By popular demand
DMZ · December 14, 2006 at 9:27 am · Filed Under Mariners
Chris Antonetti for GM bumper stickers.
Chris Antonetti for GM buttons.
Markup for us on these is $1. We gotta cover our monthly CafePress shop fees.
Chris Antonetti for GM bumper stickers.
Chris Antonetti for GM buttons.
Markup for us on these is $1. We gotta cover our monthly CafePress shop fees.
I’d so buy 15 of these if I didn’t live in New York. People would asking me what’s so bad about Brian Cashman.
Huh. Well, glad to know my worst fears weren’t realized — namely, that I’d pull up the page this morning to find a big heading reading: We can’t take this anymore — we quit. If y’all can keep it together by stumping for Chris Antonetti until better times come, then so much the best for the rest of us (including those of us who are seriously thinking about declaring, “We can’t take this anymore — we quit”).
Ugh, my coffee tastes like crap this morning. I make the coffee everyday and I did nothing different so it must be the fact that I’m drinking it out of a Mariners mug. (I’ll be conducting a double-blind taste test later with a Royals mug, a Nationals mug and a blank mug and will post the results).
If I buy a button it will be the last Mariner related thing I buy until Bavasi loses his job to either:
A. Chris Antonetti
B. The authors of USSM (GM by committee)
Or
C. This monkey.
Those are listed in order of my preference, but in reverse order of what I think the management is likely to do.
Actually, can you do smaller stickers that will fit on said mug to cover my disgrace?
How about stickers that read:
FIRE BILL BAVASI – NOW
Seems like this is a very good time to be writing letters to the local papers. I suspect the owners do pay attention, and the more they get flamed, the more they may come to their senses.
I’m down here in Arizona and I’m thinking it will be great right before spring training to have one of those.
All we have to do to settle this is to not go to any games this year and barricade Bill Bavasi’s house from the outside and take all his communication devices away. The loss of attendance will force Lincoln to fire Bavasi and barricading his house will stop him from making any other stupid moves.
5′s suggestion would get across to more people. Antonetti’s not exactly a household name even in Cleveland.
Do you think a “FIRE BAVASI” shirt would get one ejected from Safeco?
How much would a flyover of Safeco cost?
I’d buy a “FIRE BAVASI” T-shirt yesterday…
I support Deanna’s idea of a protest outside Safeco on opening day. We could easily get 100+ people together.
We need T-Shirts in the USSM Swag section. Chris Antonetti ones. Bill Bavasi ones…
This is what I like about Chris Antonetti…. And I quote
“We took our time to examine all potential alternatives, contacted every team, and tried to make the best deal we could. I think there were a lot of teams, like us, that liked his talent, but found it hard to find a spot on their major league team.”
“We took our time to examine all the alternatives. We tried to make the best deal we could.”
“We took our time and contacted every team and made the best deal we could. The timing of the year, being at the end of spring training, and the fact that he was out of options made it a little big more of a challenge.”
Now only if Bavasi and Co. would just take their damn time, I’m sure they could have gotten a whole helluva lot better return on the Soriano, and Snelling deals.
Apparently Bavasi doesn’t realize he can tell all 30 Major League teams who’s available, and put his feelers out there for what kind of return he might get.
Worst day to have my Anatomy and Physio final ever. My favorite player gets traded, and I’m expected to remember the locations and functions of the white matter of the spinal column. I can barely remember my name after last night.
I agree that a FIRE BAVASI sticker is probably more relevant, and that pretty much nobody would understand these, or even really care (I mean, how much thought, by even somewhat serious fans, goes into GM selection?).
RE: The Bumper Sticker:
“Made of durable vinyl and measuring a generous 10″ x 3″ these stickers are made for adding style to any surface.”
Any surface? Like… Bavasi’s head?
Maybe someone can hire that guy who put a pie in Bill Gates’ face to slap one of these onto Bavasi’s noggin.
I think we wouldn’t get away with a “Fire Bavasi” sticker.
