You can find my "objective" analysis of the Betancourt trade at Driveline Mechanics (it also covers the Francoeur-Church trade, which is actually probably even awesomer). At Driveline, I pretend to...
Know thine enemy. This is new Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik. The face of Beelzebul himself. He knoweth not the redeeming power of the 32 year old "live arm." He doth consorteth with the demons that dwell is the valley of the shadow of their mothers' basements. Geoff Baker reports: "One new development with the Mariners that kind of got lost in the crazed aftermath of that 12-player J.J. Putz trade is that Seattle will no longer use an advance scout for games. This role is instead being transfered to the team's new department of statistical analysis. The idea is that the team will receive video of their opponents and have workers in the new department break down each pitch from a statistical viewpoint. They can grade the break on curve balls, tendencies to throw certain pitches in certain situations, figure out what hitters like to swing at, that sort of thing."
