Tag Archives: jack zduriencik

News, Sports

Mariners Resume Crawl Toward Relevance, But “Let’s Not Kid Ourselves”

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Your Seattle Mariners have been irrelevant for so long now, I’m beginning to wonder if it’s caused all involved to forget what “relevant” actually means.

Team president Chuck Armstrong, asked to assess manager Eric Wedge recently, enthusiastically cited the fact that Wedge “is the first manager we’ve had since Chuck Cottier who lives in Seattle.” Never mind that Cottier was fired after three dismal seasons. Armstrong added that Wedge “spoke to Cub Scouts and the Boys and Girls Club.” Are these the criteria Armstrong considers relevant to judging his team’s manager? Their place of residence and off-season youth group speaking availability?

For his part, Wedge is a dedicated proponent of “toughness.” Is “toughness” relevant to winning baseball games? Probably. Is it more relevant than bat speed, or throwing accuracy, or 74 other things I could name off the top of my head? Doubtful. The relevance of “toughness” is also tempered by the fact that it is difficult to define, let alone measure. Put it this way: Try putting “toughness” as a goal on your 2012 performance review and see what happens.

Fans spent the offseason substituting a relevant question with an obvious and far less relevant one. Instead of the tricky “What series of moves will get the Mariners closest to a World Series title,” fans (and media) asked “Will signing Prince Fielder make the Mariners better?” The answer to the latter question was obviously yes, the answer to the former much cloudier. Fielder is entering his prime, and the Mariners manifestly are not.

“This is going to be a challenging year for us,” Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik said before the season. Of anyone, Zduriencik seems to have the firmest grip on the relevant factors at play, to wit: The Mariners do not have enough major-league ready talent to compete.

The 14 most important players on a baseball team’s roster are the top 9 position players and the 5 starting pitchers. Of those 14 spots, the Mariners can only be sure of above-average performance at 1, as starting pitcher Felix Hernandez is one of the game’s best.

The other 13 spots? We can divide them into three categories:

  • Unproven Young Players: C/DH Jesus Montero, 1B Justin Smoak, 2B Dustin Ackley, LF Mike Carp, CF Michael Saunders, SP Hector Noesi, SP Blake Beavan
  • Declining Veterans: 3B Chone Figgins, RF Ichiro, SP Kevin Millwood
  • Proven Mediocrities: C Miguel Olivo, SS Brendan Ryan, SP Jason Vargas

Could the unproven youngsters take a leap forward, the declining veterans squeeze out one final good season, and the proven mediocrities have career years? Sure. But, as Zduriencik said earlier this year: “Let’s not kid ourselves.”

Manager Wedge has made a couple of changes to try to improve the M’s woeful offense. Ichiro will bat third instead of leadoff. Free agent bust Chone Figgins will be tried at leadoff in an attempt to resurrect his bat. Mike Carp, a plodding slugger whose best position is first base, will be the everyday left fielder. I don’t expect these changes to last long.

The Mariners’ 36th season will likely be about seeing which of their unproven young players can be part of the next competitive Mariners team–arriving in stadiums possibly as late as 2014. There’s help in the minors to, with pitching prospects Taijuan Walker, Danny Hultzen, and James Paxton close to major-league ready.

The season begins tomorrow night in Japan–that is, 3:10 a.m. Seattle time–as the Mariners open up with a two-game series against Oakland intended to promote Major League Baseball in the world’s second-largest baseball-mad market. The M’s then return stateside, play a week of spring training games, and begin the remaining 160 games on Friday, April 6, against the A’s again. The team’s home opener isn’t until Friday, April 13 (once again, vs. Oakland).

News, Sports

Wedge’s Last Stand? Mariners Manager Will Bat His Worst Hitter First

A franchise with 24 losing seasons in 35 years is bound to have its share of questionable managing decisions. But Eric Wedge’s pronouncement yesterday that he is installing Chone Figgins as the team’s leadoff hitter sets a new precedent.

Figgins

Chone Figgins was not just the worst hitter on the Mariners last year. He was not just the worst hitter in baseball. Last year, Chone Figgins was the worst hitter in baseball in the past twenty seasons. Not since 1992 had a hitter accumulated 300 plate appearances and posted an on base plus slugging percentage below .500, as Figgins did in 2012.

Yet, according to Wedge, Figgins will bat first in the order, where he will accumulate more plate appearances per game than any other hitter on the team. The Mariners’ leadoff hitter since 2001, future Hall-of-Famer Ichiro, has been dropped to the #3 spot in the order; another odd move, since #3 is typically reserved for a power hitter, not a singles machine like Ichiro.

Probably you are already wondering: “Does Chone Figgins own pictures of Eric Wedge walking Aurora Ave. in high heels and a crop-top?” One struggles to find a less outlandish explanation. Wedge contends that Figgins will perform better in the leadoff role, where he batted while having more successful seasons with the Los Angeles Angels. But if Wedge really believes that Figgins’ decline is due to his moving out of the leadoff spot, wouldn’t moving Ichiro be risking a similar collapse?

The root of all this evil is money. Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik signed Figgins to a four-year, $35-million contract before the 2010 season, the first and so far only major free agent signing of Zduriencik’s tenure. The Figgins signing has been only slightly less disastrous than the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. After posting a .789 OPS in his final season in L.A., Figgins dropped to .646 in his first season with the Mariners, then collapsed to .484 last year. The Mariners, a 85-win team the year before Figgins’ arrival, have won no more than 67 games in a season with Figgins. Yet to declare the Figgins’ signing a failure now would imperil Zdurienck’s job and–since a new general manager often hires a different manager–Wedge’s as well.

There has been a great deal of discussion on the M’s blogosphere about the sunk cost fallacy–that the Mariners are throwing good money after bad in starting Figgins. Sort of. What’s really going on is a cousin of the sunk cost fallacy, the endowment effect: “People place a higher value on objects they own than objects that they do not.” Everyone else in baseball sees one of the worst hitters in the league, but the Mariners hold onto hope that, after two years of disastrous performance, Figgins might bounce back. Leaving aside the question of Figgins’ $9M salary, which the Mariners will pay no matter where he starts, Eric Wedge should be asking himself–if Chone Figgins was not on my team, and was available for free, would I acquire him and have him bat in the leadoff position? Obviously, Wedge is not asking that question.

Figgins, for his part, argues that he is ideal in the leadoff spot because he is a “battler”: “I may not get two hits in a game, but I may have two walks and two runs scored.” The truth is, in 242 games as a Mariner, Figgins has had two walks and two runs scored only four times.

The previous leader for Mariner managerial malpractice, Maury Wills, made headlines in 1981 when he ordered Kingdome groundskeepers to illegally expand the batters box. However, Wills can be excused due to his later admission that he was addicted to cocaine at the time. It’s a pretty low bar to drop below, but Wedge appears to have done it.