When even Willie wants out, you know you’re in trouble
DMZ · June 15, 2008 at 6:44 pm · Filed Under Mariners
The second Kitsap Sun article in a day:
Willie Bloomquist says he can’t tell you why the Seattle Mariners are losing, but he can tell you why the Mariners might be losing his services after the season — if not sooner.
Bloomquist, the South Kitsap High School product who has spent his entire pro career in the Mariners organization, said he is considering a move to the National League after his one-year, $1 million contract expires at season’s end.
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This looks like a win-win opportunity for everyone.
Is this some kind of threat?
You joke, but when even WFB is growing tired of working here, how can we bring in anyone with something to offer to improve the team? How depressing.
I wonder what the odds are of Erik Bedard being willing to re-sign after 2009? Can we use negative integers?
If we lose Willie, we’re utterly without Kitsap scrap — unless the M’s pick up Todd Linden in a waiver deal or something.
Look at this article just a bit closer, and there’s some good stuff:
And, then this one:
Can we promote him to manager now? What have they got to lose?
NOOOOOO WILLIE DON’T LEAVE
This is terrible. If Willie leaves, we might have to replace his gritty enthusiasm with…talent.
God help us all.
“Uptown, downtown
Little Willie, Willie drives them wild with his runaround style
Inside, outside
Willie sends them silly with his star-shine shimmy shuffle smile
Bavasi done chase Willie down through the hall
But laugh, Willie laugh, he don’t care at all
Hey down, stay down, stay down, down …
“Little Willie Willie won’t stay home
But you can’t stop Willie when Willie wants to go
Try telling everybody, but, whoa, no
Little Willie Willie won’t (thump, thump) stay home ….”
From “Little Willie,” by The Sweet
After that clamming incident he probably just wants a change of scenery and put his sordid past behind him. Being in the area just reminds him of his crime of passion.
#2 — Better yet: “Is that a threat…or a promise?”
Can someone who can access a hard copy of the Sun cut out these articles and send them to Howard Lincoln with some tickets like sodomojojojo did? Because then Lincoln is looking at the reality check of losing both money and his gritty local player making up all that great team chemistry. And realizing that said player dislikes the concept of “chemistry” altogether.
I wish I could (I’m in Southern California) because I think Lincoln needs tangible evidence. He can’t seem to comprehend the epic fail otherwise.
They say those who can’t do make the best teachers….
The case that he would have additional value in the NL is actually a pretty good one.
Before you all say “don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out” – remember his replacement would be Miguel Cairo. I’d take Princess Willie any day over Cairo.
A year so listless that even abuse of Willie has lost its luster . . . .
he has mentioned that he might have to leave before, what with not getting to start and all …
Well, it sounds as if Willie brings some intelligence to the game, if not good numbers. Hear hear, Willie.
I just can’t decide which of these two is my favorite
# When even Willie wants out, you know you’re in trouble
# “Not Even Bloomquist Can Pull Mariners Out of the Mire”
5 – Willie is at least much smarter than I thought he was. My opinion of him has changed after reading this. He may not be a good ball player, but at least he doesn’t buy into the garbage that the FO tries to build a team with.
dont blame him, this team..this organization is a f- joke
I vote Padres, ’cause then his Grit could still drift over the fences to the Mariners’ side of the complex.
Boom here comes the BLOOM!!!
But what national league team allows him to clam?
Some of you guys are being too hard on him … Willie, if used properly, is an asset … He is certainly not the problem with this team.
somewhere Rizz is weeping into a martini
Bloom goes the dynamite?
@ 15: Willie let me borrow his notes a couple times in AP History. I can vouch that the guy is book-smart, at least.
Although I still think he vastly overestimates his everyday playing abilities.
Hmmmm. I wonder what that team was? Presumably it was some minor league team, because we know all the good Mariners teams Willie has been on had excellent “chemistry”…right? Isn’t that what everyone has always told us?
Willie has always struck me as a bright guy, and he certainly is way down on the list of things that are wrong with the team. In fact, he’s not even on that list: as the 25th man, he is an asset. It’s not his fault Cairo got wedged on there at the end and pushed him to 24.
On the other hand, the mentality that over-values him, and players like him, and “chemistry” and “grit” and local connections and all the other yadda yadda yadda instead of actual performance, is indeed one of the key things things wrong with this team. As he himself apparently recognizes.
I can bet one reason he’s considering a move after this season is over — outside of Felix, there is nary a soul who should consider their future with the M’s in a long-term sense.
He probably won’t have a job here at season’s end, whether he wants it or not.
With the season in the toilet, I say make Willie a player/manager! It’d have some novelty value, anyway…
Aww. Bloomie wants to leave too? That is just depressing. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if Willie eventually gets incorporated into the Mariners organization in a coaching capacity in some way, being the Old Boy’s Club rules and all.
I’m not very concerned about Willie wanting to leave. In fact, can anyone honestly blame the guy?
And while his rant about team chemistry isn’t bad, the point he makes about what moves he would make if he was manager is priceless. It is bad when your players are making thinly veiled statements that translate loosely as “we know we suck and yes I have a list of people who would get an immediate heave ho…”
[no, for reasons that should be obvious]
All I’ve got to say is HALLELUJAH!!!!
Dragon Rider 4 Life
LMAO! WFB is lucky to still be in fucking baseball!
[meta]
Thank Goodness.
Willie hate to burst your bubble, but a move to the NL will only get your more AB’s which will show how bad you actually are.
See ya.
what would the ponies do?