I don’t know about the authors, but I really don’t want to see this become a “hate site” or a “firebavasi.com” type of blog…. screw it
FIRE BAVASI!
Hey, I’m sure this has been posted before, but I just opened a small business and don’t have time for a search. What is the best way to contact the Mariners and share a piece of my mind. I just looked on the “official” team site to no avail.
My 20 year allegiance is over until the right the ship.
…they right the ship.
Thanks!
Try the fan feedback email address.
I think it would be great to buy a couple of these bumper stickers, and then covertly put them on Bavasi’s car when he goes into the local Starbucks for a cup of joe.
Moron.
I don’t know who the heck Chris Antonetti is but I’m in. Geez, Bavasi is bad.
I am a frequent reader and rare poster. This trades killing me. I’ve kept my allegiance through moves to China, San Jose (CA), Boston, and now Columbus, Ohio. I used to like the Antonnetti campaign, but now I require more venom and action. Fire Bavasi shirts would make fine stocking fodder(great xmas spirit). I’d get one for every one in my family.
I was fine with him until today. Well, I figured he was as good as anyone the M’s mgmt might hire.
Now, I’d be happy with the moose.
9: Yeah..whats the furthest the PC police in Seattle will go to not allow us to hang up signs and wear t-shirts that show our displeasure..I bet paper bags over the head wont be allowed either
Looks like a nice FIRE BAVASI! banner towed over Safeco on opening day might be a very affordable item.
That’s actually not bad at all.
Am I the only one who keeps getting the impression that these trades are like ones sent in fantasy baseball where the sender just hopes the guy accidentally hits “accept trade”.
Well, I’m sure that mail I just sent will get basically no reaction like every other mail I’ve sent them.
They typically respond to the mail I send them, and sometimes in considerable detail.
But it usually takes them about 10 days to do it.
I usually get responses as well. They aren’t necessarily form letters either. Though they keep talking about seeing me at Safeco, after I tell them I’m not going (I would go, but I live in OH).
I just them an email as well:
So to recap . . . since the last day of June, Bavasi has dealt:
- Asdrubal Cabrera (who’s arrival excited Cleveland so much they made a series of moves to clear his path)
- Shin-Shoo Choo (who raked like mad for the Tribe)
- Eddie Guardado (a year too late)
- Jaime Moyer (for two guys who would be lucky to see AAA before they die)
- Rafael Soriano (for a #5 starter)
- Chris Snelling and Emiliano Fruto (for a player the Nats would have paid to be rid of)
In addition:
- Spent cash on pitcher Sean White, who will either get cut during Spring Training or make negative contributions while eating up a valuable spot on the 40-man roster.
- Signed the Bloomin’ Onion for another year of empty grit.
- Signed Rey Ordonez??? (http://paulkatcher.com/archives/000768.shtml)
And let’s not forget that Bavasi has forfeited four first-round picks and failed to sign a fifth during his tenure as Mariners GM. Since Bavasi arrived, the Mariners farm system has gone from perennial Top-5 status to dead last among the 30 MLB teams.
Nor should we forget the $151.5 invested in Sexson, Beltre, and Washburn, the sum of which does not take into account risk and reverse opportunity cost, which is already affecting our buying power.
Down with Bavasi!
Try the fan feedback email address.
I’m still waiting to hear back on the one I fired off last night…
Jeff Sullivan for Supreme Court? Nice!
I turned on mlb.com (D-Mat press conference with 100 million reporters in tow due next) just as the prior show was in the midst of trashing Vidro (Corey Schwartz: ‘I mean get a DH, not a guy with a history of leg injuries and a declining OPS the last five years’)
The Meche deal still wins the bad deal crown, though, in their minds.
My letter to the fan feedback address (just sent):
Dear Mariners Front Office,
I thought this team was supposed to get better in the off-season, not worse. I just don’t get it with you people.
I went to one game last year, and we lost a boring game to Oakland (remember that streak of 14 in a row we lost to the As?). I don’t think I’ll be going to any this coming year. And my TV viewership will drop precipitously, especially at the point where this team is 17-28 on June 1.
