take winning over 90 games to have a real shot at the division or wild card.  Texas looks good, especially with Hamilton and Cruz back for them.

If the Mariners want to get closer to 90 wins I think it's time for them to address Left Field.  I don't think that the answer is in the organization so I have looked at three players from struggling franchises who could make a big difference for this team.

Hunter Pence (R/R) - Houston Astros .314/.358/.494
Pence is putting up great numbers for the Astros this year.  He makes $6.9 million this year so he isn't cheap, but considering his production that's great value.  He would instantly become the best hitter on the Mariners.  I think he will cost a lot for the Mariners to pry from Houston as he's only 28 and is the only star for that team.  It would probably take a combination of three of our best prospects to get Pence.  I'm thinking Nick Franklin (SS), Johermyn Chavez (OF), and maybe Mauricio Robles (SP).  This would be a high price to pay for a team that started the year playing for the future.  It's possible that all three would develop to be good major leaguers, but Franklin is the only one that we might kick ourselves over later (see: Adam Jones).  One other thing to note is that Pence is a righthander and we have seen how Safeco Park kills the value of most righthanded hitters (See: Adrian Beltre)

Michael Cuddyer (R/R) - Minnesota Twins .263/.329/.387
Cuddyer is a decent player who would be better than anything the Mariners can put into leftfield right now, however I'm not sure that he's enough of an upgrade.  He makes $10.5 million this year so I think the Twins would be very happy to trade him for a bag of balls.  This fits in better with the fact that the Mariners are building for the future as they wouldn't have to give up any top or midlevel prospects to obtain him.  If the Mariners are willing to take on payroll Cuddyer would be a good addition to this team and would add a little stability to the lineup.  Again, Cuddyer is a righthander and he might not fare as well in Safeco as he has in Minnesota.  Minnesota is a pitcher's park too so the dropoff might not be as bad as one might expect.

Laynce Nix (L/L) - Washington Nationals .302/.328/.579
Nix is having a great season, at least with power numbers, for Washington this year.  His slugging percentage of .579 is the highest of his career, but Zips projects him at .474 for the rest of the year.  He would be a great addition as a lefthanded platoon for the Mariners outfield.  He only makes $700,000 this year and is only 30.  The Nationals have slipped far out of contention and should be looking to deal him for the future as they are built to contend in 2013 or later with Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg.  I'm not exactly sure what it might take, but I think it would be significantly cheaper than Hunter Pence even though he hits for more power.  I think it might be a Carlos Puegero type and maybe a 2nd tier pitching prospect.

I think the hardest thing to do for this team is walk the line of contending and building for the future.  We all saw how bad things can go when the GM doesn't grasp this (see: Asdrubal Cabrera and Shin Shoo Choo for Ben Brousard and Eduardo Perez) (See also: Eric Bedard for the rest of the M's prospects).  If I had my choice I would take Nix.  Let's play for now and the future.

The New Randy Johnson

Michael Pineda is the new Randy Johnson.  I know he has had only 8 starts, but the feelings I get when he takes the mound are the same feelings I used to feel when the Big Unit would take the mound.  The anticipation of Pineda's start yesterday was killing me.  I just knew that playing a terrible Twins team that this was going to be the moment when he would get his first of at least 10 career no hitters.  This is how I always felt when Randy would go up against an inferior opponent.  As it was he only gave up 3 hits and no runs in 7 innings and struck out 7 (4 out of the first 6 were strikeout victims).  I can't wait for his next start already which should be this Saturday against the terrible hitting San Diego Padres.  I'm already licking my lips in anticipation.

Osama Bin Laden

Last night, I was having trouble sleeping.  I was lying in bed thinking about all of my problems when I heard my phone indicate I had received a text message.  Normally, I don't check my text messages once I go to bed, but last night I needed something to take my mind off of what I was thinking about.  I went downstairs to discover a tweet from a friend that said

"Obama to talk shortly on Bin Laden's death. I kinda hope he drinks BL's blood on live tv. Speculators leave commodity markets tomorrow???"

At first I dismissed it, but then I was thinking did I miss something.  I checked more tweets and sure enough that's what everyone was talking about.  I called out to my wife to wake up and come downstairs and witness history.  We tuned into CNN to watch Obama give his speech.  They cut away to a small crowd cheering at the Whitehouse.  I told my wife that I kind of want to join them and we laughed.  The itch though started getting stronger and stronger as they kept cutting away to the growing crowd.  As Obama started speaking I looked at my wife and she knew, she said go and be safe.  I was dressed and out the door in about a minute.  I hopped on the 66 and was in DC in about 10 minutes.  There was very little traffic other than a few empty taxis.  I parked in front of the Washington Monument and joined a small crowd heading to the Whitehouse.

