Super Quick Fan Poll
Jeff Sullivan · October 22, 2013 at 5:06 pm · Filed Under Mariners
This is something I saw. It’s not what’s important.
Lloyd McClendon, who interviewed with Mariners for managerial job last time around, is expected to be a candidate in Seattle again.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) October 22, 2013
Rather, it got me thinking, and it got me thinking about this poll! This poll right here, asking for your mass participation!
I’m finding it very hard to care about the M’s at all. It really doesn’t matter who they hire, whom ever it is will still have to work with Jack Z.’s players, most of which arguably would be bench players on contending teams, and it’s probably just a matter of months before Jack Z. is named the scapegoat du jour and we’re starting over again.
The fact that the M’s reportedly actively worked to try to get Lou back to manage this team indicates that they still don’t know what the hell they’re doing, and are again looking back to the little success they had from 1995 – 2001 instead of looking forward about how to contend for years to come.
I logged on to comment, but Swungonandbelted basically anticipated everything I had to say. I’d like to say I still give a damn, but your poll caught my by surprise in that when I considered the question I realized I. just. don’t. care. anymore.
Is it ironic at all that the only two posts so far are from two guys in agreement that they couldn’t care less about the Mariners currently…?
Two guys who read the poll, voted and then took the time to post comments, about finding it hard to care.
Sorry, but I found some humor there, Gar and SwungOn. I think it says more: “Damnit, I don’t WANT to care, but somehow I’m still following this team and keeping up with the new info this offseason…”
I actually voted that I care A LOT… Because it’s a good way to gauge just how far down the toilet hole we are at the moment– based on how legit of a manager we can draw in. Especially when there are 4 BETTER managerial positions available currently.
So yeah, I’m thoroughly interested. What kind of manager CAN we get at the moment? I have no idea…
is there perhaps a 2 1/2 for ”kind of interested because Felix’ and ‘kinda burnt out because October’?
MrZ – Yep, you hit the nail on the head. I don’t want to care about the M’s, but I can’t help but hope that the M’s give me a reason to feel good about them again. I think that the more telling poll question would be “do you think it matters who they hire”…..
I tried to participate in the poll but the only options offered were whole numbers and these options do not adequately characterize my depth of caring.
I picked 4. I find I do care quite a bit this time, moreso than usual – and it’s because of the following reasons:
1) They made such a craptacularly BAD decision with the previous manager!
2) This is two times in a row that we’ve watched Jack Zduriencik pick a manager who eventually gets thrown under a bus.
So I guess I’m saying I’m really interested in a morbid way – it’s as if I KNOW a train wreck is going to happen on this spot, so I’m just standing here wondering exactly when…
They trick me into falling in love with them again. Every year!
5 — I care an awful lot. I care an awful lot about this awful team. Even when the next manager will probably be not great nor have a big impact.
5- Whoever they pick will speak for the team and set lineups. Not the biggest of deals, but I don’t think this is going to be a very successful offseason to begin with… so… this might be one of the few things we can look forward to seeing.
Hey for the fun of it name anyone you want – dead or alive – could he turn this rudderless shipwreck around? I understand Hillary Clinton is presently unemployed. There are no “good” managers that are unemployed and to say a bench coach from one of the successful franchises is not very original. I know that the popular wisdom is for someone SABREmetrically ( is that a word?) astute and I’m OK with that but we need someone that does not accept the shit that has been played here instead of baseball. OK cross Joe Maddon and Billy Martin and out poops an Earl Weaver. Funny that guy is in Baltimore right now disguised as Buck Showalter. He’s very unavailable. Sooooo….. Ozzie Guillen
Had to give it a 4. Not going to lose any sleep over it, but will closely follow because…..well…… Guess I care.
On another front, there were fans on here (and I was one) who really wanted Hunter Pence and kinda was interested in Timmy. Both resigned with the San Francisco Yankee Giants. Lincecum for 17.5 million a year. Glad we are not into wasting that kind of money on a 5.00 ERA very mediocre pitcher. And the drumbeat continues.
I want an answer fell equally between “not even at all” and “an awful lot”, but unfortunately that is 2.5 So I wrestled for two point five minutes whether I cared a little bit more or cared a little bit less, and decided a 2.
