More Great News
Dave · November 19, 2008 at 10:32 am · Filed Under Mariners
“Don Wakamatsu is a friend of mine,” Peterson said Tuesday night. “I am very happy for him. It would be an honor and a privilege to be his pitching coach.”
That Peterson is Rick Peterson, former A’s and Mets pitching coach. Peterson is exactly the kind of new school pitching coach this organization could use, getting as far away from Mel Stottlemyre and his “fastball, fastball, fastball” mentality as possible. This team badly needs a new approach to pitching, and Peterson’s work stands on its own.
If Wakamatsu as manager means that Peterson as pitching coach is a realistic option, then we should all be doing back flips right now.
fingers-crossed.
my fear is that there’d be pressure to keep Mel…
Yeah, that’s the guy I want, no question. Fortunately, he has a good enough reputation that nobody would ask questions if we canned Stottlemyre and brought Peterson in.
I was excited when they hired Mel, because of his track record…but I will be even more excited to see him go…
I’m totally down if Peterson gets the gig…it would be another good move for Z…guy is on a roll…
Would bringing in Peterson also open the doors for Pedro to come on board? I read that the Mets aren’t brining him back. Would Pedro be a good deal like some of the other pitchers that Dave was supportive of?
And sorry about the double post…
Regardless of my little joke about ‘fixing Felix’ I’d be excited to see Mr. Peterson take on the role of M’s pitching coach.
I cannot honestly think of one thing that Mel did well. I was particularly disappointed in how he failed to defend Bedard. Even if Mel didn’t agree with Bedard or thought him a jerk, he should of, as the teams’s pitching coach, done more to curtail the avalanche of criticism that was heaped upon Bedard. Peterson would be awesome.
bakomariner,
You’re in luck about Pedro. Eric Seidman did a nice piece of work just yesterday about Pedro on Fangraphs. Check it out – it will be worth the few minute read (and there is a handy link under “Resources” on the right side of USSM). Hopefully it will get you addicted to Fangraphs, which is another great baseball site that Dave writes for.
Getting Mel away from Felix is the best possible thing for this organization.
Suddenly, $30 for King Felix looks like a steal in my rotisserie keeper league.
Anybody know the status of Mike Maddux? Did he re-up with the Brewers? Big Z might reacho out to him if he’s available.
Maddux took on the bigger challenge of coaching the guys who have to pitch in Arlington.
Where did the idea Stottlemyre was a good pitching coach come from in the first place?
JI,
It came from the fact that he was the Yankees (who had good pitching) pitching coach. But looking back, how many of those starting pitchers were homegrown? Its the same trap the old schoolers fall into regarding having played on a team that won a championship.
I just broke my neck doing a back flip.
Being a Mets fan that’s just relocated to the Seattle area, I’m pretty happy for you guys if you do snag Peterson. He’s not perfect for every pitcher, but he’s an upgrade over Mel. Also, with Don and Z, I’d hope that he’d be given an organization-wide chance to get buy-in to his pitching philosophy (like he had with the A’s), rather than being pushed aside quickly if there’s not IMMEDIATE improvement.
he was hired by Texas, and his job with the Brewers was filled with an internal promotion– one of the reasons Peterson is still available …
This would be really awesome. Though, the last time we were told to do back flips, things didn’t turn out as planned.
As long as Peterson doesn’t convince Z to trade our top prospect for Victor Zambrano, I’m all for it.
Does anyone know the source of the quote?
I’d like to read the article if there is one.
Wasn’t there pressure to hire Joey Cora though?
I think this will be a decision made by Z and Wakamatsu.
Err… Didn’t we already do this last offseason for a Mr. Bedard?
I’m very excited by all these new moves the organization has made recently. They seem to have recognized that their old approach was flawed and are committed to making changes. Not hiring Joey Cora shows to me that the new regime is being given the power to make the decisions they want and remake the team the way they see fit.
But I am afraid of doing back flips. 🙁
Does anyone know the source of the quote?
It’s from an item in a Ken Rosenthal article, as noted in the previous thread.
I noticed at the introduction press conference Wakamatsu’s jersey number was 16. Does this mean that this is the last we have seen of Willie Bloomquist since that is his number? Just thought I’d throw that one out there
I’ll pass on the back flips myself for now as well. But I am encouraged. Maybe this is the place to ask this. Dave wrote to Felix and told him to mix up his pitches. Hopefully a new pitching coach will do the same thing. But doesn’t the catcher call the game (maybe in consultation with the pitcher, which is why Moyer studies hitters)? Doesn’t the pitcher pretty much throw what the catcher (and by extension, the manager through signs) tells him to throw?
FYI – I think the vote for Dave thing reset the IP’s again, I just voted for the 3rd time from my home comp.
Don’t forget to vote for Dave. If you have already voted for Dave, find other people to vote for Dave. The voting ends tomorrow and Dave is about 800 votes behind. We can push him over the top with some effort.
After reading a lot about our new skip, and after seeing the Press conference, I have to say I’m very excited about Wakamatsu.
You could just tell that Wak and Big Z were all about business at that press conference. Time to sail this ship to the postseason.
Imagine if he can convince Bedard to get his act together.
I think the M’s are headed in the right direction – and this is very exciting to see.
I voted ’08
I know this is kind of off the topic of the new manager, but still along the lines of our new GM. Since he was a former, great, scouting director, does that mean we have a good chance of having someone who really knows how to build up the farm system? Seems to me like we do.
What, no more “establish the gopher ball” philosophy? Next you’ll tell me they’re thinking about encouraging hitters not to to swing at balls in the dirt or over their heads.
Yup JMHawkins, that’s exactly what we’re saying. It’s a brave new world. Get used to it. ISN’T IT GREAT?!
If it works for a stud like Vladimir Guerrero, I don’t see why it can’t work the entire Seattle Mariners roster.
LOL. I can see you’re auditioning to replace Joe Morgan in the ESPN booth.
More seriously, this interview with Peterson and Baseball Prospectus is great. Although I’d be interested in how, longterm, what he did with Hudson, Mulder and Zito affected their current situations.
Slusser briefly references Peterson in her piece about Wakamatsu this morning
A quote from Art Thiel’s column regarding Wak’s coaches:
“The more I talked about it with Jack, the more important it became to have the best guys, not my best friend,” Wakamatsu said. “We have to ask ourselves what staff is going to get the most out of the players we have.”
Not that Rick Peterson might not be the best guy, but it would not appear that just because he’s friends with Wak that he’ll get the job.
Beane throws out the Spinal Tap reference…nice…
Any indications that there actually will be staff shakeups? I suspect there will be, but what moves are being made?
do you mean aside from those FO ones that have already happened, or on the coaching staff? because I think only Stottlemyre and Norm are still “with” the team …
Yeah, well, if Mel and Norm are still with the team, is there any indication they’ll stay with the team?