The crowd continued to grow as I got closer to the Whitehouse.  Everyone was getting excited as people were half running half walking.  Cars were driving by honking their horns including taxis.  When I got there the crowd was pretty full, but I was able to move to the middle and get within 20 to 30 feet of the Whitehouse fence. 
 

People were chanting USA! USA! USA! and singing patriotic songs like God Bless America and the National Anthem.  Some people sang the song from Team America World Police (America, F--- Yeah).  The Nah Nah Nah hey hey good bye song was sung also.  I have some video I took with my cell phone that captured some of the singing. 

 Here are a few other photos that I took while at the Whitehouse:

I think my favorite part is that for the most part I didn't see anyone being too political.  Almost everyone there was unified as Americans rather than promoting one party or another.

Memphis vs. OKC

This matchup is probably the worst thing that could have happened.  The team I root for in the NBA playoffs is whoever plays the hated Oklahoma City Thunder, but now it's the team that was stolen from our brothers to the North.  It's kind of like the presidency for me.  I don't like either one and I don't know which one to throw my vote behind.  I'm definitely leaning toward Memphis, but I know how people in Vancouver feel about losing their team.  The other problem I have is that I can't just ignore the series because I miss NBA basketball so much and having a team to root for.  I miss the Sonics and want the Thunder to play poorly even though I love watching that team play ball.  They have great players, who were drafted by Seattle, in Westbrook and Durant who play basketball the right way.  I will probably still root for the Memphis Grizzlies (btw, it's silly when teams move and they don't change their name, I'm looking at you Utah) because it will pain me much more if the Blunder win the championship than the Grizzlies.  I just wish it wouldn't have come to this and it makes me sad that if we get another team we'll have to steal it from another city.  I just hope Sonics fans can be more respectful to the other city than the Blunder fans were to us.

Sonicsgate

Tron and Black Swan

I watched Tron and Black Swan yesterday.   I was really excited for Tron as I remember that I liked the first one though I can't really remember much from it.  All I remember was that some dude got sucked into a video game and he had to play his way out of the game.  The new Tron was really cool too.  We got it on blu-ray as it seemed like the kind of movie to do on blu-ray.  I like to get action movies or movies that have lots of imagery on blu-ray.  Romantic comedies usually don't merit the extra 50 cents for blu-ray in my opinion.  Anyway, as I was saying I really liked the movie.  The plot was good and fairly easy to follow.  The only thing I wished they did was explain more about the Iso's.  I think there could have been a few more instances of playing in the video games.  The movie overall though was good.  I liked the corporate greed angle at the beginning (corporate greed seems to be popular in movies these days for some reason).  The digital world was well done.  One thing I found interesting was that the entire movie was filmed at night time until the end.  In the real world it was always dark and then in the the digital world it was dark.  At the end, the real world was light.  I don't know if it was symbolic or on purpose, but Jana and I thought it was kind of interesting.

Black Swan was one I wasn't sure I would like.  I had heard all sorts of things about the movie like it was the Brokeback Mountain for women and that it had a crazy ending.  I was worried that I would get bored since the film centered around ballet.  In spite of almost the whole movie being ballet scenes I was definitely at the edge of my seat.  The psychological part of the movie was what really took center stage along with her interactions with other characters, especially her mom.  The dancing itself was actually kind of cool in that it was amazing to see what the dancers physically had to do.  The movie did leave me with a lot of unanswered questions which always bothers me.  I just want the movie to neatly tie up all the loose ends, but the wondering and trying to figure out what actually happened might have made the movie more meaningful than had every question been answered.

Bad day Good Friday

Today got off to a bad start last night as I fell asleep in an awkward position on the couch with the tv on.  I woke up around 1 or 2 shivering on the couch and headed up to bed.  A few hours later, my alarm was going off and it was time to get ready for work.  As I got ready, I took a small loaf of banana bread out of the freezer to defrost.  I went to work and forgot my banana bread on the counter all day.  All morning I dreamed of that banana bread and instead had nothing to snack on.  Around 12:30, I decided to run an errand and walked to a building about a mile from my office.  About 30 seconds after I left it began to pour down rain.  I had my umbrella and continued on my way.  The rain was coming down so hard that my umbrella was no match and feet and pants were soon soaked.  I went to the entrance of the building and was told I had to go to the other side.  This was a large building that occupied multiple blocks.  Oh well.  Once I got through security, which took a while, I finally reached the office I was looking for only to be told that they couldn't service me until Monday.  Oh well.

