TTown wrote:in addition to many of the moves you guys have already brought up, for the life of me i don't know why we haven't brought in a platoon 1B that can hit righties. smoak was more than passable last year against left handed pitching (.260/.361/18 HR). seems to me if we want to go big $ elsewhere (cano, signing choo, bringing in another top arm), a relatively cheap option to shore up 1B would be to just bring in a platoon right handed specialist. he doesn't even need to be outstanding, anything would be better than the nearly non-existent production we get from smoak in those matchups.
I think Smoak posted that line as a LHB against RHP, but I have trouble keeping it straight too [I always check Baseball Reference just in case]. I agree, adding a RHB against LHP makes a ton of sense. I'd mentioned the Smoak platoon idea earlier in this thread--not because of any great idea I had, but because Jack Z discussed platoons as a possibility on the radio. But I also was leery of the idea because we didn't have a manager yet. How's McClendon as a platoon deployer? Good? Bad? No idea.
I really struggled to find the other half of the platoon in the FA heap. Loney was a name that came to mind but he's a guy you pay to be a starter [and he's really not bad--not a ton of power, but a decent hitter and good defensively] right now.
I'd mentioned Juan Rivera as an option back then. He's 35 years old and he didn't play a lick in the majors last year as he was with the D-Backs' AAA affiliate. But he's historically been very good against LHP, putting up a .289/ .349/.456 line only two season ago. He's a free agent, and...what could he possible cost? The veteran minimum?
If you can add Corey Hart on a decent deal as a primary DH, I think you have a 1B/DH group that, while not All-Star caliber, can produce at a decent level.
Bulltalk wrote:Our very own Geoff Baker wrote an apparently well investigated and scathing column on the Mariners ownership and front office in the Seattle Times. I think we've all been disappointed with our distant majority ownership, with Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong, and in the last few years with Jackie Z.
Honestly, nothing in that article is surprising. Old white businessmen are acting like old white businessmen, puffing their chest and pushing people around. How quaint.
I want to be more disappointed in Jack Z for how he's portrayed, but sometimes that stuff happens when you're trying to save your own job. Jack's 62 years old. If he's canned by the M's, I'm sure he'll work in baseball again...but not as a GM. This is his shot. 30 years in baseball lead to this gig.
You get hired with a plan [rebuild a franchise in a cost effective, concentrate on youth, find bargains in defense/speed/etc., rely on pitching]. Plan fails. Results on the field aren't want you want.
Your bosses want changes. You make changes. People are alienated. People lose their jobs. You try Plan B [change dimensions of park, add power, stop relying on youth]. Plan B fails. You make changes. Now, you're on to Plan C [sign free agents, spend money, platoons?].
As great as consistency is, and as much as I support what the plan was when Jack was hired, I get the self-preservation aspect. There's no way I think Jack is as stupid as and analytically ignorant as Tony Blengino makes him out to be. Tony portrays Jack as a buffoon, who "has [never] understood one iota about statistical analysis. To this day, he evaluates hitters by homers, RBI and batting average and pitchers by wins and ERA.” There's no way I buy that claim. Is Jack as proficient in the SABR world as Tony? Clearly not. But I don't think he's a simpleton who who doesn't understand the game at a level any deeper that a 12 year flipping through his baseball card collection.
I'm also heartened to know all the good moves the M's made where the work of Tony Blengino, and all the bad moves were made by others in the organization. [Information courtesy of Tony Blengino--who also spoke to MLB Radio on DEC. 8th and laid into Jack Z again]. Why, just read the article where it indicates "Blengino advised Zduriencik on key moves in a surprising 85-win first season, including the signature acquisition of outfielder Franklin Gutierrez."
So...what about Chone Figgins? Trading Mike Morse for Langerhans? Did you advise Jack on those too or all those all his fault? Advise a GM to add a couple stats favorites who work it, and you take the credit. Advise a GM to add a couple stats favorites who don't pan out...and don't bring it up. At all.
The article tries to paint a picture of a franchise whose rise couldn't be controlled with Jack and Tony together after 2009. It's as if the 2010 season didn't even happen. Remember the 2010 season? I do. Griffey retired in shame. Chone Figgins was brought in, was horrible, seemed to get into it with Wakamatsu. Branyan left, and the cheap replacements [Kotchman, Garko] were horrible. They traded Morrow for League. They traded for Cliff Lee, and then traded Cliff Lee. Franchise scored the fewest runs in the AL since the DH rule was put into effect. Wakamatsu was canned.
Very similar pattern of moves to '09, but nothing worked. I'll bet Armstrong and Lincoln were thrilled. So, it was after this season that Jack Z started to push Tony away and look in a different direction for advice?
Also, I love this quote by Baker:
The Mariners from 2011 to 2013 traded Doug Fister, Michael Pineda, Steve Delabar, Erik Bedard, Mike Carp and John Jaso for limited returns.
That's the proof Baker wants to use to show Jack, after pushing Blengino aside, doesn't get advanced stats? That Jack traded for Jaso--a stat community darling--from the stat loving Rays for the cost of a middling relief pitcher? Didn't they trade for Jaso during this dark, informed period as well?
That Jack traded Delabar, who was also picked up in '11?
That Jack decided to move on from Carp after he'd posted a .255/.327/.413 line over the course of four seasons? I certainly don't recall the STAT community
decrying that move at the time. Or
ever really seeming interested him as a hitter.
That Jack traded Bedard to a contender in a deadline deal before he hit free agency? The same Bedard who's been horrible as a SP in the next two season?
That Jack traded Pineda who--in two years--hasn't thrown a pitch in MLB? Yeah...
another move lauded by Dave Cameron.
There's no justifying the Fister trade. It was a bad move, and it wasn't exactly lauded by M's fans at the time. And Jack's admitted his regret in making that move. He said so in the same interview on 1090 where he discussed platoons.
I know what conclusion Baker is angling for with that list, but he doesn't get there. The conclusion I get--hell, let's throw the Upton rumors and the David Price rumors in to back this up--is Jack doesn't value younger pitchers as much as others do. And I don't that he's wrong to think that, given the number of pitching prospects who never make it. Or get injured. You spend draft capital and money on a guy like Danny Hultzen--a can't miss prospect--and odds are the M's will see no return on that transaction.
I hate to see premium prospects traded for fear they'll go on to succeed elsewhere. As much as I like Tijuan Walker, I do recognize he's a 21 year old who's never thrown more than 160 innings in a season. And yet I feel like I am counting on the guy to be the M's #3 SP this season. In a normal season, Felix throws 230+ innings. There's no way Walker should approach those numbers this season, if I sit and think about it rationally for a minute. I get why a talent evaluator may look at young SP are commodities more than cornerstones.
Anyway, regardless of what's going on in the M's front office...thank God we have Geoff Baker out there, doing such fine reporting and releasing it a day [or two] before the winter meetings. I can't wait for more of his output from his investigative role. Perhaps he can tear down the Sonics Arena campaign? Maybe blow the lid of the Seahawks' organization and their issue with PED's? Let's air all the dirty laundry of all the pro sports teams in the area, at a time when there are positive signs on the horizon after years of bad college football, bad baseball, bad NFl football, and the loss of a pro basketball team. Keep fighting the good fight, Geoff. Too bad the M's have too many non-white players for you too accuse them of racism.
Also, it's great to see Baker pushing this narrative, after years of sparring with the likes of Dave Cameron and wanting the M's to spend big on FA htiters
immediately after the M's drop nearly a quarter of a billion dollars on one guy.
