Kudos to Figgins, with a Heath Ledgers haaa ..... haaa ... haaa ... haaaaaaaaa, for forcing Zduriencik's hand and accelerating the rebuild process by about 50 games. 

Zduriencik might, under other circumstances, have allowed a more graceful exit, but the burning building began to gather a crowd.  Only a blundering Dr. Clouseau would have tolerating the laughingstock syndrome that ensued.  Jack Zdurencik is not known for blundering idiocy.

Figgins staged the public mutiny loooooooonnnnnnnnnng, long after the swords and black-powder pistols were ringing out below decks.  Hey, when two players sold Ken Griffey Jr. out for, of all things, catching a nap in the clubhouse, the mutiny was old then.

In a very real sense, Figgins simply insisted that the status quo -- the losing and bickering -- be dealt with, one way or another.

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Kudos to Lincoln and Armstrong for reverting much more toward Pat Gillick-era direction and management, than Bavasi-era micromanagment.  They started off confident in Zduriencik and SSI sees zero erosion of that to date.  It doesn't hurt that Zduriencik, like Gillick before him, sincerely accepts $90M payrolls as plenty to do his job, and accepts personal accountability from that point.

Zduriencik has, as far as we can see, more authority than most current GM's do.  Inside and outside of the org, his voice carries.  SSI is glad of that.

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Kudos again for the Cliff Lee trade, which reinforced the above.  Zduriencik's got fresh margin for error, no doubt, such was the resonance of his jackbooted stomping of the Yankees' and Rangers' man regions.

The M's remain, at bottom, a coherent org.  They're in transition to their young talent and the coherency will be the difference.

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Fans, panicking in the flames and rising water, are beginning to turn against Zduriencik, but this is totally misplaced.

In March, Bill James gave us the Red Sox', and baseball's, view of the M's under the Zduriencik regime.  "Everybody in baseball knows that the Mariners have made one outstanding move after another.  But they are much farther away than fans think."

Zdurencik is every blinkin' inch the GM he was last year; 2010 was a lesson learned.  Baseball will count him as 1-and-1 and will confidently expect him to turn the M's around once the young talent begins swinging onto the deck on a dozen different ropes.

The frustration shrapnel scatters in all directions, but Zduriencik remains the man for the job.  Smoak and Ackley and Pineda and Co. are arriving shortly.  I want Zduriencik here when they do.

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Part 2

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