The 2008 Draft
The 2008 draft kicks off in just under two hours, with the M’s having the 20th selection in the first round. Despite the fact that it isn’t as glitzy as its NFL and NBA counterparts, the draft is still an important day for every franchise. Teams that draft well can stock their organization with a pipeline of cheap, young talent that can be the foundation of championship runs.
I know we all are very frustrated with the Mariners front office and the job they’ve done assembling the major league roster. But, do not let that frustration seep into your idea of the quality of this organization’s scouting department. Led by scouting director Bob Fontaine, the Mariners do an excellent job of finding guys that other teams miss on, and Fontaine is legendary for grabbing valuable players in the middle rounds of the draft when most teams aren’t expecting to get any real value. Fontaine knows what he’s doing, and really, our reaction after this draft should probably just be “we trust Bob.”
However, with that said, there are a couple of player types that I think history has shown that it generally doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend a first round selection on; relief pitchers and ultra-raw two sport athletes. As we’ve talked about before, it’s just really easy to build a bullpen with spare parts and minor league castoffs, and using a resource such as a first round selection on a guy whose ultimate upside is pitching in the 8th or 9th inning is a waste. The reward just isn’t justifiable. On the flip side, the risk is simply too high with the kids who haven’t dedicated themselves to baseball and have lost valuable development time becoming stars in other sports.
I think the history of previous drafts bear these generalizations out. Take shots on the raw athletes in the second or third round and grab a couple relievers in the fifth round and on, but let the first round be for guys who can play everyday or be part of your future rotation.
So, with that said, there’s a pretty decent chance that I’m going to groan when the Mariners selection is made in a few hours. Pretty much all the talk the last few days has linked them to a quartet of college relievers. The combination of the desire to move Morrow to the rotation and the perceived lack of a successor to J.J. Putz if they do that is driving the idea that a polished reliever who could get to the majors quickly is the way to go. It looks, right now, like the M’s will be selecting one of Andrew Cashner (Texas Christian), Josh Fields (Georgia), Ryan Perry (Arizona), and Daniel Schlereth (Arizona). Cashner’s the best of the bunch, while Fields is a step below, and Perry and Schlereth are velocity guys who light up the radar and that’s about it.
I hated the fact that the M’s were going after Casey Weathers at #11 last year, but they were saved by the fact that the Rockies took him at #8 and Phillippe Aumont fell into their laps. Let’s hope the same happens this year, but it’s a lot more to ask for four college relievers to all be off the board by #19. Odds are that at least one of them will be available, and the M”s will take the one furthest up their board. And it will be simply be the latest reason to loathe the 2008 season.
In Fontaine I trust, but please, Bob, avoid the college relievers.
Why baseball should be more like pro wrestling
Saturday June 14th
“…and with that grand slam home run, the Washington Nationals are up 8-0 here with no outs in the top of the first, and you can hear the boo birds roosting at Safeco.”
“No question, Dave, those are not seagulls by any means.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard the crowd this angry. And who can blame them? It’s a beautiful day for what has turned into an ugly, ugly game.”
“Washburn has not had the command of his breaking pitches tonight, and that’s forced him to come over the plate with his fastball…”
“And we have all seen what happens then. Jarrod kicking at the rubber on the mound, but friends, I don’t think that is going — there’s some kind of disturbance in the M’s dugout, I’m not–”
“Is that Silva?”
“Carlos Silva’s come out from the clubhouse tunnel, holding a, a hot dog in each hand, his mouth, he looks like a chipmunk, and now he’s running across the field–”
“He looks scared, Dave.”
“Indeed he does, he looks flat out terrified. What could scare Silva away from the clubhouse spread?”
“Who’s–”
“Oh my word, fans, this is a historic moment, walking onto the field now is Mr. Hiroshi Yamauchi, the man who for all intents and purposes owns the Mariners!”
“That is a great-looking suit, no question about it.”
“One of the richest men in the world, I believe he is or at one time was the richest man in all of Japan. And would you believe that even though he has owned the Mariners in one way or another for sixteen years, he has never been to Safeco Field to see his team play, though he is a huge baseball fan?”
“No doubt about it, you can see that he looks great for an 81-year old man.”
“Indeed he does, Mike, but how did he get here? He doesn’t travel much at all, as I understand it.”
“I’m not sure, but NWA does have a non-stop, it would have arrived here some time this morning, I remember from my time in Japan when I had to connect…”
“I can’t believe that he would fly all this way to see Jarrod Washburn start, if I may be honest.”
“No Dave, that does seem a little puzzling, you’re right.”
“When did he get here? Why didn’t word get out that he was at the park? Who is that with him?”
“I’m not sure either, but right now I’m wondering why he would carrying a folding chair?”
“I’m told that that’s Mr. Yamauchi’s son in law, Minoru Arakawa! The first president of Nintendo of America!”
“He’s on the Mariners board, isn’t he?”
“Johjima is out from behind the plate, mask off, he looks a little pale, he’s waving his arms and saying something as he tries to get out there.”
“Ichiro is sprinting in from the outfield… he’s shouting something, hard to tell what he’s saying from here…”
“Mr. Yamauchi now taking the chair, does he want to sit and talk to– Washburn is down! Washburn has — and again, right over the back, Washburn is down.”
“And you’ll notice the police aren’t moving at all.”
“The crowd is stunned, the M’s dugout emptying on the field, and now Johjima! Johjima has begun stomping Washburn, who is lying on the grass not moving–”
“Well you have to take advantage of your opponent in a situation like this–”
“McLaren appears to be pleading with Mr. Yamauchi here.”
