If you’re not going to check out “The Analysts” (and you should), Sporting News ran a column listing potential FAs, and it’s interesting stuff (the list, not his weird lament about nomads or collusion). It misses Brad Fullmer, who we endorse as a good cheap bat pick-up, Mike Lowell’s not listed at third, but other than that…
Shortstops: not a lot there. Tejeda’s the only one who’d be an upgrade on Guillen, really, and that’s a contract I’d stay far away from offering. Valentin’s not terrrible, but… enh.
DHers: Fullmer, obviously, but there’s also Ben Grieve, who is, uh… not awful…
OFers: Not a lot of players you’d want and would help the outfield much. Sure, you take Sheffield/Guerrero if you can get them at a reasonable cost, but how likely is that? There are some aging bat options, too, like Wonder Hamster Matt Stairs and John “Two words” Vander Wal, who’d be an upgrade on the punchless wonders we have now.
Ps: Doesn’t this team have enough pitchers? Seriously, I wonder how cheap you could pick up David Wells and make him a platoon starter — I think Safeco would fit him all too well. And then you can play Franklin (say) off against some of these other guys.
Hey, if you’re curious what I do when I’m not blogging, check out “The Analysts“. It’s a short I wrote which should (may?) amuse our dear readers. If you like it, hey, pass the link along to anyone you think would appreciate it. Hope you enjoy it. Oh: contains ‘adult language’.
Baseball America has posted the list of six year minor league free agents. This link is does not require a subscription, by the way.
The Mariners have 16 players who are now free to sign with any club they wish. No big losses here.
SEATTLE MARINERS (16)
Pitchers: Ken Cloude, Brian Falkenborg, Tim Hamulack, Justin Lamber, Josue Matos, Chris Wright.
Catchers: John Castellano, Greg Connors, Julio Mosquera.
Infielders: Andy Barkett, Luis D. Figueroa, John Lindsey, Mickey Lopez.
Outfielders: Mike Curry, Adrian Myers, Charles Phillips.
Lots of GM news this morning.
The Seattle Times states that the Mariners have requested permission to interview Billy Beane, but there are conflicting reports to whether they will be allowed to or not. There is no mention of Paul DePodesta anywhere in the article. The same article notes that the M’s are interested in Mark Newman, the Yankees asst. director of player personnel, and Dan Jennings, the Marlins director of player personnel.
The Seattle P-I reports the same rumor about Dan Jennings and goes into a little more depth about his baseball philosophies.
Talk about two sides of the river here. The fact that they even want to talk to Beane is surprising, and mildly encouraging to me. But Dan Jennings might be about the worst candidate on the planet. Take Omar Minaya’s stubborness about the purity of scouting, multiply it by ten, and you might get a feel for Jennings’ beliefs. He was mostly responsible for the disaster that was the Tampa Bay Devil Rays minor league system during the late 90’s. Their extreme focus on athletes over baseball players left their system in ruins, and had them paying big money for the rights to guys like Kenny Kelly. Now that he’s moved on to the Marlins, he’s taken this godawful approach with him and managed to make Florida’s system worse than it has been in years. The piece he did for Baseball America referenced in the P-I is a manifesto of ignorance and reeks or an arrogance only found in those completely unwilling to change.
Baseball is a humbling game, and the minute you believe you have found the answer, you are on the wrong path. The Mariners need to find someone who is willing to incorporate both scouting and statistical analysis into their evaluations rather than wasting time interviewing the extremist sides.
If Dan Jennings gets the job, we might as well become Expos fans.
The M’s are apparently looking at Leon Lee — father of Marlins 1B Derrek Lee — as a possibility to take over from Lamar Johnson as the club’s hitting instructor. Lee has an interesting background, in that his professional playing career was spent entirely in Japan. He has also been both a manager and hitting instructor in Japan. As far as I can tell, his only MLB experience was as a Pacific Rim scout for the Cubs a few years back.
The article in the Times (linked above) includes this line: Yet Lee, with his knowledge of the Japanese language and insights into what has led to Ichiro’s late-season fades the past two years, stands out from the group for those reasons. That’s a pretty strong assertion with respect to Ichiro, considering it doesn’t sound from the article as if Finnigan even talked to Lee. I would have liked a bit more information about this, personally.
