What do shadowy airport sightings, parking attendants and anonymous sources have in common? They've been the public face of UW's search for a new football coach. We knew Fresno State's Pat Hill and Texas Tech's Mike Leach interviewed for the job because of leaks. Initially we found out Hill was on his way to Seattle because two parking attendants said they saw Hill's car at the Fresno airport.
Granted, Sunshine Laws don't apply to coaching searches. Administrations and front offices don't have to tell the public anything along the way, and most don't. So that's what makes Mariners Jack the GM unique. He gave almost daily updates on who he was interviewing for the manager's job and then allowed them to talk to the media as well. Of course, he's not above making Captain Obvious statements like this (referring to possibly trading Adrian Beltre and JJ Putz): "I'm in no mood to give anyone away. I'm in the mood to improve this ballclub." But following Bill Bavasi, who combined KGB-like secrecy with FEMA-like ineptitude, at least Jack the GM is reaching out to a fan base that badly needs a hug.
Two coaching searches for two crummy teams, done in two totally different fashions. I'm not surprised by UW's approach, but the Mariners' path shows more accountability and respect for fans. UW could take a page from the Mariners, and how often have we been able to say the M's are worth imitating?
Showing posts with label Jack Zduriencik. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jack Zduriencik. Show all posts
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Waka Waka Waka
Don Wakamatsu. We don’t know anything about him. The one thing I get from reading the papers is that he’s detail oriented, which I guess puts him more on the roto-geek side of things than the gut feeling side. But that doesn’t tell us whether he’ll be any good; you can be a good roto-geek manager or a bad one, and you can be a good gut feeling manager or a bad one.
He’s worked for every single team in the American League West. He says he thinks it helped him get the job, but I don’t understand how being the bench coach in Texas a while ago helps you beat Texas now.
As a minor league manager, he compiled a losing record. That goes against Jack the GM’s claim that a history of winning would be a primary consideration, but minor league managers’ records don’t mean anything. Your personnel is moving around all the time, and the emphasis is on developing players, not winning. So let’s give him a pass on that for now.
In short, I see every reason to be optimistic. So far, it looks like the Mariners did right by hiring Jack the GM. And it looks like the organization is committed to building a long-term winner instead of a short-term loser. So that’s be a nice change.
I do have one concern. Well, concern is too strong, but it might be something to watch. Everybody has heard the rumors that Ichiro gets special treatment, and that that’s the main reason the players were having fist fights in the clubhouse last year. The next step in that speculation is that there are larger issues between the Latin players and the Japanese players. Wakamatsu is Japanese, and it makes you wonder how the Latin players—Felix, Yuni, Beltre, Jose Lopez—will react. Or how Ichiro and Johjima will react.
On the other hand, Wakamatsu is a relatively young guy who grew up in Oakland. Somehow, it seems like he has a better chance to deal with any cultural complexities that might arise than the old white dudes from bumblefuck who we’ve been hiring to do the managing.
He’s worked for every single team in the American League West. He says he thinks it helped him get the job, but I don’t understand how being the bench coach in Texas a while ago helps you beat Texas now.
As a minor league manager, he compiled a losing record. That goes against Jack the GM’s claim that a history of winning would be a primary consideration, but minor league managers’ records don’t mean anything. Your personnel is moving around all the time, and the emphasis is on developing players, not winning. So let’s give him a pass on that for now.
In short, I see every reason to be optimistic. So far, it looks like the Mariners did right by hiring Jack the GM. And it looks like the organization is committed to building a long-term winner instead of a short-term loser. So that’s be a nice change.
I do have one concern. Well, concern is too strong, but it might be something to watch. Everybody has heard the rumors that Ichiro gets special treatment, and that that’s the main reason the players were having fist fights in the clubhouse last year. The next step in that speculation is that there are larger issues between the Latin players and the Japanese players. Wakamatsu is Japanese, and it makes you wonder how the Latin players—Felix, Yuni, Beltre, Jose Lopez—will react. Or how Ichiro and Johjima will react.
On the other hand, Wakamatsu is a relatively young guy who grew up in Oakland. Somehow, it seems like he has a better chance to deal with any cultural complexities that might arise than the old white dudes from bumblefuck who we’ve been hiring to do the managing.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The Final Seven
SGB hates to say I told you so, but I told you so. I won’t be eating any pizzones, because, as I predicted, the Fab Five of Lloyd McClendon, Bobby Valentine, Art Howe, Willie Randolph, and Ned Yost aren’t on the Mariners’ managerial short list. In fact, it looks like they weren’t even on the long list.
