An Apology
To Mr. Tuiasosopo,
I’d like to make a formal apology. A year ago, I wrote an article in The Hardball Times Annual that rated you one of the more likely minor leaguers to have a breakout year. Instead, you struggled badly, and that’s being kind. Perhaps in return for making me look foolish, I’ve made a habit of pointing out to people that you had an historically bad season in Double-A last year. I questioned your ability to hit to everyone that asked, and repeatedly wrote that a poor 2007 campaign could effectively end your career. It’s no surprise that I’ve been pretty skeptical of your offensive abilities in the last six months, and I didn’t think you’d hit much this year either.
Now that your double tonight gave you more this season (5) than you had in your entire Double-A stint last year, I’m ready to admit I was wrong. It took all of one week for you to convince me that it may have just been the overly aggressive promotion, and not a lack of talent, that caused you to struggle so badly last year.
So, Matt, I’m sorry for doubting you. Please don’t stop hitting.
Thanks,
Dave
Any comps you can think of that went onto Major League careers?
Cheers, mate. Keep the love for the Tuiasasopos coming. It’s tough to say you are sorry and you did so in a fine and upstanding way.
Its hard to come up with a comp. for Tui, because his 2006 season was so bad that most of the guys who hit that poorly in the minors never made the majors. Probably the best I can do is Travis Fryman, who hit .265/.306/.404 as a 20-year-old in Double-A, then hit .257/.295/.428 as a 21-year-old in Triple-A before making the majors for good in 1990.
But that was a different era, and a .710 OPS from a shortstop as a 20-year-old in the Eastern League in 1989 is a lot more impressive than a .477 OPS for Tui in the Texas League in 2006.
Trying to find someone who was as horrible as Tui was last year, then went on to have a significant major league career, is very hard. Hopefully, he’s blazing a new path. There’s a first for everything.
You wrote that Tui would have a breakout major league season.
Dude. You SO crack me up!!!
I have reasons to love him to begin with since he decided to pass on going to the University of Washington.
(haha, guess what school I go to? *sarcasm*)
One thing about them Tuiasosopos, they don’t quit.
I think, tho, that we’ll have to put a little asterisk next to Tui’s 2006, and it’s historical significance (or infamy), as more a credit to a stupidly rapid promotion then Tui sucking balls.
I am extremely pleased to see how things in the farm system have gone so far, and by the end of this season, even if the Mariners tank, we could have a lot of hope on the way.
Oh, BTW, West Tennessee? First win of the season yesterday after 4 straight losses to start the year.
Oh, and High Desert saw a rare 3-2, 11 inning game vs Visalia last night (they lost). Aaron Cotter might deserve a promotion just for pitching 6 innings of one run ball in High Desert.
one thing about the tui’s is that they bring amazing performances to the city of seattle. all it will take is for him to get to seattle and he will be AMAZING!!!
#8: So are you implying that the Seahawks should sign Marquis Tuiasasopo and bench Matt Hasslebeck in favor of him since all it takes for a Tui to be amazing is playing in Seattle!?!?
lol, I’m just kidding. I know what you mean.
Of course, if Bill Bavasi was the Seahawks GM and the Seahawks had the Mariners marketing people there. . .
Geez, I’m a conspiracy theorist, lol.
#6: You are forgetting a little too easy how there were just as many busts to come out of that 2004 minor league overload as there were successes.
Sherrill, Putz, Lopez among others turned out to be pretty good. But there were also a lot of Justin Leone and Bucky Jacobsen types too. (Anyone remember Scott Atchison??)
The ones I’m REALLY curious about right now in the system are LaHair, Jones, Clement, and Tui (even if only for the reason that he’s a Tui).
And even then, out of those 4, I still have a feeling the only one of them that could become a consistent solid MLB performer is Jones, but then again, I could be wrong. We can only hope.
The ’04 guys weren’t prospects, they were emergency filler.
wasn’t Atchison in Giants camp this spring?
