Seattle Sports Insider

Times interview Capt Jack - Offense, Jr, Triunfel, Saunders

Posted by

10/7/09

Below is a patented SSI Capt-o-Vision translation of an online interview posted at the Times. Should you, for some reason, prefer to read the inferior unaltered version, you can find it right here. Thanks GL.

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

12:00 Jack Z.: I like fans (he does - Dr D). Let's get started...

12:00 [Comment From ScottG] With Johjima and Rob Johnson at catcher, what's the chances that Adam Moore gets any significant playing time next year?

12:02 Jack Z.: We want to make this club better. To that end, we let the guys compete.

...

12:03 [Comment From LA Mariner Fan] Mr.Z what is you're overall plan this off season to help this team score more runs and have a bit more power in the power positions?

12:05 Jack Z.: We want to make this club better, if possible. If power comes available, it's fine with us. ::sound of servos gently whirring::

...

12:06 [Comment From Kyle M.] Jack Z, you rock! Is Erik Bedard going to be the #2?

12:09 Jack Z.: We're super determined to make this club better. If we could add pitching, that would help.

...

12:10 [Comment From Jordan] Are we going to keep the King?

12:13 Jack Z.: Great, let's address Felix! ... we want to make the Mariners better, and we hope Felix and his agent want to, also.

...

12:13 [Comment From Kevin S] What is the plan for Dustin Ackley next season?

12:17 Jack Z.: Dustin looks good. He'll start where guys like him do, AA. Sometimes players rise faster or slower. It depends on whether they're any good.

::jemanji has psychotic lapse and sees 104 Chuck Knoxes staring at him blankly all at once, chanting mantras slowly in unison, shakes head, head clears::

...

12:17 [Comment From rip ty] WIll Tui stay at 3rd or could he play some 2nd base next year.

12:19 Jack Z.: We want the best team we can get. If Tui can make us better, we'll keep him. So far, his glove has been okay at 2B and 3B. We were pretty much hoping his glove would be okay at 2B, so that was all right. Our fans are like ShishkaBerries.

...

12:20 [Comment From gsquared] Mr. Z- Do you think chemistry is legit or is it pretty much baloney?

12:22 Jack Z.: It's legit. We talk to all our people about making this team better. We do that with players who are about the team and not about blaming Japanese acu-pressure sticks for a hundred losses.

...

12:22 [Comment From patc] Junior coming back in 2010?

12:25 Jack Z.: In general terms, let's talk about Junior. Junior was great. Junior rocks. Junior was hilarious. There's only one Junior. Well, for sure Ken Griffey only had one Junior.

...

12:26 [Comment From Rick B] How's Triunfel? Is he going to play SS in the bigs? Is Alex Liddi a blue-chipper? Glad you have a large enough brain to GM correctly!

12:28 Jack Z.: Triunfel a little behind. We will monitor his status over the next week and decide exactly what is best for him.

12:31 Jack Z.: We like Liddi. He's made nice progress. Can't complain about the year he had; MVP of the California League is good. Not being MVP wouldn't have been as good.

...

12:31 [Comment From Hogarth] Why did Saunders get stuck in the deep freeze all of a sudden? Are you thinking he's the LF next year?

12:34 Jack Z.: He was partly hurt, partly a victim of circumstances. He was working on stuff. We like him fine. Nothing to see here, move along.

...

So that's settled. See also Part II.

Comments

LOL!!

Well we can see two important things from this interview:
1) Zduriencik is as gifted at staying "on message" as any world-class politician. :) "We want to make this club better, we're doing everything we can to achieve that." is in like 90% of his answers.
2) He understands that the less information other clubs have about his plans, the better his chances of cartrying said plans to fruition...and that his players are better off if they aren't set into defined roles before the competition has occurred. He's being intentionally unredaable here...both for his players (to keep them working hard to win jobs) and for his front office staff (to keep other clubs guessing about what his real strategy might be).

Heh

Yeah. I'm just wondering why he doesn't take the unreadable to its logical culmination, by holing up in a $16 room on Pacific Highway until April 2.
I mean, why give the interview? :- ) The guys asking those questions were the local sharks. "Can you comment on RAR vs environmental synergy, and Tui's physical potential to play middle infield, and your interest in Bedard?" .... "We have consistently had a Grand Vision, which is that we are trying to raise the overall talent level, if we get the chance to do so."
Ohhhhhh! And here I thought we were just going to color the overall talent level pink-and-white.
..........
Jack coulda thrown in some coded answers here and there, anyway. Instead he did the Bob Parr Glazed Zone-Out. I loooov eeeet :- )

LOL!

Well he has to give appearances that he is being transparent...otherwise people will get annoyed with his unwillingness to play ball with the media. :) Just ask Bedard.
But yes...it would have been nice if he'd given us SOMETHING to go on. :)

Right on, Doc

I've written a lot of statements in my day that sound like you're saying something when in fact you aren't saying anything at all, and, my oh my, Z was spraying them out like Edgar spraying line drives when he was in the groove.
Maybe he spent all of his GM-in-waiting years practicing in the mirror?
That being said, it is, obviously, standard operating procedure and that's fine.

While I'm here

Something of substance: video of Stephen Stasburg's professional debut
http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=7012691
And a much longer and very good preview of the Arizona Fall League featuring some Strasburg and some Ackley (college) video, and a number of the other top guys who will be there. Worth the time if you're into the prospect thing.
http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=7012713

I wouldn't have expected

Z to say anything of substance in an interview at this time, so I actually thought there were are couple interesting nuggets if you read between the lines a bit.
He went out of his way to mention his personal affection for Branyan. I got the feeling it would be emotionally difficult for Z to not have Branyan on his roster, or see him sign with another team. A chink in the armor perhaps? Success so far has been about playing time for guys who deliver. What if Branyan falters? Based on Z's comments, I would guess he would bring back Branyan over a lot of other guys, including Sweeney & Griffey.
Kinda ditto with the Bill Hall comments. BH hasn't exactly knocked anyone's socks off in Seattle. But Z was enthusiastic about him. Probably this is because he's stuck with him and wants to get the most out of him next year. That makes sense. Still, with the veteran Johjima his stance is 'it's an open cometition'. With BH it's, 'he's going to play'. Big difference.
I definitely felt, through Z's comments, a deeper attachment and commitment to those two players who he's known for a long time. Whether Z's personal like for those guys interferes with his roster judgement, is something I will be watching closely.
The Liddi comment was a bit illuminating too. He said that some people in the org are very high on him. The way he said i indicated to me that there was strong sentiment amongst his scouting department that this guy will be something. Maybe a bit more of interest or enthusiasm than I would have expected.
Sure, not much to go on, but I think it shed a bit of light on his thought process right now.