[name-calling]
After reading the article. I give Willie props for saying the FO is full of crap…without saying the front office is full of crap. Also, good going on the Chemistry subject.
Still, I won’t shed tears if you leave.
So… if Willie is the 25th man. And the M’s are the worst team in baseball.
Do that make Willie Bloomquist the worst player in the league?
It might. Cairo might have him beat.
Posting the emails of the FO cut and pasted from bakers blog should be an obvious reason to be censored?
Copyright is pretty obvious. Theft is pretty obvious. So yeah, for those of us who didn’t sleep through basic civics, I’d say it’s pretty obvious. (And in case you still haven’t figured it out, there are reasons to get a post deleted that have nothing to do with being off-topic).
You guys are hilarious.
Careful where you point that, lest ye hit yourself. Though ignorance is rarely hilarious for long, so I don’t know how many of us are still laughing at you as you wind yourself tighter and tighter.
Awwww, widdle Willie is sooo cute when he’s angry.
I dunno…the last I looked, Ramon Santiago was still kickin’ around as well.
If Willie leaves, Howard Lincoln will be hanging onto this pants leg, pleading with him not to go: “Please Willie, don’t leave us. We can change. We promise. We can work this out….”
Another example of When Love Fades….
Beyond other concerns–
You can’t post their emails, if those were valid, for a couple reasons, the largest, and most obvious, being that any time you post an email address on a web page it’s deluged in spam, viruses, and all kinds of goodness.
The spam rate for email addresses exposed on our site runs about 2,000 spam:1 real email, as I know from having our contact email and, at times, our feedback emails open.
Regardless of the depth of your feelings about the M’s management, that’s just not helpful.
So noone has made the easy joke? Can I resist? Trying hard…….
No, I can’t.
FREE WILLIE!
Wow! I can’t believe some of the hate of WFB. I’m not a huge fan, but as I said earlier, he’s not the problem.
If he was used properly he’s an asset. He’s fairly good defensively, can be used in multiple positions, and is good base runner. Pencil him into the last spot on the roster if you desire.
The problem is with “The Three Stooges” (or “Four” depending upon how you want to calculate it). They are the idiots who put this mess together and refuse to learn from it, or admit to their mistakes.
As I mentioned before, the PLAYERS are not the problem. If you are a player, you are probably doing the best you can — and if you suck — then you suck! What else can be expected? Any idiot who put you in a position you shouldn’t be in, is the one that is causing the real problem.
IMO, WFB is a good utility bench player, that’s it. And he’s really not that bad.
What is indefensible is the guy out in left field that can’t seem to get close to anything hit near him, requiring Ichiro having to play not only Center but 1/2 of Left too. It’s embarrassing to watch.
I don’t know if the LF player refuses to DH or if the team is so enamored with our current DH, that they would never consider such a move.
However, even debating such a simple adjustment is pointless — way too many other problems for it to even matter. But you’ve got to start somewhere. Apparently, we’re not going to start anywhere though … and perhaps end up with the worst record in our history … then throw in the payroll for kicks.
The whole thing just boggles my mind.
It just occurred from reading my above rant, that instead of a “REFUSE TO LOSE” banner … someone needs to show up with a “REFUSE TO LEARN” banner.
You know you’re no longer the manager when the 25th man is freely talking about how he wants to play elsewhere.
Can we please give WFB a pay raise to stop being an active ballplayer and be our manager instead?
The fact that Willie wants out is a “meh” thing…it’s like going out to your car and finding one of the valve stem covers got lost. You can probably find a replacement in any parking lot.
Granted it may be a bit of a reach, but does anyone believe that Willie is the only one on the team who wants out? He may be just the only guy who has verbalized it so far. When the players move past “unhappy about losing” on the spectrum and reach “unhappy about being with organization” that speaks volumes. I think this is just another crack that points to a total abject failure of management for the M’s.
Memo to Bill…maybe it isn’t about “chemistry”…
Boy, we’ve sure never had the debate about Willie Bloomquist’s value before!
I’m sure Jeff Weaver and Horacio Ramirez wanted out too.
The Swiss Army Spork is better suited for the NL, where he can
pinch-hitpinch-run for somebody like Carlos Zambrano or Greg Maddux once a week.The Swiss Army Spork is better suited for the NL, where he can
pinch-hitpinch-run for somebody like Carlos Zambrano or Greg Maddux once a week.“…I may not be around in a couple days, but by God, we’re going to give these Marlins a fight! Any questions? Yes? Willie?”
“How do I get out of this chicken-shit outfit?”
The debate needs to be re-opened now that, apparently, in addition to playing eight positions, Willie can also play replacement level GM.
DMZ…excellent “Aliens” quote.
“Look into my eye…”
Unlike his playing skills, he could fill the role quite admirably here…
“…I may not be around in a couple days, but by God, we’re going to give these Marlins a fight! Any questions? Yes? Willie?”
“How do I get out of this chicken-shit outfit?”
“Hey, maybe you haven’t been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked, pal!”
“Game over, man! Game over!”
And, this re-imagined exchange:
DMZ: I say we take off and nuke the entire team from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
USSM community: Fuckin’ A…
Lincoln/Amerstrong: Ho-ho-hold on, hold on one second. This installation has a substantial dollar value attached to it.
DMZ: They can bill me.
Bavasi has apparently been “relieved of his duties” this morning, and Lee Pelekoudas will serve as the interim GM. The press release is set for noon.
Oh, sorry…late to the party…. BUT STILL!!
Hooray Hooray, he’s gone today!!!
Definitely true. I have a few friends in the front office who forwarded me the email this morning.
It has its own post now.