Not What I Meant
Dave · May 10, 2008 at 10:16 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Remember a few days ago when I mentioned the M’s had five days to salvage their season? Yea, I didn’t mean “lose all games between now and then”.
Forget Mojo Rising – the new motto is “Seattle Mariners – The Bear Stearns of Baseball”.
14-24, the team would have to play .637 baseball the rest of the way to even have a chance to win the division. The 2008 season ended on May 10th. Good job, boys – get those resumes ready. You all deserve to be looking for work soon.
I dont get the whole “I told you so thing.” Youd rather be ‘right’ about how crappy this team is than be surprised if they were to actually do something? And just because someone feels that the team could contend this year makes them a mindless sheep to whatever Bavasi, McLaren, etc say? I was very skeptical of this season because look at the team we root for. Have they ever made us completely comfortable (Except 01.. Until late September?)? Regardless of how shitty the team seems or is on paper I always feel there is SOMEWHAT of a chance to contend when the season starts (which is generally shot in the first month, but thats beside the point). Going into this season I felt there was a shot we’d contend, especially after Oakland’s dealings this winter and the news of the Angels top two starters being out. Who would have really thought shitty ass Santana and Joe Saunders would each be 6-0? I knew our offense wouldn’t be great but goddamn theyve been abysmal. Anyways, I just dont understand that whole mindset, where a person thinks they are better than other people because they set themselves up for failure earlier, thus allowing them to say “I told you so.”
Stages of Grief
Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance
USSM is stuck between Anger and Bargaining
well, according to Jerry Brewer it’s that well-known evil, “Lack Of Leadership”
sigh.
I actually think Brewer has a point that this team seems to have been “cobbled together” by (he doesn’t say this explicitly) a desperate front office in fear of losing their job. Bavasi knew that if the M’s didn’t win this year, he’d be gone. And so we find ourselves with an arbitrary conglomerate of “proven” (read: past their prime and overpaid) veterans–Bavasi’s clueless, ineffectual championship strategy–in addition to a couple of designated inheritors, a group who showed they couldn’t handle the pressure of a pennant race last year, and this year, with heightened expectations, an inexplicable favorite to win the division, are showing the same tendency.
And by the way, chemistry and leadership DO exist; anyone with any experience on any kind of team knows that. But I don’t blame the lack of leadership on the players; I blame it on management. This is McLaren’s team, and their performance is a direct reflection of his executive incompetence.
(By the way, Bloomquist getting picked off yesterday with the tying run–and hottest hitter on the team–at the plate in the seventh inning was the worst baseball play I’ve ever seen in my life.)
Bloomquist didn’t get picked off. Ichiro got thrown out at home.
So with 2008 in the bag, I’ll be listening to the minor league org’s games and catching the M’s when I can and it’s convenient.
What will everyone else be doing?
Same difference…
Why was he stealing? That late in the game, his run means nothing. The only run that mattered was the man standing next to home plate. If you don’t trust your three hitter, the ostensible best hitter on the team, to be able to tie up the game in that situation, how do you expect to win any games?
So
freaking
bad.
My backup plan was to watch the Cubs v Dbacks. Except it’s raining. Ah, flip over to Detroit. Raining. No game at all.
Call me a sadomasochist, but I’ll still watch all the games I can. Sure it’s really defeating to the soul to watch them lose so much, but my love of baseball knows no boundaries. The best I can hope for right now is that the organization finally gets their head out of the sand and start to make some changes.
I don’t think we will get anything in a firesale either, but don’t forget what you get to do after you have a yard sale at home…
You pile all of the left over crap in your truck and drive it to the dump. Think we’ll get to drive willie, turbo and cairo to the dump??
They better freaking lock up Bedard long term… Or there shall be a hit put out on BB
Has anyone seen how bad the lineup is today?
Just trying to brace myself for he worst…
Brace myself for The worst…
Can’t type today my head kinda hurts…
Where does one go on the net to find the lineups?
I sincerely hope this was sarcasm.
Per MLB.com Gameday
Ichiro! – CF
Cairo – 1B
Beltre – 3B
Ibanez – LF
Lopez – 2B
Clement – DH
Johjima – C
Balentien – RF
Betancourt – SS
@30 – I have to agree. This is Bavasi’s eleventh year as a GM, all in the four-team AL West, and always with healthy payrolls. He’s never made the playoffs, and yet the M’s stick with him.
Bavasi sounds like a good guy, but as Lorenzo @53 points out, Brewer’s correct – Bavasi doesn’t have backup plans if things go wrong, such as when our offense started tanking, and has no real strategy. He GM’s much like his father did, even though the game and the statistical tools have changed dramatically. He seems to follow unwritten and untested rules when putting together his team.
I would like to think that the M’s would hire someone knowledgeable after they fire Bavasi, but I don’t think they would have let him trade Adam Jones and the rest if they didn’t think Bavasi had the right approach. The 88 wins last year gave Bavasi time to do longer-term damage to the franchise. Bavasi’s style does fit well with the M’s higher ups, who are as innovative as the newspaper and recording industries.
“There will probably not be a fire sale. And if thee is YES Bedard should go. Beltre, Bedard, Putz and Ibanez will all rake us in alot of guys.”
The irony is incredible. Turning around and trading Bedard for young talent?
Un-freaking-believable.
Thing is, Bavasi is actually really good at a lot of important parts of a GM’s job. He’s like the anti-DePodesta; lousy trader, lousy judge of talent, lousy at building a roster, but really good at interacting with management, media, and fans, and runs a good farm system (that he then wastes cause of the ‘lousy trader’ problem). My fantasy that isn’t Antonelli is actually that the Ms hire DePodesta and install him as shadow GM with Bavasi, and Bavasi, for whatever reason, swallows his pride and lets DePo do the parts that Bavasi himself sucks at.
I’m not holding my breath, but it’s a nice fantasy.
The Mariners should definitely trade Bedard for young talent.
I hear the Orioles have a kid named Adam Jones that could be the centerpiece of such a deal. If the O’s throw in their lefty relief ace, whatshisname Sherrill, and maybe a couple of farm hards that would be a steal for the Mariners.
Git R done, Bavasi.
[repeated button term violation]
Look at the bright side of things. You still got some Felix days to get all excited about. 🙂
Everybody’s talking about extending Bedard, but what about Felix? Locking him up long-term should be priority #1.