Ichiro returns to fetid odor of Silva suggestions
With the return of our Japanese contingent, Baker at the Times finally got to ask Ichiro about last year’s chemistry questions. Ichiro: Time to act like “professionals” is the result, a long piece including much Ichiro-ness.
But I want to take a second and question the premise of this:
There’s been a whole lot said since Ichiro was last here and he had to be asked for a response to all of it. Doesn’t matter whether it makes us feel uncomfortable asking, or whether the timing would have been better two months ago. Ichiro wasn’t here two months ago. He was here today.
Wait:
he had to be asked for a response to all of it.
Does he? What happens if he isn’t?
Now, this is a fine follow-up, in which a story which was built, briefly caught fire, and was rekindled this spring is continued.
But at the heart of this is the fundamental disagreement I’ve had with the whole thing: that it must be reported, and followed. The whole thing operates on the premise that it’s important, which I obviously disagree with, and moreover that it was a cause of rather than result of the team’s poor fortunes last year. We’ve talked about that a lot: clearly Geoff believes that this was a key factor in last year’s failure, and it’s been something he’s talked about over and over (and included his reasons, so I’ll refer you there).
What you get then is this:
* Clubhouse chemistry is an important factor in a team’s success
* Therefore, clubhouse chemistry is an important story to cover
* Therefore, there’s a need to report stories which allege clubhouse factions, threats of violence averted by clubhouse * meetings, etc, even if that means using and protecting blind sources, and itself creates controversy
* When clubhouse chemistry is an ongoing controversy and topic of discussion, further stories following up on it are called for
Which made this exchange stand out
After asking me for specifics about what Riggleman had said about the other players, he then immediately asked if I had any specific examples of what he could do differently to make the situation better.
Since he seemed to be waiting for an answer to his question, I shrugged and said: “Talk to them?” (Refering, of course, to anyone with a beef). [sic]
Not really my place to be telling anyone in that clubhouse how to go about their business, but he was asking and someone had to fill the void, so I put it out there. Once I did, Ichiro finally did answer the initial question., but he was asking and someone had to fill the void, so I put it out there. Once I did, Ichiro finally did answer the initial question.
Wait, what?
Not really my place to be telling anyone in that clubhouse how to go about their business
This is where it all led. It is, by this logic, okay to judge that chemistry is bad, to advance the opinion that chemistry is important, use that to justify covering and later actively building a story from blind sourcing (later found to be of particularly dubious quality), creating a nationally-covered controversy about Ichiro’s safety in the M’s clubhouse, cover it through spring training again as a possible risk to this year’s team and so on.
Since he seemed to be waiting for an answer to his question, I shrugged and said: “Talk to them?”
I don’t want to get into the absurdity of that response, since obviously Geoff wasn’t prepared to offer a cogent analysis. I want to get into what went into that response:
In all of the reporting done on this, in all of the interviews named and unnamed, nothing came up?
Really? At no point in talking to Carlos Silva about what a jerk Ichiro was did the question “what do you want him to do?” come up? Or Putz? Or, assuming there were additional sources, those guys?
And if that was it, if the only thing Silva wanted was for the cool guy to come over and talk to him more often — doesn’t that destroy the premise of the whole thing, from start to finish? If the people who are complaining so long and so vociferously have complaints so trivial that they don’t even have a way to be resolved, there’s no reason this should ever have been a story unless it was one about what a moron the complainer was.
If someone’s leaving their towels lying around, that’s a specific complaint that can be covered and addressed. And maybe there’s even a harm we can address.
That’s not what’s going on here. Again, Silva and Putz and whoever else might have been in on this were anti-Ichiro for no reported reason, their complaints unaddressable. And yet the stories written weren’t “Carlos Silva is a jerk” but “Ichiro selfish”.
And we still don’t have an answer to the question of what Ichiro is supposed to do to heal a rift that may not exist now and which he never created.
I cannot wait for the season to start in the hopes that we can get past this.
Thumbs Up For Ryan Divish
Ryan Divish gives his thoughts on Ichiro, leadership, and motivation. It’s good stuff.
Projecting The Rainiers
Tacoma’s seasons opens two weeks from today, and so with that, I figured it would be a good time to project out the roster that you guys will be looking at when you head down to Cheney to check out some PCL baseball. This isn’t an official release from the team, of course, as the final assignments haven’t been made yet, but I’d imagine this ends up being pretty close to what the team looks like.
Catchers: Adam Moore, Jeff Clement/Rob Johnson
First Base: Mike Carp, Bryan LaHair
Second Base: Callix Crabbe, Reegie Corona (I’d bet the M’s work out a deal to keep him around)
Shortstop: Oswaldo Navarro
Third Base: Matt Tuiasosopo, Chris Woodward
Left Field: Prentice Redman
Center Field: Michael Saunders, Freddy Guzman
Right Field: Mike Wilson
DH: Chris Shelton
Rotation: Garrett Olson, Jason Vargas, Chris Jakubauskas, Chris Seddon, Robert Rohrbaugh
Bullpen: Shawn Kelley, Luis Pena, Cesar Jimenez, Justin Thomas, Eric Hull, Patrick Ryan, Denny Stark
There’s a bunch of arms fighting for the last few spots on the Rainiers pitching staff. It will be interesting to see how they sort it all out.
Caple on the PI’s close, future of coverage
As posted a couple times in comments yesterday, and in which I’m quoted. Check it out.
It’s been weird not seeing Hickey articles pop up on my RSS subscriptions, which is in turn a little funny since that says a lot about why pro-paper people like me don’t subscribe.
