Wednesday, March 31, 2004
THE YEAR THAT SHOULD NOT BE
It's been a while since the nightly slew of Mariner articles has riled up a set up/knock down feeling in me, but tonight is one of those nights. I'll try to build it up for y'all.
Notebook articles first. Times, P-I, Tribune...
Gil Meche had a little trouble in the game, but stretched out to 5 2/3 innings. Scott Spiezio's been having some back spasms, which bodes well for the left side of the infield, as Rich Aurilia has already spent time on the shelf this spring for his Right Calf Injury of Unknown Origin (RCIUO).
Taking into account yesterday's game happenings, I'll list all of these unlikely-to-happen-that-much-if-at-all-during-the-season things that happened, in order from least to most likely --
-- Wiki Gonzalez hit a 2-run bomb, according to the Times, and hit a minor-league bomb the same day according to the P-I, unless I read that wrong
-- Quinton McCracken hit a 2-run bomb
-- Ee-RAHM Bocachica hit a 3-run bomb. I'm probably incorrect here, but I just have it in for McCracken.
-- Raul Ibanez was 3-for-3. This is ranked as most likely out of the unlikelies only because he'll get more chances with which to go 3-for-3.
-- Ibanez and McCracken have a weird incident on a ball in the gap, which went for an inside-the-park homer. Though the result is pie-in-the-sky, I actually see these two having their share of weird outfield incidents over the course of the next year. Hell, this would actually be in my top 10 list of things most likely to happen to the Mariners next year.
Hickey writes a Jose Lopez piece. Of course, the first thing I notice is Jose's unfortunate nickname. Not only is it horribly feminine, it does that forsaken first initial/last name truncation thing, which I hate. Of course, it could be worse. On my high school team, a guy with the last name Ethridge was called "Melissa" (despite surname spelling discrepancies) on occasion by other teammates, which did not sit well with him, and I can't blame him. If I had to be stuck with a feminine nickname and it was a choice between Melissa Etheridge and Jen Lopez, it'd be a no-brainer. There really isn't a choice there.
John McGrath has a short column on the Tacoma pitching logjam.
"We'll have some kids in Tacoma who are good enough to be pitching in the big leagues for somebody else. But there's enough talent in Seattle so that young guys don't have to be rushed." -- Roger Jongewaard
I've been a fan of Madritsch's since his inception into the Mariner organization last year, and to me it was apparent the whole time last year that he should have been the second lefty in the bullpen. There's some debate as to whether he's Major League-ready, but I thought he more than deserved a shot in a role the team has needed to fill since Norm Charlton hit the shelf before the 2002 season. So I loved what he had to say the other day about not getting up to the bigs.
About what Jongewaard said, I don't think Madritsch would be rushed, and I think Jongewaard is using the word "talent" a little loosely in this regard. Ron Villone is overpaid and highly overrated. Terry Mulholland is old, not that good, and sucked in Seattle the first time, but so did Ibanez, so bringing him back fit within the Mariner logic. Mike Myers has Bob Melvin's good side...but if I was Madritsch and I saw that they're going as far as to make Myers throw three-quarters so he can face righties without sucking when I'm sitting here the whole time more than capable to throwing to hitters from both sides of the plate, I'd be irate too.
Self-admitting stat geek and KJR jock David Locke delves into the stat world, referencing fellow blogger and BP writer Derek Zumsteg, and using Pythagorean Wins, Runs against Position, and some win projections to try to say the Angels aren't the top pick in the West. He concludes this with the numbers, but then sees the Mariners' standing with regard to the numbers. Then Locke uses absolutely no numbers to try to prove the A's will hit an unlucky streak and says the Mariners will win the division. I guess if there's one effect of this article, it's that these kind of stats got into a major daily paper, and that half-casual or non-blog fluent Mariner fans might be rudely awakened in a few hours when they get their ink-smudged fingers over to the Locke article.
A Hickey article starts out saying that the Clapper ad is the apparent fan favorite because Dan Wilson, Edgar Martinez, and John Olerud may be nearing their ends as Mariners.
