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Spring training feed announcement
Come on out to sunny Peoria and meet two major league GMs March 3rd. Seattle Mariners GM Bill Bavasi and San Diego Padres GM Kevin Towers will talk and take questions from fans for a good 45 minutes, before seeing the two interleague rivals face off in a fierce spring training game at the Peoria Sports Complex. Afterwards, you can buy a signed copy of the newly updated, paperback version of Baseball Prospectus’ Baseball Between the Numbers
Cost is $21, which includes your ticket to the game and the money we have to pay TicketMaster to mail them to us so we can distribute them early.
RSVP by emailing to seattlefeed@yahoo.com. Please specify your full name and how many tickets you need. To ensure that we can secure/order a group of tickets all together, deadline to RSVP and pay for tickets will be Friday, Feb. 9. Once we’ve confirmed your RSVP by email, you can PayPal the funds, by no later than Friday, Feb. 9, to: derek@ussmariner.com
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dammitdammitdammit.
Was that Hank Hill?
wow, if only i could afford transport from eugene to peoria + lodging
Wow - I’m a touch suprised that Bavasi agreed to another USSM Q&A, since I’m sure he’s at least heard about the general blogosphere consensus on his offseason’s work. Not too surprised, though. He comes across as very forthright and candid in person. Should be a very interesting session.
Maybe I’ll have to find a way for work to ship me to AZ for a few days…
Damn. I’ll be at both Padres/Ms games on the 1st and 2nd and then we drive back to L.A. on the 3rd
Wish I could be there!
Though I’m not going, you guys are freakin’ awesome for being able to put something like this together.
Only a week before I go to Arizona myself! Dammit.
So Bavasi either hasn’t read USS Mariner or doesn’t take the criticism of his performance personally?
I guess that answers my off-the-mike FanFest question of Bavasi. I was going to ask if he expects to receive an invitation to any USSM gatherings, and if so, whether or not he’d accept…
Say what you will about his performance as the Mariner GM - and, uhh, we have - but I don’t think you’ve ever heard any of us say a bad word about the man personally. He’s a stand up guy and has been great to us as a blog the past few years. If only he were better at his job, we’d love for him to stick around for a long time.
Also, if there’s interest, I’m going to be in Arizona a few weeks later, from March 15th through the 18th, and might organize an informal get together at one of the games during that time. If you’re going to be in Peoria that weekend, post a note here, and if there’s more than a couple of us down there, I’ll work on it.
ah me. I had hopes of getting back to Peoria finally, but it fell through– and then the opportunity to visit friends in SC came up, so that is where my few holiday pennies are going this year.
Mustard BBQ and shrimp instead of throwing pointed questions at the GM. or Dave.
Actually, I might, just might be able to make it. It would be pretty crazy if I could pull it off, but I may be able to.
Argh. This is so incredibly tempting. But I’m going to Phoenix next weekend, and then again the weekend of March 9th. Can I afford to fly again? (parents are picking up the weekend of the 9th, but not next weekend). I’m thinking that I probably can’t, but maybe I should make it work anyway. Wow. This is tempting.
My final answer is, since I didn’t work a full month this month, that I’ll be about US$20 short of making it work.
Corco do you like flying standby?
Argggh.
Unlike most places, I actually have lodging (crash with my brother or my parents).
But since I’m opening a show that weekend….
I wonder if I can fly standby… but then I’d have to do the same on the way back. How full are flights to Phoenix that time of year?
Did you have to agree to guarantee Bavasi’s safety?
Flights to and from Phoenix are pretty light right now, however that could obviously change once Spring Training starts. And flights are usually always easy to get on from Phoenix to Seattle.
however that could obviously change once Spring Training starts
Change “could” to “will”. Not just because of Spring Training, although that is a factor, but March is pretty much high season in the desert, so expect to pay more for both flights and lodging.
Spring training is totally worth it, though.
Dave,
I’ll be going out for Spring Training starting the 9th until probably around the 17th. Even if you don’t set up something official, it’d be sort of cool to say hello during the 7th inning stretch or something.
You guys actually managed to arrange a meeting with a GM of two baseball teams all on the same day?
I am seriously impressed. England certainly has a long way to go before its bloggers can match the power of their American counterparts in the sporting world. Wish I could get to America in March…
I and 6 friends will be in Phoenix the week of 3/13-3/20 for spring training, golf, poker, etc. If an event is organized during that timeframe, we should be able to make it. Saturday night from 5pm - 9pm is the only blackout for us.
Armstrong at FanFest said Bloomquist is the best utility man in baseball…thought we could all use a laugh.
Yeah. I busted out laughing, and Howard was already looking my direction, but he focused on me and gave me a really, really dirty look.
can we have a fanfest thread? this is the first year I haven’t gone, and I need to know what sort of entertainment the Q$A sessions provided– Deanna? Conor? Paul?
For that March 3rd Q&A someone ought to string together a bunch of questions on June draft day philosophy, player development, etc. for the two GMs whose organizations’ farm systems rank #25 and #30 out of 30 according to Keith Law…
yeah a fanfest thread would be nice, actually met up with corco and paul just by chance waiting in line for felix’s autograph.