I was thoroughly wrong about which Red Sox coaches would get the call—I thought it would be John Farrell and not DeMarlo Hale and Brad Mills, but it is in fact DeMarlo Hale and Brad Mills and not John Farrell—but I will make you another wager. If Hale (DeMarlo, not Chip, another candidate) or Mills gets the job, I’ll buy a round of pizzones for the entire SGB staff.
So here is the list: DeMarlo Hale (Red Sox third base coach), Brad Mills (Red Sox bench coach), Chip Hale (Diamondbacks third base coach), Joey Cora (White Sox bench coach), Jose Oquendo (Cardinals third base coach), Don Wakamatsu (Athletics bench coach), and Randy Ready (Portland Beavers manager).
There are four noteworthy things about these candidates: They’re young, they don’t have any major league managerial experience, the majority of them aren’t white (in Barack Obama's post-racial America, there is hope that these guys aren't affirmative action interviews and are instead on the list because Jack the GM wants them on the list), and they’re affiliated with well-run organizations. According to Jack the GM, it was this final characteristic—their history of winning—that put them on the list, and it will be leadership ability (whatever that means) that puts one of them on top.
As I said last week, I like Joey Cora. He’s young, he’s Latino, and he’s a fan favorite from his playing days in Seattle. Jose Oquendo doesn’t have the Mariners pedigree, but like Cora he’s a young Latino coach who used to be a decent middle infielder. Randy Ready has the best name in the group, but some SGB staffers watched the Portland-Tacoma tilt this summer, and frankly, Ready’s Beavers didn’t look very tight. I can’t say that I know enough about Chip Hale or Wakamatsu to make a judgment, but the larger point is this: This list gives me even more hope that Jack the GM is going to straighten the M’s out. Nobody knows enough about what goes on during the interview process to determine if, say, Chip Hale can manage personalities better than DeMarlo Hale, but we do know enough to say that Jack the GM is throwing conventional wisdom out the window.
And this team has run on conventional wisdom for the last decade. See this post for my overly long explanation of the “good baseball man” mentality that keeps the Mariners from being a “good baseball team.” By next week, we’ll know which of these seven guys is at the helm, and then the real work begins: Jack the GM will put together the team for the manager to manage. Right now, I trust that he knows what he’s doing. It’s a refreshing change to get the sense that the Mariners GM might be better at his job than I would be at his job.
I was thoroughly wrong about which Red Sox coaches would get the call—I thought it would be John Farrell and not DeMarlo Hale and Brad Mills, but it is in fact DeMarlo Hale and Brad Mills and not John Farrell—but I will make you another wager. If Hale (DeMarlo, not Chip, another candidate) or Mills gets the job, I’ll buy a round of pizzones for the entire SGB staff.
So here is the list: DeMarlo Hale (Red Sox third base coach), Brad Mills (Red Sox bench coach), Chip Hale (Diamondbacks third base coach), Joey Cora (White Sox bench coach), Jose Oquendo (Cardinals third base coach), Don Wakamatsu (Athletics bench coach), and Randy Ready (Portland Beavers manager).
There are four noteworthy things about these candidates: They’re young, they don’t have any major league managerial experience, the majority of them aren’t white (in Barack Obama's post-racial America, there is hope that these guys aren't affirmative action interviews and are instead on the list because Jack the GM wants them on the list), and they’re affiliated with well-run organizations. According to Jack the GM, it was this final characteristic—their history of winning—that put them on the list, and it will be leadership ability (whatever that means) that puts one of them on top.
As I said last week, I like Joey Cora. He’s young, he’s Latino, and he’s a fan favorite from his playing days in Seattle. Jose Oquendo doesn’t have the Mariners pedigree, but like Cora he’s a young Latino coach who used to be a decent middle infielder. Randy Ready has the best name in the group, but some SGB staffers watched the Portland-Tacoma tilt this summer, and frankly, Ready’s Beavers didn’t look very tight. I can’t say that I know enough about Chip Hale or Wakamatsu to make a judgment, but the larger point is this: This list gives me even more hope that Jack the GM is going to straighten the M’s out. Nobody knows enough about what goes on during the interview process to determine if, say, Chip Hale can manage personalities better than DeMarlo Hale, but we do know enough to say that Jack the GM is throwing conventional wisdom out the window.
