From Z to A? It all depends.

Judging by their respective results compared to pre-season expectations, Jack Zduriencik can’t hold a candle to Haviland’s GM.  But Z was not the worst GM in baseball.  He took a franchise in disarray, led it for 7 years, and left it in about the same shape he found it, net. The M’s have more young players with possibly bright futures now than they had then, because he hasn’t just traded them for Erik Bedard.  The M’s have more money tied up in the future,  or at least more visibly to three huge contracts, but I think two of those will turn out relatively ok. And the next GM maybe could trade the bad contract — Cano — and use the proceeds to start his own Mariners rebuild without making the team noticeably worse in 2016.

Give me Z back before you burden the M’s with AJ Preller, who sold off pretty much the entire Padres’ future for non-performing big names, and when it didn’t work, missed his chance a month ago to turn the most marketable of those big names (especially Justin Upton) into a reboot of the farm system.  Preller did in one season what it took Bill Bavasi several to do.

Give me Z back before you swamp the M’s with  Doug Melvin, whose Brewers thrived on the fruits of Z’s scouting until they didn’t anymore and left Melvin exposed.

Give me Z back before you saddle the M’s with whoever is running the Marlins these days. I thought at the time that every trade the Marlins made last winter made the team worse — I didn’t anticipate Dee Gordon’s big season, and even that trade is still suspect in my mind.  The Marlins and the M’s were in almost the same position last year: teams on the upswing, on the verge of the postseason.  The Marlins traded their way out of that enviable position, and are even worse than the M’s now: 25 games under .500 and in a death match with the Phillies for the worst record in baseball.  Sure, the Floridian M’s have Jose Fernandez to look forward to… but still, the M’s didn’t sink until most of their players pulled mini-Fernando Rodneys and failed to repeat what they did the year before. Z had accomplices, in other words, in ways the Marlins’ GM did not.

Speaking of the Phillies: give me Z back before you sink the M’s under Ruben Amaro.

I could probably go on.

But, actually: don’t give me Z back. I’m afraid he’s established his ability to make as many internal enemies as good trades  (although I’m guessing it’s no great shame to be Eric Wedge’s enemy).  He’d wear the organization out completely if he was kept any longer.  The EFL would suit Z better, since we have no opportunity to make enemies within our organizations, Welington Castillo notwithstanding.

Unfortunately, the Mariners have shown no ability to get their leadership hires right, not since Lou Piniella left, so the odds of them doing something real smart this time aren’t very good.  Insisting on hiring an unemployed GM with experience is, in the Mariners’ hands especially, tantamount to insisting on a GM who has proven to someone else  he can’t do the job. But at least it means hiring someone who once convinced someone else he could do the job, and given the M’s track record, it’s probably safest for them to piggy-back on the work of others. Perhaps they can steal someone else’s current GM, the way the Cubs essentially stole someone else’s manager.

If you’re talking about going from Z to Amaro, no, thank you.  But Z to Anthopolous?  Now we’re talking.

 

Haviland:  “W”, 2 – 5.   .121, .171, .303;  8.3 ip, 4 er.  Not a day of inspiring leadership from our league leaders, but Chris Young at least demonstrated perseverance.  He only got into the game as a pinch hitter, but maximized the opportunity with a homer.

Old Detroit: W, 3 – (-1).  .200,.250, .422;  24.3 ip, 6 er.  It was starting pitching day in Old Detroit, with 3 members of the rotation and 50%-allocated stalwart Erasmo Ramirez also appearing.

The W’s reaped the fruit Friday of their search for premier defense.

Yes, that’s Kevin Keiermaier (OF rating: 6.0) pole dancing atop the wall in the Tampa Bay dome. So impressive!  So graceful!  So far from the ball dropping 50 feet short of the fence! (After hitting a catwalk above the field.)

Keiermaier’s kolleague Gregory Polanko (OF rating: 1.8)  recorded two actual outfield assists in one game —  but now that we’ve seen how Keiermaier won his stratospheric defense rating, I’m going to insist that Polanco pay more attention to earning style points. Polanco also rescued the W’s offense with his 3 for 5 with a double.

Pittsburgh:  W, 7 – 1.  .310, .370, .524;  11.7 ip, 1 er.  Cole Hamels had a great outing (8 ip, 1 er) and Freddie Freeman led the offense with 2 for 3 with a walk and a homer. Five other Alleghenys racked up OPSes of 1.250 or better, including 2 for 4’s from a bevy of young beauties — Kang, that man Piscotty, and Blake Swihart, whose day included a go-ahead inside-the-park homer… maybe.

Cottage: L, 2 – 3.   .185, .290, .222;  19.7 ip, 7 er.   Cottage pitchers are a little cheesed at the offense for not supporting them a little better. This was a winnable game, the pitchers limiting the opposition to three runs.  Wilmer Flores did his part (2 for 5 with a double) and so did hitting catcher Travis d’Arnaud (1 for 3 with 2 walks), but everyone else was hanging out with fruit and crackers — ie, out to lunch.

Flint Hill:  L,  3 – 5.  .217, .308, .261;  0.3 ip, 1 er.  A thoroughly forgettable day . Although every Tornado batter reached first safely at least once, the only one to reach twice was Xander Bogaerts (2 for 5).

Peshastin:  L,  3 – 5.  .225, .256, .375;  8 ip, 4 er.  Did you know that Welington Castillo is a great hitter? 1 for 3 with a double is a routine day for him now, with his 1.000 daily OPS right in line with what he’s done ever since he joined the Pears (.272, .350, .574 since July 1).  Trading away Castillo for Trumbo when your starting catcher is the historically weak hitter Zunino, your backup is the even lighter hitting Sucre, and his backup is the even more lighter hitting… whatever his name is: that had to be several nails in Z’s coffin right there.  So — who else has traded Castillo away this season, and may want to have his resumé all ready to go in his imminent search for new employment?  Well, there’s Chicago wunderkind Theo Epstein. He’s probably going to survive this.  But then there’s this other fellow, a little older and a little less wonderful…

Canberra:  W, 1 – 1.  .182, .279, .242;  14 ip, 3 er.  Wow! The Kangaroos, they of the mighty offense and miserable pitching, pulled off a full 180 yesterday, getting fantastic pitching, especially from Taijuan Walker (6.3 shutout innings), while their hitters took a break. A 1 – 1 win is indeed a narrow win — they could have used a hitting catcher like Swihart or Castillo to clarify the outcome a little better.

Kaline: L, 0 – 4. .083, .195, .139;  12.7 ip, 8 er.  Practically the last thing Z did — or the first thing his temporary successor did, I can’t tell — as Mariners GM was send Zunino to the minors.  This broke the Drive’s hearts.  In solidarity for their scapegoated buddy, the Drive batted a Zuninian .083, .195, .139 — well, Zunino wouldn’t have walked 5 times in only 41 trips to the plate, but you can see they made a real effort. Unfortunately, Drive pitchers were driven off the mound with some regularity Friday, so the results were definitely ugly.

Portland: L, 0 – 6. .119, .174, .167.  The Rosebuds, alarmed at how the Phillies had moved within a micron of stealing away next year’s first pick in the Rookie Draft, took decisive action yesterday.  They imprisoned all their pitchers in the clubhouse, only letting them out to bat under assumed names. They accidentally got 5 hits and took 3 walks, but erased some of that with a timely double-play ball, and struck out 10 times, to nail down a key loss, rebuilding a 1-game lead over the Phillies in the Great Draft Pick Race.