And that, in essence, is the Mariners' story for 2004. Free agency, trades and general attrition have worked their relentless entropy on the team the Mariners used to be. It was only three years ago when the Mariners set the American League record with 116 wins.
All fact and all Hickey in that paragraph. But can we stop it with the 116 talk already? With only a few keystrokes, that paragraph's mood can be altered; replace "only three years ago" with "three long years ago." Yes, I'm still ticked that this management seems to think it can try to put together a group without a superstar or someone that can carry the team on his back and win the World Series, i.e., they're in love with the 116-win, no World Series appearance mixture. Guess what? I loved the 2000 playoff run way more than the 2001 run, and that's not just because there was one more game. The first (positive) memory that comes to mind about the 2000 run is Alex Rodriguez ringing one off the LF foul pole in the Bronx. I was so convinced that this was their best chance. In 2001, some argued that the Mariners didn't face adversity, since they had minimal injuries and no long losing streaks. The latter part of 2000 gave fans a great deal of adversity, including a brutal eight-game losing streak (getting swept at home by the Indians and Tigers, anyone?) and Chris Widger lining a ball off Jamie Moyer's leg in a simulated game, resulting in a fracture and Moyer being shelved for the year. Yet the 2000 team did get one game further in the ALCS than the much-ballyhooed 2001 team. For me, the 2000 loss was more disheartening, in the way that the David Justice bomb off Rhodes was the series, and the series was over an hour later. With the Williams and Soriano bombs off Rhodes and Sasaki in Game 4 of the ALCS, it was over then, but then everyone had to know afterward that Aaron Sele was taking the mound for Game 5. That was almost as bad as seeing the Yankees tear him a new one in Game 5; it was bad enough for me that I didn't even watch Game 5. I absolutely refused. Enough with this nostalgia, though.
"I wouldn't have come back if I didn't think we had a chance," [Edgar] Martinez said. "That's a lot of why I'm here. A big part of me wants to go to the World Series, to compete, and I think we've got a team that can do that. If I didn't feel that, I wouldn't be here."
Someone's mixing the Mariner front office Kool-Aid into Edgar's protein shakes or something. I'm sorry the brass has done this to you, Edgar. I'm sorry they didn't put their best foot forward for you. I'm sorry they've squandered this window of opportunity they had to win the World Series for you and the Mariner stars of years past that you shared the spotlight with. I'm sorry that our only hope of the Mariners making it to the playoffs is the whole division sucking. I could pull some more out of my general reaction, but to bail myself out here, AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!
And now, the article tonight that ticked me off the most.
There are entire Web Sites dedicated to how stupid he is, petitions calling for him to be fired. It's the same thing that greets every GM for every team...
This is something I'm willing to correct myself on, but I have a hard time believing there were Gillick Sucks websites out there in the winter of 1999-2000.
So when the new outfielder is Raul Ibanez instead of Vladimir Guerrero, when the new shortstop is Rich Aurilia rather than Miguel Tejada, people on the Internet and sports talk shows who think the GM's job is like running their fantasy team call for everyone in the organization to be tarred and feathered. But like Bavasi said, at least they care.
Is it just me, or is that acrid smell actually the scent of the Mariner fans being taken for granted? These Mariners are not going to be the Cubs of the AL; no one can convince me the fans are going to stay on after a prolonged stretch of losing or mediocrity. The trend of Seattle sports teams in general over the past 15 years or so supports this. The Seahawks started really sucking, and on came the TV blackouts for the home games. They got off to a great start last year, sold out the rest of their home games, went undefeated at home, and should have gone to the second round of the playoffs. The Sonics had their NBA Finals run and sold out the Key damn near every night (17072 is capacity, I remember these kind of things). The lockout came and went, Vin Baker got fat, the team got worse while the rest of the conference got better, and attendance plummeted. The point is, the Seattle fans support a winner. Under Pat Gillick the past four years, the Mariners have maintained their Commitment to Competitivity with few moves that were absolutely brainless, but little movement at the trade deadline. Fans have stayed in the stands for the most part (looking forward to those attendance figures on weeknights in April though), with attendance no doubt gaining toward the end of last year as everyone presumed they were seeing The Edgar for the last time. Point is, the minute they recognize these Mariners are not as good as last year's no-playoff team, empty seats will be all the rage at the Safe. Even in the latter half of 1999, the year when the Safe opened, they weren't selling out every game because the team sucked.
