Q.  Bottom line on the personal baggage?

A.  He's been judged.  And punished.

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Q.  Will Lueke be able to put it behind him, though?

A.  He will, and apparently has.  As Mariner Central denizens pointed out, he's representing himself as a devout Christian these days.  Twit-O-Vision :- ) translation as to what the Scripture-list conveys has been suggested; we may do that shortly...

Lueke has been punished, but he remains an opportunity for interest groups to make statements furthering their agendas.  If that means the destruction of Lueke's career and life, small price to pay to raise awareness, right...

Seattle interest groups will burn Lueke on their funeral pyres -- to exactly that extent that the Seattle Mariners signal the interest groups that the Mariners are susceptible to this pressure. 

If the interest groups sense that a "victory" is feasible, that they can get Lueke flushed and then celebrate about it, then they'll pursue this course.  If the interest groups sense that the Mariners are not buying, and will not buy, in, then they'll wander off in search of easier game.

It's entirely up to Chuck Armstrong whether to nurture the bloodlust, in order to win points with the groups, or to snuff out the bloodlust, in the interest of fairness to Lueke and to his team's W/L record.

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Q.  Boy, the Mariners "were just a Google search away" from doing enough homework, not to step on this land mine.

A.  It never ceases to amaze me. 

It is incredibly naive to imagine that an MLB exec of Jack Zduriencik's caliber would trade for a player without so much as having his interns, at least, run dossiers on them.  The more so in a Cliff Lee trade that Zduriencik knew would be the max-profile trade of the year. 

Yeah, that's what happened.  Like in your roto league, the Rangers just threw a random name out there and Seattle said, "okay, that's fine."  Five minutes and we're out.  Yep.

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Read this.  “We take this stuff very seriously,” Zduriencik said. “And all of the questions that we asked all of the (Rangers) officials over there, they assured us that the issues were none that they had any concern about as they moved forward, and for the last couple of years, he’s been a model citizen.”

Bloggers, and MSM celebrities, have little problem assuming that the pro's are idiots, however.  It's part of the wannabe psychology.

/rant Sorry.  The accusations against Zduriencik have been even more unfair than usual on this one.

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

... If still not convinced, consider, for a moment, the arguing over David Adams as the #3 in the Yankee deal.  Right:  after you get past the big name, the clubs don't worry much about the other parts of the deal.  Goooooooood thinking.

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Q.  If Lueke, Zduriencik, SSI/MC, and LL have signed off on "he's been punished," is that good enough?

A.  I won't be able to invest in Lueke unless and until Chuck Armstrong decides that Lueke isn't going to be a political football. 

If and when Leuke gets promoted to Tacoma, with a few code signals released to the media that he's part of the Mariners' future, we'll jump in.  Until then, we'll presume that Lueke is in idle mode, prior to being flipped to another org.

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When you ask "will he be able to put it behind him?", that's code for "Would writers like Geoff Baker and Jerry Brewer prefer to see Lueke get a second chance within their lines of sight?"

Geoff's our man here at SSI, but I'd encourage them all to remember that this man has been judged, has been incarcerated, and that if you want to forward social issues, there are ways to do it without exploiting a specific individual's personal misery.

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SSI line on whether Armstrong & associates will prevent Lueke from getting his second chance in Seattle:  3:2 in favor of Lueke having to be traded.  But we'll see.

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Cheers,

Jeff