That’s it for contention
I come not to praise the M’s, but to bury them. It’s over, officially now to confirm what everyone knew a long time ago. It was a good run for a while and then miserable to watch.
McLaren said he wasn’t going to play the kids until they were eliminated, and now that they’re eliminated, he’s said he’s not going to play the kids. Look, I don’t know – as much as anyone else, I’ll say not to listen to what a manager says but watch what they do, but the sheer size of the inconsistency in thought, guiding principles, and execution makes me want to tear my hair out and scream. At this point, you have to think he’s trying to compile as good a W-L record as he can for his resume and “keep me around next year” negotiations. Whatever. He stinks as a manager, and there’ll be plenty of time to hash that this off-season.
Many of our readers have said that if we’d been offered the team’s final record at the start of the season, almost all of us would have jumped at the chance, and — like last year — it was the glimpse at contention and the way that was wasted that hurts. That’s true in some sense, and certainly if they’d ground out a .525 season by winning consistently but lagging behind the Angels, our frustration with their shortcomings would show as disappointment and not resignation at another wasted chance and simmering rage over the institutional shortcomings that look like they’re going to continue to hamper the team’s ability to ever build a serious contender.
Speaking of which: play the kids already, would you?
I love that he’s offering up the Indians chances for home field advantage as the reason to stick with the veterans, when clearly the Indians don’t care about the Indians home field advantage. Look at last night’s line-up: Chris Gomez at third, Kenny Lofton in center, Ben Francisco in left, Josh Barfield at second, and Aaron Laffey on the hill.
Absolutely I’d play the kids – namely Balentien, Clement, and Jones.
On another note, the simple “If I’d told you the M’s would be ten games over with 6 to play” argument doesn’t quite fly here.
If you’d told me that the Mariners would overachieve and get to 20 games over, then proceed to lose 15 out of 17 because the manager made stupid decisions and refused to put the best team on the field each night, I would not be happy.
And I’m not.
FIRE JOHN MCLAREN
That’s exactly my point, that the anger’s really over the chance squandered rather than the record they’ll finish with.
Does Nick Green count as one of the “kids?” If so, that is one kid I do not want to see play again. I said this in some other forum yesterday, so I apologize if I am repetitive, but I guarantee that Guillen makes every start so that he can reach 100 rbi.
I worked almost 16 hours yesterday so that I could leave early today and watch all 18 innings today. Now I am going to be subjected to 18 innings of watching Guillen ole fly balls in front of me so that he can get to 100 RBI and a bigger paycheck on the FA market this winter. The Mariners do not grasp in any way the entertainment factor of watching new blood perform when your team is not playing for anything anymore.
The whole, “I’m not playing the kids thing,” is killing me. Look, I understand why one would play to not lose, but he’s not even doing that. He’s playing to not be blamed for losing while playing to lose.
I truly, honestly, fully believe that me at age 9 was better tactically & strategically and had a better understanding of statistics than current management. That is not a good thing.
Yes, they were far better than I expected them to be. The poor management that prevented the Mariners from having a better season than they did really lessens the enjoyment, though.
Yeah, DMZ, I was agreeing with you. I’ll take no solace in management’s claims of “tangible progress” and the like…
I love that he’s offering up the Indians chances for home field advantage as the reason to stick with the veterans, when clearly the Indians don’t care about the Indians home field advantage.
Well, somebody needs to care- and Mac is that kind of person.
There is one other reason as to why Mac is not playing the kids. He is keeping them healthy and fresh, and once the season ends he will harvest their young healthy organs, freeze said organs in a cryogenic chamber, and utilize them for himself as necessary so that he may complete his goulish mission of achieving eternal life.
He is keeping them healthy and fresh, and once the season ends he will harvest their young healthy organs, freeze said organs in a cryogenic chamber, and utilize them for himself as necessary so that he may complete his goulish mission of achieving eternal life.
Which, sad to say, is a better option than where I thought you were going, which is to utilize the organs as necessary to keep running Raul/Richie/Willie out there every day.
