Department of Baseball Research (!!!)

Apparently, at the M's season ticket holder luncheon today, Jack Z. announced that he is forming the Mariners' "Department of Baseball Research", a collection of sabermetricians to oversee decisions at every level of the organization. This is absolutely outstanding news. As I mentioned in my previous post, analysis is the M's glaring weakness, and this is the best indicator so far that Zduriencik gets it, and that he can be the man to turn us around.

Lookout Landing has a more general report on the luncheon that also seems very positive.

After the firing of former scouting director Bob Fontaine, I was all but resolved to three more years of Bavasi-style head-banging. Since then Big Z. has retained Bob Engle, our excellent international scouting director; fired Benny Looper, who oversaw a player development program that recklessly rushed its players, and turned every player into a hacktastic ground ball machine; and promised to bring our evaluation department into the 21st century. The weather's getting drearier, but the Mariners' outlook is getting brighter.

When was the last time it felt good to be an M's fan? (Oh yeah, Felix's grand slam. That was awesome!)

Halloween Costumes

For the uninitiated, we are Hellga and Hulk Hogan, fan-favorite and host (respectively) of American Gladiators!

Thanks to Todd for the picture. More pictures of our rockin' Halloween party can be found on Todd's site here, where you can see Link, Sarah Palin, Cory Doctorow, some guy from Fraggle Rock, and more!