John Hickey’s latest touches on Bavasi’s continued incompetence.
Gems include
“We’re fast approaching the signpost when you don’t expend prospects in a trade,” Bavasi said.
Is he on three-month tape delay? That would explain a lot, actually.
“To feel right in expending prospects, we’re going to need contributions from our current group of players,” Bavasi said. “If we get back in the race, that’s when you could feel good about (moving) the prospects.”
Uh huh. So what Bavasi’s going to do is go into the clubhouse on July 30th and say
“Hey, guys, we’re out of the race, you all know it. How do you feel about trading some of our prospects to stop losing so many games?”
What do you think they’ll say? They’re super-competitive guys that don’t like losing and are naturally going to be more attached to the guys they know than some schmuck from AAA. They’d all say “yeah, go get us some help” even if that’s not in the long-term interest of the franchise.
Okay, maybe Boone, if he’s still there, might bust out his Hudson impression and ask Bavasi “How do I get out of this chicken-s*** outfit?”
This is exactly the kind of weak-willed stewardship that will keep this team from competing again in the near future. Bavasi doesn’t need to wring his hands and build momentum, hoping they’ll somehow pull respectability out of this lost season and save him his job. He needs to be courageous and do what has to be done to ensure the long-term health of the franchise. If he does a good job of it, he might be around to reap the benefits and look like he’s smart and adaptable.
Otherwise he’s only making things worse while postponing his execution and ensuring that our agony as fans will extend far past this season.
Gammons’ latest column gives us more reason to doubt Bavasi’s ability to pull off this rebuilding.
“Bill wants to wait and try to build some wins and momentum this year,” says one GM, noting that Bavasi wanted to see what happened at home this weekend, and what happened was a three-game sweep of the punchless Expos. “If Kenny Williams can’t shake the Mariners into the trade mode,” says another GM, “no one can.”
How do you even respond to that? We want to build up momentum so when the coaster flies off the tracks it goes farther before it hits the ground?
Garcia’s trade value is as high as it’s going to get: he’s pitching well, he’s perceived as the only available top-shelf starter on the market, there are teams that need just that, and the longer they get him for, the more benefit they’ll derive and thus, the more they’ll pay. Every time Freddy starts his trade value can only go down at this point if he falls apart.
What’s Bavasi thinking the upside is here? That teams will get more desperate closer to the trade deadline? As other teams fall out of contention, wouldn’t it be more likely that they’re presented with other options that meet their needs, likely at lower costs?
Paul sent in a link to show that the Reds-Indians thing is true.
Due to an increased work schedule for the next couple of weeks, prior commitments to my other non-paying job, and my first wedding photography assignment this Saturday, I’m way behind on stuff I’ve been wanting to do for USSM. The Future Forty will be updated again at the beginning of July, and will then resume the first of the month updating that you all have become used to. I’ll also post my annual “who to go see in Everett” preview, giving you some things to look for when you trek north to go see the Aquasox.
Speaking of the Frogs, I’ll be joining Pat Dillon again this year during select pregame shows, and we’ll fill you in on dates you can tune in and listen.
A quick note on the M’s before I go back to work; trade Ryan Franklin soon. His recent surge is going to breathe new life into his value, and a relatively inexpensive contract would make him marketable to teams without big payrolls.
I keep hearing that the Expos weren’t even supposed to be here. The Reds were supposed to play the Mariners and the Expos the Indians (which makes sense, looking at the travel schedules) but the Reds and Indians wanted to play instead, having a regional rivalry and all, and MLB screwed the Expos because the Expos are the easiest team to screw.
I went to all three games of the Expos series, and I have to say that as much as I enjoyed it, I would have rather had the Reds. Griffey’s return to Safeco with a chance to hit 500 against his old club (which has given up a lot of dingers)… that’s historically cool. I’ve wanted to see Adam Dunn live and in person, and the Reds are a competitive franchise with a lot of talent and interesting things. Mostly I just wanted to see Griffey return.
I can’t verify that this is the case — and I’ll be honest, I haven’t applied myself to the question — but if it is, wouldn’t the Mariners protest? They’re astute businesspeople, wouldn’t they see how cool and promotable that would be?
Wooooh! The Mariners beat the stuffing out of the worst team in baseball! Go guys!
I’m serious — I wouldn’t look at the pitching so much, but the Mariners did score early and often against the back end of one of the better rotations in baseball. Keep the champagne in the fridge, but wasn’t it nice to see them scoring runs?
Overheard at the Ballpark, 6/13/04: “Bloomquist has power. He just hasn’t shown it yet.”
