They want "The Plan?" Sounds like they need to hire Jim Bowden!

They want "The Plan?" Sounds like they need to hire Jim Bowden!

Or maybe Ed Wade!

“But my main thing is, we’re not going to put all of our chips on ‘Red 79.’

Apparently he is as unfamiliar with roulette as he is with the current tools of player evaluation.

Oh well, there goes any chance to seeing Vidro in Seattle in 2009 then

Eight months too late.

That picture of Chuck Armstrong looks like a beefier version of the "sexually comfused" guy from "Are You Being Served?"

Mr. Armstrong, are you free? A gentleman is interested in our line of terrible veteran starters.

Armstrong was the one who killed the Washburn trade because the Mariners wouldn't be getting anything of value back. That item summarizes so much about the ineptness of the Mariners organization.

First: team executives continue their long tradition of injecting themselves into baseball operations decisions. Here we see Armstrong overriding the GM on what really should be a straight forward transaction. Washburn is not the heart and soul of the team. Moving Washburn does not mean the club is suddenly going in a new direction. At least it should not be perceived that way, but maybe this executive crew is so loopy they see it as a franchise defining moment. Armstrong has been doing this for as long as he has been Club President (at least 15 years).

Second: only in the Mariners world does a pitcher such as Washburn appear to have value above and beyond simply taking over his contract. This whole situation with expecting value back for Washburn is absurd on so many levels. The Mariners are like a guy who got suckered into a timeshare presentation in Mexico, and spent $20,000 on a one week per year one-bedroom condo with $1000 per year in fees. Now the guy is trying to find someone in his office who will buy it from him for $10,000 - half price, he tells them - but the reality is that he's lucky if he can simply find someone who will take that albatross off his hands for nothing. He still thinks this is something valuable because, after all, he paid $20,000 for it, didn't he? So it must be worth something and all of those coworkers who laugh at him when he tries to sell it just don't grasp the bargain they are passing up. Meanwhile, over at the water cooler folks are having a good chuckle over how clueless this guy is - initially for paying $20,000 for something that wasn't even worth a fraction of that value and now for not being able to realize (or admit) that he got suckered.

Third: Team executive hubris continues unchecked and unabated. One would hope that at some point Armstrong and Lincoln would step back and consider the overall performance of the team under their watch, and realize that they aren't nearly as smart as they consider themselves to be. Under their watches the team had their one moment in the sun - as all but the most totally inept franchises experience occasionally - and they have since regressed to the dregs of MLB. And their dwelling mates are all teams that operate with far less resources. Given the amount of financial resources the Mariners organization has, they are the worst performers in baseball. Yet the men in charge of getting this team into the mess still believe they are the ones to lead the team out. And yet they continue to inject themselves into all but the most mundane operational decisions.

Given the amount of financial resources the Mariners organization has, they are the worst performers in baseball.

Don't the Orioles and Rangers have a pretty good claim to that title as well?

His list of potential GMs is in the 20s? First, are there 20+ people qualified to be a GM right now? Second, they have had three months to prepare for this and they are still in the 20s on their target list? Lastly, by waiting this long, they are now going to have to compete with Washington and potentially others (Toronto? San Francsico?, LA?) that will very likely be searching for a GM this fall. Well played.

Don't the Orioles and Rangers have a pretty good claim to that title as well?

In terms of financial resources the Mariners rank about 6th in baseball. Since 2004 their season records are 63-99, 69-93, 78-84, 88-74, and 54-85 (current for 2009). In everyone of those seasons team management was aggressively signing free agents and doing other wheeling and dealing believing they were putting a contending team on the field. They were placing big bets with the expectation of simultaneously contending and rebuilding. They very loudly and explicitly proclaimed that they didn't believe they needed to do a Cleveland style tear-down and rebuild.

The Orioles and Rangers in that span have spent less than the Marinrs, outperformed the Mariners, and didn't make any pretense about trying to compete.

No team in baseball has spent more and achieved less than the Mariners in the last five years.

His list of potential GMs is in the 20s?

Humorous isn't it?? They're really winnowing it down, aren't they?

The delay to the end of the season isn't so bad, though. Realistically, many top candidates are not likely to be available until the end of the season. For example, Cashman is likely near the top of their list but they aren't going to be able to do anything with him until the end of the year.

But with about one month left in the season, I would expect the list to be down to about five names, so they can be doing detailed checking in preparation for moving quickly once the season ends and all potential candidates are available.

I'm convinced the M's do everything with the intent to spite USS Mariner. If I were those guys, I'd just start some reverse psychologizing. Would you rather have baseball geeks think your smart or would you rather have a winning team. The choice is yours. (My brother lives in Kent, and I like Seattle, so I have a soft spot for the M's. They're the one AL West competitor I don't loathe.)

Shooty, um, who IS your team, anyhow? I'm not sure I've ever noticed.

Shooty, um, who IS your team, anyhow? I'm not sure I've ever noticed.

Oh my freakin god. I'm just going to pretend you didn't ask me that.

Oh, right, Bill King.

However, why should I know anything that happens out in the midwest?

However, why should I know anything that happens out in the midwest?

Well, you shouldn't. I'm about to spend a long weekend in Jacksonville, Illinois. Whoopee freakin doo. I just hope I don't get any Jello with stuff floating in it. #### that ####.

I'm convinced the M's do everything with the intent to spite USS Mariner. If I were those guys, I'd just start some reverse psychologizing.

They tried that at the trade deadline with Washburn. It didn't work (n=1 small sample size caveat).

They tried that at the trade deadline with Washburn. It didn't work

That's not exactly true. They tried reverse psychologizing other teams into believing that Washburn had value, and the M's didn't trade him for nothing because they thought he had value. Effective reverse psychology would be Dave and Derek writing a series of posts that prove that Adrian Beltre could be replaced by Mike Morse with no loss to the M's.

Dave and Derek writing a series of posts that prove that Adrian Beltre could be replaced by Mike Morse with no loss to the M's.

I think there's a typo. Didn't you mean to write "Dave and Derek writing a series of posts that prove that Adrian Beltre could be replaced by Mike Morse Willie Bloomquist with no loss to the M's."?

I considered using Bloomquist but he's both injured and likely to head to the NL as a free agent. However, if they really wanted to test the reverse psychology, they could write a series of posts entitled Why Willie Bloomquist is more valuable than Ichiro urging the team to sign the Port Orchard native to a five year, forty million dollar "bargain of a contract".

However, if they really wanted to test the reverse psychology, they could write a series of posts entitled Why Willie Bloomquist is more valuable than Ichiro urging the team to sign the Port Orchard native to a five year, forty million dollar "bargain of a contract".

Or they could do a series of posts discussing the superiority of results-based analysis.