RSS
Home
Mariners' no-sense season continues
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
The season that makes no sense took another twisted turn Monday when the Mariners finally fired general manager Bill Bavasi. Based on his record and the team's record, it was a long overdue action.
Now you have to wonder how long it will take the club to overcome the personnel damages it has suffered the past few years. Maybe we can get back Adam Jones, George Sherrill, Rafael Soriano, Greg Dobbs and perhaps Carlos Guillen and find someone to take Miguel Batista, Richie Sexson and Jose Vidro?
Mariners' CEO Howard Lincoln and President Chuck Armstrong made the formal announcement in an afternoon press conference. There were some items of interest to come out of it. The one overriding question I had for both of them was over their accountability. They were the ones who hired Bavasi and agreed to a string of overpaid contracts and senseless trades.
"In my job, I am ultimately responsible for everything that happens,'' Lincoln responded. "I am aware of that and I take that responsibility very seriously. As we know, when we're out there signing free agents we're competing against 29 other teams. There's a lot of money sloshing around in Major League baseball.
"These decisions are not made carelessly or without a great deal of thought. Every one of these decisions that Bill has brought to me and Chuck has been argued about, analyzed and reviewed back and forth. And yet at the end of the day, it has not worked.''
I wouldn't say that's a full admission of blame-sharing.
Next in line is manager John McLaren's job. He was protected by Bavasi these past few weeks but now that protection is gone. How precarious is his job?
Lincoln paused for a few moments before saying, “quite frankly, as I sit here, I'm really not in the mood to sing the praises of anybody in our clubhouse, whether it's the manager, the coaches or the players. It's a very fluid and difficult situation we find ourselves in. I expect John and his coaches and these players to get going and do what is necessary to turn this thing around as quickly as possible. If that doesn't happen, we'll make further changes.''
McLaren said that's fine with him. Everyone should be judged on their performance.
"So far, nothing's made sense,'' he said. "You hate to see people lose jobs. If it works out and someone wakes up, good.''
McLaren indicated Monday that he will change some things over the next few weeks, beginning with a switch of Ichiro back to right field, from center. He started in right Monday with Willie Bloomquist in center.
"We're putting Ichiro in right field. I've been thinking about it for over a month,'' he said. "Nothing against Ichiro in center, but I just want to see him get that zest, that smile and everything going. What I remember is spectacular things (in right) so I wanted to try that. I don't know if it'll make any difference whatsoever, but I'm going to try it.''
The big puzzle is what to do with Richie Sexson and his .212 average. He's making $15.5 million in the final year of one of Bavasi's overpaid contracts. He's no where close to living up to it.
"He's sticking with his (new) stance. I would say that's good,'' McLaren said. "What I've seen is he's preparing, he's fighting. We look for him to have a good game, a good week and who knows, it could make all the difference in the world.''
Look for him to be released.
Lincoln, in either a naive or disillusioned way, said that "the time has come and gone for some of our players to get going. I certainly hope this move will spur them on.''
It's not likely that this firing will have one bit of an impact impact on the players' motivation. And neither does Jarrod Washburn.
“Will firing Bill Bavasi make us play better? No. No,'' Washburn said. “If we start playing better it's because something happened, we figured something out.''
Bottom line in this whole mess is that nothing will change until the players change. I'm not sure they are capable. They certainly haven't shown they are.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
