If you haven’t read about today’s Luncheon already…
Conor · January 22, 2009 at 8:05 pm · Filed Under Mariners
…what are you waiting for? I’m not going to just copy and paste all the beautiful quotes and nuggets of information but, trust me, it’s worth your time.
• Recap on Ryan Divish’s blogÂ
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56 Responses to “If you haven’t read about today’s Luncheon already…”
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Some great quotes from Wak and Z…and it’s great that they’ve already made the decision that The King is the number 1 starter…
OK, now I’m sure I’m dreaming. These guys are saying the right things about everyone: no to Griffey, probably not to Fields, Morrow to the rotation, Chavez in left (because we’ve got no choice but to play pitching and defense), looking for a veteran middle infielder to ‘push’, and I hope I’m reading that Bedard is being uncharacteristically forthcoming and positive with them. If that’s the case, I could care less what he says or doesn’t say to the media or his teammates.
Let me hear that they’re trying to do a Beltre extension and it will be too much…
Anyone else get the feeling that Clement is on his way out?
Clement’s not going anywhere. At the USSM/LL event minor league director Pedro Griffol was VERY positive about Clement.
He pointed out that Clement has struggled his first year in each new league, but puts it together the next season. So he expects big things out of Clement this year.
During the talk about the starting rotation, one of the radio guys (Jason Puckett?) told a story about Silva eating 4 In-n-Out burgers in a sitting, and how badly it grossed Brandon Morrow out…and I was kind of surprised that it was only four.
notice that you can also listen to Grifol, Heilman & Lowe on the KJR site, too
Of course they’re going to pump all their players up in public events – especially prospects. What do you expect them to say about Moore?
But if they are gushing over Moore being the future catcher.. where does that leave Clement?
Very telling quote on Fields:
I translate that as: “We’re more eager to take the comp pick than we are to sign a college reliever that hasn’t played in almost a full year.”
Given the vibes we’ve been getting, plus the amount of bullpen arms Z has been stocking, I’d say it’s about a 90/10 shot that Fields will be right back in the draft pool in June.
Geez! Can we just get on with the season already?
I wanna see how good these guys really are!!!!!!
It was Divish telling the story, and it was not just 4 burgers … it was four triple/triples.
That would be “Three 100% pure beef patties, hand-leafed lettuce, tomato, spread, three slices of American cheese, with or without onions, stacked high on a freshly baked bun.”
IIRC, Divish quoted Morrow as saying it was the most horrifying food-related thing he’d ever seen
I’m guessing with onions…
So if I’m reading this right, the Line-up could look like this:
1. ICHIRO!
2. Lopez
3. Beltre
4. Branyan
5. Chavez
6. Clement – @ DH
7. Guitierrez – sorry, can’t remember the spelling
8. Kenji
9. Yuni
Hmmm….
Speed and power sure but what if we had more plate discipline?
Divish brought it up as a rebuttal to the whole notion of a Svelte Silva … that he might arrive newly-slimmed down, but he’d likely not stay that way
Pedro Grifol (in his interview on the KJR site) talking about Adam Moore: “Is he ready for the big leagues? Probably not” But boy does he rave about (13th-round pick) Shawn Kelley.
I quite enjoyed that Ryan Divish / Jason Pucket / Ian Furness roundtable, and I very rarely enjoy things on KJR. They’re a little too in love with “moxie” and related intangibles when it comes to relievers, and they’re still talking too much about ERAs and RBIs, and aren’t giving enough credit to defense, but still — that was an entertaining listen. Nothing like the information-density of a Dave interview, but much better than the stiff KOMO post-game, anyway.
(Jimmy’s on First? Am I the only person who never heard of this place? And Silva vacuums up four triple burgers in a sitting? Ye gods.)
I haven’t been in, but I’ve walked past … it’s in the SE corner of the new hotel there. KJR does their post-game show from there, I understand.
they appear to have a lot of bottles on the wall.
Ryan Divish’s blog:
Hilarious. But my impression was that Silva gained most of the weight during the season. I don’t remember any of us making cracks about his weight coming out of Spring Training — but then he didn’t suck at the start of the season either. (And no, I don’t think the two are unrelated.) So the real question is: will Silva’s trainer/therapist/yoga instructor travel with the team (is this one person with an uncertain job title or three separate people who rotate?) And who will stop him from pouring the triple burgers down his throat between starts?
Holy crap. That’s both more honest and more encouraging than anything I heard Bavasi say to the media in his entire time here.
Wow, reading all the Silva weight stuff makes his outbursts about how others needed to work harder and show more dedication even less tolerable.
I remember DMZ’s post about the Silva burger. And I thought that DMZ was simply making fun. It was funny then, but it is even funnier now, because it is true.
Jimmys on 1st is cool, go in and have a drink sometime the people are nice, the price is a lil much but eh what ya gonna do its downtown…….
The thing that strikes me as one of the most critical changes being made by the Mariners, in terms of their approach, is reflected in Wakamatsu’s comments in Larry Stone’s blog:
I can’t imagine Bavasi and Maclaren and associates *ever* thinking there was something they could do to get players to actually improve, beyond a few random post-game tirades here and there throughout the season.
