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).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.
Branyan's best seasons were 2001 (20 home runs with Cleveland) and 2002 (24 home runs splitting the season with Cleveland and Cincinnati).
But they do have Erik Bedard. And now Russell Branyan. So there's that.
