Comments on: Dave on KJR

By: Jim_H

Jim_H — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 05:14:25 +0000

I think the perception is that a lot of folks here (mostly the community at large) seem to cheer for players to fail, as if it will somehow validate their opinions.

Since I don’t get a say-so in who the team signs (lucky for all of us), all I can really do is hope that they are successful, and as a fan of the team, I prefer to see every player on the roster be successful, even the ones I don’t necessarily like (Jose Guillen last year comes to mind). When Willie got his double the other day, the disappointment here was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Imagine people from other teams, or even M’s fans who come to visit the first time, only to find our own ‘fans’ (on this board) revelling in individual failures. It really turned me off to this place for a long time (still does).

Something that always perplexed me (still does) is why everyone pulled so hard for the team to release Sexson and Vidro, when there really isn’t much to be gained by them leaving. It’s not like we have some 1B protege who wasn’t getting at-bats because of Sexson. Now that he’s gone we have Miguel Cairo to take up that mantle, or Kenji? I really don’t see this as much of an improvement. Sexson was gone at the end of this year anyway, and we still have to pay his salary. Whats the point of releasing him (unless of course you were just doing him a favor)?

As bad as Vidro is, we really don’t have a DH (although we do have 3 catchers! HUZZAH!). Once he is released they will just spread those at bats amongst a bunch of platoon players who aren’t really DH material (and are only even marginal pinch hitters). Again, if were releasing him as a favor to him, so he can have an extended break and allow his knees to heal, fine, but I really don’t see how it’s going to make any significant improvement to the team by giving those at bats to anyone else (at least anyone currently on the roster).

I guess I see value in releasing someone if you have a young player to take up that role on a full time basis, to get them some consistent major league experience. The players being released are being released because they are playing poorly, while there is really no one to take their place. Releasing them doesn’t make the team better, unless of course you really believe the crap about Sexson being a negative influence in the clubhouse (I don’t – think about it, if he had 70 RBI’s and 20 HR’s, his clubhouse attitude wouldn’t be on anyone’s radar, even if it were bad).

By: shemberry

shemberry — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 03:42:18 +0000

It never ceases to amaze me that people accuse the people who own, operate, write for, and basically bleed for this site of being too negative. Do they honestly believe that these guys hate the Mariners and that is why they put in all this time and effort?

By: msb

msb — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 02:09:01 +0000

thanks for the summary– I was mid-haircut, and oddly enough, they don’t care to work around earphones…

By: matthew

matthew — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:42:15 +0000

18: Thanks for posting that. I’m not very good at remembering direct quotes — and that was an important one.

By: Jeff Nye

Jeff Nye — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:38:51 +0000

Yeah, that’s a pretty common refrain (you should see the occasional drive-by comment we catch before you guys see it, hoo-boy).

But the site is negative a lot lately because of the team doing stupid things; if they start getting better (this doesn’t include getting lucky with a bad process like last year), the tone of the site will change.

By: MattThompson

MattThompson — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:38:25 +0000

Re: chemistry. Dave basically said it’s unquantifiable and unpredictable. The M’s put more importance on it than any other team, and do it badly, so they should keep or release players based on talent, not chemistry.

By: matthew

matthew — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:37:10 +0000

I almost forgot… Dave reiterated that as much as it may seem that there’s only negativity/sarcasm sometimes at USSM, Dave would like nothing more than to go to a parade for the Mariners after winning their first World Series.

I believe a lot of people forget that when reading this blog.

By: matthew

matthew — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:29:08 +0000

They talked about clubhouse chemistry, the ridiculousness of how/why/when Sexson was let go — Groz brought up Vidro being next, and Dave went on to say it was the most amazing thing in the world that he’s batting cleanup for the Mariners — and doesn’t have a single Major League skill. Dave would like to ask Jim and Lee “WTF!?” apparently haha

Dave spoke mostly on what he would do with Bedard (keep him and let the new GM decide what to do with him) since the Sabathia and Harden trade got very little in return. After Dave spoke on how fans need to be patient with Felix since he’s only 22 (younger than Clement, Vladimir, Morrow, etc) they both wished each other “Happy Felix Day” and Dave was gone…

No mention of the awful acquirement of Craig Wilson after ridding the team of Sexson.

After Dave left, Groz basically read the bullet points from this entry.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:23:52 +0000

I missed it too, but I just heard the Groz reading DMZ’s “smoking crater” post, or the central part of it, and then opening the phone lines.

I turned away, couldn’t listen to the callers.

By: G-Man

G-Man — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:21:48 +0000

Great, I got a phone call and couldn’t turn it on until Dave was just hanging up.

Summary, please? Pretty please?