Neither Clement nor Johnson needed to be added to the 40-man roster this offseason. The M’s called them up anyway, and collectively, they have 5 AB. What was the point? If the third catcher was going to get 5 AB in September, why not just bring back Rene Rivera and save two 40-man roster spots?
McLaren needs to go. He may be playing to win but he is not winning anything. When Hargrove left they were 45-33 and since McLaren took over they are 38-40. Nice job John.
John McLaren. He cares so we don’t have to.
I agree that the record doesn’t mean much since we were 20 games up at one point. It is more of a disappointment then if we were .500 all year and made a charge at the end. A .525 season sucks when you could be around .580-.570 and still in the chase.
The Rockies have 2 rookies in their rotation, one at SS. And start regularly 3 players who have 2-3 years of experience along with their closer only picthing 32 innings before this year. They are 1 game out of the WC and 3 out of the division with a series against the D-backs coming up.
But you keep playing your veterans there McLaren. You show them who is boss! Those kids will just kill your season, let me tell ya.
Even if, as a manager, you disregard the fans’ desire to see the kids play, wouldn’t you actually be helping next years team by giving them playing time? However marginal the impact, there’s value it every major league plate appearance a young player has. There’s also a marginal value to saving an additional game of wear & tear on the legs of guys like Ibanez and Vidro. M’s management should be looking at McClaren and saying “He’s acting contra to the best interests of the franchise. He’s not the guy we want running our team next year”.
“I love that he’s offering up the Indians chances for home field advantage as the reason to stick with the veterans, when clearly the Indians don’t care about the Indians home field advantage.”
Anybody else need more proof that youth can matter and that USSM is right that the Indians are one of the best-run franchises in baseball (and I’m not just agreeing because Grady went to the same high school)? I didn’t peg them to have the best record toward the end of the season, but I am not surprised.
Incidentally, I was in Chicago at a conference a month ago, and told a Cleveland native that I thought the Indians were very well-run and had a bright future ahead. You’d have thought I told him that he’d been elected King of La-la-land. It was during a patch of bad results for the Tribe, if I remember correctly, so maybe that played into it, but I think Indian fans are still conditioned to expect the other shoe to drop on them, and maybe the press does a poor job of covering the team’s resurgence? It was interesting nonetheless, but – in a never thought I’d say this moment – I truly wish we were Cleveland, if only for this one reason.
#17
What’s that reason, its organization doesn’t suck?
#18 – Yep (and they are going to play in October).
The Rockies have 2 rookies in their rotation, one at SS. And start regularly 3 players who have 2-3 years of experience along with their closer only picthing 32 innings before this year. They are 1 game out of the WC and 3 out of the division with a series against the D-backs coming up.
And even better, which team did they eliminate from playoff contention last night? That’s right. The Dodgers.
McLaren clearly should be fired, and I can see Bavasi and Lincoln tossing him overboard as a way to divert blame. But honestly, the front office should be on the chopping block. To sign Rick White, to trade and continually start Horacio Ramirez, to not pursue cheap bench help, to not force McLaren to use the bench and kids he’s been given even as his managing is acting like a pair of concrete overshoes on the team’s playoff hopes….
We need to clean that place out. It’s the Augean stables, only that smell is putrid team management.
17- But then Ichiro wouldn’t be on our team unless he constantly gave himself black eyes and bloody noses.
#21 – As sad as I am to say it, I’d probably trade Ichiro to be embarking on a likely run of annual post-season play as I think the Indians are doing. And I am a HUGE Ichiro fan.
dw – You took the words right out of my mouth. The Dodgers and Rockies are pretty good examples of how ridiculous “veteranness” can be.
I too would not lump in Nick Green with “the kids.” For one, he’s 28. For another … did you see him in his two at-bats last night? What a hopeless hack. He has no discipline, no pitch recognition skill that I could see. He thoroughly embarrassed himself at the plate.