If we get Barry Zito, my anger could subside some, but I highly doubt you guys have the cojones to pull the trigger on him. Instead, you just sign a bunch of mediocre pitchers that together eclipse the salary that Zito would command. Zito is a number-one starter, and the Ms don’t see to want one of those. Felix is not the answer, at least not for this year.
This was supposed to be a make-or-break year for Bill Bavasi, Mike Hargrove, and Howard Lincoln. Well, I think they broke.
Sign me,
Disgusted in Ballard
(David Hirning)
Well, with Doyle gone, that’s one less reason to watch.
But, if you do watch, at least you don’t have to put up with Ron Fairly. That’s the best move the M’s have made in years.
Trade Speculation-
[ot]
that is Todd Coffey not Coffee.
You can’t be serious. Not that there is anything wrong with Todd Coffey . . . but Coffey? In Seattle? Is this some cheesy marketing ploy designed to offset the recent tidal wave of lame deals?
He’ll be a fan favorite…he’s local..Coffee…or Coffey..I can see the fans loving this guy
That’s got to be crap. He is young, good strike out/walk ratio, cheap, not our type.
Bavasi is someone I’d like to play fantasy baseball with. I imagine he would be THAT guy who would draft the all 90′s team here in 2006 with Sandy Alomar Jr, David Wells, Julio Franco, and Ken Griffey Jr. Then he’d fill out the roster with high picks of “can’t miss prospects” that everyone else knows ain’t going to do sh*t in the major leagues. Then he’d make those dumb ass trades that everyone wants to raise hell on because he is being taken advantage of by the first place team and helping them out.
42
My thoughts exactly….
42: we trade those away!
Yeah, if we get Coffey we’ll trade him for Julio Franco.
I wonder how gritty this Coffey is?
he’s as fine as ‘coffey’ grounds
Supreme Court? What? I don’t want to go to law school.
Perhaps the Reds feel Hatteberg draws too many walks?
It’s more likely a trade of Adam Jones and Brussard for Jose Mesa.
#46: Well, Coffey does wield a giant red goatee, which as we all know, is Bavasi’s primary weakness.
I wonder what his VORG [value over replacement grit] is.
Hey, did anybody see this job posting for a stats stringer for the Ms? I could apply (I’m “between jobs”) but I’m not a stat-head. I know of few of you on here are… any takers? Or are you so disgusted by now that you couldn’t bear to work for the Mariners?
Link
Strangely, the position of GM was NOT posted on this job board.
53: I would love to be the guy who runs Gameday. Yeah, right.
53: In play, run-scoring play
I think im qualified.
Quick, some one tell Felix to grow a goatee.
I think Corco would do a better job than whoever runs the thing now.
Don’t know where to put this, but [ot]
I would do it, if I had the means to stay in Seattle over the summer.
I can’t imagine it requires a college degree. And I’m a baseball fan whose current job is computer support. I’d be perfect.
Except what time are your classes every day Corco?
26 – a “Fire Bavasi – Fire Lincoln” banner towed over Safeco would only $375? Count me in. Let’s take up a collection.
Here’s my email to the Mariners.
-
The Chris Snelling deal was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me in this terrible offseason. I will not attend a Mariners game, watch a Mariners broadcast, or pay for any Mariners merchandise until the current management is expelled for gross incompetence, and a new, creative, intelligent and talented management is put in. I hope that the ownership realizes that the kind of moves that have been made this offseason are money-losing propositions, and they should consider doing something innovative (or, if not innovative, at least not idiotic) to win games, so that the fanbase in a Seattle market that is already on the edge of losing its basketball team due to incompetent management, does not dry up on its baseball team, too. Consider this: it only took 10 years after going to the NBA Championship in front of a vibrant, energized fanbase, for the Sonics to have the fans completely turn on the team due to its poor and inefficient management. It can happen quickly.