An aside here (this was originally a this year/last year comparison that was supposed to be in the last paragraph), but this year, Bill Bavasi has made some truly indefensible moves that make me want Pat Gillick back. I'm almost sorry for every bad thing I thought during his tenure. But hey, there's that dichotomy of what makes perfect sense and what the Mariners actually want and get. Miguel Tejada, Ivan Rodriguez, and Vlad Guerrero, or Raul Ibanez, Scott Spiezio, and Rich Aurilia (all grossly overpaid). This even was the case during the GM search -- Kim Ng, Paul DePodesta, or Ned Colletti...or Dave Dombrowski, Al Avila, Mike Port, or Bill Bavasi? Ugh.
[Bill's] father, E.J. "Buzzie" Bavasi, won four World Series rings as GM of the Angels and Dodgers and president of the Padres. Brother Peter was Padres GM and president of the Blue Jays and Indians. Brother Bob owned and operated the Everett AquaSox for 14 years.
Refer to my post from January, where I found out that Buzzie let Nolan Ryan go in his prime. The same post revealed the slogan that appears at the top of this very site.
Bavasi hit the ground running, bringing Ibanez back to Seattle with a three-year contract just 12 days after being hired. There were a few high-profile dalliances with Tejada and Ivan Rodriguez, but in the end, he made deals that were in keeping with Mariners philosophy: good, veteran guys with good character who don't cost too much money over too many years.
Dalliance here is a noun closely related to "low-balling," and dammit, this Mariners philosophy has run its course. I'm sick and tired of it. Now I'm going senile. I'm only 22 years old, people!
"This organization was built over a long period of time and built the right way," Bavasi said. "Being somewhat conservative or careful, you can be a playoff team or nearly a playoff team every year without having to survive those gruesome stretches of years...
Bill's moves haven't been careful or conservative this offseason. As for the gruesome stretches of years, let's just not try to think about it right now.
"You take Atlanta. They used to be the epitome of failure in baseball. But they've put together a system where they can sustain being competitive even while being somewhat conservative financially."
Ted Turner gives a billion dollars to the United Nations and he's financially conservative? Wow. I'd hardly call the Braves (UN donation notwithstanding) financially conservative. You won't see the Mariners picking up Greg Maddux in his prime. You won't see the Mariners picking up a Gary Sheffield, or an Andres Galarraga, or a Reggie Sanders, or a Kenny Lofton (when he was 30 and still pretty good), or a Russ Ortiz, or a Fred McGriff. You can't be financially conservative and acquire all these above-average to top-tier players. And dammit, when will they get it through their heads that when you own a sports team, you're supposed to make your money when you sell the team? This would make everything so much easier.
His team in Anaheim was younger than the one he now oversees. The building of that roster, and the management of a pitching-rich farm system similar to Seattle's in Los Angeles, have him prepared to guide Seattle baseball into its rapidly approaching next era.
Change a portion of that quote to read "...and the management of a pitching-rich and hitting-bereft farm system similar to Seattle's in Los Angeles..." I may be just being stupid here, but who other than Raul Mondesi is a big bopper in recent years that has come out of the Dodger system?
Okay, I'm done railing the Mariners for the night. It's a quarter to 5am (I've already slept some tonight, don't worry), and I have class at 8am, so I can't let myself rant onward much more.
I'll end this post by giving a Happy Trails to the swim and wrestling programs here at Central Washington University. I hardly knew ye. However, I did know Bremerton grad and CWU wrestler Eric Smith, who definitely won't be wrestling here this year. I did not know that Central was the last four-year school in the state to ax wrestling. I'd also like to congratulate the CWU athetic department for running $102k over budget. Nice job, guys.