Does Bavasi have no say in who plays? I’d imagine he wanted to see some of these guys play since he had to add them to the 40-man roster to get them up here. As someone else up above said, if they weren’t going to play, the M’s could have avoided wasting the 40-man spots.
The way I put it, if someone told me the Mariners would be 10 games above .500 this late in the season, I’d be proud. But in this case, they ripped my heart out and stomped all over it. Namely John MacLaren and Bill Bavasi. Both deserve to be fired after this collapse, and MacLaren refusing to play the kids for his dumbass bs reasons. Its so stupid how they refuse the play the kids, when they clearly have more energy and potential than their ‘trust worthy’ veterans. He mustve cost the team atleast 5-10 wins by putting crappy vets in the place of prospects.
I think this is the best metaphor for the Mariners’ season. It would be like someone giving me the tastiest, tenderist filet mignon after not eating all day, and getting a nice bite out of it, and then the person taking the plate away from me and throwing it in the garbage. It hurts that bad.
Is there anyway to start a petition to fire John MacLaren and Bill Bavasi, and give good reasons why?
I mean atleast BB has built up the farm system to one of the better ones in the league, but if you have a manager refusing the play those prospects, whats the point of having a good farm system?
I’d just like to point out that the Rockies have had a pretty miserable run, and Rockies fans are still in “other shoe soon to drop mode” too for this year. Dan O’Dowd has a lot of haters here, and Clint Hurdle can be as obtuse as they come at times – often uttering the phrase “I can’t expect you to understand if you don’t play the game.”
But the team is certainly NOW trending in the right direction under O’Dowd, and they aren’t that afraid to play youngsters with promise. Though how much is driven by market economics (i.e., no money to spend) and how much is the work of O’Dowd doing something well is hard for me to distinguish. He’s clearly made some disaster moves in his time in Colorado, but he is on the youth movement train, and has been for a little while.
I am not sure where Dave puts O’Dowd on his list of GMs – he was a Hart guy but O’Dowd did hire Mark Shapiro in Cleveland. In an interview with ESPN a few years back he had this to say:
“I think as more guys like Theo Epstein and Mark Shapiro and Billy Beane, and eventually Paul DePodesta and Josh Byrnes, become GM’s, they will, in turn, hire people like that [bright people], just as I hired Thad Levine. Thad’s a hell of a lot smarter than I am, and you try to hire as many smart people as you can.
You need to balance that, though. There are two types of intelligence in baseball. There’s intellectual intelligence, which we don’t have enough of, but you have to balance that with instinctive intelligence, with people who really know the game and can apply it so that other people can understand it. You need a mixture of those two types because intellectually intelligent people need to learn from the instinctively intelligent people, so that when they become leaders they have a better idea of what the game is all about. And it’s a very humbling game. Every night, you get humbled.”
Now, that sounds like it might make sense . . . at least he recognizes who is smarter than he is, and certainly a good GM with no baseball “street smarts” can alienate a lot of institutional people and players, but, well, yeah. Still not sure what to think, especially since the Rockies aren’t my favorite team. I tend not to focus too much on them while the M’s are doing anything interesting.
Whenever I think of the M’s and their ability to ‘compete’ but never actually win – and make money in the process, of course – I always think back to this article, which was also my intro to this blog (so thanks):
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2004-03-31/news/the-new-bleacher-bums.php
Huh. If the veterans have “goals” that need to be attained, maybe they should have done a little more heavy lifting in August.
Most of the vets are banged up anyway. Do everyone a favor and run some new faces out there.
Oh yeah — Jose Lopez looked good in the two-hole, eh?
#24 — Yes, I did see him. I have seen some bad swings this year by a host of M’s batters, but never have I seen a better look as hopeless as Green. He needs to start swinging now (10:34am pst) to catch up to any fastball that he may see later today.
Does Bavasi have no say in who plays? I’d imagine he wanted to see some of these guys play since he had to add them to the 40-man roster to get them up here. As someone else up above said, if they weren’t going to play, the M’s could have avoided wasting the 40-man spots.