27: You missed Paul pissing Bavasi off, Deanna asking “Why did we trade Snelling?” and Corco being at a loss for words and sounding like a Parkinson’s victim.
Was that you? I didn’t have a damn clue what half the people said.
A little hard to hear I was in the front row with all the feedback from the sound systems.
anybody wear their Chris Antonetti button to the Bavasi Q&A?
and do we know why there is a massive firework display going off right now on Lake Union?
If anyone would be interested in sharing a hotel room in Peoria or Phoenix for the Q&A let me know, I’ll probably fly back to Seattle after the game on the 3rd if I can’t find another game on the 4th I’d want to see.
#30, somehow i missed most of that, i guess thats because 70% of my time was spent in autograph lines. I did listen to some questions while being staged in the seats. It was interesting listening to some of the questions and answers, missed corco’s and deanna’s questions though.
I did like Bavasi’s semi-second answer to Deanna’s question about Snelling, muttering something like “But honestly I wouldn’t have traded Chris if I didn’t believe he would get playing time”
Somehow I feel a little better about that trade, that Bavasi did give Snelling’s playing time the most consideration.
a ha.
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That was me. I think I said something about Broussard. Whatever it was, it wasn’t the question I meant to ask, as I what I wanted to ask couldn’t come out, and so I decided I’d just stop.
corco, how long did you stick around at fanfast? i think we got out around 3 or so. Anything else i could have missed, besides the repetitive questions about ichiro, snelling and vidro? Also we got to meet Mclaren while on the dugout tour, he was just standing around. Pretty cool guy
I got there about 2 minutes after PositivePaul, at about 7:20. I left immediately after the Q&A with Bavasi, so like 3:04 I think I left., so I don’t think I missed anything you didn’t.
wow, we lined up at 9:30, took almost an hour to get from Bonney Lake to safeco. How many people were there when you got there?
about 40. Don’t get me started on the drive up. Seattle people are idiots. The left lane is for speeding recklessly, as i wanted to do, not driving 2 over the speed limit, especially at 6:30 AM on a Saturday.
hey, your in washington now. there is no fast lane, you have to be skilled in quick lane switching and decide quickly what lane you have to change to, to go the fastest. Somehow last year i made it to safeco at 4:30 in the afternoon in 40 minutes, averaging 85mph. Countless lane changes, but around seattle you get a large selection of lanes.
I got there about 9:20 and was in line around 9:30, near the right field gates. I kinda wished they would have opened a gate for people who didn’t want to stand in autograph lines all day, or even wait for a voucher. I just wanted to get in as soon as possible for the Q&A.
I’ve had that same thought the last few years– at least when it was across the street in the Exhibition center, you could still hear the Q&A sessions while you waited in line for your Ichiro autograph
oh, did anyone see the new Slimline Felix?
Quick, rapid lane changing for no reason is irresponsible driving.
yeah, happened to glance at him as he was signing my picture i had. Looked a little more healthy. Maybe Paul can elaborate on the certain “flamethrower” picture he brought.
I saw him on the T.V.’s and he looked pretty good, I was pissed because I still thought I had time before he came out, I had decided to venture to the clubhouse tour and the history museum. The museum by the way is really frickin’ cool and definitely one of my favorite parts about fan fest!
46: if you want to go faster then posted speed limit, its your only option.
It’s just a bad option. It’s like asking me who I would rather have as our starting shortstop for the rest of the year: Bucky Jacobsen or Jack Cust.
I’d take Dave Cameron
Well so would I, but that’s not an option.
i was pretty happy with fanfest this year. It didn’t seem as crowded as years past. I got 2 autographs: Felix, Putz. Made a decent haul in freebies and spent too much in the team store ($70). This should hold me over till opening day. If only there was a way i could rationalize buying a plane ticket for a weekend to goto peoria. I have a place to stay down there, but the money for the plane ticket, and the short duration…eh, i dont know
Man, that was totally a deer-in-headlights moment. It was a freakin’ sweet question, though. That echo was certainly difficult to speak through.
Oh, and I’ve got a more complete FanFest report up now. I didn’t get but two pictures of Felix, and while crappy, I still posted the better of the two. I did see Deanna’s pictures on her D50’s LCD, and she got some fantastic pix.
There’s even the debut of Evil Rick Rizzs’ saintly alter ego.
And, Derek, you better have some pizza ready for Bavasi at the Peoria feed. He did mention that he’ll come for the pizza…
Yeah, I’ll have to write up a Fan Fest report too. I got there at like 11:30am and left at 3pm though… overslept and didn’t care THAT much about autographs, though I’m sad I missed Mark Lowe’s Q&A.
I took a ton of pictures, the two I threw up in the LL thread that I quickly cropped earlier (it’s been a long day for me, I didn’t even get home until 10:30pm) were of Felix and of JJ Putz, from their Q&A sessions. I’m gonna go try to write up some sort of thing now, even if all I do is post a few more pictures.
