Zduriencik’s Resumé
PERSONAL
Born: January 11, 1951 in New Castle, Penn.
Education: BA in Education from California University of Pennsylvania, master’s in Physical Education from Austin Peay State University.
WORK EXPERIENCE
• Milwaukee Brewers
10/25/99—10/21/08: Scouting Director (in charge of both amateur and international)
Notable draft picks: Corey Hart, J.J. Hardy, Manny Parra, Prince Fielder, Dana Eveland, Rickie Weeks, Tony Gwynn Jr., Yovani Gallardo, Angel Salome, Lorenzo Cain, Ryan Braun, Mat Gamel, Will Inman, Jeremy Jeffress, Cole Gillespie, Jonathan Lucroy, Caleb Gindl, Efrain Nieves, Matt LaPorta, Brett Lawrie, lots of other quality picks this year…
Notable signings: Alcides Escobar & Hitaniel Arias
>First non-GM to be named Executive of the Year by Baseball America.
>Two former scouts working under Zduriencik are now Scouting Directors—Tom Allison in Arizona & Bobby Heck in Houston.
• Los Angeles Dodgers
10/29/98—10/24/99: Director of International Scouting & Special Assistant to the General Manager
Notable signings: Hong-Chih Kuo
• New York Mets
1998: Special Assistant to the GM
1996—1997: Minor League Operations Director
1994—1995: National Scouting Crosschecker
• Pittsburgh Pirates
1991—1993: Scouting Director
Notable draft picks: Tony Womack & Jason Kendall
• New York Mets
1990: National Scouting Crosschecker
1983—1989: Area scout (Texas, Oklahoma & Missouri)
Notable draft picks: Butch Huskey
• Tarpon Springs High School (Fla.)
1980—1982: Baseball & Football Coach
• Clairton High School (Penn.)
1977—1980: Baseball & Football Coach
• Austin Peay State University
1975—1977: Baseball & Football Coach
• Chicago White Sox
1973—1974: Minor League Catcher
The education and PE degrees, past coaching experience, and minor league baseball career as a catcher stick out to me. Along with 10 years of assisting the GM. Seems to be a nice background to be able to attest who the right baseball players are to invest in.
Wow, that list of draft picks for the Brewers is seriously impressive.
Yeah, masters in PE is real impressive, that’s one of the toughest disciplines to get a graduate degree in right?
First non-GM to be named Executive of the Year by Baseball America.
I’m not sure if that’s impressive or not, but it appears to be.
Austin Peay Governors, represent!
(Okay, I didn’t go there but GS52 did…)
I’m warming up to this selection. There’s no doubt the player eval side of the equation took a major step forward (provided, of course Fontaine and Engle are still retained)…
The only GM in baseball who will understand you’re not insulting him when you say, “Let’s go, Peay!”
We had all this going for us already with Fontaine and Engle. The M’s needed someone to counter The Magoo Effect: The culture of perpetual mediocrity. Magoo and co took the pick with the least risk, the spineless wimps. They want to make the M’s like the Twins? We already were, look at the players who have come thru here, they just never knew how to use them to their advantage, or when to let them go or keep them. I’m sure Z is a great guy and all, but the minor league system would eventually have rebuilt itself now that Billy’s gone. That was not what we needed. We needed a new direction, we needed Ng and they wussed out.
Over the years Seattle has had an okay minor league system. It hasn’t been brimming with elite prospects but it hasn’t been completely barren either (hello Houston).
The real problem with the farm has been the inability to convert draft picks into productive players. Just look at the 2008 roster. Ibanez was the only position player originally drafted by Seattle. One out of nine! Everyone else came through trades, free agency or the international route. The pitching staff isn’t much better, with Morrow and a few of the bullpen guys being Mariners from the get-go.
The MLB amateur draft is the best way to acquire young cheap talent and the M’s have whiffed in this department for years. They’ve done a bad job developing what talent they did have but that’s another story.
Having a GM who can identity quality prospects is a very high priority for the M’s. It seems Seattle has found that GM in JZ. This is a step in the right direction.
I wanted a stat guy I fear we will be back here in 4 years
I’m not picking on Conor here, but can somebody tell me why every article lists Tony Gwynn Jr. as a feather in Zduriencik’s cap? Other than name recognition. Because Gwynn Jr.’s not any good. I mean, nobody lists Dave Krynzel.
tomas: no, the minor-league system wouldn’t have magically “rebuilt itself.” Systems don’t rebuild themselves — people have to build them. It’s a critical part of a GM’s job, and I think we can say with as much certainty as you ever get that Dr. Z can do that and do it well. And as regards Ng, as intriguing as she is, what do we actually know about her? Less that’s relevant to the core responsibilities of a GM than in his case, imho.
Also, on what basis do you dismiss this guy as a “spineless wimp”? Or imply that he’ll accept a “culture of perpetual mediocrity”? Do you have any justification for this? It seems to me you’re committing a major logical leap here: because I find this candidate unqualified in area A, he must therefore also be unqualified in areas B, C, D, and E. It just doesn’t follow.