[Edit ~5:23a -- Congrats to Charles Gipson, who was a late-inning defensive replacement for the Devil Rays in the second game of the series in Japan this morning. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays, your place for all things ex-Mariner. Attaway, Charles.]
Notebook articles first. Times, P-I, Tribune...
Gil Meche had a little trouble in the game, but stretched out to 5 2/3 innings. Scott Spiezio's been having some back spasms, which bodes well for the left side of the infield, as Rich Aurilia has already spent time on the shelf this spring for his Right Calf Injury of Unknown Origin (RCIUO).
Taking into account yesterday's game happenings, I'll list all of these unlikely-to-happen-that-much-if-at-all-during-the-season things that happened, in order from least to most likely --
-- Wiki Gonzalez hit a 2-run bomb, according to the Times, and hit a minor-league bomb the same day according to the P-I, unless I read that wrong
-- Quinton McCracken hit a 2-run bomb
-- Ee-RAHM Bocachica hit a 3-run bomb. I'm probably incorrect here, but I just have it in for McCracken.
-- Raul Ibanez was 3-for-3. This is ranked as most likely out of the unlikelies only because he'll get more chances with which to go 3-for-3.
-- Ibanez and McCracken have a weird incident on a ball in the gap, which went for an inside-the-park homer. Though the result is pie-in-the-sky, I actually see these two having their share of weird outfield incidents over the course of the next year. Hell, this would actually be in my top 10 list of things most likely to happen to the Mariners next year.
Hickey writes a Jose Lopez piece. Of course, the first thing I notice is Jose's unfortunate nickname. Not only is it horribly feminine, it does that forsaken first initial/last name truncation thing, which I hate. Of course, it could be worse. On my high school team, a guy with the last name Ethridge was called "Melissa" (despite surname spelling discrepancies) on occasion by other teammates, which did not sit well with him, and I can't blame him. If I had to be stuck with a feminine nickname and it was a choice between Melissa Etheridge and Jen Lopez, it'd be a no-brainer. There really isn't a choice there.
John McGrath has a short column on the Tacoma pitching logjam.
"We'll have some kids in Tacoma who are good enough to be pitching in the big leagues for somebody else. But there's enough talent in Seattle so that young guys don't have to be rushed." -- Roger Jongewaard
I've been a fan of Madritsch's since his inception into the Mariner organization last year, and to me it was apparent the whole time last year that he should have been the second lefty in the bullpen. There's some debate as to whether he's Major League-ready, but I thought he more than deserved a shot in a role the team has needed to fill since Norm Charlton hit the shelf before the 2002 season. So I loved what he had to say the other day about not getting up to the bigs.
About what Jongewaard said, I don't think Madritsch would be rushed, and I think Jongewaard is using the word "talent" a little loosely in this regard. Ron Villone is overpaid and highly overrated. Terry Mulholland is old, not that good, and sucked in Seattle the first time, but so did Ibanez, so bringing him back fit within the Mariner logic. Mike Myers has Bob Melvin's good side...but if I was Madritsch and I saw that they're going as far as to make Myers throw three-quarters so he can face righties without sucking when I'm sitting here the whole time more than capable to throwing to hitters from both sides of the plate, I'd be irate too.
Self-admitting stat geek and KJR jock David Locke delves into the stat world, referencing fellow blogger and BP writer Derek Zumsteg, and using Pythagorean Wins, Runs against Position, and some win projections to try to say the Angels aren't the top pick in the West. He concludes this with the numbers, but then sees the Mariners' standing with regard to the numbers. Then Locke uses absolutely no numbers to try to prove the A's will hit an unlucky streak and says the Mariners will win the division. I guess if there's one effect of this article, it's that these kind of stats got into a major daily paper, and that half-casual or non-blog fluent Mariner fans might be rudely awakened in a few hours when they get their ink-smudged fingers over to the Locke article.
A Hickey article starts out saying that the Clapper ad is the apparent fan favorite because Dan Wilson, Edgar Martinez, and John Olerud may be nearing their ends as Mariners.
And that, in essence, is the Mariners' story for 2004. Free agency, trades and general attrition have worked their relentless entropy on the team the Mariners used to be. It was only three years ago when the Mariners set the American League record with 116 wins.