Generally speaking, Bavasi lets the field manager make out the lineup and handle decisions on playing time, once he provides a 25 man roster. If you are looking for GMs who handle playing time decisions and basically turn the field manager into a guy who gets to decide when the bunts are on, Billy Beane is about 750 miles thataway.
11–couldn’t agree more and with a bit of luck someone from the local media will ask about this.
How long until Armstrong will retire?
Seems like McLaren has ‘unlearned’ during his time as a manager. When he first stepped in he was talking about swapping players into and out of the line-up because of the Ms travel. Now he’s talking about having a ‘set lineup’ for next year.
I love that McClaren feels that “we owe it to the other clubs to run veterans out there.” I wonder who “we” consists of. And which other clubs does he speak of? When he speaks of these “other” clubs, does that include the Indians, or are they not included in “other” clubs that “we” owe? Did he mean to say “we owe it to other clubs, except for the Indians, we don’t owe them anything, but we owe everyone else.” Or maybe he meant to include the Indians as one of the other clubs and he is sending out a team that he knows is inferior to one that he could field, thereby doing the Indians some sort of favor in his mind. Very tricky John, but you don’t fool me. Further I’m glad he is putting what “we” owe the other clubs over what “we” owe to, um, the fans, the 2008 team blah blah. ugh. This could go on forever.
#32 – on a related note, Kelvim Escobar said the M’s shouldn’t change a thing about the line-up. Sadly, McLaren and Bavasi might not disagree about the advice from a division rival’s starter, who has little or no interest in your team’s success. Here’s hoping one or both of them don’t get the chance to act on the advice.
I was at Anaheim Stadium on Friday. We sat 4 rows back from the M’s dugout. My wife is all decked out in her M’s gear. Before the game, my wife sees Adam Jones and yells to him, “Are you playing today?” He shakes his head, yes. Then my wife yells “We need you!” And AJ mouths the word “I Know.”
I love that kid. He’s got the right attitude too bad the manager is utterly clueless in getting him regular ABs.
Argh.
But the team is certainly NOW trending in the right direction under O’Dowd, and they aren’t that afraid to play youngsters with promise. Though how much is driven by market economics (i.e., no money to spend) and how much is the work of O’Dowd doing something well is hard for me to distinguish. He’s clearly made some disaster moves in his time in Colorado, but he is on the youth movement train, and has been for a little while.
The key is that the Rockies have stayed on the youth train, rather than what they did from 1996-2003 or so, flop between different ideas as to how to win in Colorado so much that they lost direction. Sign more hitting. Sign more pitching. Hampton and Neagle. Youth movement, no, veterans, no wait, youth and veterans, maybe we should sign defense…
…and meanwhile, the Broncos won two Super Bowls, the Avs came to town and won a lot, and the Nuggets got Carmelo and finally started to not suck. And then the Rockies had no money, so they started overcharging for tickets and doubling prices for the Cubs and Yankees….
O’Dowd isn’t great, and Clint Hurdle is a slightly more competent version of McLaren, but they made a plan, stuck to it, and did all they could to make the plan a success. The humidor has helped a lot, too.
And, you know, at least we’re not the Pirates.
I hear Clint Hurdle is do dumb he can’t find his own arse in the dark. How much better would the Rockies be without him?
“And, you know, at least we’re not the Pirates.”
Amen to that. Not too many boring games this year either, that’s for sure. I agree that selecting an organizational personality and plan has helped a good deal. This has always been a team geared toward likeable and bigger name players (many past their prime). To sell the city on relatively unheard-of youngsters is a much harder task than O’Dowd gets credit for.
#37 – I don’t watch enough games to criticize his overall in-game abilities. He’s become the favorite target of the top local sports radio station for his non-answers and “stay the course” refrain, though. Amazingly he still does the weekly chat with the morning show despite the lampooning that goes on even when the team is winning.
Speaking of which: play the kids already, would you?
Can’t. Need to keep ‘em fresh for Winter Ball.
