All winter long the national writers who bought the Baker/Wedge/Blengino hatchet job hook, line and sinker were just looking for Jack's next mistake.
So remember the line on this?--"sure, Hart or Morrison makes sense--but both? Bad roster construction!"
I think Jack, at heart, is a hoarder. As in accumulating masses of talent. Most begrudgingly give him credit for scouting, and not much more. But he knows that talent selection, even for the most astute, is still a crap shoot. The way you win is to make more bets. Eventually, if you are competent, some of them HAVE to work out. And I think he's been consistent on this (unless a Cliff Lee suddenly falls from a tree). Possibly his most ill-fated trade--Fister--was just a way to fill the cupboard with more provisions. And that's also why (Upton excepted) he's held on to his prospects so tightly. Safety in numbers.
So, three cheers for LoMo. And at least one more for Jack.
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My wife and I like to make up captions for the goofy faces they put on the scoreboard.
- "Can I bring her home at nine, Sir?" (ingratiating face)
- "We get fruit cup!" (absurdly happy face)
- "Best brownies I ever had" (glazed eye face, vaguely happy to be there)
Above, we'll go with that Vogue editor in Romy & Michelle, when the stars told her "We invented Post-Its." um, I know you're not serious here.
Zduriencik couldn't have traded Carter Capps for a starting 1B, right.
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IceX sez,
The difference: All the other blogs, and even some of us, have been questioning the difference between Morrison and Smoak, but those quotes totally encapsulate why I preferred Morrison all season long.
Morrison had (some) previous results AND an attitude that could be directed towards good things in the right clubhouse.
I think this is one of those places we can tip the cap to Cano as well.
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Was cheering to read that we could put you in the Adopt-a-LoMo there, sempai. Dr. D thinks he's late to the party, as far as his attitude-and-disposition. ... How Cano fits in, we'd like to hear more.
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G-Moneyball sez,
Morrison has always been confident in the beat of his own drum. Sometimes to his detriment with his management. But if we can allow for a guy with a different beat (and we've done okay with Rodney, y'know) then Logan is definitely someone I want on this team.
I don't know that he'll ever go back to his rookie heights... but there are always Jose Bautistas and Jayson Werths, guys with good eyes and iffy early contact rates (and therefore mediocre power because they aren't hitting the ball on the screws). You get them into their late 20s and all of a sudden then become crushers. - See more at: http://seattlesportsinsider.com/article/go-lo-mo-yo#sthash.EQgacmoG.dpuf
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In the end, maybe it's as simple as boys growing into men. When they first get their Man Strength they're trying to do too much with it. If you try to muscle an axe when chopping wood you'll cut your own foot off (as Jack Del Rio once discovered as a head coach when doing a stupid motivational example). If you trust the swing and the tool, you can split wood pretty easily. Once these strong men grow confident in their strength it's possible for them to settle in and relax. Once they trust their swings, the power jump happens naturally.
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Clint Eastwood said that about Christopher Walken: He marches to his own drummer, but it's a good drummer.
The Committee has always HATED cocky players, back to when the lawyers first walked into the clubhouse and were horrified to see Ken Griffey Jr. in his own barcalounger. Japanese software companies aren't real big on ego'ed out employees. ... you'll notice Nick Franklin is no longer in the neighborhood. Could be coincidental. :: shrug ::
Dr. D is exactly the opposite. If an athlete isn't enthused about his own skills, who will be? If a surgeon doesn't think he's the best there is, keep his scalpel away from Dr. D's nether regions.
Don't know why this aspect of LoMo was so opaque to me.
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Boys growing into men ... LoMo is listed at 245 lbs. and looks like he could tomahawk dunk. You were hyper-alert to this with Brandon Maurer, too, Gordon. It's a 120-watt light bulb that had completely evaded me.
Who else fits into this category nowadays?
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Tacoma Rain sez,
So ... can we officially call it good? Just so those of us who are trying to keep track of whether a Jack trade is a win or not.... This is a WIN, correct???... just like that little under the radar trade for Jaso when that trade went down as a WIN when nobody was asking for...
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For me, this was a sweet little supplementary deal on Zduriencik's part. That will hold true even if Carter Capps becomes Goose Gossage, or a righty Chris Sale.
I'm not talking about that (unfortunate) "best info at the time" cop-out. The reasons I would declare this a world-class GM move:
(1) The conception of it, in the abstract, was as sound as Pawn to Queen 4. Talented young reliever for a camouflaged (age 27 with injuries) young hitter with upside -- who fit your roster beautifully.
Morrison fit the 9-to-make-5 Stars & Scrubs configuration. He hedged the Smoak bet. This was important.
(2) The 2013 evaluation of Logan Morrison, based completely on old-school, NL-style intuition, is at this point looking very promising and intelligent.
Even if Morrison fades to black from here, you can now see that there was plenty there for Zduriencik to gamble on.
Zduriencik pointed a finger, said "THAT one," and grabbed him in a buy-low scenario. In hindsight now, we can see how much he really bought, which was a lot. Win or lose from here, it's a razor-sharp little deal.
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Also
I predict that in the Detroit-KC series, at least one of the clubs will lose at least 2 games. Two weekend L's in the bank! This is the team that will become our rival for the last week, along with Oakland.
Two L's in the bank this weekend. Niiiiiccccce.
BABVA,
Dr D
Comments
Morrison for Capps was such a no-brainer that no one could have messed it up. I would be interested in who approached whom on that swap.....and if the final bargain was the first one offered. No matter....we got the best player in the deal. And it wasn't close.
In many ways the Morrison deal marries with the Hart one as a "hedging your bets" pair.
And the funny thing is that the Skip (and probably Jack) thought Smoak and Hart were the guys who would play almost all of the time. We had a RF (Saunders). a 1B and a DH. Morrison was the bench guy....
But he's been a real bonus as our everyday 1B. More glovey than advertised, too.
The Logan Morrison of his rookie season (an OBP monster) and the one of his sophomore year (tater mashing) are weirdly different than the Morrison that we end up with (his '14 is nearly identical to his '12, btw). This Morrison is certainly nothing special.....but he's been hugely helpful and he's chep for a while.
Worth hanging on to.