Lest Seattle sports fans get to optimistic about the M's chances for Contention '09 the Sports Gods dealt out two harsh tokes today. Faster than you can say "Bill Bavasi" two pillars that the M's had hoped would be part of the core of youth the they would build around for the future were removed from the picture.
First supposed slugging catcher of the future, Jeff Clement, was sent back down to AAA Tacoma. This is no good at all. Clement has already destroyed AAA pitching in his two stints down in Tacoma. Yeah, he didn't exactly pull a Sasha Grey and light the world on fire in his limited time up in the bigs last year. And sure he displayed the grace and footwork of a drunken David Hasselhoff behind the plate this Spring Training when he was fighting for his job. So he's made it hard on himself.
That said, AAA is not the place for him. He has shown he can destroy AAA pitching and and work to his defense can be done at the major league level as a back up. This move destroys his value on two fronts. First if he is no longer considered a catcher by the M's and they hope to move him to a 1B/DH role then his uniqueness as a slugging catcher evaporates. 1B/DH prospects that can mash are a dime a dozen. Second is if other teams know that the M's don't view him as a part of the future then why should they be that interested in giving up much for him? Overall I don't understand this move, which is the first time I've said that in Zduriencik's short tenure.
The next bit of fecal matter to float up in Mariners fans' cereal is the news that Brandon Morrow wants to come out of the bullpen. Brandon Morrow has the stuff to be a solid #2/#3 pitcher. A mid-90's heater, a mean curve and a decent change-up. The fact that he WANTS to come out of the bullpen is pretty damn terrible news. In fact it strikes me a lot like the news that Sunrise Adam's was going to work strictly for Vivid Entertainment. In both instances I am dismayed at the lack of potential filled.
This is not a move I hold against the organization at all. Both Zduriencik and Wakamatsu have sated their desire to have Morrow in the rotation, where his value would be maximized. In the end it was Morrow's decision. Sure they could have held an AK to Morrow's head and made him pitch while screaming "Didi mao!" but I'm not sure how effective that would be. Morrow might slip in to Cutlerfucker levels of sulk and pitch ineffectively just to force their hand.
Morrow gave three reasons for his short-sighted decision to regress to a reliever. The first was he feels his die-uh-beetus would be easier to control coming out of the bullpen and not working as a starter. Though the aforementioned Culterfucker and NBA first round bust Adam Morrison seem to do just fine with it, it's Brandon's call and I gotta respect that.
The second reason offered up was that he feels his arm and body are better suited towards relief. Morrow came down with tightness in his arm during spring training so I feel what he's saying with this reason too. But the last reason really makes my circuits sizzle.
Morrow claims that he feels more comfortable and excited coming out of the pen. Understandable, having some bad-ass metal blaring for entrance music when you enter the game has too be pretty exciting. So too would knowing that the opposing batters have just loosed their bowels in fear of you. Being a closer allows you to throw high 90's heat as often as you want and chicks fucking cream over the heater.
What upsets me is that Brandon should never have been allowed to know that level of arousal. In another instance in which Bill Bavasi's bald headed ghost appears and chuckles, Morrow's tenure in the bullpen was the former GM's idea. Had Morrow been groomed as a starter from day one the M's are not in this predicament.
Now it's not all bad as the shaky M's bullpen gained stability with Morrow penciled in at closer. Recently signed John Fields, last years 1st round draft pick, joins him in the pen. Throw in a bunch of live arms Zduriencik acquired in the off-season and you have a solid group of relievers. It just hurts to have to former 1sr rounders rotting in their. Fuck you, Bavasi.
All in all these two bits of news are not the way fans wanted to start off the season. Hopefully the M's will be able to overcome these set-backs and stay competitive this year. If not it'll be another loooong inebriated summer.
Showing posts with label Bill Bavasi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bill Bavasi. Show all posts
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Saturday, June 21, 2008
An Exercise in Fine Simile and Metaphor
Remember that episode of "The Simpsons” in which Lyle Lanley (voiced by the late great Phil Hartman) convinces the town of Springfield to purchase a monorail with excess city funds? You know the one that Leonard Nimoy made a cameo in?
Yes of course you do.