Plus,
Neither Clement nor Johnson needed to be added to the 40-man roster this offseason. The M’s called them up anyway, and collectively, they have 5 AB. What was the point?
and
…Nick Green …has no discipline, no pitch recognition skill that I could see. He thoroughly embarrassed himself at the plate.
I think it was Blowers last night who mentioned that Green had only two at-bats since being called up, and that it’s awfully hard to deliver when you’ve only had two ABs in a month. Now, granted, even with 20 ABs over the last week, Green isn’t going to be Ichiro up there, but Blowers had a point – one that could be made about almost the entire bench. These guys haven’t been used since being called up. What, as Grizz asked, was the point? It doesn’t seem like the M’s had any plan, they just called guys up for the hell of it, with no thought as to how they would use them. And of course this goes all the way back to Adam Jones in early August.
Brownian motion.
We need to clean that place out. It’s the Augean stables, only that smell is putrid team management.
And once again, USSMariner makes its case for “most literate blog in baseball.” There’s a reference you don’t see in sportswriting every day.
John McLaren’s favorite TV show is Kid Nation.
# 41 I think it’s 60 minutes
27- I was afraid to post what I did about the Rockies cause every Rockies fan is waiting for that shoe to drop. I might be the one to jinx it, but either way it would be hard to end the season winning 14 straight games. They need to win 13-14 of the final 14 to make sure they have a spot, 12 might do it.
I had to run to class or I was going to make the point that they decided on a plan and stuck with it. That plan was to develop young talent and rid it out.
From what I got about Clint Hurdle is he is bad at bullpen managment for the most part, relying on their veteran Hawkins in to many big situations. I have seen a few good double switches that ended up in them winning games. He treats Todd Helton for the most part like anyone else, sitting him in a slump. Clint has done the same with Hawpe and Atkins while realizing they are part of the Rockies future and not completely losing faith in them, they would sit for a week or two then be back in to prove themselves. I wouldn’t call him a good manager but he is a lot better at dealing with the vet/young relationship. He runs platoons also. There is some things he does very well but also has that old school mindset.
40 – ‘Augean stables’ is actually used quite a bit, even in sportswriting.
Now stealing the mares of diomedes – why didn’t any of the 1,000,000,000 stories about Dave Roberts steal in game 4 use that reference?
[errors]
“After this series with Cleveland, we play Boston and everyone in the American League West,” Melvin said. “We owe it to the league and ourselves to put our best team on the field against teams fighting for the postseason.”
“You owe it to baseball to put your best team out there,” said Gibbons, the Blue Jays’ manager. “When you’re playing a team that’s still in it, you have to go with your best – whatever that is.”
“Players generally get three days for paternity leave. Torres and Wilson were told the games are meaningful because the San Diego Padres and Cubs are contenders, and the Pirates owe it to the pennant races to field their best lineups.”
“I don’t foresee it changing a lot,” Girardi said. “We owe it to Major League Baseball to put the best possible team on the field. We will have a lot to say about who wins the wild card.”
And once again, USSMariner makes its case for “most literate blog in baseball”.
I agree, it time to let some of kids play. Supposed ly the M;s contacted Larusa about a job for next season.
Just had to do that.
Dave,
I know you love the Indians front office. What is the word on Huntington who is now the Pirates GM? Is he like Shapiro or Antonetti? Or did he have a philosophical difference that lowered his status with the Cleveland organization?
Fire Lincoln and Armstrong.
Because the Mariners have been so painful to watch, I’ve been thinking of what would be wonderful to see. A team built with the strengths and weaknesses of Safeco in mind. An actual philosophy of baseball for the organization that is more complex than “run out the same team and if you need help, get a vet.” A manager that understood pitcher management. A manager that understood bench management. Management that could continue to bring up the youngsters and integrate them into the team, while using the best that vets had to offer. That would include taking a look at the kids in September (or July if the team was in a slump).
But I have a feeling I’ll have to write a novel set in an alternate universe to see any of that stuff in the near future.
