First day of spring training, wheeeee
Position players showed up. Speeches were made.
Carl Everett, in the PI today:
“What I saw here last year was a team that hoped to win,” Everett said as position players reported to the Mariners camp. “It wasn’t a team that went out to beat you every day.
“The talent on the field offensively here was better than the team in Chicago. But with the White Sox, we knew how to beat you.”
Hickey also flogs the “team didn’t have a leader” line, but I’ll skip quoting any of that in favor of this:
Former No. 1 draft pick Adam Jones is being converted into an outfielder, and he’s expected to be ready to go in a year. If he is, he could slip into the lineup in left field and Raul Ibanez, who was the DH early last season, could move back into that role.
Left field? Also, Ibanez’s contract is up after this year, so he’s likely to move back into the role of “free agent”.
In the Seattle Times, Finnigan writes about Everett as having a reputation for saying controversial and includes the comparison “Like others known to be offbeat” which is almost an invitation to make your own joke. Especially when paired with:
Instead, he signs more for fans than most pro athletes during training camp because, he explains, it gets too busy during the season.
“And I gravitate toward kids rather than adults,” he added. “It’s a kid game, and they are the future.”
Yup.
Comments
28 Responses to “First day of spring training, wheeeee”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
There was also an AP piece that ran in the Spokane paper today about what a nice guy Everett was. Of course it made little to no mention of his *on*field contributions…
This is just me, and I know I’m crazy, but:
Petagine @ 350K > Everett @ $3.5 mil
Maybe we’ll get luck and hell survive until July without being DFAed and we could get a gr. C prospect. (Yippie)
Jurrasic Carl believes that the children are our future. He just wants to teach them well and let them lead the way. If he could somehow show them all the beauty they possess inside it would give them a sense of pride to make it easier to let their laughter remind us how we used to be! Go Carl, GO!
I wonder why the Mariners invite guys like Petagine to camp. It really seems like they have their descisions made and unless he hits .600 with a 1.200 slugging percentage there’s no way he’s making the team.
I just hope this isn’t the last time all year we hear about Piniero freezing hitters with his slider.
What, like 3 for 5 with a homerun?
Petagine @ 350K > Everett @ $3.5 mil
And, as I said at the time, Lawton @ $500K > Everett @ $3.5M.
#5, agreed. That’s 500K for talent, $3m for personality.
Hey, personality goes along way…
As an M’s fan living in Boston during Carl Everett’s tenure there, I would alway rag on my Red Sox friends when they would half heartedly defend Carl after he’d do or say something stupid and then not perform on the field – so much for that. So far I’ve received about 20 emails that start our like, “hahaha, man you guys are bleeped…” “Crazy” Carl had about three good months where he hit and was thought of as a “nice guy” that was “great around the clubhouse”, then he stopped hitting very well and all references to the nice clubhouse guy went out the window. With the lack of a strong clubhouse leader and a soft media this almost seems like a perfect storm for the classic “crazy” Carl meltdown right about June 25th. Why do they do this to us…?
Well we’d have to be talkin’ about one charmin’ left fielder. Carl would have to be ten times more charmin’ than that Arnold on Green Acres, you know what I’m sayin’?
Wait, who went 3 for 5 with a dinger?
I think it’s the Ms PR machine at work. Siging Everett was one of their BIG moves in the offseason, and one that (judging by the form letter I got back from them) they are very defensive about. So hey, when the reporters come around, I think the Ms PR machine is doing what it can to make sure Everett gets interview time, and a lot of good free press to try and counteract the baggage he comes with (and which we will no doubt see, as #7 says, once anybody starts questioning his on field contributions).
Of course, the press here in Seattle isn’t quite like the press in Boston. It takes a LONG time for Seattle press to hold anybody accountable for lousy performance of any kind (inside or outside of sports).
“I wonder why the Mariners invite guys like Petagine to camp.”
Insurance. Someone could get hurt, and Petagine might wind up being part of the backup plan. And depending on whether he signed to a minor league contract or not, they might just be letting him get in some work before he heads to the minors to wait around for someone to get hurt.
fwiw, it isn’t just the Mariners who invite a guy like Petagine to camp. It also isn’t just the Seattle media who cluster to the story of the day, needing no encouragment from management. In Seattle, it was Carl’s first day in camp. In NY, it was Beltran (with Boone & his new do the sidebar) In SF it was All Barry, All The Time.