In retrospect, that episode is eerily similar to Bill Bavasi era of Mariner baseball. After the city grew weary of Pat Gillicks’ disdain for major activity as a GM, it succumbed to the allure of a salacious shill. A rook, which brought promises of greatness. Of prosperity. Of Championships.
This and more could all be achieved… Through investing just a tad bit more cash than normally allotted. In the range of say, twenty million.
The logic made sense at the time. The Mariners had remained a fringe contender for the better part of the decade. Imagine adding one more potent bat to the 2003 lineup that won 97 games and still came in second in the division. Or for that matter, another solid pitcher to the 2002 team that won 93 games and finished third.
And so under Bavasi’s rule, Seattle took the gambit and became a large market team.
Then immediately began playing like a small market team.
Coaches were fired. Players vilified.
It did not take long for the mojo to die.
And in the end, Mariners faithful and the residents of Springfield were faced with the same dilemma. A train wreck to clean up.
My biggest fear entering this season was the fact that it was common knowledge that Bavasi was on his last rope with management. Desperate GM’s are always scary, as they mortgage everything on the hopes of a playoff appearance that will assure them job security. This is why we traded for Erik Beddard, why we were rumored to be getting Griffey for months and why we cut bait on Brad Wilkerson’s 3 million dollar contract.
But we have taken the first step to righting the ship. Bavasi is no more. Seattle bars are still replenishing their supplies of bourbon after the announcement was made.
Seattle also bid adieu to Jon McLaren. A necessary move, yes. However McLaren never really stood a chance. When his contract was extended entering this season, it reminded me of “Transformers: Heavy Metal,” when Optimus Prime bequeaths the Autobot matrix to Ultra Magnus. A soldier thrust into a leadership role. You would have thought that Seattle would be cognizant to the perils of promoting longtime assistants after the Bob Weiss debacle.
So the stage is set for a new era in Mariners baseball. Which direction will they go? What moves will they make? That is for time to decide.
In the meantime, while I wait it out, I am going to go watch the episode of “The Simpsons” where Bart saws the head off of the statue of Jebediah Springfield. You know the one where he hangs out with Jimbo, Kearney, and Dolph? The one where he redeemed himself by admitting his character flaws and threw himself upon the mercy of the mob?
Howard Lincoln, I suggest you go dig out the DVD player and look this one up. It’s a classic.
Yes of course you do.
In retrospect, that episode is eerily similar to Bill Bavasi era of Mariner baseball. After the city grew weary of Pat Gillicks’ disdain for major activity as a GM, it succumbed to the allure of a salacious shill. A rook, which brought promises of greatness. Of prosperity. Of Championships.
This and more could all be achieved… Through investing just a tad bit more cash than normally allotted. In the range of say, twenty million.
The logic made sense at the time. The Mariners had remained a fringe contender for the better part of the decade. Imagine adding one more potent bat to the 2003 lineup that won 97 games and still came in second in the division. Or for that matter, another solid pitcher to the 2002 team that won 93 games and finished third.
And so under Bavasi’s rule, Seattle took the gambit and became a large market team.
Then immediately began playing like a small market team.
Coaches were fired. Players vilified.
It did not take long for the mojo to die.
And in the end, Mariners faithful and the residents of Springfield were faced with the same dilemma. A train wreck to clean up.
My biggest fear entering this season was the fact that it was common knowledge that Bavasi was on his last rope with management. Desperate GM’s are always scary, as they mortgage everything on the hopes of a playoff appearance that will assure them job security. This is why we traded for Erik Beddard, why we were rumored to be getting Griffey for months and why we cut bait on Brad Wilkerson’s 3 million dollar contract.
But we have taken the first step to righting the ship. Bavasi is no more. Seattle bars are still replenishing their supplies of bourbon after the announcement was made.
Seattle also bid adieu to Jon McLaren. A necessary move, yes. However McLaren never really stood a chance. When his contract was extended entering this season, it reminded me of “Transformers: Heavy Metal,” when Optimus Prime bequeaths the Autobot matrix to Ultra Magnus. A soldier thrust into a leadership role. You would have thought that Seattle would be cognizant to the perils of promoting longtime assistants after the Bob Weiss debacle.