I left and decided to go across the street to the CVS since I was already there.  I got a drink and a chocolate bunny for Jana for Easter.  The line was crazy long and took forever for me to purchase my overpriced items.  As I was walking back I heard a man call out, "Are you ok lady?"  I looked around and literally right next to me was a woman in a wheel chair.  Her chair was one of those ones with a joy stick.  It was leaning against a pole and her rear left wheel was lying next to her chair.  She was soaked and had no umbrella.  I noticed later that she was shivering pretty bad.  I can't believe I didn't even see her.  My first thought was to keep walking and let someone else help her.  I then wondered if I subconsciously didn't see her at first on purpose.  I felt pretty crappy about the thoughts in my head and felt an overwhelming sense of compassion for this woman.  I walked over to her and the guy in the truck who had called out to her had arrived by then too.  The other guy went to park the truck.  I picked up her chair as the man tried to attach the wheel.  He couldn't get it on.  I was afraid we wouldn't be able to fix her chair.  The other guy from the truck arrived and said he could figure out the wheel.  The first guy relieved me of holding the heavy chair.  I held my umbrella over the woman and tried to keep her company.  The guy working on the wheel was able to get it reattached.  Luckily their truck had a hammer and a wrench.

I was having a rough day from my lack of sleep and food and my rainy walk, but it could have been a lot worse.  This woman was leaning against a pole getting soaked with no way to move and she still had good spirits.  These two guys in the truck spotted this women and appeared to not even think twice about helping her.  They both got on the ground and dirty reattaching the wheel.  I love seeing people like this in action and wish I was more like that.  Their relatively small sacrifice (small when compared to Jesus) caused me to think of Good Friday and that Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us. The rest of my day was great.  I'm glad I was able to meet these guys and the woman in the wheel chair.

Smithsonian - American History

Last Saturday we decided to go to the Smithsonian Institute's American History Museum.  This is my second favorite Smithsonian after the Air and Space Museum.  The Air and Space is also Clara's favorite as we heard her say, "I want to see the planes," over and over again.  We spent most of our time in the basement which was focused on American transportation.  The cars were really cool.  My favorite was a 1977 Honda.   

This is a 77 Honda!

There were lots of trains there including a subway from Chicago that you could sit on and pretend you were on a subway.  I found it kind of ironic since most of the visitors probably arrived by subway.  They had exhibits that showed transportation in different cities at different points in time.  Some of the places I found interesting was the railroad in North Carolina, Route 66, Interstate 10, and Portland in the 40's.


the dream of the 40's is alive in Portland

They also showed how an automobile travelled across the country before there were roads.


This photo was from the Smithsonian website.

They had a picture at the show with the Navy Yard in DC where people used a very unsafe looking bridge to cross the Anacostia river to get to and from work each day in 1863.  It said that a developer built the bridge to attract workers at the Navy Yard to live accross the river.



found this photo on this site

We also went to the nuclear power section of the Smithsonian because they have an exhibit about Hanford, WA.  It's amazing that they built a town with a population of 50,000 basically overnight for the Manhatten Project. 


The R with the mushroom cloud is the logo for the Richland High School Bombers.

If you have any interest in cars, transportation, or how America was shaped by the types of transportation of the times this is a very good exhibit and I would highly recommend it. 

Milton Bradley

Milton Bradley right before he hit a homerun last night

Two things that I think are funny about this picture:

1. Milton is wearing ear plugs at home.  I wonder if he is getting heckled at home.  I can understand why he would wear them on the road, but home seems weird.  I hope this is the answer for him staying focused during the game.

2. The fans behind him wore giant foam King Felix crowns the whole game.  I'm glad these King Felix fans stayed the whole game even though he got lit up, but they really cracked me up.  You can see them during every lefthanded at bat.

Safety at the ballpark

The San Francisco Giants fan that was brutally beaten in LA by Dodger's "fans" has struck a deep chord with me.  I posted this story on Facebook last year, but I thought I would talk about it again here.  Jana, Clara, and I went to New York City last summer and I planned the trip to coincide with a Mariners game that was to be played at Yankee Stadium.  The trip got off to a bad start as we witnessed two men fighting on the subway right when we initially arrived.  On the third day of our trip, in a crowded subway, a young boy (12 to 14) bumped into a larger older man.  The man turned around and went after the young boy and verbally attacked him for bumping into him.  We did meet some nice people in Central Park and at dinner at Mickey Mantle Restaurant. 