If I care at all its because baseball is the only sport I care about and the Mariners are the only home team I have. Thus it’s worth caring to want to see them make moves that would give the town a baseball team to feel proud of. That said, caring is one thing. But given the current configuration of the, team, and of management, and of the knowledge that no one single manager would have much impact… caring is more in line with just wistfulness.
I would care but I can’t work up the energy. Best I can do now is every other manager, which may not be long coming.
ofcourse i care a lot!
I’m a Mariners fan, for better or worse.
Would like for the team to start winning but that doesn’t change how much i care.
I’ve been a baseball fan for 50+ years and the Mariners are my team. I’d like them to do better, but not going to stop caring about the team, players, who coaches them anytime in the next 50 years.
I don’t care who the manager is as long as he gets on Smoak and tells him to either hit the baseball or spend his days in Tacoma. No more of this “work in progress” nonsense.
I put in a 1. While I’m sure I’ll complain about the decision, and the subsequent decisions made by the manager, in the end it doesn’t matter who they pick because I’m not sure the roster will be built to matter. Z is good at identifying talent in the draft, but hasn’t shown much for talent at the ML level.
But perhaps I’ll care more when we get closer to Spring Training.
Please tell me the names of 5 potential managers we could consider a “good hire” so I can be excited if we get him. Are there five? (Feel free to name the awful choices also)
I voted that I care a lot obviously.
Do people really still think Z is a good talent evaluator? I hear that, but I’m not even sure I know what it means at this point. His drafts haven’t proven to be anything great.
MrZDevotee — Yes, I obviously still care about the team and what Jeff and Dave have to say, or I wouldn’t still be checking this site. Let me clarify: I was utterly stunned when I saw Jeff’s poll by the depths of my apathy about the next manager: under normal circumstances, I would have thought I’d be deeply invested in whom the M’s selected as the next manager. But, to my great surprise, when I read it, I was struck by how alienated I feel at the moment from the organization.
I’m not sure if I’m a canary in a coal mine, but I will say this: as someone who considers himself both a diehard and informed fan (prepare for some navel-gazing), I can’t help but think what my reaction says about the larger community of fans or potential fans. Obviously, there are things to like about the team: Felix, the pitching prospects, and the flashes of brilliance from Seager and Miller. That said, the FO has made a lot of questionable roster decisions of late, and as I pondered the question posed by the poll, I couldn’t help but think: “Who cares who they put in charge of this collection of stiffs (beyond the exceptions already noted)? What difference will it actually make?” I was surprised that I felt that way, but there it is. And if I feel that way, as someone who has followed the team for thirty years and has spent thousands of dollars to continue to follow the M’s from thousands of miles away more than a decade after I left Seattle, then…well, ugh.
I desperately want the team to be good again, because at this point I am starting to feel like this has become an abusive relationship: I give and I give and all the M’s do is take, and the only way I can continue to defend my questionable life choices is through self-deprecating humor. Insofar as I do give a damn, I just hope to God the M’s take a Hippocratic approach and first do no harm. If they hire Dusty Baker, Destroyer of Young Pitching Talent, then I might as well stick my head in the oven as continue to follow this team. Somehow, I just know that they will: they’re desperate for “credibility,” and he’s looking for a job, and it would be so Mariners to hire the one guy most likely to take a s**t all over the one truly promising asset for the future.
I just…I mean…(blecch)…
Sorry, but unless and until this team actually starts acquiring some pieces that even make the question of manager at all worthwhile or relevant, I just don’t see the point in getting excited about who the next manager is.
I put in a 0
If I’m betting a significant amount of money on what the near future of the Mariners look like, I’m going with Jack Z and the new manager getting fired after next season to make room for a totally new rebuilding plan. Because that’s my expectation, I really do not care who the new manager is.
If we’re really lucky, Chuck and Howard get the boot when a new owner comes in and we get an actual clean slate.
Don’t really care at all.
I’m assuming that the 2014 is a lost season as the M’s leadership tries to figure out which end is its ass, and which end is its top ass.
I’m starting to think about hoping that Felix escapes this cesspool of an organization, and joins an organization that I could root for. Maybe takes Seager with him.
And I, again, offer Tampa Bay Felix and Seager for the Tampa Bay Lightning. In a corresponding move, the remainder of the M’s will be traded to Sacramento for the Kings.
I’m starting to wonder if just getting the Lightning for the M’s would be a steal for Seattle.
It is pretty crazy how evenly split this poll is.