Talent In Pulaski
I had a great weekend in NYC hosting the FanGraphs Live Discussion, but it was also non-stop, and I’m pretty beat after getting back late last night, so I don’t have time to put together another post on the Wak situation. I’m not sure what else there is to say, either. If you guys want to talk about it, there’s two threads below this that you can have.
For those who want something else, though, I’d like to recommend this article by Conor Glassey at Baseball America. Yes, its subscriber only, but its worth the money, and it should give you even more reason for hope about the team’s future. Conor watched the M’s Appalachian League affiliate play last week, and he came away heavily impressed with three guys on the team – George Mieses and Richard Vargas, both 19-year-old RHPs, as well as 20-year-old third baseman Ramon Morla.
In addition to scouting reports for all three, Conor also shot video of the prospects, so you can see them in action yourself.
It’s really good information, and I’d encourage you to subscribe to BA if you don’t already. And keep an eye on these three – you’ll hear a lot more about them going forward.
Game 113, A’s at Mariners
Mazzaro vs Fister, 7:10 pm.
Day one of the Daren Brown era begins.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 2B
Kotchman, 1B
Branyan, DH
Lopez, 3B
Gutierrez, CF
Langerhans, LF
Moore, C
Josh Wilson, SS
Why Wak Was Fired
As we go forward, people are going to do a lot of speculating about why Don Wakamatsu and his staff were replaced today. In reality, though, it boils down to two very simple things:
1. The team has played terrible baseball and have shown few signs of improvement as the year went on.
2. Ken Griffey Jr became unhappy with Wakamatsu and actively spread his discontent around the clubhouse.
You can talk about bullpen usage, line-ups, or whatever other things you personally didn’t like about Wak, but those things didn’t matter all that much. Every manager has his idiosyncrasies, and as we saw last year, the things that Wak did that might have annoyed you don’t prevent the Mariners from being a winning ballclub. They’re minor issues that had little impact on today’s decision.
The first issue is the big one, obviously. If the team was winning, things would be very different. The frustration that has surfaced has been magnified as the losses pile up, and what should be small problems have turned into big ones as people stew after another loss. However, the second issue is almost certainly the root of why Wak was dismissed.
Pretty much anyone that has access to how the players feel about their former manager will report that it’s not good, and it hasn’t been good since May. When Wak made the (correct) decision that Ken Griffey Jr just shouldn’t play anymore, it caused some serious friction between the guys on the field and the coaching staff. The guys loved Junior, and they’re not rational about his abilities to help the team win. They just saw an icon in the game being shoved out the door. Griffey did absolutely nothing to discourage these feelings, offering no support for Wak or acknowledging the fact that he was no longer cut out to play Major League Baseball. Even after he took his meager bat and went home, he helped fuel the belief that it was Wakamatsu that was to blame for the entire situation.
At that point, most of the club turned on their manager. There was nothing Wak could do to get them back on his side. He was now the guy responsible for running Griffey out of Seattle. And he should have never been put in that position.
Plain and simple – the front office screwed up when they brought Griffey back for 2010. Everyone involved with that decision made a mistake, and they perpetuated that mistake by not having a plan in place to remove Griffey from the roster once it was clear that he could no longer function as a Major League player and would not be happy with a reduced role, as he had publicly claimed. The Mariners were more than willing to make up injuries for Mike Sweeney and Ryan Rowland-Smith when they wanted to get those guys off the roster – they should have been willing to do the same with Griffey at the end of April.
Instead, the organization left it up to Wak to play the bad guy, and the situation poisoned his relationship with the rest of the guys on the team. It devolved into a point where the relationships probably couldn’t be saved, and because the Mariners can’t get rid of the entire roster, Wak is the one to leave.
I’m pretty confident that he’ll get another gig, and be a pretty successful major league manager once he gets that second chance. More likely than not, his next team won’t stick him with a broken down former star who will become disgruntled once he stops getting his name penciled into the line-up. That will help.
Wak And Coaches Fired
ESPN 710 is reporting that the mariners have fired Don Wakamatsu and his coaches.
Quick reaction: He didn’t deserve this. The egos and poor performance of the players made this happen. Maybe it had to, given clubhouse dynamics, but I won’t lay the unrest at Wak’s feet. The grumblers are the ones to blame here, not the guy they grumble about.
New WSJ Piece
Since some of you have asked that I start linking to stuff I write elsewhere more often, here’s the piece I wrote for them today. I tackle the notion that 2010 is the year of the pitcher, when in reality, offense isn’t down from last year much more than it has been in many other recent years. It’s just a continuation of a trend rather than some massive outlier like the moniker might lead you to believe.
It’s also important to keep year to year relativity in mind when discussing the Mariners offense. Yes, it’s bad, we all know that. But if someone just pulls out total runs scored and says “this is the worst offense since blah blah blah”, it’s good to remember that offense is down everywhere, and has been trending down for years. It’s not an apples to apples comparison. The game has changed.
Jack Wilson out with fractured finger
For those of you just hearing about Shawn Kelley’s upcoming surgery, I have even more good news. SS Jack Wilson slipped in the bathroom and fractured a finger; the M’s will sit him until they learn the extent of the injury. He’s set to see a hand specialist tomorrow.
For now, we’ll see a lot of Josh Wilson. Chris Woodward, make sure your phone is charged.
Wilson’s pained pinky could conceivably end his 2010 season – a season which saw his batting eye/contact rate tumble, his UZR tip below zero and saw his wOBA plummet to Ronny Cedeno levels. His acquisition was always something of a gamble, and unfortunately for everyone, the house won this one. At this point, Wilson’s in a real fight to hang on in MLB. I wish him the best of luck…somewhere else.
Game 112, Royals at Mariners
RF Ichiro!
2B Figgins
1B Kotchman
DH Branyan
CF Gutierrez
3B Lopez
C Bard
LF Langerhans
SS Jo. Wilson
The repeat of Friday’s lineup last night yielded one of the most boring games in recent memory. This one has Saunders still out and Bard taking over for Moore, because Moore’s stiff back is apparently worse than Bard’s stiff neck.
The news for today is that Shawn Kelley is out for the rest of the season. Divish says that there was no stress fracture, but exploratory surgery will be needed at the very least, while Larry Stone quotes Wak in saying he could be ready in spring training or he could be out a year. So, Schrödinger’s Elbow basically, and we’re just waiting on the wave function to collapse. Nothing new here, no sir.
More positive news is that Wak, in spite of various managerial flaws, is still kind of cool. This is important for the team going forward.
LHP Jason Vargas vs. RHP Kyle Davies. There’s a non-zero chance we could win this one.
Game 111, Royals at Mariners
Last night’s lineup was surprisingly successful, so the M’s are running it out for a second time. Of course, Saunders is also still being held back and certain positions lack better options. Quiet, you.
RF Ichiro!
2B Figgins
1B Kotchman
DH Branyan
CF Gutierrez
3B Lopez
C Moore
LF Langerhans
SS Ja. Wilson
RHP David Pauley faces off against LHP Bruce Chen.
Game 110, Royals at Mariners
Greinke vs French, 7:10 pm.
Well, this is fair.
Ackley and Power
My latest post for the Brock and Salk blog is now up, dealing with Dustin Ackley’s future power output. Check it out.
Also, posting will be light this for the next few days, as I’m in New York City for our FanGraphs Live Discussion. It’s hot here.