FanHouse JackZduriencik

Earlier this week it was reported that former World Series MVP and Seattle Mariners bullpen coach John Wetteland had been taken to a hospital with an undisclosed "mental issue." Some reports said it was an issue related to suicide, some where saying it was a domestic dispute that got out of hand... I've been refreshing my Twitter page for the last four days in the hopes of getting the scoop, but all I've learned so far is that Lady Gaga is "fug," Bill Belichick has no idea how to coach professional football, and that one of my friends is RT: about to eat dinner.

Regardless, the Mariners are Serious Business™ in the world of The Dugout, so I wanted to skip the facts and get straight to anonymously slandering people. Tonight's Dugout is after the jump.

SEATTLE -- Given that the Mariners have struggled mightily offensively, the signing of No. 2 pick Dustin Ackley serves as a serious momentum boost for an organization looking to escape a series of shaky moves under the Bill Bavasi tenure.

For example, Bavasi traded Adam Jones and George Sherill for Erik Bedard, and he selected Cal's Brandon Morrow over the University of Washington's Tim Lincecum in the 2006 draft. Morrow is in the minors while Lincecum is one of the top starting pitchers in the major leagues.

So the Mariners needed this. They needed to sign the best hitter in college baseball. Ackley hit .422 with 22 home runs and 73 RBI in 66 games for the University of North Carolina. Signing him went down to the final minutes, with general manager Jack Zduriencik revealing that the deal was agreed upon at 8:45 PM PT, about 15 minutes before the deadline.

According to Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times, there was a trade in the works which would have been the biggest deadline deal in recent memory. It was no secret the Red Sox were interested in Adrian Gonzalez, and there were some rumors circulating that they also coveted Felix Hernandez. They ended up trading for Victor Martinez, but that was -- according to Baker -- only because a three-team blockbuster deal was vetoed by Seattle Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik.

The proposed deal? The Red Sox would have received King Felix by bringing in the Padres as a third team. The Mariners would have received Gonzalez, Clay Buchholz and two other prospects from the Red Sox. The Padres would have gotten back upwards of four top-notch prospects along with Brandon Morrow.

MLB Power Rankings: Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.

The second half of the season is in full swing and lo and behold if capitalism hasn't reared it's ugly head once again. Billy Beane was spun off Matt Holliday (as expected of course) and the eleventy billion dollar payroll machine that is the New York Yankees are in first place in the AL East. (Of course, that can't explain why the Mets are horrible but that's a whole other thing.)

Will the Yankees' surge be enough to propel them into the critically important No. 1 slot of the FanHouse MLB Power Rankings? Find out after the jump.

Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.

When Willy Aybar's home run Thursday in Cleveland was upheld by a video review, it marked the sixth time in six days umpires made use of baseball's instant-replay rule.

So the natural question to ask Jimmie Lee Solomon, Major League Baseball's executive vice president of baseball operations, is why the flurry of trips to the secret chamber to watch replays? Are the umps more willing to consult the tape than in the past?

"These things come in bunches," Solomon told FanHouse.

Apparently, the reason the Padres have won all these games the first two weeks of the season is that they needed the postgame handshakes.

To introduce themselves to one another.

Adrian Beltre wanted to play for his home country, the Dominican Republic, in the World Baseball Classic. The third baseman is coming off two different surgeries in September -- one on his left thumb and another on his left shoulder -- but felt he was healthy enough to represent his country.

The Mariners management, however, didn't seem to agree with his assessment of health, nor do they want to take the chance he hurts something else. In fact, they didn't let him have a say in the matter.

The Mariners are prohibiting Adrian Beltre from suiting up for the Dominican Republic and participating in this year's World Baseball Classic. Beltre had already made arrangements to play, having moved out of his apartment, so general manager Jack Zduriencik has offered to let Beltre stay at his place.

For the sake of today's Dugout, Mr. Zduriencik is imagined as a bachelor, and if there's one thing I've learned from being a single twentysomething dude, it's that all single twentysomething dudes have impossibly messy apartments and reprehensible hygiene. Beltre learns this the hard way, after the jump.

Our MLB editor files dispatches from the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas in Notes From Sin City.

I've seen quite a bit of Mets general manager Omar Minaya here at the Bellagio, so I'd like to think he's reading my posts. Even if he isn't, he did respond to my suggestion that New York needs more bullpen help, by pulling off a three-way deal for closer J.J. Putz.

Minaya, along with Indians GM Mark Shapiro and Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik, made the trade official moments ago and he had a simple message for the folks in New York who keep bothering him when he goes out to get his morning bagels.

"To you Mets fans, we've addressed the bullpen by getting Mr. Putz," he said.

Indeed he has, and he's addressed a few other areas of need with this deal, further adding to the bullpen depth by acquiring Sean Green, a guy who is very tough on right-handed hitters, and filling the hole left by Endy Chavez with Jeremy Reed, who is a capable fourth outfielder.

But this deal is mostly about Putz, who, if healthy, could be an even more devastating weapon than the recently signed Francisco Rodriguez.

"To win championships, you have to have a good bullpen," said Minaya. "We had Putz and K-Rod as one and two on our list [coming into the offseason]. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine we'd have our No. 1 and No. 2 closer."

The Mariners made this "kind of a big deal" type noise recently when they announced that they were in talks with a free agent who shall not be named. It seemed logical that it might be Ken Griffey, Jr., but, well, it was not.

But who was this masked man? Why, Russell Branyan of course. You may now release all that baited breath.

Branyan played last season for the Milwaukee Brewers and missed the final month with an oblique strain and was left off Milwaukee's postseason roster. Branyan batted .250 with 12 home runs in 132 at-bats last season. He has a career .813 on-base plus slugging percentage in 11 seasons with eight teams (including Milwaukee twice).

Branyan's best seasons were 2001 (20 home runs with Cleveland) and 2002 (24 home runs splitting the season with Cleveland and Cincinnati).

Wow. How freaking exciting. Thanks for making sure to reeeeaally keep rubbing the salt in the city of Seattle's wounds, Jack Zduriencik. As Snyder noted when JZ (can we call him this?) first mentioned the mystery signing, it might be a little more defensible because it's (meaning "getting back to mediocre") going to be a long road to hoe for the new M's GM, given that the team stinks and has no farm system.

But they do have Erik Bedard. And now Russell Branyan. So there's that.