Mariners.com says it’s pronounced: zur-EN-sik.

That’s a heavily anglicized pronunciation. I’m disappointed in him already.

Traditional Polish would have been closer to: zdur-YEN-chick.

Which brings me to my second reason: as a student of history, this time strikes me as a moment for the organization to leave it’s “safe place” and make a truly progressive move by at least beginning to make refined statistical analysis a part of their system of player evaluation. And if they were not Saber absolutists (and the new GM needn’t have been) at least Ng and Dipoto could veer in that direction.

And as to Ng, the social progressive in me would have been excited for the Mariners to have elevated a woman, the first woman to the GM’s office by choosing Ng. I know, these are emotional responses, but they reflect my values fwiw.

Zduriencik may well be the right choice for a youth movement and I really wish him well. I suppose out of all of the remaining applicants, he’s best positioned to work with the rest of the FO as Jim Thomsen suggests above,

“Can Zduriencik say: ‘You know, fellas, I know the game and know what I’m doing … can you just back off, please, and give me a little room to maneuver?’”

In my opinion, that might be just what the doctor ordered.

David, Burien-cik

Go Phillies!

As for spelling, if you know about the smelly Southeast Asian fruit durian, just spell it with an e, and add “cik” to the end. The “Z” is trivial to remember.

Z – durien – cik.

Or, if you are more familiar with the Seattle area than Southeast Asian Fruit … it’s just like “Burien” … but with a backwards, lower-case “b”.

Here’s a pronunciation hint and a spelling hint.

Mariners.com says it’s pronounced: zur-EN-sik.

As for spelling, if you know about the smelly Southeast Asian fruit durian, just spell it with an e, and add “cik” to the end. The “Z” is trivial to remember.

Z – durien – cik.

Easy!

Note that I am not comparing our new GM to a smelly Southeast Asian fruit. This is for spelling purposes only, not metaphorical ones. I like the new hire, based on Milwaukee’s recent success and what I’ve read here.

I see the potential for major conflict the first time he tries to dump an overpaid, underperforming veteran for whatever the market will bear — and is overridden because Lincstrong want major league players in return. Can Zduriencik say: “You know, fellas, I know the game and know what I’m doing … can you just back off, please, and give me a little room to maneuver?”