Our pitch to Antonetti
I’d like to encourage you to interview for the Mariner job, if you’re contacted. It’s a great gig, one of the best in baseball, and here’s why.
First, Seattle. It’s a great place to live. And unlike, say, New York, no one is going to throw rotten vegetables at you if they see you on the street after the team’s lost three in a row. No one even carries rotten vegetables around, that’s how nice people are. You can pick your neighborhood — and we’ll be happy to help you out with that — and you’ll be in walking distance of everything you might want. Our restaurants can go up against any other city in the country’s for quality, and the beer selection — if you haven’t been here, you’ll be shocked. We picket restaurants that don’t have at least two really good beers on tap.
I’ll let you in on a secret: the whole rain thing is something we spread to try and keep people from moving here. It’s a big conspiracy. The winters aren’t good, I’m not going to lie, but the summers are amazingly nice. Right now the sun is out, it’s seventy degrees with a little bit of a breeze, and it’s not too dry and it’s certainly not too muggy.
You get to enjoy perfect baseball days in a great baseball stadium all summer long. This is the place to be.
Second, you have a huge payroll to play with, and a lot of money coming off the books. If you want to go scrap-heap shopping next year, you can buy the scrap heap entirely. You can put out the best NRI package this off-season, pursue all your favorite minor league free agents and injury rehab picks. You can sign a new middle infield. Whatever way you want to go with the major league team, you’ve got the resources and flexibility to do it. You could to patch a winning team together next year, without having to wait out a long rebuilding cycle.
Third, the organization has a lot to support a new GM in rebuilding besides payroll: their international scouting organization is outstanding and has money to spend, the team has deep roots in Latin America and does well recruiting there, and while the amateur scouting side’s future may be uncertain right now, it’s made remarkable strides in the last few years.
Fourth, you don’t have to deal with the kind of media scrutiny you do in larger and east coast markets. We’ve got two papers in Seattle, though maybe not for long, a sports talk radio station that seems to be moving off local content, and that’s about it for media coverage of the team. National columnists pay about 10% as much attention to the Mariners compared to a comparable team on the other coast unless they’re contending.
And the print press here doesn’t include anyone who’ll be trying to sink knives into you from your first day. The beat reporters are high-quality, and the columnists include Art Thiel and Larry Stone. You’ll be able to explain what’s going on without having to worry about seeing twenty column inches misrepresenting you the next day, poisoning your relationship with the fan base.
Speaking of the fans, that’s five — look how many fans turn up now to see the worst team in baseball play another wretched team. They’re mad and disappointed, certainly, but they’re still coming out. The town wants to see the team succeed, and they’ve come out in droves when they’re competitive. The M’s have already avoided the kind of attendance drop the Indians saw, and given some realistic chance at hope — and again, next year’s a huge opportunity — they’ll be back cheering like crazy.
Moreover, there’s a huge contingent of smart fans here who know what you’re about and will be spreading the good word. The two biggest blogs, for instance (that’s us and Lookout Landing), have spent years trying to grow an educated, savvy fan base that can recognize good and bad moves, and debate moves reasonably (except Ichiro… don’t trade Ichiro, or think about trading Ichiro… trust me, all the guarantees are off in that case). You have, for want of a better analogy, a support network in place. If you want to talk about how you went after pitcher X because you thought they’d pitched better than their ERA and W-L record would indicate, people will be interested and listen. The groundwork’s been laid.
Which gets me to six — I don’t know what kind of technology the M’s have at their fingers, but they certainly don’t have the kind of stuff you’re used to in Cleveland. But you can build that, and fast. We’ve got thousands of readers who work at tech firms: when you start cranking that effort up, you will find yourself saturated in resumes from some of the best and brightest people out of an outstanding talent pool. I’ll help if you want. The only better place to try and start a project like this might be the Bay. The M’s are in a great position to be the smartest team about using technology to win in the major leagues within a few years.
Seven: we have Ichiro! You get to see Ichiro! play every day. You may have to just take our word on this: he’s unique and wonderful, and it’s a joy to get to see him at work.
Eight: the turnaround is not so hard. This team is worst in the league. You won’t have to do much in the second season to improve hugely, so you can look more than a year out. In a four-team division, even with the Angels and Athletics, getting a division title is reachable in the first few years. You’re not facing off against the Yankees and Red Sox, or even the Tigers and White Sox — though with the new A’s stadium, we’ll get there. But you only have to get past three teams to win a playoff berth. You can do that.
That’s the pitch: it’s a great city, it’s a great job, you’re set up for success, and we’d love to have you. Come on over.
Game 70, Marlins at Mariners
Andrew Miller (billed as “hard throwing” during in-game promos though his fastball is way off) versus Carlos Silva (who does not have a fastball). 7:10.
Same old tilt-a-whirl: Vidro is at #3, Beltre at #4, Ibanez at #5. Ichiro to right, Bloomquist starts in center.
We have a .219 no-power hitter in our #3 spot.
Bavasi firing press conference post
Lincoln faces a hopefully skeptical press corps! Live! 2pm our time!
“While we can identify no specific cause for what happened, and we’re all stumped as to why our hiring of Bavasi wasn’t an overwhelming success –”
“What’s that? Something’s going on offstage– OH MY GOD THAT’S YAMAUCHI’S MUSIC!!!“
Bavasi Fired
The M’s have fired General Manager Bill Bavasi. News conference shortly.