We went to Yankee Stadium on the second day that we were there and as soon as we arrived people were verbally attacking me for wearing an Ichiro! tshirt.  As we went to our seat people booed and yelled profanity at me.  I kept my head down and tried my best to ignore the angry words.  Jana, Clara, and I sat down in our $40 a piece seats in right field just before the game was to begin.  It was cool during the first inning the fans around us chanted each players name until they acknowledged them.  I could tell that these were good fans that knew and cared about baseball.



Our view from our right field seats.  Ichiro! is about to leadoff with a Homerun

 Then Ichiro! led off with a home run off of Javier Vasquez.  (Here's the box score) I was so excited that I stood up and clapped for Ichiro! as he hit the home run very close to where we were sitting.  Fans started yelling terrible things at me and told me to sit down.  I did as I was with my family and did not want to put them in danger.  Then two batters later Russel "the muscle" Branyan hit a solo homer over our heads into the upper deck in right field.  I again stood and clapped.  The fans around me said more terrible things and told me to sit down.  A fan sitting behind Jana said that they were going to beat up my family after the game.  I said that we are not going to be intimidated and that we were going to stay at the game.  I decided I wouldn't stand up again or clap if the Mariners do anything good again.  The Yankees scored 4 runs in the bottom of the first to go up by 2 which actually kind of relieved me as I thought this might calm them down.  The next inning was pretty uneventful as neither team scored.  Jana said the guy kept talking to his buddy about how he was going to kick my a-- after the game though.  In the third inning, Ichiro! again homered to right field and I, while sitting, again took a bunch of abuse.  The Mariners then got some runners on base and scored another run to tie the game up.  This led to the fans in the whole stadium to start chanting a--hole to Vazquez.  Clara (2 at the time) decided to join in.  Jana said that the fans were very loudly talking about what they were going to do to us so I decided we had had enough.  We left the game through 2 and a half innings, $120 down the drain. 

I don't think that those guys would have beaten us up after the game, but it definitely wasn't a good environment to have my family at.  I worry about taking my family to sporting events and it makes me sad.  I wonder how sports are going to continue to grow if other families have come to worry about the safety of their family and the environment they are exposing the youngest members too.  Even if we were not wearing opposing team's gear at the game it still was not an appropriate place to have a child.  I don't want Clara to come home saying some of the words that were coming out of these people's mouths or to learn the total lack of sportsmanship that some of these fans exhibited.  I'm going to take Clara to a Nats game this year because luckily a lot of the loudmouths are fairweather fans and probably won't show up to watch a bad baseball team.  I just hope we don't have to leave another sporting event early again. 

Road Rage

Today at 9:40 AM, Jana and I were driving on Washington Blvd and about to enter Route 66.  As I was exiting off the road I looked over and saw a guy moving into my lane right into our car.  I moved over and honked and he kept going.  I sped up to avoid him and he sped up too and tried to ram us again right before we entered the freeway.  It freaked Jana and I out so I let him go.  I decided to try to get a picture of his license plate so I could report him, but when he saw me he cut to the other lane.  He then slowed down and then tried to ram me again.  I was pretty ticked at this point so I was pretty determined to get a picture of his license plate.  I sped up to him again to get his picture, but he slowed down and cut to the other lane.  I was able to get a picture of him, but not his license plate.  He started motioning with his fingers like he was pulling a trigger aiming at me and Jana.  I really wish there was a cop around to get this guy or for me to at least get his license plate number.  He was driving a newish Honda Pilot that was grey in color.

The face of road rage

Government Shutdown

The vast majority of Americans will feel little or no effect from the looming government shutdown.  Many of these people will have little to no interest in the shutdown and I would have been in that boat less than a year ago.  I am in the first year of a government job and this possible shutdown could have devastating consequences to my family.  After selling my house and moving my family across the country we were left with very little cushion to weather any financial storms.  I looked at it as a risk that we had to take.  Part of the tradeoff of the lower pay from working for the government was the job security.  Now I don't even have that.  This situation is very stressful to me, my family, and most of my coworkers. 