#8, It could be worse, we could have signed Jose Lima to fill our personality quota.
#8 is it too late to put that as his player comment in BP 2006?
There was a thread a couple months back (can’t find it on the search) where a couple of us joked about the predictable spring training articles that would be written. I wish I could find the list, because it seems most of them came true in the first week:
1. Everett = misunderstood winner? Check.
2. Chaves = savior of pitching staff? Check.
3. Struggling Player X in tremendous shape? Check. (Beltre, Pineiro)
4. Willie love? Check.
5. Johjima making seamless transition? Check.
6. Washburn = winner with intangibles? Check.
7. Moyer doing things in the community? Check (on Hickey’s blog)
Still to come:
8. Pentland = savior of all hitters (w/ 18 references to fixing Sosa)
9. More Willie love
10. Meche ready to realize potential
11. Guardado = prankster
12. Edgar is doing stuff somewhere
It must be nice to write your Editorial Calendar two months in advance of Spring Training. They could write the articles in December and just leave placeholders for player quotes once they get to Peoria.
You can cross off #10
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=mlb&id=2337838
If nothing else, Petagine can be a very valuable part of making sure that Peoria has a successful season. I’m a big supporter of the idea (promoted by Billy Beane among others) that it’s good to take the time to make sure that your minor league teams are successful, winning teams. You shouldn’t stock them with veterans at the cost of developing prospects, of course. But if you can do so without blocking anybody deserving development time, your younger players will have the opportunity to learn and grow in a winning atmosphere. I believe, with no evidence at all, that this can be especially helpful for young pitchers, who can do their thing and experiement and focus on learning to pitch without having to worry quite so much about losing the game with every pitch.
At 350k, Petagine, if he’s not taking development time from an authentic prospect, is well worth the price for the wins he’ll add to Tacoma.
And, in the “drastic understatement” category, from today’s Oregonian:
“Just looking at the team from the outside, playing against it, I think we need a little more aggression,” said Everett, a switch-hitter who had 23 home runs in 135 games for Chicago last season. “I have that.”
Carl Everett: Sodo Mofo
Former No. 1 draft pick Adam Jones is being converted into an outfielder, and he’s expected to be ready to go in a year. If he is, he could slip into the lineup in left field and Raul Ibanez, who was the DH early last season, could move back into that role.
Perhaps they meant “this” year. While they’re saying he’s a year away, that could also mean they take it that it is possible that he could move into left field THIS year. I’m not saying I agree, just saying that might have been what the writer meant.
Of course, he could also be an utter buffoon.
Thanks 2, 6 and 8 for covering my daily needs in pop-culture references. Now, can I have a foot massage, please…
RE: #15 … don’t forget the sidebar musings about Junior being traded back to Seattle.
Here’s a head scratcher. Apparently, spring training is where players work out the kinks and managers get the Wild Yirkey out of their systems:
*********According to the Seattle Times, the Mariners are leaning toward batting Adrian Beltre third, Raul Ibanez fourth, Richie Sexson fifth and Carl Everett sixth.*****************
Yirkey?
i don’t see why Hargove doesn’t go:
ichiro
beltre
raul
sexy
everett
johjima
reed
if he wants the l-r-l so much. i don’t think we’re going to see another 48 from beltre this year, so see how he does at #2.
And havng also lived in Boston during the Jurassic Carl days, I cannot believe Bavasi signed him over Burnitz. Yeah, Jeromy k’s a ton, but he also plays a fine OF and is a great teammate. Ugh.
I don’t know about slipping Adam Jones into left, but next year I don’t see how it would be out of the question to have him in CF and Reed in LF depending on Reeds defense in CF (Tell me about his +20 runs at CF come october, then I’ll listen). That should give us the great defense we need in Left, and if Reed is hitting, then it could be a very good thing for our pitching staff.
#24: *wild turkey* 😛
I will be utterly charmed to be wrong, but this Mariners team looks to not only lose a lot of games, and in a very, very dull manner, but to forcing me to receive ridiculous comments about the reasons why (Hargrove – who I have no faith in as a manager at all any longer, win or lose) or the idiocies – is there another way of describing the general level of is interviews? – of C. Everett, just to collect news on the Mariners I enjoy following (several).
Fortunately, NPB looks to be exciting, even for my formerly cellar-shackled teams.