The first head rolls
DMZ · June 9, 2008 at 10:25 am · Filed Under Mariners
Hot word this morning is Pentland’s been fired. Possibly that Lee Elia, who totally rocks, is taking his place.
Which is crazy, since just last week they’d completed the benching-and-reteaching of Sexson with such success, and the — yeah, you know the whole rest of the joke here already.
I was going to make a historical analogy with the Reign of Terror, but interestingly (to me, anyway) I couldn’t figure out who the first person to put their head on a block that September was.
Anyway, at least the Jacobins had the good sense to get the King first, rather than going after his undersecretary for cobblestone supply.
I was going to make a historical analogy with the Reign of Terror, but interestingly (to me, anyway) I couldn’t figure out who the first person to put their head on a block that September was.
You find me without my historical sources at work, so I’ll respond later if I get to better information. The Revolution was set on the path to the reign of terror before the King was killed, but The Reign of Terror is historically marked to have begun on Sept. 5, 1793. One could argue that these below were among the first to go. Not your major players:
1 – Jean-Baptiste Henry, aged 18, journeyman tailor, convicted of having sawn down a tree of liberty, executed 6th September,1793.
2 – Marie Plaisant, seamstress, convicted of having exclaimed that she was an aristocrat and that she did not care a fig for the nation, condemned to death and executed the same day.
3 – Henriette Francoise Marboeuf, aged 55, convicted of having hoped for the arrival of the Austrians and Prussians and of keeping food for them, condemned to death and executed the same day.
4 – Francois Bertrand, aged 37, publican, convicted of
having provided the defenders of the country with sour wine, condemned and executed the same day.
5 – Jean Julien, wagoner having been sentenced to twelve years hard labour, took it into his head to cry ‘long live the king’, brought back to the Tribunal and condemned to death.
The Mariners need to keep firing coaches so we can keep having good comment threads like this one.
Or, once they run out of coaches, maybe the peanut vendors?
I went to the historical stats to try and prove that Perry was the reason the walks and OBP stats were good in his tenure here, and bad since… but the data doesn’t support my theory. Perry’s team stats since he left Seattle (all ranks for ML):
2003 (Oak): 10th in walks, 21 in OBP
2004 (Pit): 30th in walks, 22 in OBP
2005 (Pit): 21st in walks, 25 in OBP
2006 (Pit): 26th in walks, 26 in OBP
2007 (CHC): 26th in walks, 18 in OBP
2008 (CHC): 2nd in walks, 1 in OBP
So, it depends on your team. He was unsurprisingly ranked pretty high with the A’s, unsurprisingly low with the Pirates, and has shown good success with the Cubs this year. The major difference with the Cubs this year is that Fukudome and Soto are getting all of the at bats at their respective position and Soriano was hurt for a month.
Baker talks with Elia; you can watch Elia coach Edgar at BP here
Scooter the Beer Guy.
Well, you could look at it this way…
When Perry was the M’s hitting coach, they were among the best in the game at drawing walks.
When Perry was with the A’s, they were in the top third of the majors in walks. During his year as the hitting coach, they improved from 16th in the majors in BB’s in 2002 to 10th. (They ranked 6th in 2004)
When Perry was with the Pirates, they improved their walk rate.
When Perry was with the Cubs, they dramatically improved their walk rate.
I submit that there are other ways to interpret the info, and not all interpretations would necessarily be favorable to Perry. I would also submit that improving the patience at the plate is an acquired skill and there may be a lag between assuming the role and seeing results.
I would also submit that it would be extremely difficult to reach a tangible conclusion regarding the effectiveness of a hitting coach. But, we might as well keep trying to understand this great game.
interesting note from Drayer
Bavasi seems to be pretty clear that Elia will be teaching the same stuff Pentland did, just offering a different voice. So even if Pentland was doing something wrong that contributed to the lack of offense, they’re not actually attempting to fix that.
106 – This ship is going down faster than the titanic. A sheer disaster on all levels.
Sniff. I love you guys. 15 full posts so far about the historical facts of the Reign of Terror. And then all those historical facts about the M’s, too.
Since the AL went to the DH in 1973, only seven teams have drawn 405 or fewer team walks in a full season. 2 of those 7 are the 2006 and 2007 version of our Seattle Mariners. I’ve put the number of wins in parentheses; the 2007 Mariners are the only team on the list to have a winning record.
1. 363, 2002 Detroit (55)
2. 383, 1975 Detroit (57)
3. 384, 2005 Detroit (71)
4. 389, 2007 Seattle (88)
5. 397, 1983 Kansas City (79)
6. 399, 1980 Chicago (70)
7. 404, 2006 Seattle (78)
Good idea, wrong person.
“I have been told by a couple of guys however, that with some guys, it has been hard to get them to the cages. In other words, Pentland worked well with those who showed up, but not everyone showed up.”
Those players should be released or dealt. What, are they just there to collect a paycheck? Sick.
Before that, though, some of the guys who DO show up to work with the hitting coach in the cages should get into these lazy-good-for-nothings’ faces and tell them they’re the ones who are dragging the team down.
Most ballplayers, especially the younger ones or all of them on a road trip, are wide-awake after ballgames until about 2 AM, then they sleep until noon, eat brunch, then it’s up to them whether or not they go to the ballpark to work on their hitting or work out in the weight room or get therapy….or go shopping or see a movie or hit on girls at the mall.
A few too many are the latter?
When did these guys stop listening to their non-managerial team leaders? When the team leaders left, i.e. Buhner, Martinez, Wilson?
The Reign of Terror was ended when several members of the Committee on Public Safety and the Robespierre clan, including Saint Just, Carthon and Robespierre were beheaded. 21 in all, to be exact. The Thermidorian period would follow, then Napolean.
Although it wasn’t simultaneous, it essentially happened on the same day (July 28, 1794)
As for Marie Antoinette, she was a victim of the initial purging of the Royalty by the National Convention (or atleast the Reign of Terror) in 1793 outliving her husband by 10 months,