Comments on: Baker totally cracks me up

By: Swungonandbelted

Swungonandbelted — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:23:08 +0000

I don’t think that Pelekoudas is going to be making the monumental decisions that will set the M’s back any further than they already are. If you can get a good package at the trade deadline when you can potentially get a bidding war going, players like Bedard, Ibanez and Beltre potentially could have a much higher perceived value since they will be filling an immediate need, than they would as a strategic long term value in the off season. I don’t think that you are going to see a gutting though that sends Bedard, Ichiro, and Beltre to different teams for a combined return of 12 ash bats, a used batting practice screen, and a bucket of KFC extra crispy.

As far as other moves go, Sexson, Vidro, Cairo…the axe needs to swing and it really doesn’t matter who does it, nor can it really wait until the off season, if for nothing else than to free up roster spots.

By: edgar for mayor

edgar for mayor — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:55:16 +0000

I am really confused that Lee is allowed to do anything. Why hurt yourself by letting a interim GM make trades, when thats something your new GM is going to want to do.

I don’t get it can some one enlighten me :S. Wouldn’t it be best to leave the trading to our New? Especially big moves such as Bedard? DMZ, what do you think?

By: Swungonandbelted

Swungonandbelted — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:49:25 +0000

41: You can’t forget about WFB, one good September call up and he’s been with the M’s ever since. Jim Capel had a pretty good quote in a piece on ESPN.com – “what is Willie Bloomquist — no extra base hits — doing in the major leagues”

By: jlc

jlc — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:44:06 +0000

Back to the title of the thread, I agree and that’s why I read him every day. There’s usually some good snark–sometimes subtle, sometimes a train roaring down the tracks–in there and it’s a shame so many of his commenters miss it completely. I’d love to hear an off the record conversation between you guys.

By: argh

argh — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:51:57 +0000

If Bedard’s going, the sooner the better — right now he’s got 1.6 seasons left in him at the current compensation rate. Wait till next year and his value goes down commensurately. Plus, there’s the ever-present possibility of one of his season-shortening injury problems cropping up which is a wild card with any player but one that seems more highly represented in Bedard’s deck.

By: gwangung

gwangung — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:40:23 +0000

The aggressive promotion philosophy is supposed to make prospects experience adversity before they reach the big leagues, so that theyâ€™re able to overcome it after theyâ€™re already there.

Yeah, right. And how has that worked out? Isn’t their usual M.O. is to yank youngsters back to AAA, and give them NO chance to overcome that adversity? (I think the only exception is Lopez and Betancourt….)

By: matto

matto — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:38:51 +0000

I don’t think we have to worry about Bedard being traded that way EC. The M’s will trade him to a team and get a decent package back be it now-deadline or after the season.

By: gwangung

gwangung — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:38:29 +0000

In Bakerâ€™s latest entry, he cites Armstrong warning about bringing kids up too soon and hurting their confidence.

Gee, and they have such a sterling record of guiding minor leaguers over that hump.

GET THAT FOOL AWAY FROM BASEBALL OPERATIONS!

By: Mike Snow

Mike Snow — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:37:45 +0000

Does anyone think that they will do an about face on their aggressive promotion campaign, or will they merely apply it only to the majors?

It only applies to the majors, I don’t think they see it as inconsistent. The aggressive promotion philosophy is supposed to make prospects experience adversity before they reach the big leagues, so that they’re able to overcome it after they’re already there.

By: eponymous coward

eponymous coward — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:19:32 +0000

Basically, the read I get from this is that the M’s senior management is still in shock over how wrong things have gone, and is completely bewildered on where to go from here, so they’re tossing out basic stock answers about wanting to be as good as they can be over the next 90 games, doing the fire-the-field-manager-and-GM dance, and so on. Thus we see Pentland and Bavasi fired, reversing poses within 72 hours on McLaren, absolutely no movement on veterans, ditching Wlad and calling up Clement, etc.

It’s such a joke. I mean, COME ON, Riggleman HAS a record as a MLB manager, and it’s pretty clear he’s not magic fairy dust. I’m also extremely skeptical that Pelekoudas is much of the answer to anything as interim GM if his answer to all of this failure is “gee, let’s have Riggleman give Vidro and Sexson more plate appearances to see if it makes them any better”. If that’s his logic, he doesn’t seem to understand the idea of “sunk cost”, which makes him a REGRESSION on Bavasi, who at least showed that he got it with Boone, Olerud, Everett and so on.

Oh, and overseeing Pelekoudas? We have a guy who values makeup over tools. This has the potential to end up going very badly at trade deadline time, when lousy-makeup Bedard gets traded for a bunch of Willie Bloomquists.