another good post by Rob Neyer today, sampling some work by Joe Posnanski about how the Mariners never deserved the pre-season adulation that was heaped on them. Mariner's GM Jack Zduriencik is something of a darling among the Saber crowd, coming from a baseball ops/player development background in Milwaukee that was relatively successful under his watch. Unfortunately, Zduriencik's tenure in Seattle has been a mixed bag, especially at the major league level.
For instance, the baseball world applauded his acquisition of Cliff Lee from the Phillies for propects that only Phillies GM Ruben Amaro found to be elite. Lee has since been traded and in return, Zduriencik acquired a crop of prospects better than anything he gave up for the left-hander, so for that he should be applauded. But as Neyer's piece notes, moves like trading for Milton Bradley knowing he would have to play the field; trading for light hitting first baseman Casey Kotchman to replace Russell Branyan; signing light-hitting Chone Figgins to a big, long-term deal; buying too heavily into the pitching and defense concept; all of those moves proved to be killer for a team that really wasn't as close to contention as their 2009 win-loss record would indicate.
Now the question for the M's is what's next? Do they scrap what they have and begin to rebuild in earnest, or try to find new parts to glue onto a foundation of a few high-priced talents they'll have under contract in 2011? The shelf life of a GM who loses at the major league level isn't too long, which leads me to believe it'll be the latter. On top of the bad Bradley contract ($12 million for 2011) they M's will also be doling out $5 million for useless shortstop Jack Wilson and another $9 million for Figgins next season. But hey, at least they'll probably field moderately well!
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