McLaren announces coaching staff
If you haven’t heard by now, John McLaren’s announced 80% of his coaching staff for the 2008 season – Jim Riggleman as bench coach, Eddie Rodriguez as first base coach, Mel Stottlemyre as pitching coach, Norm Charlton as bullpen coach, and Larry Bowa as the candidate-of-choice to be the third base coach.
I’m sure they’ll get offended by this, but by and large, major league coaches don’t really matter. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, these guys real job title is John McLaren’s Drinking Buddy. They’re around to make McLaren more comfortable, and their impact on the players on-field actions is going to be minimal.
However, it’s nearly impossible to not see the obvious trend here. We rode McLaren pretty hard in the second half for his ridiculous love of veteran players, and it’s not hard to see that McLaren went back to the experience well when picking these guys. Clearly, he values track record above almost anything else in decision making, and he’s far more comfortable with someone who has experience than someone who doesn’t.
Considering he’s Lou Piniella’s understudy, that shouldn’t come as any real surprise. Piniella hated young players, especially young pitchers, during his early years in Seattle. He mellowed as the years went on, but McLaren certainly has Piniella-ish tendencies when it comes to the experience bias.
If the coaching staff he chose is any indication, I’d expect another year of Rick White type inexplicable decisions, with old guys getting the longest leash imaginable and unproven players sitting around watching.
LaRue: Sexson wasn’t claimed on waivers
msb pointed us to this, in the TNT:
Despite reports from ESPN, picked up by local blogs and beaten to death, Richie Sexson was never claimed on waivers this season. It simply didn’t happen. Not by Detroit, not by Baltimore – not by anyone.
The Mariners had Sexson and plenty of other players on waivers, but no one claimed him. If someone had, they’d be the proud owner of Sexson today. The Mariners wanted to move him, and hoped someone would put in a claim to block another team.
No one did.
I believe LaRue’s made this allegation before. If you look back through the Times/PI archives, there are references to the M’s testing the trade waters for Sexson but finding no takers, but I couldn’t find anyone either confirming or denying the waiver claim. Which seems odd, since that was a pretty big decision for the team (if they made it). And it’s entirely possible Jayson Stark got fed bad info: that happens allllll the time. But why would someone tell him the Tigers claimed Sexson and the M’s pulled him back? That seems odd.
Anyway, if LaRue’s right, then it’s likely that the team’s going to have to eat more salary to move him.
Game Seven woooo!
Oh man oh man oh man.
Mariner team defense since moving into Safeco Field
2000-2007, as measured using defensive efficiency: how many non-HR balls were put into play and turned into outs.
Top line is the best defense in baseball that year, bottom line is the worst defense in baseball that year. In 2001 and 2003 the Mariners were the best defense in baseball as measured this way.
Wait, what? There’s no game again?
Despite having whined about it earlier, I totally thought there was a game tonight — I just could not get my head around this being another off day, despite understanding it was 2-3-2 and all. My fault.
Go Tribe
I’m excited for this. And check out that Cabrera guy. He sure came out of nowhere, huh? Beckett v Sabathia. I hope my power stays on tonight.
Oh, and Joe Torre’s available for your managerial needs as of today.
M’s still searching for coaching staff
Yup. Exciting, isn’t it?
In comments, an interesting point came up: if you were a smart coach, wouldn’t you be a little bit reluctant to take this job even over other available positions? The M’s have chewed through a lot of coaches in the last few years, and if you see McLaren’s job as in jeopardy (and if you think the team’s not as good as its W-L this year, or you followed McLaren’s time here, you should be), you look ahead to next year, where there’s a good chance he’s been fired, which means his coaching staff probably gets fired… and you’re looking for a job again. You might be better off looking for a minor league coaching job with some stability or even possibility for advancement, or a position with a lower-profile team where you can try to get a longer-term shot at building a reputation.
There is science to be done, there is research to be run…
… on the people who are still alive*
M’s hitting since moving into Safeco Field, charted against league averages
Red is batting average
The other one is OBP
The top one is SLG
And on the other side, some pitching indicators.
Walk rate per nine innings (lower is better)
HR allowed rate per nine innings (lower is better)
Stirkeout rate per nine innings (higher is better)
* Portalllllllllllllllll!!!!
Now these points of data make a beautiful line…
Mariner run scoring and prevention in full seasons since moving into Safeco Field
Runs scored in blue
Runs allowed in red
(yes, the title’s another Portal reference. No, I will not stop with the Portal references)
Another GM walks away
Following in the heels of Terry Ryan and John Schuerholz, Angels GM Bill Stoneman has decided to give up his post. Three successful, respected men voluntarily walk away from jobs running winning organizations in the same winter – I can’t recall this ever happening before.