If the Mariners are not going to suffer the same fate, they had better get smarter about how they run the team. They cannot take this fanbase for granted. 2011 in Safeco could just as easily look like 1981 as it could 2001, in terms of attendance. Transactions that are universally considered lopsided, and, in fact, have next to no conceivable upside (in payroll or performance), such as Rafael Soriano for Horacio Ramirez, or Ryan Snelling and Emiliano Fruto for Jose Vidro, are not the way to run a business.
I am just one of many, many formerly diehard fans – the very heart of the team’s market – who is very angry with this offseason. It’s one thing to be outbid in the free agent market. But to actively go out and make the team worse in the short and long term with obviously foolish trades is completely unacceptible. I hope that the continued loss of revenue from a once proud, now shamed fanbase, will force the ownership to take some action to right this sinking ship. Until then…
Goodbye, Mariners.
61: I could make all night games, lets just put it that way. and I’d skip class for day games.
Batista signing official, which is relatviely good news.
Ryan Snelling?
Oops, don’t know how that happened. Said Chris the first time around, too…
Perhaps I was subconsiously wishing they were trading Chris’s untalented twin brother Ryan Snelling to the Nats and not Chris, in some sort of devious trick.
I am just one of many, many formerly diehard fans – the very heart of the team’s market – who is very angry with this offseason.
Fair weather fans are the heart of the team’s market?
69: Yes. They are the ones that fill the seats whent he team is winning, and don’t when the team isn’t
Fair weather fans are the heart of the team’s market?
Ha, yes actually. The real “diehards” who pump money in whether the team wins or loses can be taken for granted by the front office.
70: I would say that it’s those fans that fill the seats when the team is losing that are truly the “heart of the market.” There would be no Seattle Mariners if that type of fan didn’t exist.
72: And it’s for those fans that the team should be trying to win. Because, sadly, they’re not enough to support the team alone. If it was only them… there would be no Seattle Mariners
Well, the conventional wisdom is that every team is going to lose 60 games and every team is going to win 60 games (Except the 2007 Seattle Mariners, of course.), it’s the other 40 that make the difference.
It’s the same thing in business. One-third or so of the people always will buy your product and another third or so never will. Whether you get rich or go broke depends upon reaching that other third or so.
Fair-weather fans are, indeed, the heart of the market. They’re far more important to the club than the diehards. As my wife puts it, “why the hell should I support them if they’re not even trying to put a good team on the field?” Diehard is just another way to spell “taken for granted”.
Weirdest transaction line of the offseason:
MLB[--]Nullified Tampa Bay’s waiver claim for LHP Bobby Livingston and subsequent trade of Livingston to Philadelphia. Assigned Livingston to Cincinnati on a waiver claim.
Elaboration:
NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball voided a waiver claim by Tampa Bay, ruling Thursday the Devil Rays circumvented rules this week when they took a pitcher and immediately traded him.
The Devil Rays claimed lefty Bobby Livingston from Seattle on Tuesday, then sent him to Philadelphia for cash. MLB voided the moves, deciding the Devil Rays took Livingston with the intent of trading him.
Instead, Livingston was assigned from Seattle to the Cincinnati Reds on a waiver claim.
Yea… just because I care about what the team is doing enough to have it affect my attendance and viewing habits (which makes me “fairweather,” I suppose) does not make me a bad fan. I’m not a straight winning/losing type fan… I like the team if they’re trying or they have an entertaining product on the field, even if they are losing most of the time. Heck, I had a killer time in ’98. But when they are being run this poorly, it’s just sickening, and I can’t bring myself to watch them. And I hope the team realizes there are other people like me.
#32 — your complaint about draft picks and the farm system goes to Gillick’s door, not Bavasi’s.
More from mlb.com:
The acquisition wasn’t without controversy. The Devil Rays first claimed Livingston off the waiver wire Tuesday, and immediately traded him to the Phillies. Major League Baseball stepped in Thursday and nullified Tampa Bay’s claim and voided the deal with Philadelphia.
The Phillies were behind the Reds and other clubs for waiver claims. MLB awarded the pitcher to Cincinnati as a result.
