Know Hope

The Mariners have their new general manager, Jack Zduriencik. He grew up in Western Pennsylvania, in the pro-America part of America, so we'll call him Jack the GM. It's easier than Zduriencik anyway, and it helps clear up any misconceptions that he might have socialist tendencies.

Jack the GM is not a whiz kid. He's not a candidate to be the subject of Michael Lewis's next book. He's a baseball lifer. I think that's good. The Mariners didn't just hire the first Theo Epstein facsimile they could find. They apparently hired the guy they liked, which shows some fortitude.

Jack the GM has three things going for him.

First, he's not Bill Bavasi.

Second, he's proven over the years that he knows how to draft. He drafted half the current Brewers, and that's a hell of a good-looking young team. Moreover, the papers are reporting that he'll bring two of his Brewers colleagues with him to start rebuilding the Mariners scouting operation. If the M's start drafting like the Brewers, that's a huge leap forward. No offense, Matts Clement and Tuiasosopo.

Third, he's starting to clean house. He must have sent a pretty clear message to Jim Riggelman that he's looking for a new manager, because Riggelman signed on to be the Nats' bench coach. (Bizarrely, Riggelman told reporters the day he took the job that he is "still holding out hope that I could go back to Seattle.") And today he fired Bob Fontaine, the longtime director of scouting. So if you ask me whether Jack the GM knows he has to start over, I'd say that signs point to yes.

I do have one concern. At his press conference, Jack the GM let the meaningless baseball cliches fly without any traces of self-awareness. Here's what I want to know: Do the dumb cliches just seem correlated to losing because most GM's say stupid shit and most GM's do stupid shit? Or are they in fact correlated? Does the stupid shit they say explain the stupid shit they're about to do? Time will tell, and I plan to monitor the situation closely.

So here's what Jack the GM gave us to start out with.

"My goal," he said, "is the build this organization into position to compete with the best clubs in baseball."

Then: "My goal would be to put the best club on the field that we possibly can by the time Spring Training opens and then into the first game of the season."

Then: "Our goal is to win as quickly as possible and sooner than later would be better."

Then: "My goal is to create a team. I can tell you sincerely that when this thing is said and done, we're going to be a team from top to bottom."

I am glad that Jack the GM isn't trying to put the worst club on the field over the long term so that this collection of selfish individuals is in a position to continue losing. I'm glad that they'll all be "pulling from the same end of the rope," because God knows you can't win when half of you are pulling from the other end of the rope.