So the stage is set for a new era in Mariners baseball. Which direction will they go? What moves will they make? That is for time to decide.
In the meantime, while I wait it out, I am going to go watch the episode of “The Simpsons” where Bart saws the head off of the statue of Jebediah Springfield. You know the one where he hangs out with Jimbo, Kearney, and Dolph? The one where he redeemed himself by admitting his character flaws and threw himself upon the mercy of the mob?
Howard Lincoln, I suggest you go dig out the DVD player and look this one up. It’s a classic.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Bill Bavasi Fired! "And There Was Much Rejoicing."
As loyal readers of the blog know, I have a very passionate dislike for Bill Bavasi. So when I heard rumors that he was to be fired after the Mariners were swept at home by the worst team in the National League, I was giddy with anticipation. "Could this possibly be true?" I wondered. "Or is it just another cruel trick?" Minutes later it was confirmed Bavasi's horrible regime was brought to an end. Time to use out tanks to tear down those giant bronze Bavasi statues he had erected around Safeco field.
Tons has been written about why Bill Bavasi was one of the worst GM's in the league. Much of it by me. Often ranting against this evil tyrant as I saw him turn my childhood team into a mockery of sport. But most of what I wrote was from an emotional level with a few examples thrown in in attempts to make my point. But to truly grasps why Bill Bavasi is like the Neil Young song "The Needle and The Damage Done" you should read this well thought out post on BaseballAnalysts.com by Dave of USSM fame, entitled Mariners Foibles.
I am extremely excited about this move, as one might imagine. A chance at a new beginning for everyone is exactly what this organization needs. The New GM, when hired, will bring in his own coaching staff and we will finally be rid of John McLaren, his insipid explanations/rationalizations, terrible in game strategy and shameful lineup construction.
At the same time my head is soaring in the clouds like I just re-lost my virginity, my heart is gripped with a very real and tangible fear. That fear is this, the person who is hired in the off-season to replace Bavasi will be only a slightly marked improvement and will be in the same "old school baseball" mindset, only paying lip service to the proven tools of statistical analysis.
Let us not forget that the root of the evil that plagued this ball club remains intact, Chuck Armstrong and Howard Lincoln. These are the two people that hired Bavasi in the first place.
When Pat Gillick left the team after the '03 season Armstrong and Lincoln presided over the search and hiring of the next man to run this team. Out of all the many qualified GM's, many who have gone on to be successful elsewhere, these two chose Bavasi to be their man.
Nothing in the 5 years since that point has shown me, a dyed in the wool M's fan, that the mindset that led the Front Office to hire Bavasi, has changed in the least. Or that the abuse my beloved franchise has gone through these past years will end anytime soon.
The FO still talks to their fans like they believe that the fans feeble minds cannot truly grasps the will of God. That the moves they make in order to "better" the team, while seems odd and obtuse to the casual fan, would be made perfectly clear if the fans had the "baseball knowledge" and resources the FO does. And this type of talking down to the fan base infuriates me to no end.
I have followed the M's since The Kid was just a kid, fresh out of high school. Not the future first ballot Hall of Famer who just hit 600. Most of my life of watching the M's I was a casual observer, stuck in the old baseball modes, it was all I had ever known. Years later I would read a little book called Moneyball, in which the author lays out how A's GM Billy Beane fields a competitive team year in and year out on a minuscule budget. I saw then, the cracks in the Mariners facade, but did not fully grasps how deep those cracks went.
A couple years after that I was introduced, by a friend, to UssMariner.com. A Mariners website with a Moneyball-ish bent. It was here that I was shown all that truly plagued the team, not the crap like chemistry and grit that the local beat writers loved spewing on about.
I can see clearly now that if there is any hope that the fortunes of my team to be turned around that it must start at the top. That change could come in the form of a change of heart/mindset in the FO, but a complete 180 degrees change in terms of thought processes are rare. The more likely way to attain this change would be a cleaning of the house.
Short of one of those two events taking place it is hard for me to see a true change coming. I hope so very much that by some stroke of fate that the FO goes with the change of heart. That they now see we live in the 21st century. And that people who use the many statistical tools to help guide decisions do so not because they seek to rip the soul and mystique out of the game but because time and again this tools have been proven highly effective.
