Tuesday, February 08, 2005
today, i talk about the mariners again.
these damn mariners. they win more games than anyone else in baseball, launch themselves into the top three in revenue in 2001, a trend that continues through 2002 and 2003 before the 2004 flop. so we are top three in revenue, yankees and redsox territory. but, for 3 years, the mariners do not make a single signficant free agent signing or trade. it was outright stupidity what happened. the reason the 2001 season happened is because we signed all of these regular joe veteran type guys to reasonable contracts, so we could have decent play from every position. they win 116 games. the management signs these aging guys to large contracts, and refuse to bump up payroll to sign new players to improve the team, choosing to pocket the extra money they are now making (and there was a lot of extra money coming in).
it is almost like they knew it was a fluke. they didn't know how to keep winning, so they unwittingly sabotaged themselves. they froze in the spotlight. they bunkered down and hoped the magic they didn't understand and couldn't control would strike again. they were betting on the fluke. finally, last year we hired a new general manager. it didn't matter who it was in my opinion. it was almost like we went 2 years without one, because nothing happened. no moves were made. we had no signings from teams other than our own. at least now we have someone willing to spend the money he is allocated.
this offseason. oh man, this offseason was great. it could have been scary, but it turned into a beautiful thing. first, let me make a plea to everyone who keeps track of the mariners. stop reading what the reporters write. they don't know what they are talking about. read the mariners blogs that are out there. they are good. in fact, they are so good that the pi has one of the bloggers writing columns for them now. the uss mariner (THE mariner blog) has one of its guys writing this column called 'off the wall'. if you see this in the paper, read it. then compare it to what the other mariners writers have to say. it is kind of funny. anyways, the uss mariner saved my offseason. they kept the world abreast of what is really going on in the mariners world. even better, i think the GM for the mariners reads the blogs, because he had comments and addressed topics straight out of this blog.
here is what i think. presented with the reality of this offseason, bill bavasi was an artist. this is based on the assumption that adrian beltre was his #1 target all along, and carlos delgado and richie sexson were interchangable pieces in his mind. the thought of signing both of those players was a back-up plan he made public to put pressure on scott boras, beltres agent. everyone knew beltre was a fit for the mariners. no one thought the mariners would go through with it. bill bavasi used this too his advantage. he played it cool with beltre. he showed up to the winter meetings and waited for scott boras to contact him while making a huge public display of courting Sexson AND Delgado, when he was really after only one of them. he let the dodgers take the brunt of the boras evil. the boras evil that convinced the rangers to spend $252 million on A-rod, and just convinced the poor tigers to sign Magglio ordonez to a deal that could potentially reach $105 million. the mariners kept their big bid a secret. the dodgers were the only team making a serious move on beltre at the time, although the mariners were showing interest. so while boras was trying to squeeze 7 years out of the dodgers, the mariners kept up their story by vocally courting delgado and sexson simutaniously. they had a story out from hargrove about how sexson could play left field, they had everything.
then it hits. delgado took himself out of the race. other teams saw the mariners were going to get him, and his agent decides to push for the $20 million he made last year. almost a smart move on his part. the mariners sign sexson. they were going to have to over pay for one of these two, because they were both such sought after commodities. EVERYONE was after one of them. we knew we could always have sexson. he turned down $40 million from the diamondbacks, so we knew we would have to go higher than that. then the troy glaus thing happened, and it was just a matter of time. we had to pay $50 million to get him, or else someone else would have. so it hits at the winter meetings. you could hear the buzz about it hit the blogs before it was announced, it was an awesome day. the mariners come out with a bid 5 million higher than anyone had expected, and sexson gladly signed to the team he was going to sign with anyways. people call it a terrible deal because of the injury risk, but it was all a part of the overall strategy, which was to get beltre whatever it took. it was the money they had to pay for the timing of the thing.
so, here we are. the dodgers think they have time, but they are dragging their feet. boras has talked them into the 7th year. the offer they have on the table is something like 7 years $70 million dollars. they were fully intending to go higher, i'm sure. then the mariners call. they drop the bomb. they up their offer to 5 years at $13.5M a year it blows their other offers out of the water. they offer a $17M dollar signing bonus. they have just inked sexson, and they say this is our offer. take it, or we offer it to delgado tomorrow. boras panics. no way in hell were the dodgers going to go to 7 years $95M in a day like that. so they take it. it is a great deal for beltre. it is a great deal for the fans. in less than 24 hours, we get it worked out. other teams would have paid more. see magglio ordonez.
that is what i will remember about this season. scott boras, the man behind the worst contracts in the world was beaten into a fair contract at the height of the winter meetings by the MARINERS. it was brilliant. it was straight out of the world series of poker. we slowplayed him, then went all in and got him to fold. that day eventually will be the best 24 hour period in my long time love affair with the mariners. i loved them when the sucked. i worshipped them when they were good. i was disappointed when they sucked again, because they shouldn't have, but i loved them. at the end of that day, i almost fell onto the floor. i did yell at the top of my lungs. i ran around my apartment cheering when i heard we signed adrian beltre. the sexson deal looks great to me in the context of that day. he could get injured. but he could play. you never know. i'm willing to at least give him the chance to earn his money.