All fact and all Hickey in that paragraph. But can we stop it with the 116 talk already? With only a few keystrokes, that paragraph's mood can be altered; replace "only three years ago" with "three long years ago." Yes, I'm still ticked that this management seems to think it can try to put together a group without a superstar or someone that can carry the team on his back and win the World Series, i.e., they're in love with the 116-win, no World Series appearance mixture. Guess what? I loved the 2000 playoff run way more than the 2001 run, and that's not just because there was one more game. The first (positive) memory that comes to mind about the 2000 run is Alex Rodriguez ringing one off the LF foul pole in the Bronx. I was so convinced that this was their best chance. In 2001, some argued that the Mariners didn't face adversity, since they had minimal injuries and no long losing streaks. The latter part of 2000 gave fans a great deal of adversity, including a brutal eight-game losing streak (getting swept at home by the Indians and Tigers, anyone?) and Chris Widger lining a ball off Jamie Moyer's leg in a simulated game, resulting in a fracture and Moyer being shelved for the year. Yet the 2000 team did get one game further in the ALCS than the much-ballyhooed 2001 team. For me, the 2000 loss was more disheartening, in the way that the David Justice bomb off Rhodes was the series, and the series was over an hour later. With the Williams and Soriano bombs off Rhodes and Sasaki in Game 4 of the ALCS, it was over then, but then everyone had to know afterward that Aaron Sele was taking the mound for Game 5. That was almost as bad as seeing the Yankees tear him a new one in Game 5; it was bad enough for me that I didn't even watch Game 5. I absolutely refused. Enough with this nostalgia, though.
"I wouldn't have come back if I didn't think we had a chance," [Edgar] Martinez said. "That's a lot of why I'm here. A big part of me wants to go to the World Series, to compete, and I think we've got a team that can do that. If I didn't feel that, I wouldn't be here."
Someone's mixing the Mariner front office Kool-Aid into Edgar's protein shakes or something. I'm sorry the brass has done this to you, Edgar. I'm sorry they didn't put their best foot forward for you. I'm sorry they've squandered this window of opportunity they had to win the World Series for you and the Mariner stars of years past that you shared the spotlight with. I'm sorry that our only hope of the Mariners making it to the playoffs is the whole division sucking. I could pull some more out of my general reaction, but to bail myself out here, AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!
And now, the article tonight that ticked me off the most.
There are entire Web Sites dedicated to how stupid he is, petitions calling for him to be fired. It's the same thing that greets every GM for every team...
This is something I'm willing to correct myself on, but I have a hard time believing there were Gillick Sucks websites out there in the winter of 1999-2000.
So when the new outfielder is Raul Ibanez instead of Vladimir Guerrero, when the new shortstop is Rich Aurilia rather than Miguel Tejada, people on the Internet and sports talk shows who think the GM's job is like running their fantasy team call for everyone in the organization to be tarred and feathered. But like Bavasi said, at least they care.
Is it just me, or is that acrid smell actually the scent of the Mariner fans being taken for granted? These Mariners are not going to be the Cubs of the AL; no one can convince me the fans are going to stay on after a prolonged stretch of losing or mediocrity. The trend of Seattle sports teams in general over the past 15 years or so supports this. The Seahawks started really sucking, and on came the TV blackouts for the home games. They got off to a great start last year, sold out the rest of their home games, went undefeated at home, and should have gone to the second round of the playoffs. The Sonics had their NBA Finals run and sold out the Key damn near every night (17072 is capacity, I remember these kind of things). The lockout came and went, Vin Baker got fat, the team got worse while the rest of the conference got better, and attendance plummeted. The point is, the Seattle fans support a winner. Under Pat Gillick the past four years, the Mariners have maintained their Commitment to Competitivity with few moves that were absolutely brainless, but little movement at the trade deadline. Fans have stayed in the stands for the most part (looking forward to those attendance figures on weeknights in April though), with attendance no doubt gaining toward the end of last year as everyone presumed they were seeing The Edgar for the last time. Point is, the minute they recognize these Mariners are not as good as last year's no-playoff team, empty seats will be all the rage at the Safe. Even in the latter half of 1999, the year when the Safe opened, they weren't selling out every game because the team sucked.
