By Terry Benish
Special to The Sports Paper
So everyone and their uncle have written how the Mariners spent $240 million for Robinson Cano and that they are dumb, dumb for doing so. Then you’ll read some more lament about how the damn athletes should not make so much money.
On this last remark, two things: 1. Labor costs in baseball as a percentage of revenue to the league are lower than any other sport. Some of that is due to how the subsequent union leaders after Marvin Miller have allowed major league baseball to manipulate what baseball has to pay young players (Marvin Miller was not voted into Hall of Fame Monday by the Veterans Committee, the ungrateful pigs that they are) and 2. It is a free market so “Laissez le bon temps roulez (Let the good times roll)!”
So look up one of THE best baseball writers out there in Joe Posnanski, who blogs that it’s a good deal for the Mariners.
I agree with him totally, which is rare. M’s payroll now is $60 million, and it will go to $100-$120 million. It has been that high before, plus they will mostly have some good young players still.
The Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish reported late Monday that a rumor was that Nelson Cruz recently of the Rangers passed on a five year and $75 million deal with the Mariners. It is probably just me, but he only hits well in Texas, is hurt and is a juicer. There might be better deals and less costs out there.
So, Geoff Baker, formerly the Seattle Times beat reporter replaced by Divish only to become their investigative reporter, dropped a bomb of an article Saturday afternoon. It was a huge attack on general manager Jack Zduriencik personally and as a manager of people.
Two former Mariner employees went on record in Baker’s story ‑ Eric Wedge, the manager for the past three years, and the sabermetric (stats) analyst, Tony Blengino.
Blengino said Baker’s story is the tip of an iceberg.
Baker cited 24 people he talked with, but only two of them went on record. Not sure how an editor does that, but if it is baseball two for 24 is.083 OPS, which sucks.
But as so many reporters have said to me ‑you’re not a reporter.
If Blengino is correct, where is the rest of this stuff?
That said, when I read it, it came across as the moment at the holiday event when Uncle Jasper says he’s leaving Aunt Barbara and the kids and is going to Las Vegas to be with his close friend Bob, who is a Blue Man. You say to yourself and yourself only, “Oh that validates stuff. I knew that already and did not think much about it and it is probably what it is.”
Then you turn to Uncle Chuck and say some more punch please and could you put some bourbon in there too?
I mean everyone in Seattle has known that the good ship Mariner has listed off center for some time. People around the team, players and coaches have just rolled their eyes about the front office for decades.
CEO Howard Lincoln and club president Chuck Armstrong have been there together since 1999, and Chuck has been there off-and-on from the early 80’s. They are not baseball people. I don’t care if Junior Griffey likes them.
Despite the apparent franchise valuation at $1 billion, as a baseball team it has been as bad as it gets. It’s been St. Louis Brown’s bad. You can look them up too.
That said, the Mariners dropped a note today and said they have moved on and are trying to do more stuff to make the team better. They might or might not be doing that
At the end of the day, most of us have or have seen the M’s have complete (blanks) as managers. It is part of life now. Most of us would just for once like to see some good baseball. It has been mostly bad for so long that the few good years that did happen are so long ago I can’t remember what that was like. I like listening to old people tell you how good it was or how tough it was when they were young.
Nobody wants to hear about 1995 again, or 2001.
It is done. That is in the past.