howard lincoln, the president or owner or whatever he is, had an article in the papers early in the offseason that gave me hope for the future. he sounded embarassed, and willing to let the money be spent how it needed to be. the lights came on last year that he couldn't keep jacking all of the profits, because he was going to lose money. i hope he has learned his lesson after the way this offseason went. the mariners had the best signing of the whole damn thing. he let us make some big moves, one risky, one brilliant. at the recent fanfest, i hope howard lincoln realized that he had just done a great thing, and has sent his team in the right direction, even if it was kicking and screaming. in the past, fans have absolutely drilled the guy. he keeps a scrapbook of all the bad articles about him. he was one of the most hated men in seattle over these last few years, and especially trashed on by the blogging community. he makes a public appearance at the fanfest, taking questions from the crowd. it is a risky move on his part. i'm sure he was sweating.
first person to the podium doesn't have a question. it is a local blogger. this guy thanked howard lincoln and the mariners management for the great offseason. from what i hear from people who were there, lincoln looked suprised. i hope it hit him in the chest. he did the right thing, and the fans already appreciate it. it doesn't matter if the players flop, it is the fact that effort was made. a sincere effort to make the team better. he went on stage in front of the fans. i'm sure he expected to be grilled. he was facing his worst nightmare, his worst enemy. instead he gets public approval.
i hope the mariners compare this upcoming season to the torture of last season. i hope that the lessons the fans have learned were also learned by the people in charge. the fans in seattle are smart. we are smart, and we love baseball. you can't keep us quiet with fluff pieces in the local paper. last season was a turning point. the fan/ownership feud that had been brewing came to a head. it was a big "i told you so" from all the fans who were angry at the inactivity of the front office. last season should have never happened. it was embarassing. the town was silent. the mariners were a taboo subject. there was none of the electricty of the years before when we were good.
this season will be different, and i hope the management sees. the mariners will be good. the town will be buzzing again. there will be no more boos for the home team at safeco. they will look back at the season, and they will see adrian beltre in the sky above the stadium. they will have another chance next offseason to make the team better. that is all the fans really want, a chance. as long as the team makes an effort to make the team better, we will be happy and watch. sometimes good teams get beat, we realize that. but bad teams always lose, and we also realize that. we are willing to watch a good team lose, but we won't watch a bad team lose again. the mariners have $100M a season to spend. there is no excuse for a bad team.
these damn mariners. they win more games than anyone else in baseball, launch themselves into the top three in revenue in 2001, a trend that continues through 2002 and 2003 before the 2004 flop. so we are top three in revenue, yankees and redsox territory. but, for 3 years, the mariners do not make a single signficant free agent signing or trade. it was outright stupidity what happened. the reason the 2001 season happened is because we signed all of these regular joe veteran type guys to reasonable contracts, so we could have decent play from every position. they win 116 games. the management signs these aging guys to large contracts, and refuse to bump up payroll to sign new players to improve the team, choosing to pocket the extra money they are now making (and there was a lot of extra money coming in).
it is almost like they knew it was a fluke. they didn't know how to keep winning, so they unwittingly sabotaged themselves. they froze in the spotlight. they bunkered down and hoped the magic they didn't understand and couldn't control would strike again. they were betting on the fluke. finally, last year we hired a new general manager. it didn't matter who it was in my opinion. it was almost like we went 2 years without one, because nothing happened. no moves were made. we had no signings from teams other than our own. at least now we have someone willing to spend the money he is allocated.
this offseason. oh man, this offseason was great. it could have been scary, but it turned into a beautiful thing. first, let me make a plea to everyone who keeps track of the mariners. stop reading what the reporters write. they don't know what they are talking about. read the mariners blogs that are out there. they are good. in fact, they are so good that the pi has one of the bloggers writing columns for them now. the uss mariner (THE mariner blog) has one of its guys writing this column called 'off the wall'. if you see this in the paper, read it. then compare it to what the other mariners writers have to say. it is kind of funny. anyways, the uss mariner saved my offseason. they kept the world abreast of what is really going on in the mariners world. even better, i think the GM for the mariners reads the blogs, because he had comments and addressed topics straight out of this blog.
here is what i think. presented with the reality of this offseason, bill bavasi was an artist. this is based on the assumption that adrian beltre was his #1 target all along, and carlos delgado and richie sexson were interchangable pieces in his mind. the thought of signing both of those players was a back-up plan he made public to put pressure on scott boras, beltres agent. everyone knew beltre was a fit for the mariners. no one thought the mariners would go through with it. bill bavasi used this too his advantage. he played it cool with beltre. he showed up to the winter meetings and waited for scott boras to contact him while making a huge public display of courting Sexson AND Delgado, when he was really after only one of them. he let the dodgers take the brunt of the boras evil. the boras evil that convinced the rangers to spend $252 million on A-rod, and just convinced the poor tigers to sign Magglio ordonez to a deal that could potentially reach $105 million. the mariners kept their big bid a secret. the dodgers were the only team making a serious move on beltre at the time, although the mariners were showing interest. so while boras was trying to squeeze 7 years out of the dodgers, the mariners kept up their story by vocally courting delgado and sexson simutaniously. they had a story out from hargrove about how sexson could play left field, they had everything.