First WSJ Baseball Piece Is Up
My second WSJ piece, and the first one on baseball, was published today. Obviously, the format and audience is quite a bit different than USSM or FanGraphs, so don’t freak out when you see ERA and BA used in the article.
I don’t really have a regular schedule that I can tell you to watch for, but I’ll try to alert you guys to pieces over there that you might find interesting.
John Brattain Passes Away
For those of you who regularly read The Hardball Times or Baseball Think Factory, you’ve probably laughed at one of John Brattain’s jokes over the years. Studes informed us today that he’s passed away due to complications from heart surgery. He was 44.
There’s no silver lining in posts like this. This sucks. Go hug a family member and tell them that they’re loved.
The Clement Problem
So, we need to talk about Jeff Clement. The chatter continues to grow louder that the Mariners may hand Rob Johnson the back-up catcher position, which would give Clement a ticket to Tacoma. With Griffey in the fold at DH, the only way for Clement to get regular playing time is to spend significant time behind the plate, and even with a new coaching staff in place ready to be impressed, Clement hasn’t opened many eyes so far. With Johjima returning from the WBC, the team is going to have to figure out which young catcher they want to keep getting work in Cactus League games, so this decision could happen sooner than later.
From my point of view, the team has three reasonable options with regards to Clement.
1. Put him on the 25 man roster, give him ~60% of the playing time behind the plate for the season, and make a decision once and for all on whether he can handle the defensive responsibilities of being a big league catcher while also developing into the kind of hitter he has the potential to be.
2. Put an end to his days at catcher, tell him that his hard work to improve behind the plate is appreciated but is now holding back his offensive development, and turn him into a first baseman. He’d go to Tacama and work on learning a new position and focus on his offensive game.
3. Trade him to a team that thinks higher of him than they do for a piece that fits into the organizational puzzle a bit better than he does.
I’d go with Option A, personally, but I’m okay with any of these three (well, the last one obviously depends on what you get back). I think it’s worth finding out if Clement can stick as a major league catcher, and this is the kind of season that’s made for experiments. If it works, great, you’ve got a big asset. If it doesn’t, you didn’t torpedo a season in which you’re expecting to win the division, and now you can make better informed decisions going forward.
But if the team is already convinced that he’s just not a major league catcher, or that he’s at least not good enough to keep Adam Moore from taking his job next year, then the team has to figure out if they would rather force him into a positional move he doesn’t want to make in order to keep his bat in the organization or if they’re better off shopping him to a team like Boston who might be willing to part with some interesting pieces to get him. I’d bet on Clement ending up at 1B/DH eventually, regardless of what organization he’s in, but he’s made it abundantly clear that he has no interest in moving right now, and trying to force that position switch on him at this stage could get ugly.
There is a fourth option, of course, but it’s one I hope the team avoids. That would be just sending Clement back to Tacoma to split time behind the plate with Moore. Having him crush Triple-A pitching again won’t do his offensive development any good, they won’t figure out if he’s going to be able to catch well enough in the majors if he’s splitting time in Triple-A, and there’s a real chance that he could nuke his trade value if he struggles after being sent back to the PCL. Like it or not, a bad year from Clement in Tacoma makes him start to look like the new Jeremy Reed, and all of the sudden, a potentially valuable asset is a spare part that you’re using as a trade throw-in.
I think the club should find out just what they have in him by letting him sink or swim in the majors this year. But if they’re not going to, turn him into a first baseman or trade him. We’ve dragged on the “we’re not sure about Clement” stuff long enough. It’s time to make a call – either he’s worth giving a shot to or he’s not. Let’s not put this off any longer.
WBC title game thread
Ichiro! Ichiro! Ichiro!
Note To Seattle Baseball Writers
Baker’s current post: Bill James on Morrow, M’s
Stone’s current post: Bill James on the M’s
LaRue’s current post: Bill James offers his thoughts on the Mariners
They’re all just summing up a press release sent out by BIS pitching James’ book. And, you know, nothing against James, but the topics aren’t exactly newsflashes to anyone who has read USSM for any length of time.
Maybe you guys should look into a system where you call dibs or something.
The Opening Day Pitching Staff
This is, of course, subject to change, but with opening day two weeks away, this is how it looks like the staff is shaping up to me.
#1: Felix Hernandez, RHP
#2: Erik Bedard, LHP
#3: Jarrod Washburn, LHP
#4: Carlos Silva, RHP
#5: Ryan Rowland-Smith, LHP
Long Relief: Miguel Batista, RHP
Middle: Tyler Walker, RHP
Middle: Jose Lugo, LHP
Middle: Roy Corcoran, RHP
Setup: Tyler Johnson, LHP
Setup: David Aardsma, RHP
Closer: Mark Lowe, RHP
DL: Brandon Morrow
When Morrow comes back off the DL, RRS probably gets bumped back to the bullpen, which would force the team to make a decision on Miguel Batista, barring an injury to another one of the relievers. Despite the fact that the bullpen is full of question marks, this is still a team with an abundance of pitchers – when healthy, there just isn’t room for everyone. You have to think that Zduriencik is going to be extremely aggressive in trying to move Washburn if he gets off to a hot start, because this team could use one less pitcher for everyone’s sanity.
It will also be interesting to see just how the bullpen shakes out as the season goes along, especially if one or two of the Chad Cordero/Shawn Kelley/Josh Fields trio of arms force their way onto the roster. Mark Lowe could go from closer to Tacoma fairly quickly if he doesn’t get off to a good start. There’s just very little certainty for any of these guys.