Mike Mussina, a possible HOF pitcher, is struggling as the Yankee’s try to make the playoffs. A veteran to the rescue? No, the Yankees plug Ian Kennedy, recently from AA ball, into the rotation. Kennedy goes 2-1 with a 1.89 ERA.
Clay Buchholz throws a no-hitter in his second start of his major league career for the first-place Red Sox. In 4 starts for the Sox, Buchholz is 3-1 with a 1.59 ERA.
The Indians call up (former Mariner minor leaguer) Asrubal Cabrera and bench starting second baseman Josh Barfield, who is having a poor season. Since being inserted into the lineup, Cabrera is hitting .289 with 14 extra base hits and 20 RBI’s in 189 AB’s.
Boston holds off the surging Yankees to win the East despite losing Manny Ramirez for a month, thanks in large part to rookie Jacoby Ellsbury, who has hit .367 and stolen 9 bases since his callup.
Adam Jones has ridden the bench for 37 of the 50 games the M’s have played since he was called up on August 3rd.
Derek: Completely agree with your post, and share the frustration of so many others in the incompetence of both the front office and the manager.
I look south at Oakland, and what Billy Beane has been doing, and I think they are on the right path to rebuild and contend next year.
I noted that Yormando Bazardo pitched 7 seven shut out innings for Detroit yesterday against Minnesota. Wasn’t Bazardo an M at some point? If I am correct who, if anyone, did the M’s get in return for letting this guy go? Isn’t he the kind of guy the M’s would want to have on their team….some one who can actually pitch 7 innings….and does not cost the kings ransom?
42
Yeah, but as the saying goes…it takes him two hours to watch it
51
Ellsbury has hit 24 of the 27 games he’s had at least one at bat. To think, he wasn’t even on the Oregon State teams that won back to back championships.
The Tigers today made a trade with the Seattle Mariners for right handed pitcher Yorman Bazardo. In exchange the Tigers have sent the Mariners outfielder Jeff Frazier.
#46. The key word in all those quotes is obviously (to us anyway) “best”. Not “veteran”.
Somehow the Mariners got the message all screwed up.
On Sept 1, the M’s called up Morse, Jimerson, and Johnson from the minors. Since that date, the three players have combined for 6 AB’s. PS…they are a combined 5-6.
On Sept 4, the M’s called up Green, Reed, Clement, and Balentien. Since that date, the four players have a combined 22 AB’s (Reed has 12 of them, probably because he is the “Mariner veteran” of the group.
#55– FWIW, in the Mariners & Jays quotes, both were in the context of not playing their call-ups
I think McLaren’s inner logic is that the veterans are more likely to win, and 88 wins looks a lot better than 84. Of course, if the team loses most the remaining games and ends up with 84 wins, it then looks a lot worse than if he played the young guys the rest of the way.
the quotes go on and on:
“I owe it to baseball and the Phillies, Marlins and Nationals to put my best lineup out there,” Baker said. Everybody says, Play the kids.’ I got seven games against Houston. Against them, I’ve got to play my best team. You can have an impact on who goes.”
53 – Yorman Bazardo went to detroit this past off-season in exchange for the immortal Jeff Frazier.
I think McLaren’s inner logic is that the veterans are more likely to win, and 88 wins looks a lot better than 84.
Sure, McLaren is just trying to win. It’s not like he’s signed for next year, so organizational development isn’t a high priority. He’s trying to get the record strong enough that he can say on his resume that he kept the team in contention until the bitter end rather than managing a team that collapsed down the stretch.
If Bavasi wants the kids to play, he needs to give the order from up above that the kids need to play. Most managers tend to want to do whatever it takes to win right this second — Bavasi’s job is to position the team for next year and beyond.
#48 — yes, it was the best of blogs, it was the worst of blogs….
Maybe Mclaren’s idea is playing Cleveland as if these were the actual games cancelled by the weather at the beginning of the year. You know, “these are the guys we would have played…”
Also, have we ever heard any confirmation/denial to the rumor of Bavasi getting an extension?