then it hits. delgado took himself out of the race. other teams saw the mariners were going to get him, and his agent decides to push for the $20 million he made last year. almost a smart move on his part. the mariners sign sexson. they were going to have to over pay for one of these two, because they were both such sought after commodities. EVERYONE was after one of them. we knew we could always have sexson. he turned down $40 million from the diamondbacks, so we knew we would have to go higher than that. then the troy glaus thing happened, and it was just a matter of time. we had to pay $50 million to get him, or else someone else would have. so it hits at the winter meetings. you could hear the buzz about it hit the blogs before it was announced, it was an awesome day. the mariners come out with a bid 5 million higher than anyone had expected, and sexson gladly signed to the team he was going to sign with anyways. people call it a terrible deal because of the injury risk, but it was all a part of the overall strategy, which was to get beltre whatever it took. it was the money they had to pay for the timing of the thing.
so, here we are. the dodgers think they have time, but they are dragging their feet. boras has talked them into the 7th year. the offer they have on the table is something like 7 years $70 million dollars. they were fully intending to go higher, i'm sure. then the mariners call. they drop the bomb. they up their offer to 5 years at $13.5M a year it blows their other offers out of the water. they offer a $17M dollar signing bonus. they have just inked sexson, and they say this is our offer. take it, or we offer it to delgado tomorrow. boras panics. no way in hell were the dodgers going to go to 7 years $95M in a day like that. so they take it. it is a great deal for beltre. it is a great deal for the fans. in less than 24 hours, we get it worked out. other teams would have paid more. see magglio ordonez.
that is what i will remember about this season. scott boras, the man behind the worst contracts in the world was beaten into a fair contract at the height of the winter meetings by the MARINERS. it was brilliant. it was straight out of the world series of poker. we slowplayed him, then went all in and got him to fold. that day eventually will be the best 24 hour period in my long time love affair with the mariners. i loved them when the sucked. i worshipped them when they were good. i was disappointed when they sucked again, because they shouldn't have, but i loved them. at the end of that day, i almost fell onto the floor. i did yell at the top of my lungs. i ran around my apartment cheering when i heard we signed adrian beltre. the sexson deal looks great to me in the context of that day. he could get injured. but he could play. you never know. i'm willing to at least give him the chance to earn his money.
howard lincoln, the president or owner or whatever he is, had an article in the papers early in the offseason that gave me hope for the future. he sounded embarassed, and willing to let the money be spent how it needed to be. the lights came on last year that he couldn't keep jacking all of the profits, because he was going to lose money. i hope he has learned his lesson after the way this offseason went. the mariners had the best signing of the whole damn thing. he let us make some big moves, one risky, one brilliant. at the recent fanfest, i hope howard lincoln realized that he had just done a great thing, and has sent his team in the right direction, even if it was kicking and screaming. in the past, fans have absolutely drilled the guy. he keeps a scrapbook of all the bad articles about him. he was one of the most hated men in seattle over these last few years, and especially trashed on by the blogging community. he makes a public appearance at the fanfest, taking questions from the crowd. it is a risky move on his part. i'm sure he was sweating.
first person to the podium doesn't have a question. it is a local blogger. this guy thanked howard lincoln and the mariners management for the great offseason. from what i hear from people who were there, lincoln looked suprised. i hope it hit him in the chest. he did the right thing, and the fans already appreciate it. it doesn't matter if the players flop, it is the fact that effort was made. a sincere effort to make the team better. he went on stage in front of the fans. i'm sure he expected to be grilled. he was facing his worst nightmare, his worst enemy. instead he gets public approval.
i hope the mariners compare this upcoming season to the torture of last season. i hope that the lessons the fans have learned were also learned by the people in charge. the fans in seattle are smart. we are smart, and we love baseball. you can't keep us quiet with fluff pieces in the local paper. last season was a turning point. the fan/ownership feud that had been brewing came to a head. it was a big "i told you so" from all the fans who were angry at the inactivity of the front office. last season should have never happened. it was embarassing. the town was silent. the mariners were a taboo subject. there was none of the electricty of the years before when we were good.
this season will be different, and i hope the management sees. the mariners will be good. the town will be buzzing again. there will be no more boos for the home team at safeco. they will look back at the season, and they will see adrian beltre in the sky above the stadium. they will have another chance next offseason to make the team better. that is all the fans really want, a chance. as long as the team makes an effort to make the team better, we will be happy and watch. sometimes good teams get beat, we realize that. but bad teams always lose, and we also realize that. we are willing to watch a good team lose, but we won't watch a bad team lose again. the mariners have $100M a season to spend. there is no excuse for a bad team.
