As long as the Mariners continue to hire yes men weak-kneed in the face of meddling upper management the baseball on the field will be hit and miss, and mostly miss.
It seems simple to run a successful franchise. You hire baseball people smarter than you are, give them space to do what they do best, don’t interfere and let them have success, or failure, on their own.
And most of all, everybody has to be on the same page as far as the baseball operations and wanting to build a solid minor-league foundation, which is the key to what happens at the Major League level.
I don’t think it takes a magician or a genius to build a successful baseball operation. But you can’t have interference from people in the business side as the Mariners do. It’s tough enough to swim through muddled waters that you don’t need somebody from your own company throwing more mud into it.
Now that Jackie Z is finally gone, the franchise has an opportunity to get it right. The new general manager hire needs to be somebody who has a solid plan and is tough enough to bark back at the meddling from above. I doubt the current upper management will allow the new guy to be nothing more than a milquetoast, but if they are as smart as they think they are they will get a Lou Piniella-type guy and let him run the baseball operation without fear and without the meddling. Otherwise, fans will be in for more seasons of futility.
As I wrong in thinking the media gave Jackie Z too much credit? You look at where the minor-league organization is at right now and it’s a mess. At one time it was among the best, but slowly Jackie Z decimated it and now it’s among the worse.
So how did Jackie Z get such a free pass – a get-out-of-jail card – for so long? Maybe because he comes across in public as this nice accommodating guy that the media was fooled into complacency. But as Lou Durocher once famously said, ‘Nice guys finish last.”
I fault the media for not pouncing sooner. If their pressure would have been there a few years ago the Mariners would not be the laughing stock of baseball again. Well, almost the laughing stock. Philadelphia has done a good job of capturing that.
There is one step left. That is the firing of Lloyd McClendon. But from what I have heard it sounds like that will be left up to the new general manager. And that is the way it should be. The new guy should be allowed that choice. I’m sure McClendon understands that, too.
I don’t think players have given their all for McClendon, who talks tough but isn’t, in my view. If you listen to his post-game press conferences he reacts to questions and doesn’t have things he wants to say without prodding. I’m thinking when I list to his press conferences, “Where are his own thoughts? Why isn’t he putting in his two cents?”
I think the baseball operations need a wholesale cleaning out. I know I know that could set the franchise back some more years. But it’s in terrible shape as is and if I’m the new GM I’m cleaning house and installing my guys, guys who are smarter than I am and who are not yes men but people I can count on to argue their points without fear of being fired.
The franchise doesn’t need new ideas as it needs a fresh coat of paint and a clear focus and a will to win that surpasses everything else. And If I’m the new hire, I’m going to make it clear from the start that upper management may be my bosses but I don’t need their input on how best to build a successful baseball operation. If they are so good at that they don’t need a GM; the can do it themselves.
Yes, you are probably right, and I would not get hired if I made that clear in the interview process. But that is exactly what this baseball operations needs; a man who has the guts to make it clear he runs the shop and those who don’t need to be there don’t go there.
So there it is. The Mariners are starting over and it’s about time. Now all we can do is hope this time they get it right. No more yes men. Hire somebody who can do his own work on his own time and doesn’t have to go to daddy to get permission.
It’s the least we can expect.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.