“Mac trying to be the voice of reason–”
“Arakawa from behind! McLaren staggers and — this is insanity! Mr. Yamauchi now — Vidro is down! Sexson now charging from the dugout with a bat–”
“Richie having an off year swinging, they’ve been working with him on his stance–”
“Misses wildly, and gets a chair to the face for his efforts! This is carnage!”
“And you can hear the crowd is really behind his efforts.”
“Umpires signaling the game is forfeit. I wonder though, and I think the crowd here would agree, wasn’t it already lost? The Nationals are running off the field now –”
“Joe’s Tracker showing that chair shot got Sexson right in the forehead, which explains the massive bleeding –”
“And now team president Howard Lincoln comes out of the tunnel, and oh, oh no–”
“Oh, he realizes what’s happened now.”
“Mr. Yamauchi staring at him across this field littered with victims, teammates fighting, and you can see the color draining right out of him.”
“There’s no question, he’s a lot more green than we usually see him.”
“Mr. Yamauchi just staring, staring, and Lincoln now runs back for the tunnel! But the ballboys with the clothesline! Oh my god I have never seen anything like this in all my years.”
“This reminds me of spring training with the Yankees in 1990, when Steinbrenner got into the medical supply cabinet–”
“I’m sorry — what? Now? You can’t — Folks, that’s it from Safeco Field where the Mariners lose a forfeit loss, but there may be hope as it appears that de facto owner Yamauchi has traveled all the way to Seattle to take out his frustrations on the team, and we’ll have more right after this.”
Comment of yesterday for June 4th, 2008
We had a lot of great comments (and some… less great) but this was the clear winner for me:
“I’m sure glad Barry Bonds isn’t around, poisoning the atmosphere in the clubhouse.”
— Steve Nelson
Bavasi Agrees: This Team Sucks
Andriessen covers the blow-up and gets this quote from Bavasi:
“They may not know how to play the game well, they may not know how to hold each other accountable, they may not know how to fight hard,” he said. “But they are playing hard. They are trying hard.”
Talking about the plans for the rest of the season:
Bavasi said he thinks that his current personnel, theoretically, could put this team back in contention, but “I’m not sure we’re going to give them a chance to.”
It only took until June 4th, but it appears that management is finally in agreement that this season is over, that this team is lousy, and this organization needs a good purging.
The person responsible for the players was ordered to enjoy a delicious beer
From the AP game report:
Before McLaren went off, Bavasi ordered each of the 25 Mariners
players to sit at his locker immediately after the game to take full
responsibility publicly for having the worst record in the major
leagues despite a $117 million payroll that is just below the richest
in baseball.
One of his few G-rated remarks was: “Got to buckle down and get after it! It’s got to be a total team effort … ”
Then, after 45 seconds, McLaren stomped off into his office and closed the door.
“He could have said that a month ago,” general manager Bill Bavasi said later.
The walls are crumbling.
Pocket guide to McLaren firing dates
Dave helpfully pointed out they wouldn’t be firing him tomorrow if only for PR reasons, so I worked this out. Assuming that they want to do the traditional Viking funeral, where they set the manager on fire and the team off on a road trip away from fans, here are your next two opportunities:
June 19th, after the Boston/Toronto road trip and Washington/Florida home stand
July 6/7th, after the Toronto/Detroit home stand, with the team heading to Oakland-KC (handy side benefit here: it’d be a week long road trip followed by the All-Star break, and the new manager doesn’t have to hit Safeco until July 18th)
Salt Lake sweeps Seattle
In the three game series that just ended:
Vladimir Guerrero didn’t have an at-bat
Chone Figgins didn’t have an at-bat
Erick Aybar didn’t have an at-bat
John Lackey didn’t pitch
Kelvim Escobar didn’t pitch
The Angels swept the Mariners in Seattle without their All-Star #1 starter, their All-Star #2 starter, their All-Star right fielder, their starting third baseman, and their starting shortstop.
If you took Felix, Bedard, Ichiro, Beltre, and Betancourt off this team and sent them to go play another major league franchise, they’d lose 104-3. The Angels just played a series without their equivalents to those five guys and swept the Mariners at home.
If you need more evidence that the people who put this team together deserve to be fired, you don’t deserve to be making that decision.
Game 60, Angels at Mariners
1:40 early start time.
“No one in their right mind thought we’d be in this position right now — the team we had and the additions that we had, good Spring Training, the talent we had,” he said. “Nobody thought that we’d be in this position right now, but we are. Let’s face the facts — we are in this position. We’ve got to get ourselves out of it.”
Ignorance as a warm, comforting blanket of reassurance. May the rumors you’re going to be canned before the road trip come true, as some small pre-payment on a much larger purge to be completed soon enough.
Snarkless morning note
Day game today, remember. I’m headed there, as I love day games. I will not be wearing the traditional Doyle jersey as I’ll be arriving from work, though.
I wanted to point out that despite the team’s awful record, Bavasi has not handed extensions to either Ibanez or Bloomquist, which would certainly garner the team some distracting positive publicity for a news cycle. That’s good, and I hope this means both that they’re not going to get one and that he’s not going to make decisions like that where placation comes at the cost of long-term harm to the team.
Nail, Meet Coffin
Worst seasons in franchise history, by winning percentage.
1978: .350 Win%, 56-104
2008: .356 Win%, 57-105 (pace)
1980: .364 Win%, 59-103
1983: .370 Win%, 60-102
2004: .389 Win%, 63-99
“We have given no thought to making any changes in managerial personnel,” Armstrong said. “Same for the GM. Listen, he’s part of the solution, not the problem.”
Three of the first seven seasons in existance, the Mariners posted a winning percentage below .400. Despite all the horrible teams in the mid-80s, they never did it again until 2004, and now they’re threatening even the ’78 club for the worst record in franchise history.
You might want to consider that they are part of the problem now, Mr. Armstrong. Give it some thought.