“We felt that it circumvented the rules of claiming players on waivers,” MLB spokesman Patrick Courtney said. “It wasn’t following the order of teams on the list.”
Cincinnati had scouted the 24-year-old Livingston during the season and at this year’s Arizona Fall League games. He will battle for the fifth starter’s spot in Spring Training with Elizardo Ramirez, Matt Belisle, Homer Bailey and others.
“He’s close to the Major Leagues,” Reds general manager Wayne Krivsky said. “He got a taste of it. We like his athletic ability and durability. He’s a strike thrower and competes well. We think he’s on the cusp on being in a Major League rotation. He’ll be competition with our other starters.”
#79: Yeah, but I also blame Bavasi for The Holocaust, the conception of G.W. Bush, and Nickelback.
How about Creed and New Coke?
I was a large mariners fan, then when bavasi ran the team like crap, Now i am a proud TWINS FAN!
Lets start a petition!!!!!!!
I hate to reply to something way back in the comments, but #12 — Bender — I would NEVER suggest something like that, despite how confused I may be at what’s going on with player movement and sad I am to be losing Doyle. There’s been rumblings of “blah blah fan fest protests, blah blah picket signs”, but it wouldn’t have come from me. Just wanted to clear that up.
Sorry Deanna. I swear that was you who said it, but the thread was moving pretty fast.
Here’s more retail/political conventional wisdom applied to baseball: When you get a complaint as a business owner or politician you pretty much assume there’s nine other people who feel the same way but never went to the trouble of contacting you. I’ll bet M’s management and ownership fears the 900 people (or some multiple of that amount) who will just stop caring (and buying) more than the 100 people who actually would show up outside Safeco Field.
Courtesy of Corey Brock…(scroll down at end of Batista signing article).
“Bavasi did indicate on Thursday that the bullpen is an area the team would like to address. He said that right-handed reliever Mark Lowe, who had elbow surgery in October, will likely be out until at least after the All-Star break.”
Even with bullpen as “an area that would like to be addressed” we still trade Fruto, an arm that could have contributed in 2007 and beyond…
Don’t forget Rafi
#85,86: The picket-sign things was posted by Lauren, not Deanna.
Lincoln is really the one that has to go. What good is firing Bavasi if they just hire another version of him? This team is rotting from the top down and Lincoln is the head.
What does that mean??
What what?
Bavasi won’t comment on the Vidro trade
Any hope?
What does that mean??
That Bavasi has already joined a support group that will help him in his adjustment period from Mariners’ GM to never being a GM ever again.
Also from a website article:
Sad that he gets it and Bavasi doesn’t. Batista for GM in 2008.
About Livingston claim:
sigh
Jeez, I totally missed the Livingston deal. OK, the guy’s not Greg Maddux, I get it; but Bavasi thinks he’s worth NOTHING? How many times are we going to get played, this week alone?
Is he trying to get fired?
Glad to know somebody besides me thinks Livingston has some value.
Unfortunately, Bavasi has thus far demonstrated a penchant for failing at everything he tries.
How does Chris Antonetti feel about the grass roots campaign ongoing in the Pacific NW virtual space??
“Bavasi did indicate on Thursday that the bullpen is an area the team would like to address. He said that right-handed reliever Mark Lowe, who had elbow surgery in October, will likely be out until at least after the All-Star break.”
giving us reasons to hurt ourselves.
sorry, that was from the article from the M’s site about the inking of batista to a three year “deal”, which seems to be more of a rip-off than a deal.
Why is it that I feel worse tonight about the one solitary dumb thing the Seahawks have done (not “franchising” Hitchinson) making me more angy than the bajillions of stoopid move Bavasi has made in the last month alone. Maybe its because the ‘Hawks were supposed to distract me from the horror of the M’s offseason by clinching the division tonight. BYAAAAGGHHHR!!!
mmmm….prooofreeeeaading….
I am looking at Bavasi, Lincoln and Hargrove and I am sure I see clown hats on thier noggins. Any one else see what I see?