There were a lot of really nice moments my favorite was the standing ovation the attendees gave those 4 guys. I don’t think they in any way thought that was going to be the out come. They looked a little stunned.

Thanks, that’s the kind of good specific detail that helps those of us who weren’t there get a sense of how things went (and without revealing anything that the Ms wouldn’t revealed).

Q. “… he’s said he’d like to start– do you have to go through spring training to make a decision?”

A. “I think we’re going to look at Brandon as a starter … things could change, as we get together with the coaching staff next weekend and as we roll into spring training and we watch things unfold, things have a way of dictating themselves. But I think at this moment in time, you look at a young guy with a terrific arm and you feel like you can run three guys out there, as we can do, on a given series, a three game series, if you’ve got to face Felix Hernandez, Eric Bedard & Brandon Morrow, that’s a pretty good 1-2-3.

much laughter ensued when the question came up and was ignored, however.

Did they let on about what they might do with Morrow?

It sounded like it was ri-sick-ulously good to be there. Hope the next USSM event comes quick, and is just as cool.

Carmen really did drink 4 bottles of water before heading to the restroom. I don’t know if that is a natural talent or an acquired skill after years of scouting baseball games.

I was really impressed with the quality of the questions. I didn’t think there was one stupid one. The name “Griffey” did not come from any of the questioners and was only mentioned by Tom in the context of not missing with your top draft picks.

With that being said, I wish we had gone with more of the submitted questions and the bloggers own personal questions. I think it would have given the afternoon more focus and would have provided us with even more information than we ended up getting (which was a lot).

The questions about Felix and establishing the fastball were the most frustrating ones. The questioners were trying diplomatically to hold to the ground rules and not name Felix. Eventually, Felix was named, but I don’t think the panelists ever understood that the questioners were asking why Felix throws such a high percentage of fastballs in the first inning. The answers weren’t satisfactory because the question wasn’t clear. I thought the bloggers had a chance to clarify the question, but passed up the opportunity.

Thanks, again, for the opportunity to attend. I’ll be at the next one – even if I have to chain up at the top of the pass at 10:00 pm to get home.

Who else in the front office would we want to hear from besides Z?

I think he was too busy writing his blog piece misunderstanding what impact Olkin had on the FO last year.

Much of Baker’s writing related to stats has basically become intellectually dishonest (way too many logical fallacies for them not to be intentional). In some ways it’s like giving a troll admin rights.

He’s basically best ignored rather than engaged on these issues. Reasonable minds can easily decide the truth between the latest “stat’s suck” rant and the counter, USSM-authored “First two months” thread.

He also made sure to point out a couple of times that he comes from a stats background, and so he knows where we are coming from. He’s on our side, so to speak. I thought it was interesting that he made that point more than once.

By that, he means that once the pipeline is full of good players in the minor league system they intend to keep it full so that the M’s never run out of major league ready talent.

He couldn’t say exactly when they would reach that “full pipeline” milestone, but I liked the idea that they are thinking long-term on every decision.

For example, I doubt they would have given away Adam Jones because he has such great upside and potential to be a long-term contributor to the M’s. I don’t think they would trade that kind of asset for a short-term “fix” like Bedard.

Another key comment that Blengino
made yesterday was “You have to KNOW your players. You have to know your players better than anyone else.”

In other words, I think the days of giving away players for nothing, or less than their true value, are long gone.