The PI ran part 1 of their baseball preview this morning, leading with John Hickey's piece on the aging M's, concentrating on The Edgar, Dan Wilson, and John Olerud. It's mostly fluff, completetly pushing the Company Line. To wit:
The team has a "sense of urgency". Okay, if everyone is so urgent, then why did they downgrade three positions (SS, LF,CF) and fail to signifcantly improve anywhere other than the disaster that was Jeff Cirillo?
If Freddy Garcia has a big year (which I think he will) the team can't resign him because "a big year means a big contract, bigger than the $6.875 million he earns now." Excuse me, a team that willingly gives Raul Ibanez 13 million based on 2 mediocre years in a hitters ballpark can certainly afford Freddy.
This entire section makes me chuckle
The thing is, the Mariners have a flood of good young starting pitchers just ready to make a splash in Seattle. The main reason Garcia won't be back is the Mariners have to find room for pitchers like Clint Nageotte, Travis Blackley and Rett Johnson to move into the rotation. It's one thing to have great young talent at Tacoma this year; there's no way sensible management lets that talent stagnate there next year.
So, we don't want talent to stagnate. Jamal Strong couldn't possibly play as well as Quinton McCracken, he needs to spend more time in AAA. Neither Matt Thorton or Bobby Madritsch could handle the bullpen this year, so we need to resurrect Ron Villone, Mike Myers and Terry Mulholland.
But the absolute money qoute is this, from Chuck Armstrong "I think there may be an increased emphasis on getting to the playoffs," Armstrong said. "When you think you should get there and you don't two years in a row, it's tough on everybody in the organization." So does this mean they're admitting the team hasn't been all that committed the past couple years?
The more discussed article, at least here in the blogosphere is Dave Andriesen's piece on Bill Bavasi and the Internet. Art Theil takes much the same tack, and they both take great pains to mention that Bavasi is a good mixture of objective and subjective. Again, the Company Line. Both peices have been pretty well hacked elsewhere, but I'd like to mention to Dave that I personally would like Bavasi a lot more had he not ridiculously overpaid for Ibanez, and traded a pretty effective pinchhitter for Quention McCracken. Just a thought.
Oh, and Adriesen also lists a ridiculous Top Prospects piece, including AJ Zapp, since he is a "great fielder". Oh, and this :If he lives up to the promise the Mariners see in him, Lopez could one day be America's most famous J. Lo, is a horrific sentence, and by itself knocks the PI sports section down at least 2 pegs.
Posted by Frinklin at March 31, 2004 07:10 PM