And a brief rant: I hate people. I hate it that I can talk about the Mariners here for months, and everyone can read this and know, essentially, my opinion about the state of the M’s, their strengths and weaknesses, the legacy of Gillick and team success. There are tens of thousands of words out there on this.
But if someone wants to look smart, they go through this and find some phrase that’s too-strong out of context and rant about it for a couple hundred words (“Derek’s a moron for saying the Mariners have no prospects! Look at this list of prospects ON THEIR OWN SITE!!!!!!1111”)
I won’t footnote every rant extensively* and I won’t mealy mouth this stuff (“Pat Gillick sucks, specifically within the context of his organization’s failure to learn from their errors and to recognize and seize on opportunities that would have greatly enhanced the team’s ability to compete in and subsequently reach and advance in the playoffs”).
Just keep that in mind. I’ve been particularly leery of doing this at all, since it’s sort of venting M’s related stuff I can’t run on Prospectus, because the nature of this thing means:
o No editorial checking to fix me screwing up “fourty” “definately” and the other 5-10 words I have a blind spot for
o Informal and fast nature of this writing makes that kind of quoting and misunderstanding easy — where each column at BP has to be self-contained and well-supported, I might post something here during a game after a pickoff like “Carlos Guillen is the worst baserunner of all time” and then Joe Schlobotnik can get angry and write about what a moron I am for thinking Carlos Guillen is the worst baserunner ever, when in 1910-1913 the nation saw some of the most galling and stupid sloths ever to tie up cleats and trip over them***, and this in turn makes my serious gig vulnerable to that kind of credibility attack, which in turn is only defensible by making this a serious gig, which I have neither the time, energy, or inclination to do
I guess what I want to say here is “give me a break”. If you see something here that suggests that maybe we’re total idiots, at least give a second to think about whether or not that’s the case, or if possibly we’re exaggerating, or talking about something we’ve been ranting about for the last month, or… we’re tired, and it’s late.
* if this is what you’re looking for, may I suggest David Foster Wallace or Nicholson Baker**
** “The Mezzanine”
*** I have no idea if this is true, I made that up
Early October 1st: I endorse Kim Ng in a lengthy 400-word piece.
October 5th: Larry Stone (“Official etc etc”) writes this in the Seattle Times (“Paper of Quality”):
If the Mariners really wanted to make a splash in their GM hire, they would consider Dodgers assistant GM, Kim Ng.
Ng, 34, is a rising executive with impressive credentials, having served as an assistant in the three largest markets in baseball — Chicago, with the White Sox; New York, with the Yankees; and Los Angeles, with the Dodgers as the current assistant GM to Dan Evans.
He also speculates Ng’s in line to get the Expos job repairing the damage Minaya’s done.
Yup.
Up next: Omar Minaya. Possibly, if I get really ambitious, the start of the GM Scorecard, which will be pretty cool, unless it isn’t.
Also, a window into the world of sports writing:
BP column using some stats to look at the Red Sox cheating accusation: little over 50 emails (many of which suggest the topic of the follow-up story I did the next day).
BP column about Announcers: about 30 emails.
BP column about Edgar’s last game, which Dave thought was awesome and I was pretty proud of: 10 emails.
Writing’s weird.
I’m back from Vegas! Did anyone miss me?
If we ever build a FAQ, this will be question #1:
Q. I just read a column saying that Ken Griffey Jr. might return to Seattle. Have you guys heard anything? If we could dump Jeff Cirillo on the Reds, would this be a good idea?
A. We get this email only slightly less often than the child of the murdered King of Uganda asking to make us rich men. No, it won’t happen. Jr is no longer a major league center fielder and his contract is a giant albatross. It would be a fun story, but it isn’t happening. The Reds are stuck with that contract until he proves he can stay healthy.
I think he does have one good current comparison: Kenny Lofton. Ichiro is very similar to the 95-97 versions of Lofton, and they are still comparable players, even with Lofton in the decline phase of his career.
Over the past three seasons, Ichiro has 29 home runs. Juan Pierre has 4. Ichiro is a slap hitter with occasional power. Pierre is a slap hitter with absolutely no power. There are some similarities, but I think Ichiro is clearly a superior player on the field, and we can only speculate on just how much money his presence has made the M’s over the past three seasons.
