Comments on: New Front Office Trying To Make Us Stop Saying Nice Things

By: PaulMolitorCocktail

PaulMolitorCocktail — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:48:34 +0000

“Just wait till 2011! Felix, Morrow, and Aumontâ€¦â€

What’s the problem? You’ll see them all – in the same game, too! Felix starting, Aumont as setup man, and Morrow closing.

Your dreams are coming true.

By: UpOrDownMsFan

UpOrDownMsFan — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:39:24 +0000

“the sky is falling… the sky is falling…!” guys, i’m not as quick to jump to the conclusion that this is a horrible move. firstly, this is pretty much the same path we took with Brandon (only a little quicker for him)… secondly, with bedard, silva, and washburn, there are gonna be plenty of innings for relievers (and maybe wak won’t be so slow to pull the trigger on a sinking day of pitching), thirdly, maybe if aumont can’t go a big number of innings at the time, wak and gmz see him as valuable enough they want to manage his pitching themselves and not leave it up to minor league coaches to get him ready to start? and as for GMZ not liking to rely on prospects, that’s not exactly what he said– what he said is that he doesn’t like putting all the expectation on “annointed” prospects before they’ve proven themselves… he likes to stockpile guys with potential and see who rises to the top. let’s give the guy a chance before we open the valve on some classic Seattle pessimism. yeah?

By: floydr

floydr — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:03:57 +0000

While I agree that this sucks, I’m reminded of one thing I learned when I had some “management” training classes.

“The job of Managers is to enable their employees”. Don’t forget that Aumont has something to say on how he is to be used. He’s stated that he wants to get to the majors fast.

It’s always a negotiation between GMZ, Wak and the player.

By: msb

msb — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:58:09 +0000

Zduriencik is currently on KJR– when asked about Aumont being “destined to be a bullpen guy, making it 3 high draft choices to the ‘pen” said he’s a big guy, very aggressive, very powerful– spent a lot of time on the DL last summer, pitched in the WBC, sat down as a staff and looked at him, and thought it was where he was best suited, based on his injury history, his size, his personality, his pitches.

FWIW, Zduriencik says that when they told Aumont they were going to put him in the pen, his response was: “That’s what I thought I was going to be anyhow.”

By: Paul B

Paul B — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:52:15 +0000

Earl Weaver always said that the best place for a rookie pitcher was long relief. I think Earl was assuming though, that the pitcher would have stayed in the minors long enough to learn how to pitch and wasn’t rushed to the bigs with only one effective pitch.

Rushed to the majors is like we saw with Morrow, or for those of you old timers, Billy Swift (who had to go back and learn to pitch before he could stay in the majors).

On a team in desperate need of starting pitching that is better than replacement level, you’d think they would do everything they could to come up with young starting pitchers.

By: jjracoon

jjracoon — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:45:17 +0000

I guess I want to remain optimistic until it is proven that there was no alternative plan to build the team in some other way and this was just a step in that direction.

By: jjracoon

jjracoon — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:40:32 +0000

If and this is a big IF Z sees our starters as pretty much set for the next couple years with
Hernandez, a signed Bedard, Silva, and RRS then maybe there is a trade in mind to fill the last hole with a #1 or #2 pitcher. Or better yet maybe that plan is already in motion with all the bullpen bodies we have already!!

By: Breadbaker

Breadbaker — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:32:43 +0000

I think the problem is Johjima’s French is terrible.

By: Slurve

Slurve — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 06:16:52 +0000

JAC said the move earlier was to control his workload and to build fucking arm strength but full time reliever!

SO where do I sign up to bomb Safeco?

By: manifestus

manifestus — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 05:27:53 +0000

I think this is a revolutionary move — the plan appears to be to simplify the pitching dimension by featuring zero starting pitching.

Who cares about starting pitchers when you can just throw a few super-relief pitchers out there in succession? Awesome idea!