He wouldn’t have been my first choice, either — that would have been Antonetti all the way and twice on Sundays. I really liked what Dave had to say about Woodfork, and I clearly would have preferred him. I was hopeful that LaCava was what we hoped he would be. But the bottom line is that for any of these guys, their success rests far, far less on their individual skills than on their ability to identify other talented people, put them in positions where they can use their talents to best effect, and meld them into a functioning team. Stat guy or scouting guy, it doesn’t matter, if you can’t do that, you crash and burn. The fact that two of his former scouts are now running their own scouting departments — and one in Arizona, for goodness sake — suggests that Z has at least some ability to do this.
Also, I agree with JMB.
Amen.
If the only thing Z does well retool our farm system and bring cheap talent to the major league team, we will avoid signings like Washburn and Silva, and at the end of the day, that is a huge step forward.
Since the value of the likes of Tony Gwynn Jr. is being questioned – I would love to see a more systematic analysis of Zduriencik’s draft record. How good is it really?
It’s awesome.
True. A more detailed analysis would be helpful, though, both to calm those who are assuming this is just “Same Old Seattle” and to help all of us see his tendencies. Would it be possible for you and/or your friend Patrick to put one together?
I am one of those who are assuming this is just “Same Old Seattle†(as The Ancient Mariner put it) and I think that I could be swayed by draft picks.
Seattle has had so many bad picks, and even more mediocre picks.
I have to say that getting credit for 1st and/or 2nd round picks shouldn’t happen. Those are the ones you are SUPPOSED to hit on. Now, Corey Hart (11th Round) and Manny Parra (26th Round) are good finds, but what else has he found in deeper rounds?
I hope he will work, it is just scary to watch the Mariners do the same thing.
And if you all remember: They touted Bill Bavasi just as much.
You might want to do a little bit of research on the success rate of first round picks.
And none of us were touting Bavasi.
I am not saying that the success rate is high, but don’t you agree that it SHOULD be? A great scout SHOULD be able to find a first rounder that works…in a perfect world.
And I know you weren’t, but the Mariners organization was.
This is what I am saying: “The Mariners are feeding us the same thing”. We won’t know – obviously – for a while. None of us are psychic. A great mind could fail here, a terrible mind succeed.
And again, I can be swayed…I just have a bad taste in my mouth about Seattle Sports and the moves the teasm (namely the M’s) have made recently.
I have lost my trust in them.
As my father always said: It only takes one “awwsh*t” to destroy one hundred “attaboys”.
Haha from the archives:
“Woody Woodard was a better GM than Bill Bavasi.”
Aaaayup.
but don’t you agree that it SHOULD be? A great scout SHOULD be able to find a first rounder that works
No – if the average success rate of a first round pick is about 30% (it varies by slot, but as a mean, that’s pretty close), and Zduriencik’s rate is 65%, then that’s a demonstrative advantage. You can’t wave it away as something that everyone should be able to do if everyone isn’t able to do it.
This is what I am saying: “The Mariners are feeding us the same thingâ€.
And I’m saying: “Who cares what the Mariners are feeding you?”
Seriously, the PR spin might be the same, but that doesn’t mean that Zduriencik = Bavasi. The team would sell the acquisition of Juan Pierre and Ichiro the same way (leadoff hitter, speed, defense), but that doesn’t make them equals.
We absolutely have to be more nuanced in our analysis than seeing bald white scout and deciding that they’re exactly the same.
We absolutely have to be more nuanced in our analysis than seeing bald white scout and deciding that they’re exactly the same.
LOL! Too perfectly put.
Dave,
See, this is why I come here: I had no idea the difference between the average and “Jacky Z”.
You are swaying me.
Most of what we laymen have to review are press releases and a few “insider” options, so (at least for me) it is hard to find anything else.
And I wasn’t basing him being the same on the bald white guy thing. I was looking at his work (from what I could find). If I am off, then I am off, and thank you for setting me straight.
Personally, cautious optimism is my mode. There’s lots to like here, but there’s also stuff here that just may be More of the Same. And, to be honest, there may be a mixture of the two from here on out. If there’s a mix of 20% good stuff and 80% bad stuff, then, yeah, that’s gonna be a long five years….but if it’s 66% Really Good Stuff and 33% Same Old Thing, I still think we come out ahead….
Depends, too, how good the good stuff is and how bad the bad stuff is. If the mistakes are in the smaller things and he gets the really big decisions right, that makes a difference. A couple players can change a franchise, if they’re the right players — we should know that better than anyone.
I agree with “The Ancient Mariner”.
If he makes some big splashes (or even a few small ones) then the team will be better off.
We have all seen how the youth movement CAN help a team, and as I have been enlightened in this thread, youth seems to be something that Jacky Z is good at.
Allow me to insert a shameless plug that you can catch the Mariners press conference on Friday morning at 10 a.m. live on FSN. And Zduriencik will also have a 30-minute interview on “In My Own Words” Friday night at 10:30 p.m.
Just in case you want to get to know a little more about the new GM…
“I’m not picking on Conor here, but can somebody tell me why every article lists Tony Gwynn Jr. as a feather in Zduriencik’s cap? Other than name recognition. Because Gwynn Jr.’s not any good. I mean, nobody lists Dave Krynzel.”
Jason – it’s funny, just before I posted it, I thought to myself, “Tony Gwynn Jr. sucks. Should I take him off the list? Nah, whatever…”
Then again, if Tony Gwynn Jr. actually goes out and “kicks some butt” next season, he’ll easily pump up his career stats to somewhere around those of Willie Bloomquist…
Oh, wait.
Wow…I may have just busted a stitch…