Well, that’s part of the problem — Ichiro doesn’t really have any good comps in MLB currently, because he’s a throw-back to the way the game used to be played. I do think Juan Pierre is his most similar active player, though.
Now, Jason, let’s not get carried away. Sure, Ichiro may be overrated, and I’m not looking forward to seeing what kind of contract Tony Attanasio thinks is “fair”, but Juan Pierre? Might be a bit of hyperbole there.
Oh, and since Derek apparently wants me to fill in all the juicy details, here’s my take on Benny Looper. His strengths are his ability to communicate and delegate. He is well organized and ran the farm system professionally. He has a pretty good eye for talent. However, his biggest weakness is similar to Gillick’s; he is set in his beliefs. Looper is old school and will stay that way. When a player is tagged with a label, whether it be non-prospect, fringe prospect, or superstar in the making, it has been nearly permanent. He believes in tools over performance, and as guys like Greg Jacobs, Justin Leone, and Ryan Ketchner found, no amount of improvement is going to remove the label that has already been applied.
One of the frustrations I had with the Gillick regime was an unwillingness to admit mistakes and learn from them. This would likely be a problem with Looper as well. He has some positive traits, but is too similar to the past management style for my likings. He might deserve a shot, but I hope it comes with another organization.
I don’t think we’ve talked about Ichiro yet. I’m sure we’ll cover this at length at a later date, but if you’re one of the people advocating offering him a lucrative long-term contract, I’ll ask you this: Do you think any teams will be lining up to pay Juan Pierre $10 or $15M per season when he’s a free agent? Think about it, and then get back to me.
Hey everyone, Jason here. Sorry for my lack of posting activity this week; it’s been a busy week. In any event, I’m back — and just in time, too, with Derek down in Vegas — and ready to roll.
If KJR is any indication, there seems to be a feeling that Seattle’s baseball fans aren’t all that interested in the playoffs this year because the M’s are taking part. Boy, I hope that’s not true. Last night’s Oakland-Boston tilt was a great game, quite entertaining and with a dramatic finish. It was worth staying up until nearly midnight just to see the game-saving play Eric Chavez made in the top of the 11th. In conclusion: Baseball good. Watch baseball.
I feel like there’s much to talk about on the GM front, but I don’t know what to say that Dave and Derek haven’t already covered. The top four candidates as of this moment would appear to be Benny Looper, Lee Pelekoudas, Omar Minaya and Jim Beattie. This is all subject to change, of course, and as far as I know there hasn’t even been any official contact between the M’s and any of these potential candidates. In the next week or so we’ll be posting, as Derek mentioned, some sort of GM scorecard with the top 10 or so candidates ranked in order, who they are, where they’re coming from, some comments about each and perhaps a momentum meter showing which candidates are on the way up, and which are on the way down. My endorsement (look left) of Paul DePodesta is extremely preliminary — I’d love to see him get the job and he’s not even going to get a call, but I haven’t done enough looking to pick someone else quite yet. Ng, Antonetti and Tim Purpura (Asst. GM, Astros) all sound intriguing to me right now.
I ran across an interesting Pat Gillick quote today. When asked what it takes to be a successful GM, he said, “A willingness to work hard, a lot of creativity and imagination. It’s a changing field, and you can’t stay on just one course for long.” I hope that, in coming up with potential candidates, the M’s take this quote to heart. They’ve been on one course for quite awhile now, and hiring an in-house candidate would do nothing to change that. It is indeed a changing field, where those at the top are young, well-educated, hard-working and creative. I think you know where I’m going with this. It’s time to look outside the organization, outside the “old guard,” and hire a bright young GM with new ideas.
So we’ve been remiss in not mentioning that Benny Looper, M’s VP of Player Development, is the leading internal candidate now, to the point where he’s starting to get a lot of publicity and people in the know continue to bug us that he’s got the ‘in’. At some point (unless the hire occurs this week) we’re going to put up a GM Scorecard or something so everyone can keep track of this stuff, and who’s got the what on who.
Looper’s spent 17 years with the M’s, joining as a scout and working his way straight up the scouting path. Played minor league ball for St. Louis, and holds a B of S in math and a Master’s in Counseling (!). Now folks, here’s Dave to talk about the life, times, and pro reputation of Looper, as I’m off to Vegas, returning in a while.