An aside here (this was originally a this year/last year comparison that was supposed to be in the last paragraph), but this year, Bill Bavasi has made some truly indefensible moves that make me want Pat Gillick back. I'm almost sorry for every bad thing I thought during his tenure. But hey, there's that dichotomy of what makes perfect sense and what the Mariners actually want and get. Miguel Tejada, Ivan Rodriguez, and Vlad Guerrero, or Raul Ibanez, Scott Spiezio, and Rich Aurilia (all grossly overpaid). This even was the case during the GM search -- Kim Ng, Paul DePodesta, or Ned Colletti...or Dave Dombrowski, Al Avila, Mike Port, or Bill Bavasi? Ugh.
[Bill's] father, E.J. "Buzzie" Bavasi, won four World Series rings as GM of the Angels and Dodgers and president of the Padres. Brother Peter was Padres GM and president of the Blue Jays and Indians. Brother Bob owned and operated the Everett AquaSox for 14 years.
Refer to my post from January, where I found out that Buzzie let Nolan Ryan go in his prime. The same post revealed the slogan that appears at the top of this very site.
Bavasi hit the ground running, bringing Ibanez back to Seattle with a three-year contract just 12 days after being hired. There were a few high-profile dalliances with Tejada and Ivan Rodriguez, but in the end, he made deals that were in keeping with Mariners philosophy: good, veteran guys with good character who don't cost too much money over too many years.
Dalliance here is a noun closely related to "low-balling," and dammit, this Mariners philosophy has run its course. I'm sick and tired of it. Now I'm going senile. I'm only 22 years old, people!
"This organization was built over a long period of time and built the right way," Bavasi said. "Being somewhat conservative or careful, you can be a playoff team or nearly a playoff team every year without having to survive those gruesome stretches of years...
Bill's moves haven't been careful or conservative this offseason. As for the gruesome stretches of years, let's just not try to think about it right now.
"You take Atlanta. They used to be the epitome of failure in baseball. But they've put together a system where they can sustain being competitive even while being somewhat conservative financially."
Ted Turner gives a billion dollars to the United Nations and he's financially conservative? Wow. I'd hardly call the Braves (UN donation notwithstanding) financially conservative. You won't see the Mariners picking up Greg Maddux in his prime. You won't see the Mariners picking up a Gary Sheffield, or an Andres Galarraga, or a Reggie Sanders, or a Kenny Lofton (when he was 30 and still pretty good), or a Russ Ortiz, or a Fred McGriff. You can't be financially conservative and acquire all these above-average to top-tier players. And dammit, when will they get it through their heads that when you own a sports team, you're supposed to make your money when you sell the team? This would make everything so much easier.
His team in Anaheim was younger than the one he now oversees. The building of that roster, and the management of a pitching-rich farm system similar to Seattle's in Los Angeles, have him prepared to guide Seattle baseball into its rapidly approaching next era.
Change a portion of that quote to read "...and the management of a pitching-rich and hitting-bereft farm system similar to Seattle's in Los Angeles..." I may be just being stupid here, but who other than Raul Mondesi is a big bopper in recent years that has come out of the Dodger system?
Okay, I'm done railing the Mariners for the night. It's a quarter to 5am (I've already slept some tonight, don't worry), and I have class at 8am, so I can't let myself rant onward much more.
I'll end this post by giving a Happy Trails to the swim and wrestling programs here at Central Washington University. I hardly knew ye. However, I did know Bremerton grad and CWU wrestler Eric Smith, who definitely won't be wrestling here this year. I did not know that Central was the last four-year school in the state to ax wrestling. I'd also like to congratulate the CWU athetic department for running $102k over budget. Nice job, guys.
[Edit ~5:23a -- Congrats to Charles Gipson, who was a late-inning defensive replacement for the Devil Rays in the second game of the series in Japan this morning. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays, your place for all things ex-Mariner. Attaway, Charles.]
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