And this team has run on conventional wisdom for the last decade. See this post for my overly long explanation of the “good baseball man” mentality that keeps the Mariners from being a “good baseball team.” By next week, we’ll know which of these seven guys is at the helm, and then the real work begins: Jack the GM will put together the team for the manager to manage. Right now, I trust that he knows what he’s doing. It’s a refreshing change to get the sense that the Mariners GM might be better at his job than I would be at his job.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Be My Valentine?
Jack the GM is about ready to start interviewing managerial candidates. So far, he's not tipping his pitches. "I do think what we're looking for is the best possible person," he said. Got that?
In the absence of any hints from Jack the GM, reporters put together a list of candidates by asking him, "What about person X?" He says, "Maybe so," and then wham! Person X is on the short list.
So we're hearing a bunch of names that sounds like the list of candidates for worst manager of the year, circa 2002. Lloyd McClendon? Seriously?
Then there's the Mets trinity of failure: Bobby Valentine, Art Howe, and Willie Randolph. (Is Dallas Green still alive?) Everybody's talking up Ned Yost, because he has a relationship with Jack the GM from their Brewers days. But the Brewers shitcanned Ned Yost right before their pennant run, so I'm not buying that.
The only reason we're talking about these also-rans as candidates is that we have to talk about somebody and they're the names we know. If it's any one of the five people mentioned above, I'll eat two Pizza Hut Pizzones in one sitting for free.
There was some buzz in the Times this morning about a few members of the Red Sox staff (John Farrell, DeMarlo Hale, and Brad Mills), but that's probably because somebody got interviews with Theo Epstein and Terry Francona. Of the three, Farrell's the most likely possibility. DeMarlo Hale is too intense, and intense is out since Joe Madden the baseball Buddhist meditated his way to the World Series. Brad Mills is just Francona's buddy from college.
Right now, the name I've heard that makes the most sense is Joey Cora. He's a legend in Seattle, and that helps when the Mariners brand is taking a beating. He's young, and that helps when the Mariners are rebuilding with young guys. (Bobby Valentine may be famous, but I don't see Yuniesky buying into his antics.) He's Latino, and that helps when many of the Mariners young guys are Latino, too.
In the end, whomever they pick, what matters is not who it is but what it says about the way Jack the GM wants to run the team. The manager will be like Palin in that way. She was an awful pick, which was bad in its own right, but even worse because it showed that McCain wasn't serious about governing.
Here's hoping that Jack the GM names a manager who shows he's serious about rebuilding smart.
In the absence of any hints from Jack the GM, reporters put together a list of candidates by asking him, "What about person X?" He says, "Maybe so," and then wham! Person X is on the short list.
So we're hearing a bunch of names that sounds like the list of candidates for worst manager of the year, circa 2002. Lloyd McClendon? Seriously?
Then there's the Mets trinity of failure: Bobby Valentine, Art Howe, and Willie Randolph. (Is Dallas Green still alive?) Everybody's talking up Ned Yost, because he has a relationship with Jack the GM from their Brewers days. But the Brewers shitcanned Ned Yost right before their pennant run, so I'm not buying that.
The only reason we're talking about these also-rans as candidates is that we have to talk about somebody and they're the names we know. If it's any one of the five people mentioned above, I'll eat two Pizza Hut Pizzones in one sitting for free.
There was some buzz in the Times this morning about a few members of the Red Sox staff (John Farrell, DeMarlo Hale, and Brad Mills), but that's probably because somebody got interviews with Theo Epstein and Terry Francona. Of the three, Farrell's the most likely possibility. DeMarlo Hale is too intense, and intense is out since Joe Madden the baseball Buddhist meditated his way to the World Series. Brad Mills is just Francona's buddy from college.
Right now, the name I've heard that makes the most sense is Joey Cora. He's a legend in Seattle, and that helps when the Mariners brand is taking a beating. He's young, and that helps when the Mariners are rebuilding with young guys. (Bobby Valentine may be famous, but I don't see Yuniesky buying into his antics.) He's Latino, and that helps when many of the Mariners young guys are Latino, too.
In the end, whomever they pick, what matters is not who it is but what it says about the way Jack the GM wants to run the team. The manager will be like Palin in that way. She was an awful pick, which was bad in its own right, but even worse because it showed that McCain wasn't serious about governing.
Here's hoping that Jack the GM names a manager who shows he's serious about rebuilding smart.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
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.
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.
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