FanHouse JeffClement

Update: The Mariners have obtained shortstop Jack Wilson and right-hander Ian Snell from the Pirates for infielder Ronny Cedeno, Jeff Clement and three other minor-leaguers.

The move indicates Seattle is not in "sell" mode, which was indicated Tuesday as FanHouse reported the M's planned to hold on to Jarrod Washburn.

Wilson, 31, is an excellent defender who was batting .267 with four homers and 31 RBI. He is eligible for free agency after this season unless Seattle picks up an $8.4 million option.

Snell, 27, was demoted to Triple-A after going 2-8 with a 5.36 ERA for Pittsburgh. In six minor-league starts, he is 2-2 with a 0.96 ERA and 47 strikeouts in 37 1/3 innings. He is signed through next year ($10.25 million) with a team options for 2011-12.

Mariners prospect Jeff Clement is headed to the Pirates, according to a major league source. The source did not know whom Seattle would receive in return but said there were other M's minor-leaguers involved.

Clement was pulled from his Triple-A game on Tuesday night.

It could be a deal for a pitcher (Zach Duke?) or part of a three-team trade. Also, the M's could use a shortstop, and Pittsburgh has been looking into trading middle infielders Freddy Sanchez and Jack Wilson.

Clement, 25, is a left-handed hitter whose defense at catcher is suspect and has had trouble against lefty pitchers. But he was the third overall pick in the 2005 draft.

Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

The days where boos rained down upon Kosuke Fukudome seem like a distant memory.

Through nine games on the new season, the formerly-embattled center fielder is batting .375 with three homers, eight RBI, six runs and a steal for good measure. Compare that to his rookie campaign, where he only managed 10 big knocks in 501 at-bats. Should we believe in this new and improved Fukudome, or is it only a matter of time before fans are ripping him to shreds again?

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
The Florida Marlins already have a three-game lead in the NL East. Yesterday's 6-2 victory over the Braves finished off Florida's first-ever sweep of a series longer than two games in Atlanta.

The Marlins' 8-1 start matches the team's best, set in 1997 and tied in 2004. Since the three-tiered playoff system began in 1995, 10 teams have started 8-1 or better and only three missed the playoffs (2002 Indians, 2003 Royals and those 2004 Marlins).

Dan Haren has been awful this spring. Adam Jones is raking, as is Chris Shelton. Michael Bourn has been a completely worthless hitter. Of the above players, two have stat-lines that matter, and two have ones that don't.

You see, judging spring training stat-lines in fantasy baseball can be helpful, but you don't want to get too caught up in it. After all, the games are meaningless. Most established veterans are just going through the motions in attempt to get their body ready for the real season. For them, the stat-lines are meaningless. Thus, I don't care that Haren has sucked thus far. I'd still draft him with confidence.

Let's take a deeper look at a when they matter, when they don't, and why.

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the...
Team who someone predicted would win the World Series last year. Seriously. When you stop laughing, you can check out the link (he's the top one listed -- though when you see his other atrocious picks you won't be surprised). Was I any better? Glad you asked. I actually took Mr. Downey to task before Opening Day. You can check the rest of my stuff if you wish, as there were some misses in there.

Anyway, it's safe to say expectations are a slight bit lower heading into '08.

Jeff Clement's first stint at the big league level did not pan out quite so well. To say that he struggled -- batting .167 with 0HR, seven walks and 20 strikeouts in 48 at bats -- would be an understatement. But as soon as he got demoted to the minors, he started ripping the cover off the ball. Again.

Hence, the Mariners have decided to call Clement back to the bigs. He hasn't played in the majors since returning yet, but he should strap back on the padding and/or take a trip to the outfield soon.

He has been playing at AAA-Tacoma though, absolutely raking the ball -- nine homers, another nine doubles, getting on base at a .375+ club and only 17 strikeouts in May and June combined -- since returning. Which would explain why the M's didn't mind bringing him back up (well, that and their MLB worst record).

Now, Clement is going to be catcher eligible for fantasy purposes, but he might not always play there, giving him the potential to be a half-season/poor man's Josh Willingham from 2006.

Is he a must add in every fantasy league? Um, no. Smaller leagues don't want to burn waiver claims or take the risk that he will do what he did last time. But if you have a 12 team league (or bigger) or use two catchers, I think I'm grabbing him for the upside. Right now, the internet related buzz says to hold off on grabbing him, but if you don't beat the buzz, you end up continuing to play Jesus Flores.

The downside is there (see his first promotion) but the power from that spot, especially if you're in a keeper league, is too strong to ignore.