I too have not been contacted by the team. I may have corrected the javascript issue we get occasional mail about, though.
We have another GM candidate not named Chris Antonetti getting an interview. Milwaukee Brewers special assignment scout David Wilder was interviewed for the job, according to the Seattle Times. Wilder was Milwaukee’s version of Benny Looper during the Dean Taylor reign, but was reassigned after Doug Melvin took control of the Brewers. It should be noted that the Brewers farm system improved exponentially under Taylor’s regime, though we have no idea how much credit should go to Wilder or scouting direcor Jack Zduriencik.
Through the candidates identified as having interviewed, one thing has become clear; the Mariners are looking for another Pat Gillick. Nearly everyone interviewed has a strong background in scouting and little exposure to an organization that utlilizes statistical analysis. They are baseball men who have been in the game for years and bring experience rather than expertise. I can’t say I’m jumping up and down at the thought of any of the candidates taking over the club.
Some questions rolling in now that the candidates for hitting coaches have been made public. Specifically, the question of do hitting coaches matter. This might be something of a controversial point, but I’ll say that in the grand scheme of things, they really don’t.
Hitting is not like pitching in the sense that bad mechanics can lead to serious injury and ruin your career. A pitching coach who can make minor changes to a pitchers delivery can manage to increase his effectiveness and longevity by a few hundred precent. Rick Peterson may have been one of the most important parts of the A’s success by not only helping The Big Three develop, but keeping them healthy enough to take the hill every 5 days. Bryan Price is an extremely important part of the Mariners staff, and I was glad to see him get rewarded with another multiyear contract.
Hitting coaches, on the other hand, don’t carry the same weight of responsibility. The involvement they have in a players ability to stay healthy is far less, and it is easier to perform well with a minor mechanical flaw at the plate than it is on the mound. Certainly, there are good hitting coaches (Lee Elia, Jeff Pentland, Dave Magadan) and bad hitting coaches (Mickey Hatcher, for one), but their impact is far less important than their pitching counterparts.
So, whether the M’s hire Chili Davis, Hal McRae, or one of Bob Melvin’s cronies, the most important key to their success will be their ability to gain the players respect and help instill a philosophy that goes along with what the rest of the staff is teaching. Lamar Johnson wasn’t a good fit here, but he wasn’t the reason the M’s offense went in the tank. Maybe a better hitting coach could have helped Ben Davis, but I’m not going to let Big Ben off the hook that quickly. In the end, it probably doesn’t matter who the M’s hire as a hitting coach, as long as he fits in with the team and gains the players respect. Edgar Martinez really doesn’t need someone telling him how to hit, anyways.
Jason here.
The venders of which Derek speaks are Hot Dog Joe’s (slogan: “U Wanna Eat!”) and The Dragon kettlecorn. I buy my pre-game snacks there and so should you. Let’s make it official…
Official Outside Hot Dog Vendor: Hot Dog Joe’s (U Wanna Eat!)
Official Outside Kettle Corn Vendor: The Dragon
And if we haven’t mentioned this already, the Official In-Game Reading Material is, of course, The Grand Salami.
Some might say I’m getting silly now. Those people have a point.
Official Safeco Value Seats: View Box, $23/seat
Official Safeco Cheap Seats: Center Field Bleachers, $6/seat
Official Foul Ball Hitter: Mike Young
Official Reader of the U.S.S. Mariner in Adult Entertainment: Jennie J, who emailed us a photo so smoking hot we cannot, for safety reasons, open, much less look at
Official Daily Comic: Frazz
Official Safeco Beer: Large Fat Tire for $7.75. Few beers make this kind of investment seem worthwhile
Official Final Fantasy VII Character: Aerith
Official Pre-game Pizza Vendor: Sodo Pizza, $6/pie
Official Most Helpful Reader of the U.S.S. Mariner: Jeff Lubetkin
I was going to put up outside Kettle Corn and Hot Dog Vendor, but I forgot who the dudes in front of the Home Plate Parking Lot are. Jason’ll know. Jason knows everything. Now if someone could find Jason for me, that’d be super.
Jamie Moyer, for anyone who missed the World Series broadcast tonight, won the Roberto Clemente Award for 2003 in recognition of his work with the Moyer Foundation. Man, he’s cool.
Coming soon: Derek’s guide to Spring Training in Arizona.