Come on man…pros don’t need to improve…they just need to be as good as the back of their baseball card…duh…
jro-
If you weren’t at the USSM/LL event last month, the “game above the shoulders” was a big point from the panel of something they really thought could be improved. Players’ hand-eye coordination, reaction speed, etc. are inborn traits that don’t change much… but how they think about the game, being prepared for game situations, etc. were things that can be coached and improved. I am glad to hear the Manager echoing those comments as it shows consistency in message throughout the organization.
It’s hard to believe, considering how down I was by the end (hell, the middle) of last season but I am truly excited about this year. It may be crazy to be excited about rooting for a team to get up around .500 but the new management and the approach they’re taking is really getting me pumped that in another year or two we can cue the George Peppard voice-over and shout out, “I love it when a plan comes together.”
I had to go back and give it a re-listen. The correct quote is:
“Brandon Morrow called it the most disgusting display of eating he’d ever seen.”
xxtinynickxx: Jimmys on 1st is cool, go in and have a drink sometime the people are nice, the price is a lil much but eh what ya gonna do its downtown…….
What you’re gonna do is head a little bit north and eat at the Hawks Nest. Tastier, cheaper, sportier. Of course they’re not publicized by a radio station, but that’s part of their appeal.
and as abender20 remembered, Gregg Bell said last spring (in an unintentionally humorous article about Silva) that it was 4 4×4 burgers …
Stone also has his official piece up this moring, to go with all the additional blog quotes
Power? Where do you see that? branyan can slug, but I’m not convinced he can do it consistently. That leaves Beltre and Clement with the only real pop. I don;t see where you think we’re OK with power. And if Branyan is our clean-up, no offense, but we won’t be the AL West champs. Like most of you, I beleive this team can return to a competitive level faster than I thought given the Bavasi trainwreck. But I think we can all agree this is a less than ideal lineup. Power? You got me scratching my head now…
Aaron M.
What’s interesting is the statement of trying to educated the player about his own strengths and weaknesses. That tells me that they’re going to try to teach baseball “the right way” from within the context of the player’s own way of playing the game. Seems to me…that might stick better….
Well, actually Babe Ruth in his prime hitting cleanup wouldn’t make us division champs. But I don’t think that’s the point. Not only have we stopped getting worse, we may actually be better.
And yes, we definitely have no power.
I’m lost on this one. Silva ate four of those 4×4 In-And-Out burgers…in one sitting??
Dude. I’m 6’2″ 245..not terribly far from Silva’s dimensions…and I can only handle one of those tasty things.
In my college days, color me impressed. As it’s done by a starting pitcher for my favorite team, I think I’m appalled!
Anybody else think Clement’s going to be made the full-time DH by the ripe old age of 25?
True. I guess I was running off the previous thread’s thunder regarding the weakened AL West and how if we get breaks coupled with some going against a weaker Angels squad and an A’s squad that improved offensively but still has pitching questions, it could be an 85-win division this year. And I certainly agree with you. Rejoice M’s fans! To quote diderot, “Not only have we stopped getting worse, we may actually be getting better.” How great is it to be able to say that again!
My main point though again was just pointing out that contrary to the DVDN post, we indeed have no power. If this teams manages to hit 100 collectively I’ll be happy.
Aaron M.
It’s important to remember that there is one, and exactly one, way to win baseball games:
Score more runs than the other team.
Power isn’t some thing that you have to have in order to win baseball games; it certainly helps, but it’s not the only way to get there. I know that’s probably hard to believe for a lot of folks who grew up in the Kingdome days, but it really is true.
This team is very clearly built around run prevention, not run scoring; sure, the overall talent level is still lower than we’d like, and they’re going to lose a lot of 1-0 ballgames; but thought processes like “we need more power!” are what this organization needs to get away from; that way lies ruination and Richie Sexson.
(In the voice of Hank Hill): Damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit….
I was on my way down to the library that day and was called home for an emergency. Damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit. Just hearing that sentiment would make my day.
It will be sooooo interesting to see how the players respond in spring training. Oh how I wish I was going to Peoria this year.
(thinks how to justify this trip to the wife THIS time….)
sigh.
Sometimes I miss Fairly Obvious Facts.
Anybody else think Clement’s going to be made the full-time DH by the ripe old age of 25?
Well, he’s already 25 (turns 26 in August) and Grifol said he was going to start the season behind the plate, so — no. I think they give him all of this year at least to stick there. They still have Kenji so it’s not like either one of them is going to be a really-full full-time catcher, particularly if Clement has any further problems with that knee.
One interesting question is how comfortable Wakamatsu is with having his “other” catcher be the DH if he doesn’t have Burke on the bench in case of injury.
Just to be clear, I never said we need more power. I was responding to someone who said we had power. I was simply pointing out that we don’t. I never once said power was necesary.
Aaron M.
And no WFB or Raul to serve as emergency catcher.
