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For those who just joined us, Dr. D has never owned a Fortune 500 company.  Neither has he ever run one. Neither has he ever worn even a senior manager badge within the halls of one.  Neither has security ever come and escorted him out of the halls of one, no thanks to a few managers who'd have liked to have seen it ...

What he has done, however, is chair (a whale of a lot of) steering committees for them, and worked with senior executives, reallllly senior executives.  You spend two years in Portugal, you probably speak some Portugese.  Dr. D, during his travails on the 7th floors of F-500 companies, did learn the language of Linc-Strong-ese.

Bat571 speaks Naval Command.  TJM speaks MegaMedia.  Different guys speak different languages.  Dr. D will chime in with his own, when and if they apply.

Speaking a language doesn't mean you've got the solutions, naturally.  We do notice, however, that it makes you rather more able to guess at what is going on, than other bloggers .... who often blithely inform you of a thing that is going on when you know that is the one thing that COULDN'T be going on.

:- )

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Poli Sci 253

Lincoln and Armstrong, as a power bloc, as a Tag Team, a pair of upper-upper execs who could easily win a 3-legged race against men half their age --- > hired Jack Zduriencik.

Zduriencik served at their discretion.  He lived another day because they allowed him to.  This last year, they deigned to extend his contract one more year -- a contract they'd have cheerfully eaten (and may still eat) the moment they feel (felt) that the wolves are at the door.

Under those circumstances, Lincoln and Armstrong didn't have to send a memo that said "No Zack Greinke."  Under those circumstances, all it takes is for Zduriencik to mention him in a hallway conversation and for Armstrong to raise an eyebrow, screw up his face, and say "GREINKE?  Why in the world would the Dodgers risk that much on THAT guy.  Some people."  And it's over.

Under the Mariners' circumstances, what you (evidently) had was a committee doing the GM'ing.

Keeping your job, under those circumstances, is an impressive enough trick.  Zduriencik seems to have done it, and even added to his political capital -- while the M's have continued to lose.  If he had done nothing else, this would prove to Dr. D that Jack Zduriencik is a VERY talented man.

The politics of F-500 boardrooms is a tough enough game in itself.  Z has done exceptionally well at it.  Seriously, it's impressive.  You'd have had to have to been there, I guess, to get the joke.  :: shrug ::

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Executive, Judicial, Legislative Branches and Roster Oversight

Dr. D's objection to committees are many, even though that was his own specialty.  Committees are inherently mechanical, cumbersome, slow, and un-inspired.  It isn't possible for two people (or a computer) to paint the Mona Lisa.  

It is possible for one man to paint the Mona Lisa, and that is exactly what Pat Gillick did when he came to Seattle.  The 2000-2001 Mariners had a "surprising" bullpen, an amazingly, unexpectedly great defense, and amazing contributions from the role players on its roster, as they meshed together to provide night-in, night-out platoon advantages.

When Chuck Armstrong wandered into Bill Bavasi's office, to talk about how they should put the pitching staff together, right then and there you knew you weren't going to get a coherent or agile direction from a single Creator.  (When Aaron Sele became unexpectedly available to him, Pat Gillick reeled him in with a 48-hour response.)

.............

It's not completely clear to Dr. D, to what extent Zduriencik was handcuffed by political problems the last two winters.

But he can take a really, really good guess.  The Mariners sat stagnant, all winter before 2012, waiting for Prince Fielder and Scott Boras to make up their minds.  (There is a way in which Pat Gillick waits for Prince Fielder, and there is a way in which a Committee waits for Prince Fielder.  The M's manifested the latter.  For instance, the Fielder Decision obviously had an exaggerated "first domino" effect on the M's offseason machinations.)

Last winter, after Hamilton stiffed them, the M's again wound up with a disjointed roster of quilt-pieces, thrown together at the last minute.  You can plug Joe Saunders into any Committee's plans; he is the definition of the Stable Move That Will Offend No One.  Were there any "nervous" decisions over Morales, or Ibanez, or Morse, or over anybody?  All those moves were 1-year deals, "if it doesn't work out we'll still be all right" type things.

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CMH Winner ... er, Recipient

Back channel, Dr. D was advised -- early last summer -- that Armstrong was doing some (heroic) non-baseball things that were taking up more and more of his time and emotional reserves.  Making a possible retirement a likely scenario for 2014 or 2015.

My best read is that --- > Armstrong would have loved to have run the Mariners for another 10 years, but he is sacrificing himself, unselfishly, to greater causes.  It's just my opinion.  If that's accurate, we commend him.  Armstrong is not a young man, and on his deathbed he's going to be glad that he spent his last years so unselfishly.

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Okay, Let's See What You Got, Man.

You could say, somebody else will step into the vacuum.  Zduriencik will still be part of a greater GM committee that prevents him for exploiting his own coherent vision, his own intuition and inspiration, that will prevent him from responding to shifting markets with agility.

I don't think so.  Howard Lincoln is now the only man who is in Zduriencik's business, as it were, and Howard Lincoln has never fancied himself to be Pat Gillick's jedi disciple.  If typical, Lincoln will step 20% of the way into Lincoln's void, but not much more than that.  Dr. D would be stunned to visit M's headquarters and see Howard Lincoln in Jack Zduriencik's office, drawing X's and O's on his white board.

Big winner:  Jack Zduriencik.  He is not only gifted the elbow room he needs, but his voice now resonates like thunder to all those in his organization.  His own political capital is multiplied exponentially, with everybody he comes into contact with.  ... if Nintendo is at all typical, that is.

Zduriencik has a problem, of course:  he hasn't won yet.  He doesn't walk down the hallways with a Billy Beane or Theo Epstein credibility.  He's not wearing a ring on his finger.  But a VP is a VP, and now this one is -- it says here -- much more "empowered" than he was before.  There's a different aura around a true shot-caller.

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Howard Lincoln still approves, or doesn't approve, budgets.  And huge contracts.  But:

• That was true for Pat Gillick, also, and
• He is now approving Fielder, Hamilton, and Cano-type deals

It doesn't look to me that Zduriencik's circumstances, THIS winter, starting now (actually starting when Armstrong started to float the idea internally), are any different than the circumstances that Pat Gillick worked under.

Except, of course, that Pat Gillick had a different kind of credibility.

Zduriencik's been handed the microphone and shoved on stage.  He might or might not have that microphone long.  

Over the next three months, we'll see the best that Zduriencik is capable of.  I'm gingerly predicting it will be impressive.  Next winter, he will be known as a Zero or a Hero, based on his own talents and best judgment, and that's all any man can ask.

My $0.02,

Jeff