If they embrace this forward thinking approach to the game I will be the happiest man alive. Then I can openly root for this team without fear that their success only emboldens poor decision making, something I long to do so very much. Sadly, I worry that this will not be the case and in 5 years from now I will be writing about the sorry state the team is in, still. Please, Chuck and Howie, prove me wrong. I will love you for it.
Tons has been written about why Bill Bavasi was one of the worst GM's in the league. Much of it by me. Often ranting against this evil tyrant as I saw him turn my childhood team into a mockery of sport. But most of what I wrote was from an emotional level with a few examples thrown in in attempts to make my point. But to truly grasps why Bill Bavasi is like the Neil Young song "The Needle and The Damage Done" you should read this well thought out post on BaseballAnalysts.com by Dave of USSM fame, entitled Mariners Foibles.
I am extremely excited about this move, as one might imagine. A chance at a new beginning for everyone is exactly what this organization needs. The New GM, when hired, will bring in his own coaching staff and we will finally be rid of John McLaren, his insipid explanations/rationalizations, terrible in game strategy and shameful lineup construction.
At the same time my head is soaring in the clouds like I just re-lost my virginity, my heart is gripped with a very real and tangible fear. That fear is this, the person who is hired in the off-season to replace Bavasi will be only a slightly marked improvement and will be in the same "old school baseball" mindset, only paying lip service to the proven tools of statistical analysis.
Let us not forget that the root of the evil that plagued this ball club remains intact, Chuck Armstrong and Howard Lincoln. These are the two people that hired Bavasi in the first place.
When Pat Gillick left the team after the '03 season Armstrong and Lincoln presided over the search and hiring of the next man to run this team. Out of all the many qualified GM's, many who have gone on to be successful elsewhere, these two chose Bavasi to be their man.
Nothing in the 5 years since that point has shown me, a dyed in the wool M's fan, that the mindset that led the Front Office to hire Bavasi, has changed in the least. Or that the abuse my beloved franchise has gone through these past years will end anytime soon.
The FO still talks to their fans like they believe that the fans feeble minds cannot truly grasps the will of God. That the moves they make in order to "better" the team, while seems odd and obtuse to the casual fan, would be made perfectly clear if the fans had the "baseball knowledge" and resources the FO does. And this type of talking down to the fan base infuriates me to no end.
I have followed the M's since The Kid was just a kid, fresh out of high school. Not the future first ballot Hall of Famer who just hit 600. Most of my life of watching the M's I was a casual observer, stuck in the old baseball modes, it was all I had ever known. Years later I would read a little book called Moneyball, in which the author lays out how A's GM Billy Beane fields a competitive team year in and year out on a minuscule budget. I saw then, the cracks in the Mariners facade, but did not fully grasps how deep those cracks went.
A couple years after that I was introduced, by a friend, to UssMariner.com. A Mariners website with a Moneyball-ish bent. It was here that I was shown all that truly plagued the team, not the crap like chemistry and grit that the local beat writers loved spewing on about.
I can see clearly now that if there is any hope that the fortunes of my team to be turned around that it must start at the top. That change could come in the form of a change of heart/mindset in the FO, but a complete 180 degrees change in terms of thought processes are rare. The more likely way to attain this change would be a cleaning of the house.
Short of one of those two events taking place it is hard for me to see a true change coming. I hope so very much that by some stroke of fate that the FO goes with the change of heart. That they now see we live in the 21st century. And that people who use the many statistical tools to help guide decisions do so not because they seek to rip the soul and mystique out of the game but because time and again this tools have been proven highly effective.
If they embrace this forward thinking approach to the game I will be the happiest man alive. Then I can openly root for this team without fear that their success only emboldens poor decision making, something I long to do so very much. Sadly, I worry that this will not be the case and in 5 years from now I will be writing about the sorry state the team is in, still. Please, Chuck and Howie, prove me wrong. I will love you for it.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Why Do The 2008 M's Suck So Bad? According to Bill Bavasi, It Aint Him.
