Melvin on Melvin
Pulling a new thread from eponymous coward’s comment:
As ever, Melvin was quick, affable, yet guarded in his comments, which was smart and sensible.
“You learn things in any job,†he said. “I’m not going to go into those things. I hadn’t managed before. There’s a lot of things I didn’t know then that I do now.â€Â
While Melvin never shied from his task with the Mariners, he had been thrown into a tougher situation than anyone realized, a rookie manager with a team largely comprised of experienced players.
After acknowledging he prefers the National League game, he was specific in one area, recalling that in 2003 Seattle had put together a good bench.
“In the National League you use those guys for substitutions, pinch-hitting. But we weren’t able to use it enough in the American League to keep them ready.â€Â
Anyone want to guess what Mariner pinch hitters in 2003 with that good bench?
Try .154, with an OPS of .519. Yeah, awesome bench, alright.
Oh, wait, you mean to tell me Greg Colbrunn would have been the only bench player on that team to have an OPS over .700 (and he spent most of the year on the DL)?
And blaming the DH for not being able to get action for your bench is, well, just showing that when your strategy crutch is taken away (the option to PH for the pitcher) you don’t have the flexibility to think differently. I’ve never seen LaRussa, Anderson or Piniella say they couldn’t use their bench when they managed in the AL… but if you are a strictly by tne book sheep^H^H^H^H^H^Hmanager, I could understand why you’d be confused when part of the book is taken away.
Comments
7 Responses to “Melvin on Melvin”
Excellent. I didn’t realize ^H jokes still existed on the internet.
Colbrunn, to me, wasn’t getting enough use when he was healthy, either, even though he was hitting. Good bench, indeed.
Melvin was bad. He has no clue how to use a bench/roster. What’s new.
“Luckily” for Arizona, having a manager who costs them two or three games won’t make a difference in the standings.
I always wonder about teams (any team, any sport) who are so anxious to hire the guy another team just decided wasn’t competent enough to manage/coach. Maybe the Diamondbacks will want Gil and Gutierrez when we cut them.
Who’s Evan? 😉
Thanks for the thread. Of course, the other side to this (apart from Melvin showing both cluelessness and no memory) is Finnigan, who FREAKING COVERED THE 2003 MARINERS AS THE BEAT WRITER let Melvin get away with saying this. I knew the instant I read that it was a pile of horse manure. So is Finnigan so used to presenting any statements officially made by a Mariner team official as gospel truth that he forgot Melvin doesn’t work for them any more? Or was he drinking gin and tonics all year in the press box instead of noticing the team had a crappy bench?
This is the sort of lazy reporting (where complete crap is presented as fact because the writer won’t even make a trivial effort to call someone on BS) that just drives me nuts, and makes me glad there’s a blogosphere, where people will actually fact check someone’s ass. Once again, Finnigan shows he’s a tool…
#2 – You mean like how the Mariners hired Mike Hargrove?
Hargrove didn’t *just* get let go by Baltimore.
I’m not saying he’s right, but wasn’t Melvin saying the 2003 team had good talent on the bench but they didn’t perform because he didn’t get them into games enough to keep them sharp?
In other words I understood him to be taking the blame for their bad numbers because he wasn’t familiar with AL rules.
I think that’s a copout for bad decision-making but you should at least respect him for taking the blame — even if it’s for the wrong reason.
^H jokes are still very popular over on Slashdot…