Comments on: A Paradox

By: behappy

behappy — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 02:36:22 +0000

Everyone keeps saying Bavasi is just looking at for his own neck, because he is always on the hot seat. If that was the case shouldn’t the Mariners just sign him to an extension, so he does whats best for the Mariners. And then when he fails just fire him.

By: joser

joser — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:55:11 +0000

In more proof we've entered bizarro world, somebody traded a hitter to the Rangers and got back pitching. The got pitchers. From the Rangers.

By: heyoka

heyoka — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:15:20 +0000

At least with Bill Bavasi’s logic, the Mariners should be .500 …….

By: Colm

Colm — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 09:25:43 +0000

Ahh, knowledge (and Wikipedia).

There I was, sitting in Ballard, drinking a Hale’s Wee Heavy, eating a Beecher’s cheddar sandwich on homemade bread (how local can food get?) and listening to Jim Fleming on NPR talking about early Christianity, when I decided to do a search for “Gnosticism”. That took me to Wikipedia where I found this perfectly lovely word that describes exactly the phenomenon that Dave outlines above – Syncretism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncretism

Apparently Bill Bavasi is the high priest of some syncretistic sect in baseball. Who knew.

By: pdb

pdb — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 08:09:45 +0000

that quote is from Shannon Drayer.

Oops. My bad.

By: joser

joser — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 03:11:01 +0000

pdb — that quote is from Shannon Drayer. She’s the one who was talking to several executives with other clubs. She’s a journalist, that’s what she does. There isn’t a single word spoken by Bavasi anywhere in that quote I posted. In fact, the only indication of what he might think of Colon is in the preceding para:

What about shorter deals with lesser pitchers or pitchers coming off injury? Bavasi did not like what he saw in that group, and with spots filled in the rotation, doesn’t even like those guys for a fifth spot. He said that what they have in the fifth spot now, what he defined as Ramirez or Morrow, is better than what is left on the free agent market so the team will turn their energies towards focusing on trades.

Sorry if I confused you, but I kind of assumed people would go read the whole blog.

(I wonder when Bavasi thinks this magical transformation of Morrow from one-pitch 3-out reliever into starter is going to happen? Oh, right, as soon as Magic Mel does whatever it is he does)

By: Jeff Nye

Jeff Nye — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:32:16 +0000

Personally, I think Bavasi is probably a pretty smart guy, he’s just operating as if he was still running a baseball team back in the 70s as opposed to today.

If he ever updates his thinking to keep up with teams like Boston, Oakland, Tampa Bay, etc, I think he’ll be a pretty formidable GM to deal with.

I’m just not certain it’s ever going to happen.

By: pdb

pdb — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:19:07 +0000

In talking to several executives with other clubs the consensus with them was that he is still a huge injury threat.

Hmmm. The first thing I thought when I read this was “shouldn’t Bavasi be getting info like this from his own guys, scouts and analysts alike – not from a group of people that may also be competing for Colon’s services?”

I don’t actually know how Bavasi makes his personnel decisions, but if he stops at “ask other executives about Player X”, it explains a whole lot.

By: Eastside Crank

Eastside Crank — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:17:29 +0000

Maybe they like to play “Opposite Day” a lot. Like: “I want a running team so I will trade my fastest outfielder, Adam Jones, and keep my slowest outfielder”. Or: money is no object when signing a back of the rotation starter but prevents us from drafting top tier picks that could become top of the rotation starters.

By: dlb

dlb — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:25:30 +0000

This just illustrates the fact that their is no organizational philosophy or core belief that drives the M’s management team. Its amazing that such a high profile organization lacks one of the basic tenets of good management. Wether its a business, a charity, a baseball team, or any organization of people, the group has to have some core beliefs that drive its decision making. For whatever reason Bavasi has none. He just puts out one fire after the next with no reason for his decision other than “it seemed like the best alternative at the time.”