One of the hardest parts of the looming shutdown has been the silence from the government about what to expect.  My bosses are as much in the dark as I am.  I have no idea if I'm deemed essential, however, I suspect that I am not.  I'm not even sure how I'm supposed to know if I should come to work on Monday.  I assume that the news would be an appropriate source, but it would be nice to have a procedure in place. 

This whole process has been rather enlightening about the whole political process.  During the week of President's Day Congress decided to take the whole week off even though the continuing resolution was set to expire at the end of that week.  They extended the CR, but the lack of aggressively tackling this budget issue was disheartening.  We are half way through the fiscal year and there is no budget.  This is Congress' main duty.  If I were 6 months late on a task I probably would be let go from my job.  The other part that is disheartening is the lack of caring that many in Congress seem to have for the Federal employee.  There are Congressmen out there calling for a shutdown who could care less how many people they financially ruin in the process.  For example, here is a quote from the Washington Post:

“If liberals in the Senate would rather play political games and force a government shutdown, instead of accepting a modest down payment on fiscal discipline and reform, I say, ‘Shut it down!’ ” yelled Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) at a tea party rally at the Capitol.

I'm sorry, but the time for this hardline response was 6 months ago.  It's time to compromise.  Again, you're playing chicken with other people's lives.  I don't understand why Federal employees are being vilified and blamed for the deficit.  I'm pretty sure that Joe Federal employee making $40k a year is really the problem.  I'm sure the deficit has nothing to do with bailing out huge banks so their executives can take golden parachutes and still not loan small businesses and average Americans money.

Enough with the pissing match.

Fan of the game

I subscribe to mlb.tv and the package I bought requires me to watch only the home team's broadcast.  I have been forced to watch Oakland A's broadcasters and Texas Rangers broadcasters so far this season.

During the Rangers game tonight they handed out a fan of the game award to a young couple attending the game.  The reporter said that they were getting married at the ballpark the next morning and asked the man if he was excited for tomorrow.  Without missing a beat the guy said, "This is going to be the worst day of my life."  The reporter said "OK" and then asked the girl about why she chose the ballpark to get married at.  She said "This is my first time at the ballpark, but we're really big sports fans..."  then the guy interrupts and points at three guys standing next to his fiance and yells "these are my groomsmen."  He then leans over her to high five all of them.  The sideline reporter hands the girl their fan of the game prize which was a couple of tshirts and they cut back to the game.  The announcers said nothing.  It was awesome and sad.  I really hate to say this, but that marriage will not last.

Also, the Rangers are really good again this year.

Modern Day Simpson's Softball Team

Jonah Keri had a great question in his Fangraphs' chat today about what his modern day Simpson's softball team would be.  His list is in this tweet:

This (Homer at the Bat) is one of my favorite Simpson's episodes of all time.  (From wikipedia) Mr. Burns tasked Mr. Smithers to get ringers for a softball game between his power plant and a rival power plant in Shelbyville.  The players he requests are  Honus Wagner, Cap Anson, Mordecai Brown, Gabby Street, Pie Traynor, Harry Hooper, Nap Lajoie, Joe Jackson, and Jim Creighton which Mr. Smithers has to tell Mr. Burns that many of these players are dead or long since retired.  Mr. Smithers gathers current major league stars that included  Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Ken Griffey, Jr., Steve Sax, Ozzie Smith, José Canseco, Don Mattingly, Darryl Strawberry and Mike Scioscia.  All of the players have some reason why they can't play except for Darryl Strawberry who plays the same position as Homer.  Darryl dominates the game, but in the last inning the Shelbyville team brings in a lefthanded pitcher.  Mr. Burns plays the platoon splits and brings in Homer (a right handed hitter) to face the pitcher with the bases loaded in a tie game.  Homer gets beaned which wins the game for Springfield. 

I think my favorite part of this team is that these aren't necessarily the best players at their positions at the time that this episode aired (1992).  Steve Sax, Don Mattingly, and Mike Scioscia were good players, but certainly not the best at their positions.  Strawberry had come off a decent season in 1991, but only played in 43 games in 1992.  With that in mind, personality factored into my list somewhat. 

SP - Roy Halladay  (Roger Clemens)

I went with Roy because he's the best right handed pitcher in baseball just like Roger Clemens was.  At the time (in my memory) Roger hadn't developed the surly personality that I think of him having now.  I remember him being a confident pitcher like I think of Halladay now.  I like the Lincecum pick because of his quirky personality, but I don't think Lincecum and Clemens have anything in common besides being major league pitchers.