Lee Pelekoudas will take over as the interim GM and “a search for the new General Manager will begin immediately”. With as bad as this season has gone, it’s unlikely that they’ll promote anyone from within and try to call it change, so expect an outside hire. If Chris Antonetti isn’t on the potential interview list, we’ll burn Safeco to the ground.
And yes, with the new GM will come a new manager. McLaren’s being left in charge in order to not make the new GM feel obligated to keep around an interim GM in case the team starts winning immediately after Mac gets fired. The new guy will almost certainly bring in his own field staff.
Obviously, we’ve had our disagreements with Bill on roster construction and how to build a team, but as we’ve said repeatedly, he’s a really good person and it was our pleasure to host him at several USSM events in the past few years. I enjoyed all my conversations with him, and in the sense of having a good person to talk baseball with, I will miss him. But this is the right move for the organization.
When even Willie wants out, you know you’re in trouble
The second Kitsap Sun article in a day:
Willie Bloomquist says he can’t tell you why the Seattle Mariners are losing, but he can tell you why the Mariners might be losing his services after the season — if not sooner.
Bloomquist, the South Kitsap High School product who has spent his entire pro career in the Mariners organization, said he is considering a move to the National League after his one-year, $1 million contract expires at season’s end.
“Not Even Bloomquist Can Pull Mariners Out of the Mire”
Headline of Kitsap Sun game article
Swept at hoooome by the Nationals
Write “we suck” on a paper bag, cut out two eyeholes, and head on down to Safeco Field for three games against the 37-32 Marlins.
From the Pocket guide to McLaren firing dates:
Assuming that they want to do the traditional Viking funeral, where they set the manager on fire and the team off on a road trip away from fans, here are your next two opportunities:
June 19th, after the Boston/Toronto road trip and Washington/Florida home stand
Three games against Florida ahead. What bone are they going to throw the braying wolves, assuming they don’t sweep? Sexson or Vidro released? Another coach fired? Even… McLaren?
In which I wonder if Howard Lincoln is being duplicitous, being duped, or lying
I wanted to give this comment from sodomojojojo in a previous thread some discussion.
They wrote:
Howard Lincoln knows exactly how I feel when it concerns this year’s team.
I sent back a pair of tickets a Boston game with a letter that I would not be spending ANY of my money at the park this year. I told them that anyone with more than a passing interest in baseball could not seriously believe this team was constructed to compete this year and we’d be lucky to see a .500 win team on the field this year. I also hit them with a “we don’t care about your bobble-head giveaways and knitting nights,†and they might “want to join the 21st century†when it comes to evaluating talent.
I received a response from Mr. Lincoln, dated the 30th of May, he says that like me, he’s frustrated and disappointed by our team’s performance, especially given the high expectations we had at the beginning of the season and our high Major League player payroll. Also I’m simply not correct about saber metrics, they employ two people who are highly skilled in all aspects of saber metrics.
Also it was this ownership group that saved the Mariners for Seattle and has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to keep the team here. We didn’t do that for profit… (Really, then why would you do it?)
Sometimes I am so frustrated this year, I really don’t know if I should laugh or cry. This also makes we believe this front office really has no clue how to evaluate or make adjustments in regard to any aspect of the game. ARRRRRGHHHHH
First, there’s the possibility that Lincoln is lying, and the team doesn’t have two statheads on staff. Who are these two people who are highly skilled in all aspects of sabermetrics? You might ask. If they’re awesome enough that they’re highly skilled in all aspects of sabermetrics, they’d be pretty high profile, most likely — or at the very least you’d want to trumpet their presence and qualifications. If they exist, wouldn’t we or our readers know who they are?
Let’s assume the best, though, and say that Lincoln believes that he has two statheads, skilled in all aspects of sabermetrics, on staff, and they’re stealth hires. There’s another possibility, that he’s been conned: he’s hired two former Andersen consultants with statistical backgrounds who gave a great sales pitch, and now have brought in a whole group of their friends, all charging $500/hour to build a set of Access reports that measure clutchiness or something.
Because the next possibility is that he’s by omission glossing over the important part: that whoever these two are, if they’re competent, they’re certainly having absolutely no effect on the team’s moves. Not the way the team is managed on the field, not the way the lineups are built or how players are evaluated, and in no way did they have any sway over this last off-season.
So I have a couple of follow-up questions for the Mariners organization:
– Who are these two statheads you have on staff, and when did they join?
– Where did they come from? What other work have they done?
– What are they working on? What’s their involvement in the team’s decision-making?
– Where have they disagreed with the team on a major decision, and how was the disagreement resolved?
– If you have two statheads, skilled in all aspects of sabermetrics, why aren’t they involved in any of the cutting-edge research on things like Pitch f/x in the same way the Indians, Rays, and other teams are?
– How did they think the team was going to do this year?
Game 69, Nationals at Mariners
Redding v Washburn, 1:10.
Brief comment on Reed at first
Reed is working out at first, according to a story on mlb.com.
This means that given an outfield consisting of a wretched defensive left fielder, Ichiro, and a bad defensive right fielder, the team will be using their good defensive outfielder to play first, replacing a terrible defensive first baseman they’ve turned into an singles machine with a fresh conversion.
What am I going to say? This is a team that bats Vidro third. They could announce tomorrow that they’re moving Ichiro to short because Betancourt can’t get a bunt down and I’d shrug. We’re all waiting this kind of silliness out until the cavalry arrives (we hope) and some kind of sanity can be restored.