Erik Bedard News

UPDATE 4:07 P.M.: The union just released the list of players that filed for free agency today.

Three more Mariners filed for free agency on Friday. Pitchers Erik Bedard and Miguel Batista, along with outfielder Endy Chavez, submitted their requests to test the market this offseason, although the Mariners retain exclusive negotiating rights with all three players until Nov.

Recent moves created five openings on the Mariners' 40-man roster and it will be interesting to see how general manager Jack Zduriencik goes about filling them.

Brewers' GM Doug Melvin has made it perfectly clear that his top priority this offseason is to upgrade a starting rotation that finished last in the National League in ERA.

After the initial shock of learning that catcher Kenji Johjima was leaving the Mariners with two years and $16 million left on his contract, the general feeling among some in the organization is that it comes as no tremendous surprise.

It's hard to watch the playoffs this year. It's not because they aren't exciting or tense.

And here's the full roster. Arizona Fall League 2001 retrospective by Geoff Young October 21, 2009 I own a few baseball books, and from time to time, I'll scour the shelves for inspiration.

Everybody used to love Chris . While the Orioles have set forth a "grow the arms, buy the bats" player development philosophy, their young rotation is in need of some experience to help steady the young arms.

Before the Seattle Mariners won their 85th game and paraded around Safeco Field with a salute to Ken Griffey Jr.

They were a rag-tag bunch, the Seattle Mariners of 2009 - a team that was constantly in transition, perpetually fragile and featuring the worst offense in the American League.

A quarter century of running the Mariners still left Chuck Armstrong unprepared for his darkest hour.

Ken Griffey Jr. and Franklin Gutierrez tip their caps during a game against the Yankees earlier this season.

If it's September, left-hander Ryan Rowland-Smith must be on a roll. The pride of Newcastle, Australia, makes his next-to-last start of the regular season on Sunday afternoon in the Mariners' series finale against the Blue Jays, gunning for his sixth quality start in his past seven outings.

The conquest for "an ace" has lead many teams astray. Recent history gives us the 2008 Mariners as a team that ignored wounds elsewhere on the roster in favor of shipping an assortment of young talent to another club for a marketable frontline pitcher.

Felix Hernandez won't help the Seattle Mariners reach the playoffs, but he may still help himself to a major postseason award.

This little nugget about Felix Hernandez caught my eye: "Felix will be an affordable, young, dynamic budding superstar of a pitcher in 2010.

I keep hearing rumors that the Mariners are getting trade offers for Felix Hernandez.

The question I pose today is this: Why should Mariners' fans feel more optimistic about their team's future than they did at this time two years ago? Or, in fact, should they? In 2007, after 140 games, the Mariners stood 74-66, second in the AL West, nine games behind the Angels.

A federal appellate judge has ordered the preservation of all evidence that allegedly shows 104 Major League Baseball players tested positive for steroids in 2003.

Never fails, does it? Write about a guy one day not catching as much as he used to, the next thing you know, he's getting the bulk of the assignments.