Rey Sanchez Gets His Barber Back

"This was strictly a baseball decision," Seattle Mariner's CEO Howard Lincoln on the trade of Jeff Nelson to the Yankees for Armandogeddon.

It didn't take the Mariners long to trash their season. Less than a week after Nelson ripped the Mariners management for standing pat at the trade deadline, the Mariners have traded him to the arch-rival Yankees for Armando Benitez and apparently much-needed cash. Actually, the question is probably better posed by asking who acted faster, the Mariners in jettisoning Nelson for his effrontery, or the Yankees, who after a mere two and a half weeks, quickly realized what a huge mistake they made in picking up Armandogeddon to begin with and were so anxious to get rid of him, they gave the Mariners a million bucks to take him!

The Oakland A's fans must be dancing in the aisles.

Hey, didn't the Mariners learn the last time they traded Nelson to the Yankees? In 1995, they sent Jeff Nelson, Tino Martinez and Jim Mecir to the Yankees for WHO?! Oh yeah, for Russ Davis and Sterling Hitchcock, who lasted a season. Nelson and Martinez went on to help lead the Yankees to a string of World Championships while Russ Davis and Sterling Hitchcock led the Mariners to....

"It's frustrating for everybody in here, and it should be frustrating for the people who go out there and pay for tickets and pay these outrageous prices at these concession stands," Jeff Nelson said only a week before. "They deserve a winner. Seattle, I think the whole city is aching for a winner, either the Seahawks, the Sonics or the Mariners. We have an opportunity to do that, and it's just unfortunate we didn't make a move.

"We have a good team, and we're in first place by four games. You watch these other contending teams -- New York, Boston, Oakland, Chicago -- they're very good teams as well, but they want to be better. And they better themselves by going out and making these trades. It's tough to sit here year after year and watch this team not do things to better themselves."

Nelly must be happy that he won't have to watch that team self-implode in the late innings any more. He is just what the Yankees needed to shore up the season-long joke that has been their bullpen. Mariano Rivera, who has had to pitch in the last four games in a row just because the Yankees were so afraid of Armandogeddon blowing a lead, must be ecstatic despite blowing a lead last night to the lowly Texas Rangers.

"It gives us more options," Mariners manager Bob Melvin said. "Not to take anything away from Shigetoshi (Hasegawa), who has been fabulous as a closer, but we've got another guy experienced in that role."

Now that is a courageous bit of spin. In the last month, Nelson has pitched in 12 games and, in 9 2/3 innings has surrendered a whole 6 hits, didn't give up a single run and struck out 16 while walking 1. In the last month, Benitez has been traded amid much derision and scorn, by a Met team so desperate to rid themselves of Armandogeddon they traded to their hated rivals and then, within two weeks time, was able to exasperate and frighten Yankee manager Joe Torre so much he had to overwork Mariano Rivera just to get out of Benitez games alive.

Do you think it's mere coincidence that once Armando joined the Yankees, the normally invinsible Rivera blew three saves in five chances? The fact that Armandogeddon posted a 1.93 ERA in nine appearances with the Yanks is just fodder for wishful thinking. If Torre hadn't brought Mariano Rivera in so many times to save him, Benitez would have double or triple that ERA and would have blown at least three or four games all by himself. There is no Rivera in Seattle to save him.

The Mariners' Kazuhiro Sasaki has been on the disabled list with a fractured rib since June 11 but he was scheduled to join the team in Cleveland for last night's game. Given how Sasaki pitched this season prior to his injury and given Sasaki's August/September/October numbers over the last three seasons (an unimpressive 3.77 ERA and 7 blown saves in 40 chances), it seems true that the Mariners needed help but the getting Armando Benitez only means the Mariners now have two different ways to blow late inning games.

Armando Benitez is the most consistently terrible postseason closer in history. In just 28 1/3 career post-season innings, Benitez had surrendered seven home runs, a record for a relief pitcher. But the Mariners probably won't have to worry about Armando blowing any leads for them in the postseason because they've pretty much assured themselves they won't make it that far. Despite blowing their season, this trade might not be a total loss. After all, it's well known that Armandogeddon cuts a mean fade.

Actually, there may be another, perhaps even bigger loser in this mess. Note another deep failure here, since the Red Sox have a worse record than the Yankees, they could have claimed Nelson for themselves on the waiver wire, but they declined to do so. So in essence, they've sanctioned the Yankees getting rid of one of the best chances the Red Sox had to beat the Yankees (Armandogeddon pitching for the Yankees in big games) and at the same time, allowed their biggest rival to get better. Not a smart move.

But in the end, despite the protestations from Mariners management that the trade wasn't about revenge, the guy you can figure is probably happiest is Rey Sanchez, who back in May when he was with the Mess, was embroiled in controversy when he said he got a clubhouse haircut from Armando Benitez during a game. Sanchez's hair must have been in need of another trim.