Saturday, January 22, 2005 |
The Bloody Work
The facts we hateStephen, the proprietor of the estimable yet sadly erstwhile Mariners Wheelhouse made some comments that I wanted to highlight while doing some taillight chasing prior to the start of the season:
We'll never meet
Walking down the road
Everybody yelling, "Hurry up! Hurry up!"
But I'm waiting for you
I must go slow
I must not think bad thoughts
What is this world coming to?
Both sides are right
But both sides murder
I give up
Why can't they?I must not think bad thoughts
I must not think bad thoughts
I must not think bad thoughts
-- X, "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts"
In comments at Mariners Musings you asked whether my perceptions of Bavasi have changed. As this post indicates, yes - they have.And implicit in carrying out the duties of a GM is the hard part: what they call in British tech circles, "eating your dogfood", i.e., rectifying your own mistakes. Already, last year's horrible mistake of signing Scott Spiezio to a three-year, $9M contract has been corrected: Spiezio no longer has a starting position and is likely to be traded, assuming Bavasi can find a GM who believes in clutch performance as an ability. To my knowledge, Dan Duquette and Kevin Malone remain out of baseball, and so Spiezio need not unpack his Seattle apartment.When Bavasi was hired, the hiring gave every appearance that the Mariners were firmly in the baseball camp that believes everything you need to know about running a baseball team was known 30 years ago, if not earlier. While the Mariners might not have left that camp, they've certainly come to the conclusion that there other feasible camp sites.
I don't see Bavasi as being a lights out GM. I do see him as being no worse than a "middle of the road" GM, and very likely will actually prove to be a cut above average. Coupling an above average GM with a large market resources ought to provide a team that is a consistent power in it's division.
This is what happens: yesterday's find becomes today's star becomes tomorrow's castoff. Eckstein became expendable, but only by the end of the season will we know whether the Cardinals or the Angels made the right decision, or both. So for the Dodgers: between the start of 2003 and the present day, DePodesta unloaded or failed to re-sign virtually the whole of the starting Dodger lineup: Cabrera, Cora, Green, Hundley, LoDuca, Martin, Mota, Nomo, Roberts, Shuey, and probably a half-dozen others I'm forgetting besides. DePo knew -- and said -- that one playoff win for a generation of fans wasn't enough. He is right. For now, the pain is over, but remember this: with David Ross released from Licey, and DePo's ruthlessness, nobody on the current lineup is safe. Catcher remains a hole. Blood could flow again tomorrow just as readily as it did in December and January.
When I was at Oracle on the early 90's we had to use Oracle*Mail as our email client, and how we hated it!
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