Much has been written about the Hindenberg style disaster that is the 2008 M's season, picking apart very facet of every loss, complaining about lack of accountability, and generally asking God "Why, do we suck so bad?". Through it all the USSMariner.com has been doing their best to shine a light and expose the true problems that plague this franchise. Too often are the teams problems explained through good/bad chemistry, lack of accountability and the need for veteran leadership when the true cause of this malignancy that hangs over this franchise is ignored.
In the spirit of showing the fan base what is killing their team they had a nice little article on Bill Bavasi's take on why we are where we are(dead last in the MLB in wins). Bill's take was, more or less, that it's not our crappy manager who continues to bat our slap hitting DH in the 3 spot. It also is not due to the fact that the team was built on the premise that a bunch of old no-skill players would do what even Hugh Jackman could not accomplish in "The Fountain" and find the legendary well of eternal youth.
No, according to our GM Bill Bavasi it is because the team lacks a leader to light a fire under them. Someone to hold them accountable for their failings and get them to play at the level they are capable of. He believes the team is a horribly under performing contender just waiting to bust out if just a gritty veteran clubhouse leader who has been through the wars would hold their feet to the fire.
Why does Bill Bavasi believe this? Why, because the talking heads on ESPN all concurred, in their sage-like wisdom, that with the addition of #1 Staff Ace EriK Bedard (prounounced buh-DAR, he's a Canuck, let it go), The Seattle Mariners were favorites to win the AL West. Also tons of sports writers who rarely, if ever, see our team play also spouted in agreement "Best 1-2 punch in baseball!!! Pitching will carry them to a division title!!!!" None of these "analysts" had "the nerve" to pick us anything less than second in the division, Bavasi ranted.
Sadly, as Dave at USSM points out, any sort of real analysis showed that the M's were a paper tiger. In today's sports world, an especially in baseball, the amount of statistical data available to help guide smart decision making is almost endless. There are formulas and programs that can execute said formulas given the proper data that can make fairly accurate predictions of teams given performance.
Now there are many stats I won't try to pretend I understand, UZR, RZR, tERA, etc...but I do understand runs scored and runs allowed. And I know last year the M's scored 794 runs and allowed 813 and I know that normally when give up more runs than you score you are going to have a losing record almost every time. That the M's won as any games as they did last year was not an upward trend but a statistical anomaly.
Some would argue that with Ho-Ram and Dream Weaver off the team and the additions of Carlos Silva and #1 Staff Ace EriK Bedard would shore up our runs given up and allow us to be the contenders were seemed to be before the collapse. While our pitching staff may have been bolstered the defense took a serious hit to any already shaky unit with the loss of Adam Jones in the outfield. Offensively, everyone is a year older and for the majority of our line-up that's not a good thing. Altogether, the upgrade in pitching is washed up by sub-par defense and aging hitting.
When Bill Bavasi says he and is analysts could have never predicted the team so poorly to start the season it reminds of when President Bush says he could not have predicted things falling apart like they did in Iraq. It's the kind if myopic statement one would expect out of someone surrounded by yes-men tuning out all opposing thought points on the subject. Truthfully it's childish. Reminds me of a time when I broke a window by being too close to the house taking batting practice. My parents asked me I just didn't take my swings out in the yard and I told them I didn't imagine the bat'd slip from my hand and go crashing through the window. The difference being my parents didn't buy it and I got in trouble while people seem to continue to buy or at least permit the lies woven by Bush and Bavasi.
Anyone that had been watching this team last season and thought about all that needed to go right for us to be good knew what Public Enemy was saying with "Don't Believe the Hype". In my post on the M's winning their first game I even predicted that the M's would need to be very lucky to be good and that it wouldn't require much for everything to fall apart. I said that the offense is very hot and cold and that the defense is over-hyped and there could be a lot of well pitched games lost to lack of defense and hitting. I thought the expectations that Suxson would regain his form of 4 years ago, Vidro would continue to bat an extremely hollow .300, Wilkerson would do much of anything, an that our expensive veteran pitchers would step up and prove their mettle were very tenuous and more than likely would not happen. And I've been proven right.
So, Bill Bavasi, when you say no one predicted your team to do so poorly how about you pull your head out of your ass before you do so. Then you might see that a 25 year old lowly suite runner with 0 baseball experience accurately forecasted your season. And that should shame you. Because if a dumbass like me is out-thinking you on how to run your team I'd hate to see what some of those bright baseball minds are doing to you throughout the league.
