Boy, did ESPN back off that quickly. Now Port’s interviewing for the job, and no mention of their announcement that he was hired.
Hey, Kaz Matsui rumors are floating again. I’ve advocated a Matsui acquisition, but I’d like to now back off that. Matsui would be an upgrade over Glass, but not by much — a little more performance, most likely, and almost certainly in durability. But the cost is likely to be astronomical. If the team’s ownership decides to sink money into him and it doesn’t come off their payroll, well, no skin off my back. But if it does, the team’s almost certainly going to be much better off letting someone else overpay tremendously and looking for cheaper, more effective options on their own, even if that’s just having Guillen out there and taping him together when he shatters.
In other GM news, it appears Gary Hunsicker will be staying with the Astros for at least one more season. This doesn’t affect the M’s directly, but if Hunsicker had taken the Mets’ job it could have had a slight domino effect which may have eventually gotten to the M’s.
Also, here’s the article from the Times talking about Port, in which he says he expects to interview this weekend. So hey, we now have one more or less “official” candidate of the supposed 6-8 on the final list.
I realize I don’t have the journalistic resources that Peter Gammons does, and he’s been doing what he does for a really long time, is respected in the industry, and generally gets news before everyone else, but that doesn’t change the fact that this time, he’s wrong.
Mike Port has an interview scheduled for Saturday afternoon. The preliminary talks he has had with the club do not infer that an offer will be made, regardless of how the interview goes. He may end up getting the job, but it is not a done deal yet.
ESPN’s reporting that Mike Port’s the new GM and it’ll be announced in the next couple of days. At least the last part seems unlikely to me: MLB wants all hiring and other big announcements to wait until after the World Series, and Selig has twisted some arms over this in the past. Since the M’s are (and let’s just be honest) run by people who aren’t the most outspoken or prone to break MLB rules to attract a spotlight, it would seem that even if they had made a hire, they’d take the commish’s request into consideration and wait until the Series is over.
I guess there’s only one thing to say: Go Marlins.
After watching Grady Little mangle game 7, I have a whole new appreciation for Bob Melvin. In game strategy isn’t everything, but I’m not sure Grady could have made more consecutive wrong decisions if he had money on the Yankees. What an awful job of bullpen management.
According to the Seattle Times, Jim Beattie is not a candidate for the job. No tears lost over here.
Interestingly, Finnigan notes that they have narrowed the list of 60 names down to 6-8 for interviews, though that doesn’t jibe with earlier comments Lincoln has made. Still, it appears obvious that the Mariners won’t be parading through every qualified assistant GM in the book, and it would seem that experience is receiving quite a bit of weight.
The interesting sideline in all of this is that Paul DePodesta is already publically saying his goodbyes to the A’s. He is now referring to his tenure in Oakland in past tense and making comment like “They will still have a good team the next few years.” Clearly, he seems to believe he is going to be elsewhere in 2004. However, he is not a candidate for the Cincinnati job, and the Mets are prominantly tied to Gerry Hunsicker, current GM of the Astros. That would leave Seattle as the only GM opening, and I’m not sure I would see a benefit to him taking another assistant GM job with a new organization. So, does he know something everyone else doesn’t? I doubt it. But it bears watching, and a hire of DePodesta would signal a huge shift in philosophy by the Mariners. I’m not completely sold on the A’s model of player development, but I am rather certain that DePodesta would manage the payroll better than Gillick did. That, in and of itself, would be a big improvement.
Pedro vs Rocket tonight with the World Series on the line. You can’t make this stuff up. Baseball rules.
Best part about these Marlins games is seeing Jack McKeon, who managed the Reds unconventionally, did well, and got fired, whupping up on Alou and Baker. The Marlins play like you want to see a playoff team play: he throws everything into every game he can win, will throw guys in earlier than conventional wisdom advises, and realizes that the post-season is played by different rules.
I raise a beer to McKeon and hope that in some small way, his success will help unravel the slavery to set roles like ‘closer’ and rote in-game tactics.
Go Fish! Hooooooooooo!
Stupidest comment of the night, on the attention paid to that foul ball guy:
“It’s a sad sad comment on the state of our society…”
Look, for one, no, and for two, what? How does this reflect anything more than Cubs fans being crazy? That this guy’s identity is public and his life’s gotten a lot worse in a day is weird (you’d think they’d make Alex Gonzalez’s life hell instead, but noooo), but if anyone’s responsible it’s the Fox crew for their comments last night about how the fan got in Alou’s way and Alou would have caught it… for them to act holier than thou tonight to try and make up for setting this up displays a lot of gall.
And as to the 2nd-stupidest comment:
“All those fans who say they would have let it drop are hypocrites.”
One, no, they’re not, unless they say that and then don’t do it. They might be liars, sure, but they’re not hypocrites. And two, no. Just because all of those fans reacted to catch doesn’t mean they’re not dumb. All those idiots on the front row of M’s games who interfere with balls in play are idiots, and I wouldn’t touch a ball in play if I was up there. My desire to pay attention to the game and not cause harm to my team doesn’t make me some kind of two-faced liar.
Anyway, to the M’s. And yeah, we’re behind on GM updates.
We catch some flak, directly and in asides, for not being satisfied with 93 wins. Typically people point out that this would have won another division, or was better than a playoff team.
All of which is true. However, the Mariners were not at the end of the season a 162-win team. Arthur Rhodes’ injury-hiding and then injury-related-ineffectiveness meant few of Melvin’s matchup games worked out for the team, and there were pitchers — particularly Meche — who got much worse as the season went on. Colbrunn went from having a slow start to out for the season. Ichiro wore down again, Davis’ hot start went to seed, and the only improvement we could really point to was the Guillen-Sanchez left-side infield was more productive (though not particularly so) than Guillen-Cirillo. And Borders-Garcia seemed to create an ace out of erraticness, which has its uses in short series ball.
The M’s didn’t improve, or address their developing weaknesses. When the season ended, they had 93 wins but wouldn’t have had a hard time taking three of five from any other playoff team. That’s what fans are disappointed about. No one’s complaining the team won 93 games.