Also, I want to point out that having volunteers staff the concessions results in long lines and poor service levels.
This didn’t show up on MLB’s transactions pages so I missed it, but Quinton McCracken signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks after his release from the Mariners (which also wasn’t on the transactions pages). It appears though that he’ll end up getting some regular playing time, at least for a while, given the state of that team.
Rant ahead. Skip to next post for more in-game relevant content.
Tonight was Spiderman 2 night at the ballpark, ending a week of Ronald Reagan Night at Safeco Field. It demonstrated what an enormous tool baseball is.
Spiderman 2 night included:
– Spiderman foam hands for the kids
– Spiderman home plate and pitching rubber, which were both removed before the game
– Spiderman 2 giveaways, which sucked (the “Spiderman 2” DVD pack included a Spiderman 1 DVD, for instace. They did not give away Kristen Dunst, which would have sparked interest
– The U.S. Bank Great Plays Video Vault had a bunch of short clips from Spiderman 2 interspersed with the highlights themselves. At the end of the video they had to show the Spiderman 2 vitals, of which only the PG-13 rating was legible, in order to ensure that you realized you’d just seen a trailer.
It beats every-night-is-Reagan night, though.
Why, last night we got
– a moment of silence before the game
– instead of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” a video retrospective on Reagan
Before I start, I want to make this totally clear– I grew up on Reagan. I loved to listen to Reagan’s speeches, and he’s the first political figure I knew about.
When Richard Nixon died in 1994, baseball didn’t honor Nixon like this. We didn’t get to see his “Checkers” speech in the 7th inning. And yet, Nixon’s accomplishments are admirable: he went to China in a move that had tremendous (if largely forgotten) consequences, the EPA was established, and every one of us in the country is better for it. The DEA… well, I’d argue we’re all worse fot that. Nixon finally got the country out of an unwinnable war in Vietnam (where, and I mention this just as an aside, widespread torture of America’s enemies did nothing but destroy our own morals and turn others against us).
And his failings were horrifying, too. Nixon waged a secret war against Cambodia that killed hundreds of thousands of people and, indirectly, led to the Hmer Rouge killing a million, two million more. And he abused the Presidency in all kinds of ways, yes (“When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal,” Nixon once said, which presages the Justice Department memos justifying Bush administration policy on treatment of captives), and healmost destroyed American democracy. And he liked baseball.
But so did Reagan. We can argue whether he won the cold war, but under Reagan the war on drugs eroded civil rights and introduced the forfeiture laws that addicted police departments to continuing those civil rights laws, he ran a secret government out of the White House in direct violation of U.S. law so he could arm our enemies and finance his own secret war in Nicaragua. Iran-Contra would have gotten him impeached if Nixon’s impeachment hadn’t left the presidency in such awful shape. The debt…
Doesn’t matter. If Bill Clinton died tomorrow (Lord forbid) do you think baseball would have a week of silent moments and video tributes?
If not, why not? No matter what reason you cite, wouldn’t a decision to make that evaluation, to base the time and manner a president is honored on subjective criteria be an endorsement of certain people and their ideology over others?
We come to baseball games to see baseball games, not to see baseball drape itself in patriotism, or honor a particular president. I’ve always only wanted to be left alone to enjoy the game.
But attending baseball is not far away from being like staying home and watching on television: constant ads, video ads between innings and during pitching changes, only with better views, extremely high prices for food, and that stupid Moose. And at home I’d have TiVo and at that point, I wouldn’t go see forty, fifty games a year — I might see four or five.
Notes on tonight’s game
Worst Swings of the Night
—
Innings 1-3: Endy Chavez’s long reach from his timtoes for a Moyer changeup that made Chavez look like he was doing some kind of crazy isometric exercise that threatened to take him out of his shoes.
Innings 4+ Nick Johnson’s half-squatting reach for a low curve on a hit-and-run that sent him spinning around twice. You only get bonus points for that in Tony Hawk Pro Skater there, big guy.
Ichiro’s throw to second on that scoop of a short hop to get Endy Chavez was the most impressive defensive play I’ve seen this year. The hit went up, Ichiro charged — “Maaaaaaaaaybe he’ll get there…”
The ball dropped just in front of him — “Craaaaap, guys at first and–
Somehow Ichiro took the ball on the short hop and threw to second almost in an instant, and Chavez was out. (jaw drop, no thoughts)
I still can’t believe he got that throw off that fast. Endy Chavez is a fast dude (watching him play center… he covers a ton of ground out there) and Ichiro.. man, that was awesome.