This doesn’t bother me in the slightest. It makes more sense then Reed there. It allows Johjima to play first and have Clement fill out his maximum value at catcher. Then, as needed, the two can flip and / or have Burke give them a day off.

I don’t see an issue there. The Reed idea was retarded on too many levels.

He was asked if he had any regrets, any moves in hindsight that could have helped the team.

[. . .]

Bavasi feels Guillen would have helped some of the problems he’s seen in the clubhouse this season.

As bad as I feel for Bavasi, look at this: he didn’t learn anything about his most basic mistakes. All the bad deals he made, and what does he regret? Letting Jose Guillen go. Why? Character/clubhouse issues. He believes that this team really is good, and needs a Guillen type to light a fire. A guy who “wants to win” (and what a nice passing insult to all the other guys).

Seriously, this is sad. He is so wedded to what he “knows” that everything, positive or negative, is explained by that “knowledge”.

The only GMs you can hire now are retreads who are out of work; think Dan Duquette. If you want to hire a good GM, you have to wait until the end of the season; then you can go after Antonetti.

So – I’d say they hire a GM by the All-Star break.

JSA, I don’t think people believe Ichiro is outstanding defensively in center. He’s adequate there, nothing more. He’s outstanding in right (defensively).

But he IS an outstanding center fielder, because he’s so much better a hitter than other center fielders on average. And having him in center allows you to play someone else in right, which is much easier to play, and thus is more likely to be a prime hitter. (etc) Basically, Ichiro in CF is a 0 defender but a +++ hitter; in right he’s a + defender but a 0 or + hitter. You gain more by playing him in CF.

My contention is that Ichiro looks a little more mortal because he’s doing just what you (or someone else) said earlier, cutting in front of Ibanez to catch fly balls — trouble is, those fly balls are so far into LF that Ichiro is getting a bit too many miles on those legs, and he’s getting a bit…tired…and it’s only a bit under halfway through the season.

That makes Ichiro a victim of statheads’ evaluations, unfortunately. I felt sorry for the guy. Moving him back to RF is a mercy.

Next up: Between now and the All-Star Break all the casual fans who adore Raul Ibanez will have a chance to see a slightly less accomplished fielder in Jeremy Reed try to cover the same ground Ichiro did, and leave a huge Ibanez-gap in LCF that NO fielder will get to.

Prediction: Under the new GM management (he may not know what he’s doing today, but I’ll bet he works out a plan before the week is out), after the All-Star Break McLaren gets the OK to put Ibanez in at DH and bench Vidro.

I think they’re just going to keep running Sexson out there until he either breaks a leg or the season ends, whichever comes first.

But I’d be happy if he just disappears into the dugout. I don’t wish him any more embarrassment. Just want him gone.

I actually am surprised that they didn’t do the latter; firing is usually made public when you are throwing someone to the wolves.

Personally I think they canned Bavasi because the FO wanted it to look like they were “doing something”, rather than realizing that the club wasn’t moving in the right direction. But that’s just me.

For whatever his limitations as a GM, he remains a fine person.

That’s assuming your team can take advantage of the opportunity to put a hitter in right. We are not in that category.

This team can’t even RECOGNIZE the opportunity.

And the more I hear, the more I think they’re not going to in the near future…

[Bavasi] cites San Francisco Giants GM Brian Sabean as a model, admiring Sabean’s ability to carefully control the makeup of the clubhouse. Sabean values good people and hard workers but also keeps players with “enough of a mean streak” — a trait some have said is missing in Seattle.

And apparently he’s outdoing his model on putting together a team that sucks, too. Though not by much (and if the Giants weren’t at least as dysfunctional as the M’s, Sabean would be long gone too).

Besides, I thought Jeremy Reed was taking 1B practice.

That was last week. This week, it’s Johjima that’s taking 1B practice. (No, I wish I was making that up.)