In University I had a friend who routinely ordered things like 9 Junior Bacon Cheesburgers from Wendy’s.
But, that’s probably less food that what Silva purportedly ate, and this guy was 6-9, 365.
My post wasn’t “aimed” at anyone; it comes up all the time and I felt it merited repeating within the context of the conversation, that’s all.
I’m probably going to get in a vague amount of trouble for my offtopicness, but msb, if you see this, could you please email me? the old address I had for you isn’t working.
(Or if there’s anyone else who’s going to Fan Fest tomorrow and particularly wants to say hi — I happen to be in the country for the next week and a half, so I figured I’d stop by and try to figure out who the heck all of the Mariners are now.)
We have a Deanna’s-posts-don’t-get-deleted rule hidden in invisible html in the comment guidelines.
as is only right.
There’s no such rule about Dave’s posts, though!
*runs and hides*
Here is your above the head coach. This is from a Seattle Mariner press release.
Steve Hecht has been added to the Mariners organization as Performance Coach.
“Hecht will work closely with the Major League staff and players. His focus will be helping the players on the big league club achieve peak performance by assisting them with mental training geared towards maximizing performance potential. He spent the past three seasons as Performance Coach for the Texas Rangers.”
Actually, Babe Ruth’s best season had him at 127 wRAA. Put him at DH for convience, and say we’re replacing a league-average hitter at DH (which, for the M’s, is just about true.) That’s +12.7 wins. That turns the M’s from a 78 win club into a 91 win club, which should be enough to win the division.
Yes, Babe Ruth in his prime would turn the M’s into division champs. Or, at least, serious contenders.
Gosh, I love the new statistical tools we have available these days. It makes discussions like this easy.
I think with Beltre, Branyan, and Clement you’ve got guys who can hit Homers.
We’re not the Rays or Red Sox, I know that.
My point was getting some guys in the line-up with more plate discipline. We’ve already got a lot of free swingers on this team and I think that’s one of the biggest problems to address.
We need a couple of guys who are looking to get on base, not swing for the fences.
Taking a walk, moving runners ahead, sac flys.
That’s how you consistantly win games, getting on base and moving runners ahead. The last thing we need is another masher with a strike-out habit.
there have been a number of performance consultants (Jeff Troesch, Gary Mack, Saul Miller, Carsh Wilturner, and most recently Dr. Jack Curtis) who’ve worked for the M’s.
I think Curtis was supposed to be there mainly for the minorleaguers, but Hargrove had him in for sessions with the big league team when they began falling apart. I wonder if he’ll keep working with the minorleaguers while Hecht is on staff for the big league club …
Actually, for that matter, Gutierrez has some pop in his bat, too.
…I think any discussions with Boras on a Beltre extension would be a waste of time. They can find better things to do with their time than that. It would only make sense for Beltre and Boras to let him hit Free Agency in 2010. If anything ‘let me hear that they’re trying to get more value for a 1 year rental of Beltre than the draft picks we’d get if he was a type A or B player and we couldn’t resign him once he goes to FA’
Beltre isn’t nearly as replaceable as you seem to think.
only problem with that is that Babe ruth played against about 2 minority players in his entire career. No Latinos, no African Americans, no Japanese or Koreans. You cant compare his stats to anything related to the modern day. 1920′s and ’30′s baseball was like AAA. Sure Ruth would still probaly be pretty good today, but not nearly as good as his past numbers would say. Hell, you put Branyan in the 1920′s and he’d have 400 homers.
Ruth hit home runs in a lot of stadiums that have fences a lot further away than most of the stadiums he would play in today. The just-closed Yankee Stadium may have been “the house that Ruth built” but it wasn’t the house that Ruth hit in: it had bigger outfield dimensions in his day. And Ruth drank too much, ate a lousy diet, and knew nothing of resistance training. Give him a dietitian, a personal trainer, and a modern gym, and who knows how well he would’ve hit at his peak. And while there may be pitches in use today that he never saw, he had to face spitballers and worse.
My point being that as valid as your points are (and they are valid — how great would it have been to see Babe Ruth face a young Satchel Paige?) there’s a lot of factors to consider when judging across eras. So rather than picking one or two to use in isolation, I prefer to stick to the numbers and leave it at that.
Actually Nate Silver calculated that based on the differences in the eras if you put Barry Bonds in the 1920′s he would have hit 444 home runs, but with a much higher batting average and on base percentage. And that Ruth in our era would have hit 913 of them. He also would have struck out a lot more.
put barry bonds in the 1920′s and he would of had a single at bat. There are many different factors about the eras, and yes technically it is much easier to hit home runs now than then, but the talent level back them was so incredibly tiny compared to toady. It would basically be if you kicked every minority player out of baseball and replaced them with replacement level willy boom booms. This is what the M’s starting roster would be
C. Rob Johnson
1B. Russel Branyan
2B. Tug Hutlett
SS. Chris Woodward
3B. Matt Mangini
LF. Mike Morse
CF. Michael Saunders
RF. Jon Nelson
DH. Jeff Clement
Awesome huh?