All in all, Bavasi was a lot nicer to us than I figured, and his concern about Snelling being able to swing a bat without his knee brace was sort of worrisome.
Oh yeah, the craziest thing is how good Felix and Rivera’s english is now compared to last year’s fanfest. They had a translator there, but he didn’t do anything, the guys answered everything in English on their own.
one of the entertaining things following them on KOMO last year was Shannon Dreyer’s collaboration in Carlos Garcia’s attempt to make Felix comfortable in an English-language interview — apparently Garcia would often somehow be in a different part of the clubhouse and so unable to translate when Shannon would make Felix talk to her about things.
Kirby Arnold records some of the FO Q&A
From the link:
Question: If you say young players are so important, why did you get rid of Chris Snelling (traded to the Washington Nationals for Jose Vidro)? Will you reimburse me the $220 for the jersey I bought for my son?
Mariners president Chuck Armstrong: “He was one of my son’s favorite players, too. We were out of (minor league) options with Chris Snelling. Our baseball operations people determined that we would be a better team with Jose Vidro and Jose Guillen. As much as we liked Chris Snelling, you’ve got to give up something to get something.
Also:
(Bavasi)”This guy, Vidro, is a good switch hitter from both sides of the plate. Statistically, it bears that out. Our analysis physically is that this guy has done nothing with his legs for a few years, but we feel we can do some things with his quads that will help him. We know he can hit and this is the league he should be in.”
I… Oh, God, what’s the point? Chris Antonetti for GM. Now. Fucking now.
It’s funny Bavasi mentioned that.. as horrible as the Vidro trade was, the M’s training staff seems to be rather good with shaping up iffy legs. If he’s truly done “nothing” with his legs for years, maybe we can look forward to a better-than-expected performance from Vidro on account of whipping his lazy ass into shape.
BS? Probably. But the thought makes me feel at least a tiny bit better.
I had the same thought when Griffith was talking about having spent the day with Vidro, checking him out & running him around, and sending him off with a new set of exercises and routines for him legs… after JR & Edgar & Jay, he might know something about legs.
Yeah, good thing I’m not hearing a bunch of cliches out of the M’s front office justifying a bad trade.
Can anyone reconcile the statements concerning the Mariners being good with injured legs (Vidro related) and Snelling is unlikely to get playing time due to leg injuries?
Wouldn’t it seem that they traded a guy with leg injuries for a guy with leg injuries since they are so good at healing leg injuries?
#63: groins and hamstrings are a completely different issue than knee bones connected to the leg bones….
Vidro also had shoulder, ankle, as well as hammy issues last year.
FWIW, the ankle was 2005, and he hasn’t had shoulder problems since 2001.
2001 hyper-extended shoulder in ST.
2002 broken right scapula (HBP); played entire season with it.
2003 right knee patellar tendonitis
2004 right knee patellar tendonitis, repaired at end of season
2005 hyper-extended elbow in ST. Torn ankle tendon, sore quads, re-aggravated right knee; elected to not have surgery.
2006 Bruised chest during a catch-landing, hammy strain (took a month to recover), re-aggravated right knee
Is this really a “Spring Feed?” I don’t see any mention of food.
Will it be all you can eat? Will it be pizza? If it is at the ballpark, maybe it will be hot dogs. I like hot dogs. Not all hot dogs of course, I don’t like turkey dogs. Will it be turkey dogs? I won’t spend the money to come if there are turkey dogs. But can you let me know if it is all you can eat?
I also don’t see you mention where in the stadium you will be meeting. I need to know where in the stadium you will be meeting, because there are parts of the stadium I like, and parts that I don’t like. I won’t come if the sun is in my eyes, or if the meeting is in the outfield. I like the first base side better than the third base side, but might come if it is on the third base side, but very close to home. Location is important to me, so I need to know where you are sitting so I can decide to spend the money to come.
Please confirm that this will be an all you can eat feed, and where you will be sitting at the stadium. If I decide I don’t like the food (for example, turkey dogs) I can buy my own ticket, and just show up for the meeting and maybe get one of the freebees you are talking about.
I’ll be waiting by my computer waiting for an answer.
Crap–the link didn’t work.
Please refer to http://ussmariner.com/2006/10/13/unethical/ for more information.
Missed it by 6 days. I arrive on March 9. And I can’t wait to get there.
There’s no food at the event. People are on their own for food. The word “feed” is simply a remnant of an old name for get-togethers.
Don’t have the tickets yet, but they’ll be along one of the baselines, likely in the infield.
We encourage people to sign up for the event with us so everyone can sit together. If you want to buy your own game ticket, that’s fine. If you decide to do that, however, we’d encourage a small donation of $2 to go toward a sizable charitable donation we’ll be making on behalf of Bill Bavasi and Kevin Towers for their time. The donation should be made by Feb. 9 to derek@ussmariner.com, same as if you’re buying a ticket.
Are you guys considering an outing for the 6/22 Mariners game against Cincy? For some reason that might be a BIG series…