I agree with McLaren on the idea of play your best lineup. Now, he hasn’t done that on a regular basis so it is hard to tell. Jones ok, Jimerson pinch run ok, Reed/Green anything no. McLaren can’t just throw whoever in the lineup against Cleveland. He is just going to throw out that sub-par lineup of regulars though.
Sometime I think the Mariners are a women just sucking the life out of me and making me miserable. But no matter how much I go to the bars and chase tail they will never go away.
So msb is making a good case that this “owe it to baseball/contending teams/the team you’re facing/the little fairies that live in Selig’s ear hair” sentiment to play veterans when you’re no longer contending is strong and widely-held among managers. Of course, belief in witches was once strong and widely-held too. Heck, a lot of major-league managers used to think they owed it to baseball not to play black players, either. Ignorance is ugly no matter how ubiquitous it might be.
If McLaren owes anything to anybody, where is the debt to the fans in all of this? I know I’d be far more interested in watching games and buying from advertisers and maybe visiting the park if there were some fresh faces to give me hope for years beyond this alread-dead one. Heck, I might be tempted to buy a Wlad shirt (of course they’d first have to make them). In any case, what McLaren owes — to everybody — is to put the best team on the field. And, as so many have spent so much time pointing out, the best players at some of those positions are not the veterans.
Also, have we ever heard any confirmation/denial to the rumor of Bavasi getting an extension?
I can’t be bothered to find the post but several people have noted he operates on a rolling contract, and that continues. In that respect his status is no more secure (or insecure) than it was earlier in the season.
62 – good point about Bavasi needing to give some guidance. I think we’d do as well or better with the callups in the lineup, but McLaren is stuck in his ways. But if he played the kids and we happened to lose, say, five out of six, he could use that as an excuse. If we lose two or three of the remaining Cleveland games playing our typical lineup, it makes our collapse look even worse. But McLaren doesn’t like to mess with the M’s second-place chemistry.
48 – the hazards of not having a “Preview Comment” button.
Yeah, and “clutch hitting” is still a common concept, and so is the notion that Derek Jeter is a fabulous fielder.
McLaren owes it to HIS TEAM first, THEN baseball. And, at this point, I think the bigger benefit is to give some rookies a taste of major league competition and to show them what they need to learn and work on.
Most of the vets are banged up anyway. Do everyone a favor and run some new faces out there.
Yes, if I was interviewing Mac, and he spit out the usual “we owe it to the league to play our veterans”, I’d ask,
“So, Mac, how has that been working out for you lately?”
If the goal is to put the best team possible on the field, I’d have to wonder why the M’s weren’t doing that all year?
Regarding firing McLaren because of incompetence and his refusal to experiment with new players even after the prospects for a playoff spot are officially defunct:
As long as Lincoln & Armstrong are still intact, “new boss same as the old boss.”
Unless one of their superiors forces them to hire the LaRussa/Jocketty/Duncan Cerberus. Wouldn’t bet the house on that.
Well, that would be Chris Larson.
And that won’t happen unless Microsoft’s stock prices get A LOT better…..
OK. Everybody…buy a Zune.
I thought we were hoping Chris would pressure them into Antonetti?
Two Zunes, then.
71: I agree 100% on the Howie & Chuck “old boss, new boss” theory. Those two tried to get everybody to believe that the collapse of ’04 — which happened, of course, due to a combination of factors — was mostly due to mis-management by BoMel and (by extension) Price…yet those two are doing a pretty good job these days down in Arizona, aren’t they?
Hmmm…wouldn’t have anything to do with a front office which actually CARES about building for the future now, would it?
Does anyone think 26 has a practical suggestion about a petition? I send e-mails to Ms fancare all the time, but that’s more just so I can vent as I know they don’t accomplish anything. But if we started bombarding Nintendo with e-mails, petitions, snail mails, free Adam Jones posters, whatever? BTW 35 that made my day.
I recall some time ago that Dave said good clubs find a place for a future star to play no matter what.. Frustrating isnt it?
Kind of late but I think this sums up the season quite well:
“I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it.”