Jamie Mottram's Sports Blog - www.misterirrelevant.com

Flying under the radar of an MLB offseason of fiscal irresponsibility -- $100+ million contracts for Alfonso Soriano, Vernon Wells and Carlos Lee and $50+ million for Aramis Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Gil Meche, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Gary Matthews Jr. -- comes one of the most ill-advised deals you're ever going to see: Seattle sends OF Chris Snelling and RP Emiliano Fruto to Washington for 2B/DH Jose Vidro and $4 million. 

So the Nats get young, inexpensive talent that will play right away and perhaps for years to come, and the M's get an ailing, overpriced veteran and the obligation to pay him $12 million over the next two years. Here's what U.S.S. Mariner has to say (via Baseball Musings):

This move hurts the team. More than just next season: Snelling and Fruto were both the kind of players who could be parts of the next Mariner championship team. Snelling in particular could be one of the best hitters on any team (if he stays healthy, of course), and he’s under team control for years for very little money. Jose Vidro’s a declining, increasingly immobile player on the wrong side of his peak who’ll be paid an immense amount of money. Vidro will not help the M’s win a pennant. If it comes to be, this will be one of the worst trades the team’s ever made, even if Snelling never plays another game and Fruto doesn’t throw another strike.

This is ridiculous garbage.

Ouch. And here is but a small sampling of the 200+ comments on the U.S.S. Mariner post:

Pack it up. Throw out the tarp..let’s bring the bulldozers in here and turn this place into a parking lot...

I feel like Lindbergh upon hearing the news of Pearl Harbor...

What a garbage ****bag of a piece of *** ****ing **** of a team this is. I’ll bet we lose 100 games at least two of the next five seasons...

I feel great sadness. Rooting for a sports team is inherently a frivolous emotional investment. We do it knowing that it won’t,in the end, really matter in our lives. We do, however, want to have hope in something. We want to anticipate the beginning of next season. We want to dream of greater glory to come. Bill Bavasi has become the destroyer of hope. He mocks our dreams and leaves us with bitter disappointment.

For much happier reactions from Nats fans such as myself, just follow the links, the titles of which really say it all...

Vidro Traded! JimBo's a Genius! World Peace Declared! [Banks of the Anacostia]
Jimbo, the Miracle Worker [Capitol Punishment]
God Bless the Stupid [Oleanders and Morning Glories]

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