C -  Jason Kendall (Mike Scioscia)

Mike Scioscia's last season was in 1992.  I don't remember him that well since his career ended about the time I became interested in baseball, but looking at his stats he hit for little power and had decent to good on base percentage numbers.  In the episode, Scioscia just wanted to be an everyman working a 9-5 job.  This led to him getting radiation poisoning (in the show) from working too much in the nuclear power plant.  I picked Jason Kendall because he's an unexciting catcher who's career is winding down.  He never really hit for power and had a few seasons where he was able to get on base fairly well.  He's also a guy that I could see working a 9 to 5 job, but then again a lot of catchers look like 9 to 5 job kind of guys.

1B -  Ryan Howard (Don Mattingly)

Mattingly had a nice peak from 1984 to 1989, but his career was definitely winding down when the episode aired.  He is beloved by Yankee fans and might even gets votes for the hall of fame based on that love.  Ryan Howard is a guy who enjoyed a nice peak, but is declining in skill as his strikeouts increase and walks decrease.  He seems to be somewhat overrated by his fans like Mattingly was.  Mattingly missed out on the softball game because Mr. Burns kept telling him to shave his non-existant side burns.  It would be funny to ask Ryan Howard to shave his non-existent side burns. 

2B -  Luis Castillo (Steve Sax)

Baseball reference does a similarity score where they compare players who are similar to other players.  Castillo is the second player listed as Sax's most similar player.  I thought this was pretty funny as both guys had long careers, weren't very good, and played in New York.  Steve Sax had an issue where he couldn't make a throw to first base.  They called it Steve Sax Syndrome.  Luis Castillo was recently released by the Mets and the Phillies offered him a tryout in Spring Training just before the season started.  For some reason, it took him a few days to get to Phillies camp even though Mets and Phillies camps are both in Florida.  Showing up late for your last opportunity should probably be refered to as Luis Castillo Syndrome now. 

3B - Adrian Beltre (Wade Boggs)

Beltre and Boggs are totally different hitters, but Beltre's quirkiness would be awesome for the team.  Adrian Beltre does not like to have his head touched.  I think that the Simpson's writers could think of a way to incorporate that into the reason why he does not make the team.  Like maybe Luis Catillo touches Beltre's head and then points at Ryan Howard.  Beltre comes up to Howard and swings wildly and misses.  Howard throws a single punch into Beltre's nose and knocks him out while Castillo giggles close by.  Howard then knocks out Castillo.

SS - Derek Jeter (Ozzie Smith)

I'm going to go with Jeter here as I don't think there is anyone comparable to Smith in baseball today.  Jeter is as well respected.  That's where the comparison ends.  Jeter's bat is much better than Smith's and Smith's glove is much better than Jeter's.  Ozzie gets lost in a Springfield Mystery Spot while sightseeing in Springfield.  I think it would be pretty funny to see Jeter sightseeing in a crappy town.

LF - Manny Ramirez (Jose Canseco)

I agree with this pick from Mr. Keri.  Both are interesting personalities to say the least (I can't wait for the Manny autobiography to come out).  They were both very good during their careers.  Manny was better.  Both seem to have no filter on their mouth. 

CF -  Ken Griffey Jr. (Ken Griffey Jr.)

This is probably the hardest for me as Griffey is my favorite baseball player.  I'm not sure there is anyone in baseball quite like Ken Griffey Jr.  Cargo had a great season last year, but probably won't be a full-time centerfielder.  I am really at a loss to come up with anyone who plays centerfield with close to as much talent or charisma as Griffey.  I'm going with Griffey here even though he retired last year and wasn't even close to the player he was in 1992 when he retired.  It's my list so I'm going to put Griffey on it.

RF - Josh Hamilton (Darryl Strawberry)

In right field, I have Josh Hamilton.  Ok, he's a leftfielder, but the corner outfield positions aren't as important as a centerfielder.  He can play right field.  He seems like a good match for Strawberry.  Both are super talented players that had their careers derailed by drugs.  The biggest problem I see with this is that its not as fun to chant Josh as it is to chant Darryl.  That ruins one of the best jokes in the show when Bart is chanting Darryl in a negative way and a single tear is seen going down his cheek.

Players I would have liked to have had on my team: Ichiro!, King Felix, Brett Anderson, Dirk Hayhurst, and Logan Morrison

Haircut

I went to my favorite barber shop today.  They do a great job with the cut and they also give a pretty good massage.  The best part is the straight razor followed by a hot towel.

