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.
You know, the Mariners might not be in them, but the playoffs still rule. Kerry Wood going yard? Game sevens in both LCS’? Pedro vs the Rocket to determine the American League Champion? Seriously, this is awesome.
As was pointed out by uber-reader Ivan Weiss, Brad Fullmer was inexplicably released by the Angels today. He was in the midst of a career year before his knee blew apart, and he would be a terrific addition to the M’s bench and possible replacement for Olerud if the decline continues.
The Reds and Mets are almost certainly going to settle on their new GM before the Mariners do, and that is fine by me. Retreads just aren’t any fun. We want new blood!
And hey, the Arizona Fall League is still going on. Go Justin Leone.
The good news keeps rolling in; in a surprising decision, the Mariners decided to put Allan Simpson on the 40 man roster, protecting him from the Rule 5 draft. I’m a fan of Simpson, and I think this is a good move. With some more improvement in his command, he could be a solid right-handed reliever next year. Also, Giovanni Carrara elected free agency (hooray), and Chad Meyers decided to find work for another AAA club as well (no big deal).
Cincinatti’s GM job is down to Omar Minaya, Wayne Krivsky, and Dan O’Brien. Here’s hoping they hire Minaya, which would end any possibility of me having to impale myself on a spoon during the press conference announcing him as the next M’s GM.
Good news, everyone — Stan Williams is out as the M’s advance scout. He’s off to Tampa Bay to join Lou’s Crew in the same capacity.
Williams, if you recall, served as Lou Piniella’s pitching coach for two seasons with horrible results before being replaced by Brian Price. Williams (“Steamer,” as he’s known) then took the advance scout job. You generally don’t hear much about advance scouts, but think about it — if Williams had been doing his job this season, would the M’s have had all that trouble with pitchers they’d never seen before? I don’t think so.
There’s a funny anecdote about Williams you might have heard, but I’ll pass it along in case you haven’t. When he was pitching for the Dodgers at the beginning of his career, he had some serious problems with the old base on balls. In an effort to cut down his walks, the team put some sort of fine in place for each one he issued. To combat this, it’s said, whenever he would get to a three-ball count on a hitter, he’d simply drill him with the next pitch rather than risk the walk.
I have no idea if this is true or not, but I’ve always liked that story. In the words of the immortal Troy McClure, “That’s too funny! I can’t remember when I’ve heard a funnier anecdote. OK, now you tell one.”
Also, the team has its 2004 schedule, a schedule which does not include a trip to Japan. That could still change, though.
Antipodes, Jason, antipodes. Here’s how you figure out one.
Link-o-rama.
LaRue, Tacoma News Tribune: “Mariners whittling list of potential GMs“. Armstrong says he thinks they’ll interview fewer than 20 candidates. TNT’s also been running pieces on each possible candidate. Check ’em out:
Omar Minaya (choice quote: “Why he might be a good fit for the Mariners: What’s not to like? He’s young, he has a background in scouting and has previous experience as a GM.” What’s not to like? Um, he’s not any good, for starters.)
Mike Port (who we have sadly not talked much about here yet)
Lee Pelekoudas
Benny Looper
Larry Stone (“Not Responding to Endorsments by the U.S.S. Mariner Since 2003”) wrote a Inside Pitch column Sunday about choices the M’s have for their GM job, focusing on existing GMs.
John Hickey at the PI writes the team should go after what Hickey sees as the top candidates — Beane, Hunsicker, Cashman, Sabean.
News of last week: the M’s wanted permission to talk to Mike Port, which makes him the only guy we are absolutely sure they’re talking to.
You’re probably wondering why I’m not writing x thousands of words/a day, I’ve been seriously sick and catching up on sleep at night, and moreover, I have a lovely new job that requires me to do things like… well, like not post really long essays in the middle of the day.
Also, my boss is a U.S.S. Mariner reader, so no more rants about work (though honestly, I don’t think I’d be ranting about work if I could. Now my last job, hoooo boy, could I post about that).
Folks, I have no idea what Derek is talking about.
I will, however, say that the Florida Marlins turned in one heck of an 8th inning tonight in Chicago. Have you ever heard a crowd go from excited (“We’re going to the World Series!”) to pissed (“Kill that #@*!”) to dead silent (“What the…?”) so quickly?
Seattle’s antipode is not, as previously speculated, New York, but is (approximately) Port-Jeanne d’Arc in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. Unfortunately, as there are no permanent inhabitants of the FSaAL, there is no baseball, so I can’t tell you what the opposite-land Mariners look like: owned by a Texas billionaire or a Martian, whether they’ve won championships or languish in the cellar. Sorry, this avenue of research has come to a dead end unless I can figure out a universal antipode.
Hal McRae rumored to be in the running as the new hitting coach. Oh heck no. The butcher job he did on the Tampa Bay team while manager should be enough to keep him out of baseball permanently.
How much money has Jeff Nelson cost himself the past 3 months? Seriously, can anyone see him getting more than a 1 year contract for next year?
I know we say this a lot, but you guys rule. Seriously, it is now rare that a day goes by without getting an email from someone who is following the team from somewhere other than Seattle and says all kinds of nice things about us. We wish we could respond to every email we get, but we appreciate them all anyways. Keep on sending em in.
I’ve been looking at this GM thing, trying to come up with a candidate to endorse. I tell you what, though: Derek and Dave are endorsing Cleveland’s Chris Antonetti for a reason. I’m impressed with his education (Bachelor’s of Business Admininstration from Georgetown and a Master’s in Sports Management from the University of Massachusetts) and the organization he currently hails from. You wouldn’t hear any complaints from me if the M’s hired him.
That said, I do like to be different when possible. I’ve been trying to read as much as possible about Boston’s Josh Byrnes, and I’m going to give him my endorsement as of this minute. I like that he’s worked for three different organizations — Cleveland, Colorado, Boston — and that he was Cleveland’s scouting director. That scouting aspect is important, and having worked in three organizations should give him a good perspective on things.
So there you go. Josh Byrnes for GM. I’m more than willing to be shot down on this one, so fire away guys.