I completely mistook your intent here, Dave.
I thought you were examining the reverse mojo effect of your take on his prospects.
In that vein, I thought you were apologizing for hyping him before, when all he needed to get unstuck was for you to write him off.
All that said, I hope he does have what it takes. He’s certainly young enough to put the one horrific year behind him. (Any possibility there was an unreported injury? Or am I just grasping at straws, as I’m wont to do.)
I saw him play in Spokane when he 1st got drafted, he went 0-3 with 3 K’s, its just a lasting impression.
12: Yeah. I saw him pitch. He hasn’t changed at all…he was just given like a 0% chance of making the team off the bat.
12 – Atchison is pitching with Fresno this year, and pretty effectively so far. He’s a decent fungible reliever. But yeah, he was never a prospect with the M’s. He came up at the end of 2004 at age 28; he’s 31 now.
Dave, if you’re looking for guys who were totally overmatched for a season or two in the minors and then turned out to be good, try Magglio Ordonez. His 1993 in the Sally league (614 OPS) or his 1995 in the Carolina league certainly qualify as awful, esp. from a corner OF. Plus, he was older than Tui was last year (which balances out the fact that he wasn’t as historically inept as Tui last year).
Obviously, they’re different players in different positions, but there’s your trailblazer for ya.
As for the overly agressive promotion screwing him up last year, you are probably right. HOWEVER, it has been documented that Tui credits last years failures with his new dedication to his craft (I believe it was in the Herald but I can’t find the article). He talked about how last year opened his eyes to the work required to get to where he wants to go (MLB) and how his struggles last year showed him that he can’t rely on natural talent alone (or something to that effect).
In that vein, one could argue that the aggressive promotion is responsible for putting Tui on the right path. I don’t think they needed to push him that hard, but I believe this is exactly the kind of thing Bavasi is talking about when he says he wants the guys to struggle before they get to MLB.
Dave, if you’re looking for guys who were totally overmatched for a season or two in the minors and then turned out to be good, try Magglio Ordonez. His 1993 in the Sally league (614 OPS) or his 1995 in the Carolina league certainly qualify as awful, esp. from a corner OF. Plus, he was older than Tui was last year (which balances out the fact that he wasn’t as historically inept as Tui last year).
Obviously, they’re different players in different positions, but there’s your trailblazer for ya.
I’d actually argue that Ordonez wasn’t overmatched in the SAL. The numbers that are generally more predictive were okay, even if his BA/OBP/SLG weren’t. In 1993, Ordonez had 21 extra base hits in 273 at-bats. 36% of his total hits were of the XBH variety. He wasn’t hitting the ball over the wall, but he was demonstrating significant power, especially for a teenager.
He also drew 26 walks, which is actually an impressive ratio for a kid playing full season ball as a teenager. He showed the beginnings of both patience and power, but he simply didn’t hit very many singles. Since singles are the least consistent way to get on base, it’s not a big surprise to see Ordonez’s single rate revert to the mean in the following years, while his established secondary skills continued to grow naturally.
Ordonez demonstrated actual ability while struggling. Tui didn’t give any reasons for optimism last year.
Um, yeah….but there’s too much of a good thing, doncha think? Ham handed execution of a good idea is functionally the same as good execution of a very bad idea….
Color me skeptical. I still think the Mariners, and the region, are seeing the Tuiasosopo name and not the actual player, and that the actual player will never hit the bigs. I hope I’m wrong. But a couple of games is not evidence that I am.
As stated in an earlier thread, I saw Tui getting extra BP with Pentland in spring training. Considering the amount of people Pentland would need to work with, he was getting very special treatment.
With one day in the cages and one day on the practice field I probably saw him take over 100 swings. It just didn’t look good. His confidence just seemed blown.
I am glad to hear he is hitting at AA. I wish him the best as he tries to climb the ladder.