While sitting there I thought, when I go bald on top I'm going to grow a tail. How awesome would it be if I went on an audit in my suit with my bald tail?  The auditee would have to take me serious when I show up looking ridiculous.

While I was thinking about my bald tail a woman walked into the barber shop.  One of the barbers awkwardly asked the woman if there was anything she needed.  She said she wanted a haircut.  The barber said oh.......take a seat and someone will be with you.  When it was her turn she was right next to me.  The barber asked how she wanted her hair cut and the woman said she would like to see a book of hairstyles.  I almost started laughing.  The barber said "we have no book, you tell me what you want, I cut it.  I cut man, woman, anything with hair."  LOL  The woman said she wanted her hair stacked, whatever that means.  The barbers started speaking in their native language and started laughing.  This was the first time I didn't assume they were making fun of me.  I wish I could have seen the finished product of her haircut.

Rose colored, homer preview of the Seattle Mariners

It is almost as discouraging this year as it was encouraging last year to look at the preseason predictions for the Mariners.  Last year, after signing Chone Figgins, trading for Cliff Lee, and focusing on defense (the new Moneyball), the Mariners were being celebrated for how good they were going to be in the 2010 season.  I was right there with them eating it up.  I thought if this team can make the playoffs then they'll only have to pitch Felix, Cliff Lee, and Bedard and will dominate any team that faces them.  I was pretty sure that this team had our best chance at winning a World Series.  No other Mariner team had ever been this dominant at the top of the rotation.  While Felix and Lee pitched exactly how they were expected it didn't matter.  The offense flopped so badly that it didn't matter that Felix had only given up 1 run because the offense didn't score at all.  Lee's ridiculous strike out to walk ratio of something like 19:1 was totally wasted too.  It's easy to see why every single journalist and analyst has the Mariners finishing in the same place as last year.  Some people have put the Mariners on par with the terrible Pittsburgh Pirates, who have bad pitching, bad defense, and only average hitting. 

While I don't think the Mariners will win the World Series this year and they will probably not even make the playoffs I am optimistic about the upcoming season.  Almost every one of the hitters hit well below their career averages last year.  Chone Figgins changed positions and it seemed to affect his previously stellar defense and solid hitting skills.  Ichiro! saw his batting average drop to .315.  Milton Bradley had his expected meltdowns and Franklin Gutierrez regressed.  Other guys (Jose Lopez, Rob Johnson, Griffey/Sweeney, Josh Wilson, and Casey Kotchman), who were black holes, are now gone from the team.  I think Figgins and Ichiro! will bounce back, although Ichiro! is 37 so its no guarantee.  Gutierrez is having issues with his stomach, but after that is resolved I can see him having a bounce back also.  Milton is a wild card, but he is a good hitter when he's healthy.  The new guys look to be better than the black holes that they are replacing.  Jack Cust has good power and good patience at the plate.  He will be a huge improvement at DH this year.  Justin Smoak is unproven, but was a highly ranked prospect before last year.  Even if he's terrible he should be better than Kotchman was last year.  If he's bad enough the Mariners could just trade for Branyan again.  Lopez and Josh Wilson are being replaced with a combination of Adam Kennedy, Jack Wilson, Brendan Ryan, and Dustin Ackley.  Ryan and Kennedy should be improvements over Wilson and Lopez while Ackley, even if he doesn't hit for power, should still have the ability to get on base at an above average level.  This team cannot be worse than last year's offense and should be much better.

The defense will still be good this year.  Every position except maybe left field and possibly first base has an above average defensive player.  The Mariners should be one of the top defensive teams again this year.


Eric Bedard's Arm?

The starting pitching could be very good this year.  I see this part of the team as having the most volatility because of Michael Pineda and Eric Bedard.  To a lesser extent Doug Fister and Jason Vargas will have to show that they can do what they did last year.  Rookie pitchers not named Stephen Strasburg are wild cards.  Pineda has the talent, but there's no way knowing that he can consistently get Major League hitters out until he does it.  Bedard has pitched really well this spring, but has not been able to stay healthy as a Mariner.  Because of the volatility the Mariners will probably see a lot of starts from the AAA pitchers like Luke French.  Even though the rotation is the Mariners biggest strength I believe that it could be the one part of the team that leads to the team not having a winning record this year.  If Bedard and Pineda can pitch well and stay healthy this team could be very good otherwise it may be a long season again. 

