Recent Stories with tag Jack Zduriencik

Which pitcher would you rather have?

Pitcher A: 74.2 IP, 76 K, 21 BB, 8 HR allowed. Ground ball/Fly ball: 1.23.
Pitcher B: 69.2 IP, 63 K, 44 BB, 10 HR allowed. Ground ball/Fly ball: 0.57.

Word came last night that former M's first round pick Brandon Morrow was traded to Toronto for reliever Brandon League and a prospect. The general media consensus is that this prospect will be a good one, since Morrow was such a high draft pick.

But I'm not so sure. In that little quiz above, League is pitcher A, and Morrow is pitcher B. Looks to me like League's the better pitcher.

Oh, but Morrow has such great stuff, you say? Well, so does League--he throws a mid 90s fastball and a high 90s sinker. And though League was selected in the 2001 draft, five years before Morrow, he's actually only 16 months older.

One thing I love about Jack Zduriencik is that he doesn't make decisions based on reputation. Russell Branyan was considered a part-time player, but Zduriencik made him a starter and got 31 homers from him. Last year, Zduriencik went into spring training with only one established reliever on the roster, Tyler Miller Walker, then cut the guy before opening day when he pitched poorly in Cactus League play. (Commenter Jon caught my mistake, and also notes that established reliever Miguel Batista was on the roster. Point stands, though.)

Contrast this with Bill Bavasi, who consistently overspent for reputation over performance in his acquisitions of Rich Aurilia, Scott Spezio, Carl Everett, Richie Sexson, Jose Vidro, Miguel Batista, Carlos Silva ... need I go on?

The difference I think is in the upbringing of the two men. Bavasi was the son of a baseball executive, with a leg up on the competition. His dad gave him a front office job with the Angels at age 24.

Zduriencik, on the other hand, was the son of a steel mill worker. He didn't get a job in baseball until he was 30, and that was as an area scout, the lowest possible rung of baseball administration.

No wonder Zduriencik looks at Morrow and sees a pitcher living on reputation, not performance.

Now League has his issues too--with control, primarily. But his walk numbers aren't nearly as high as Morrow's.

Morrow gave us some thrilling moments: His near-no-hitter of the Yankees in 2008 was the most exciting game of that dismal season and effectively knocked the Yanks out of the playoffs that year. But more often, Morrow struggled to do the one thing a pitcher must: throw the ball over the plate.

I hope the Mariners do get a top prospect in addition to League. But if they don't, I'm okay with the trade anyway.

Yesterday the Mariners finalized a trade that sends three lower-tier prospects to Philadelphia in exchange for 2008 Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee. Reaction is bubbly.

"THANK YOU SANTA Z!!!"--Seattle Times commenter

"This is, quite frankly, a heist. The Mariners are getting a Cy Young caliber pitcher for some decent-but-not-great prospects. They aren’t giving up Morrow. They aren’t giving up Saunders. They aren’t even giving up Triunfel. And yet, they walk away with one of the five or six best pitchers in baseball."--Dave Cameron, USS Mariner

"The virtues of acquiring a starting left-handed pitcher in his prime with the resume of Cliff Lee are apparent to any attentive Mariners fan. To summarize: JEEZUSRUKIDDINMEDRINKSALLAROUND!"--Art Thiel, Seattlepi.com (It's worth reading the rest of Thiel's thought-provoking column about the national perception of the Mariner franchise.)

"This is about as good as a right left punch can get. It gives me a boost of energy knowing that this is what the team is doing and that expectations are we will go further."--M's pitcher Ian Snell, via KIRO's Shannon Dreyer

"We've acquired a very, very nice piece to help this organization move forward. It will be exciting to watch him pitch at the top of out rotation – him and Felix Hernandez.... I don't think we're done yet."--Jack Zduriencik

"Lee succeeds in the same way that Ben Sheets used to succeed--by just throwing strikes over and over with sufficiently good stuff to maintain a solid strikeout rate. He doesn't miss a ton of bats--his contact rate is actually below-average--but he's consistently ahead in the count, which puts him at a significant advantage. In a way, he and Felix take remarkably different paths towards a similar end result, and it'll be all kinds of fun to watch them BACK TO BACK OH MY GOD."--Jeff Sullivan, Lookout Landing...

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Ken Griffey, Jr., 13-time All-Star, slugger of 630 home runs, former guest star on the Harry and the Hendersons TV show, will return for his 13th season as a Mariner, the Seattle Times' Larry Stone is reporting.

Griffey's return to Seattle last season caused much rejoicing: my own reaction was to cancel evening plans and enjoy celebratory drinks with a longtime friend and Mariners rooter. The Mariners sold 23,000 tickets in two days.

The joy will be more muted this time--I'm not canceling any plans, and I doubt the Mariners will see much of a spike in ticket sales.

But I still have a smile on my face. If a different regime had brought Griffey back, I might worry that they planned to use him in a role greater than he could handle at this stage in his career.

But I trust Jack Zduriencik and Don Wakamatsu to utilize Griffey appropriately--giving him the odd start as a sometime DH, rolling the dice with him as a pinch hitter when they need a home run (à la Matt Stairs of the Phillies), and letting him play the role of leader, elder statesman, and Ichiro-tickler he filled so well last season.

The Mariners' 2010 season begins on April 5, 144 days from now, in Oakland.

The Mariners' accountants are staggering into work late yesterday morning after a night of wild celebration--the team announced Monday that veteran catcher Kenji Johjima, who lost his starting job this season, has decided to opt out of the next two years of his contract, which would've paid him a total of $16 million.

"He walks completely on his contract here, and we start fresh," Johjima's agent told the Times. The Mariners now owe Johjima nothing, not even COBRA coverage.

Why would Johjima do it? This was my question to childhood friend David as we watched the two amazing baseball playoff games Monday night at the Roanoke.

"Well, he's already made a ton of money," David said.

True. Johjima played 11 years in the Japanese league, and made more than $25 million in his four seasons as a Mariner. But. Still. $16 million! How can you walk away from that?

Mariner GM Jack Zduriencik repeatedly characterized Johjima's choice as a "personal decision"--as if there is any other kind. The real question is, why make it?...

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With some baseball trades, you need to wait years to decide which team got the better of the bargain. No need with Jack Zduriencik's deadline day trade of Jarrod Washburn. If the trade were a baseball game, it would be Mariners 936, Tigers 1.

Washburn has been dismal for Detroit, and after not making it past the first inning on Tuesday, may not pitch again this season.

"I don't know why they'd want me to pitch, pitching the way I have," Washburn told FOX Sports.

Neither do we, Jarrod: In eight starts as a Tiger you've won just one game and compiled a 7.33 ERA.

Inflammation in Washburn's knee is causing him discomfort--but it's an injury the Tigers knew about when they made the trade. Evidently the pain has gotten worse, and there's nothing anyone can do.

Based on Washburn's performance, this would've been a good trade if the M's had gotten nothing in return but a Jim Leyland cigarette butt--but they received pitcher Luke French, a candidate for the '10 rotation. French made six starts with the M's, compiling...

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