Hot Stove: 12/1/07

• Updating previous reports, the Mariners are still waiting for Japanese ace Hiroki Kuroda to make a decision. It has been reported that the Mariners have made the most aggressive offer that would lock him down for four years.

• mlbtraderumors.com reports that the Mariners have been in talks with Jeremy Affeldt's agent. Affeldt, a left-handed pitcher, used to start games for the Kansas City Royals when he came up in 2002 until mid-2004 (and then 9 games in 2006) when he was converted to a reliever. For his career, he has a career ERA of 4.74 and a record of 25-27. Last season was by far his best year on record as he went 4-3 with a 3.51 era in 75 games for the Colorado Rockies. However, those numbers could be misleading because in those 75 games, he only pitched 59 innings which means that he was probably used a lot against left-handed batters. This would make sense since his ERA against those lefty hitters last year was 3.27. When push comes to shove, I don't think that Affeldt would be a good fit for Seattle, mainly because he has had limited success as a starter in the big leagues and has only started nine games in the last three years.

• mlbtraderumors.com also points out that Bavasi doesn't seem to be content with Jose Lopez at second base and may look for other alternatives like Tadahito Iguchi, David Eckstein, and Marcus Giles. They even mentioned a possible trade with the San Francisco Giants where Richie Sexson would be shipped to San Fran in return for washed up second baseman Ray Durham. In regards to that trade, I see no logic behind replacing the up-and-coming Jose Lopez with 36-year old Ray Durham who has never hit over .300 and hit a mere .218 last year. As for signing one of the other free agent second baseman, I am completely against it. I don't understand why management has all of a suddent lost hope in Jose Lopez. He and Yunieski Betancourt are the best double play tandem in the majors and to lose that would be devastating. Sure Lopez has struggled in the second half of the season in his first two years in the bigs, but give him a break! He has already proven to everyone that he can hit, so let's atleast see how he begins the season. Oh by the way, Yung Chi Chen is waiting in the wings and many believe he would be a viable option should Lopez fall on his face.

• The Mariners have the option of offering Jose Guillen an arbitration salary. If Guillen agrees to accept what the Mariners want to pay him, he will be signed through 2008. If he rejects the arbitration offer, he will become an unrestricted free agent. The likely scenario is the latter.