I feel like the relief pitchers of a team are very hard to predict.  Every year, it seems, that someone comes out of nowhere and is awesome or someone that was previously counted on for years hits a wall and suddenly is not productive anymore.  This is true of any portion of a team, but I feel that it is more extreme with the bullpen.  David Aardsma wasn't good enough for the Giants, White Sox, Cubs and Red Sox and then the Mariners pick him up and he suddenly is the team's very effective closer.  I'm very excited for Tom Wilhelmsen to pitch this year.  If you haven't heard his story it's definitely worth checking out.  Josh Lueke is an interesting arm that will be playing for the first time at the Major League level too.  I advise you not to check out his past history.  One thing that bullpen will have that it didn't have last year is a lefty, Aaron Laffey.  With Aardsma returning soon and League holding down the closer role I could see this bullpen being a strength of the team, however, with the rookies and volatility of relief pitcher performance from year to year it could be a weakness.  Hopefully the Mariners starting pitching will be good enough that the bullpen will not have to work a ton of innings this year. 

The talent on this team is better than the national analysts and journalists think.  I wonder if they are so hateful of the Mariners because of how badly the team made them look last year when many of them were predicting great things for the team.  I think this is an 80 win team which is about 10 wins better than almost anyone else is predicting.  Don't let me down Mariners or I might have some of the same bitterness toward them as the "experts" do this year.

Last game of the year always ends in loss

If you make the tournament, which Gonzaga has done for the last 13 years, unless you win it all your season will always end in a loss.  Every year the last taste in my mouth has been defeat.  It sucks.  I am so frustrated and disappointed.  I know it was a great season and a lot of teams would love to be in Gonzaga's position, but that doesn't make me feel any better.  Losing by 20 points makes it feel a lot worse especially to a team like BYU, a team that will be joining our conference next year. 

After a big loss like that I don't want to go on the internet.  I don't want to talk to friends.  I don't want to look at Facebook.  I ignore text messages.  I imagine that a championship will not feel as good as losing feels bad, but I hope it does.  I wish I didn't care so much, but it's so hard for me not too. 

Well, there's always next year.  I hear we have some stud recruits coming in.

Gonzaga 86 SJU 71

Great win, enough said.

Trading Felix is a terrible idea

Ken Rosenthal suggested that Jack Zduriencik trade Felix Hernandez.  He suggests the Yankees give up Jesus Montero, Ivan Nova, Manny Banuelos or Dellin Betances, and two of Hector Noesi, Eduardo Nunez, or David Adams.  Jesus Montero, Ivan Nova, and Manny Banuelos have received a ridiculous amount of hype which is typical or Yankees prospects.  The Yankees are great at making their prospects appear to be the best in baseball.  For all I know Montero will end up being Rob Johnson and Nova and Banuelos will be the next Ian Snell.  The only way the Mariners should do this trade is if they were to get young, proven Major leaguers in return and the Yankees would be stupid to do that.  The guys I have in mind are Robinson Cano and Phil Hughes and I would still want one more player at least to part with Felix.  There is no way the Yankees would give that much up for the King, but that's what it should take.

King Felix is a once in a lifetime talent.  He's the kind of guy the Mariners used to have in Randy Johnson only he's just as dominant at the age of 24.  He won the Cy Young last year and was the second best pitcher in the American League the year before that.  He has been relatively healthy and there's no reason to think he will get seriously hurt in the future.  Every team would love to have a Felix on their team.  He's the kind of pitcher that can win a 7 game series for you by dominating 3 of the games.  You only have to come up with 1 win in the other 4 games when you have Felix.

The Mariners are not that far from being a contending team again.  They had a tough year last year, but almost every single position player underperformed.  If the guys in the field play to their previous levels, which is likely, they will improve a lot over last season.  Add to that the new guys coming in and it should be a good team this year and really good the year after when they address weaknesses that emerge throughout the year.  They will have Ackley, Smoak, Nick Franklin (the following year) and Chone Figgins in the infield.  The starting rotations will be Felix, Bedard, Pineda, Vargas, and Fister.  The outfield is Franklin Gutierrez, Ichiro, and a black hole in left field.  Left field should be one of the easiest positions to address as it is one that is not dependent upon having a plus fielder.  The Mariners would be shooting themselves in the foot by trading Felix away from a team that is almost ready to contend.

Hopefully Jack Z doesn't listen to sportswriters and keeps Felix where he belongs, at the top of the Mariners rotation until the day he retires.