In the spirit of showing the fan base what is killing their team they had a nice little article on Bill Bavasi's take on why we are where we are(dead last in the MLB in wins). Bill's take was, more or less, that it's not our crappy manager who continues to bat our slap hitting DH in the 3 spot. It also is not due to the fact that the team was built on the premise that a bunch of old no-skill players would do what even Hugh Jackman could not accomplish in "The Fountain" and find the legendary well of eternal youth.
No, according to our GM Bill Bavasi it is because the team lacks a leader to light a fire under them. Someone to hold them accountable for their failings and get them to play at the level they are capable of. He believes the team is a horribly under performing contender just waiting to bust out if just a gritty veteran clubhouse leader who has been through the wars would hold their feet to the fire.
Why does Bill Bavasi believe this? Why, because the talking heads on ESPN all concurred, in their sage-like wisdom, that with the addition of #1 Staff Ace EriK Bedard (prounounced buh-DAR, he's a Canuck, let it go), The Seattle Mariners were favorites to win the AL West. Also tons of sports writers who rarely, if ever, see our team play also spouted in agreement "Best 1-2 punch in baseball!!! Pitching will carry them to a division title!!!!" None of these "analysts" had "the nerve" to pick us anything less than second in the division, Bavasi ranted.
Sadly, as Dave at USSM points out, any sort of real analysis showed that the M's were a paper tiger. In today's sports world, an especially in baseball, the amount of statistical data available to help guide smart decision making is almost endless. There are formulas and programs that can execute said formulas given the proper data that can make fairly accurate predictions of teams given performance.
Now there are many stats I won't try to pretend I understand, UZR, RZR, tERA, etc...but I do understand runs scored and runs allowed. And I know last year the M's scored 794 runs and allowed 813 and I know that normally when give up more runs than you score you are going to have a losing record almost every time. That the M's won as any games as they did last year was not an upward trend but a statistical anomaly.
Some would argue that with Ho-Ram and Dream Weaver off the team and the additions of Carlos Silva and #1 Staff Ace EriK Bedard would shore up our runs given up and allow us to be the contenders were seemed to be before the collapse. While our pitching staff may have been bolstered the defense took a serious hit to any already shaky unit with the loss of Adam Jones in the outfield. Offensively, everyone is a year older and for the majority of our line-up that's not a good thing. Altogether, the upgrade in pitching is washed up by sub-par defense and aging hitting.
When Bill Bavasi says he and is analysts could have never predicted the team so poorly to start the season it reminds of when President Bush says he could not have predicted things falling apart like they did in Iraq. It's the kind if myopic statement one would expect out of someone surrounded by yes-men tuning out all opposing thought points on the subject. Truthfully it's childish. Reminds me of a time when I broke a window by being too close to the house taking batting practice. My parents asked me I just didn't take my swings out in the yard and I told them I didn't imagine the bat'd slip from my hand and go crashing through the window. The difference being my parents didn't buy it and I got in trouble while people seem to continue to buy or at least permit the lies woven by Bush and Bavasi.
Anyone that had been watching this team last season and thought about all that needed to go right for us to be good knew what Public Enemy was saying with "Don't Believe the Hype". In my post on the M's winning their first game I even predicted that the M's would need to be very lucky to be good and that it wouldn't require much for everything to fall apart. I said that the offense is very hot and cold and that the defense is over-hyped and there could be a lot of well pitched games lost to lack of defense and hitting. I thought the expectations that Suxson would regain his form of 4 years ago, Vidro would continue to bat an extremely hollow .300, Wilkerson would do much of anything, an that our expensive veteran pitchers would step up and prove their mettle were very tenuous and more than likely would not happen. And I've been proven right.
So, Bill Bavasi, when you say no one predicted your team to do so poorly how about you pull your head out of your ass before you do so. Then you might see that a 25 year old lowly suite runner with 0 baseball experience accurately forecasted your season. And that should shame you. Because if a dumbass like me is out-thinking you on how to run your team I'd hate to see what some of those bright baseball minds are doing to you throughout the league.
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