While Monday was already a great day of change in Seattle with the deserved firing of general manager Bill Bavasi, it wasn't the only thing that changed with the Mariners yesterday. For the first time since August 19th, 2006, Ichiro Suzuki started a game in right field.

Right field was where Ichiro spent his first five years in Seattle, and after the team sent Wladimir Balentien back down to Tacoma in favor of Jeff Clement, there was an opening in right and John McLaren says he'd been thinking about making the move for a month or so. Still, this may not be the last move that Ichiro makes this season, as McLaren also said he's toying with the idea of dropping him out of the lead-off spot in the Mariners lineup.

McLaren said he's also spoken to Ichiro about a move out of the leadoff spot in hopes of jump-starting an offense that ranks last in the American League in runs scored and second-to-last in team batting average.

Such a move does not appear imminent, however, because McLaren said there is currently no other obvious candidate to hit leadoff.

"Ichiro is on board with anything we want to do to help the club, and I think most of these guys are from the same school in that clubhouse," McLaren said.

As Mr. Watson told you yesterday, the Seattle Mariners finally went ahead and did what we'd all been waiting for them to do for a few weeks now: they fired general manager Bill Bavasi. In other words, Monday was probably the best day that Seattle sports fans have had in a while, and a cause for celebration.

With the pending move of the Sonics, and the Mariners struggles this season, there hasn't been much to cheer about in the Emerald City lately. Still, while there's some debate in New York about the Mets firing Willie Randolph (was it deserved? did they go about it the right way? etc.), I don't think there's much debate amongst Mariners fans about how they feel for this move. If they're upset about anything, it's probably that Bavasi was the only one to go and that the team can't fire Richie Sexson.

As Watson mentioned in his post yesterday, Bavasi's tenure in Seattle is not one littered with success. He gave questionable contracts to Sexson, Carlos Silva, and Adrian Beltre (though I think Beltre has been a good addition to the club), actually gave Jeff Weaver $8 million to suck for a season, and made trades like sending Carlos Guillen to Detroit for Ramon Santiago. Those are some devastating moves, and yet, that's only part of what Bavasi did to help bring this organization down.

Big changes went down with the Seattle Mariner starting lineup on Wednesday evening, as the M's cut Brad Wilkerson and Dan Norton (no, no seriously, this is important) while calling up Jeff Clement and Wladimir Balentien. This seems like totally irrelevant news, but with the Mariners already 4.5 games behind the Angels, it shows some sense of desperation, but also a notion to trust the farm system that the team has built up. Although it's mostly desperation.

Following Tuesday night's 7-2 win over Cleveland, Mariners manager John McLaren suggested changes were imminent.

'It was time,' he said before Wednesday night's game. 'We haven't had much going. We felt it was time to bring new blood in. I'm anxious to see these kids play.'

Clement and Balentien are both top prospects -- Baseball America ranks Clement first and Balentien fifth overall in the Mariners system -- and Wilkerson and Norton are nothing but possibly-possessing-of-upside journeymen at this point.

But before dogging this as a win-now at all costs strategy, it's worth pointing out that both guys are ready for the Show. Clement was posting .397/.535/.692 with five home runs and a 22:12 BB:K ratio in the Pacific Coast League, while Balentien, a Curacao native, was hitting .254/.329/.619 with six homers, three of which came in one game on Monday. He's also already homered in the big leagues.

Fantasy Spin: Clement is going to get full time work, combining to play DH and catcher every day. Balentien is going to start full time in right field. Both guys are fantasy worthy, especially in deep and keeper leagues. Clement is actually the more valuable prospect, simply because of his C eligibility and because Balentien might be a little closer to fellow Curacao native Andruw Jones. That's a good or bad thing depending on whether you're looking for power or average.

Mariners fans aren't used to seeing their general manager Bill Bavasi in buyer mode at the end of July, but thanks to a strong first half they find themselves in new exciting territory. The Mariners are looking to add another starting pitcher to their rotation and have been scouting a couple pitchers for a while now.

For instance, Bavasi sent Dan Evans to Boston to have him watch Javier Vasquez pitch against the Red Sox on Thursday and Jose Contreras later today. Contreras is definetely available, and Vasquez could probably be had if the right deal was offered.

He's had a few preliminary talks with other teams, and they all keep asking about the same player, Adam Jones. They can keep asking, but Bavasi isn't going to budge when it comes to Jones.

"There's the obvious one. But he's not going anywhere. There's nobody good enough available."

The reason the Mariners don't want to trade Jones is because of his potential, and the fact they plan on bringing him up and playing him in the outfield at some point this season. It doesn't mean that Seattle won't be able to pull off a deal though, because they still have other intriguing prospects in Wladimir Balentein, Ryan Feierabend, and Jeff Clement they'd be willing to part with.