pa * thet * ic
–adjective
- causing or evoking pity, sympathetic sadness, sorrow, etc.; pitiable
- affecting or moving the feelings.
- pertaining to or caused by the feelings.
Origin:
1590–1600; Late Latin pathēticus Greek pathētikóssensitive equivalent to pathēt(ós) made or liable to suffer—Synonyms
1. plaintive. 2. touching, tender. 3. emotional.cf. sympathy, empathy, pathology.
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Excellent piece of writing by Geoff Baker. Head over there, read the first three paragraphs anyway, and we'll wait for ya. ... there, that gives you a feel for it, right?
***
If I'm an executive in the Seattle Mariners organization, that Boston clubhouse scenario pins me right to the back of my leather armchair. It's not Baker's description of the scene that cuts me to the quick; it's the scene itself that does so.
If it's me in the leather armchair, it isn't the criticism that angers me. It's the fact that I caused the situation that angers me.
The men in uniform have given their hearts and souls to the 2011 season, starting with stretching in Arizona and continuing right through the four double plays tonight. Especially Eric Wedge and the five starting pitchers have been heroic -- but everybody has, including Chone Figgins' reaction to his role, Jack Cust's choosing to be the best 25th man in baseball, and so forth.
What does it feel like, if you're the general, and you send your men into combat, and you tell them they can win, and they shed their blood and guts believing you ... and it turns out that you as a general should never have asked them to go into that fight?
***
Geoff Baker, with the savvy insight of a savvy guy who's been in the locker room for 10-15 pennant races before, knew in May that this Boston clubhouse scene was going to occur.
He saw the rotation heroics, and he knew that One Big Bat could have provided the spark, because he's seen it happen before, and he knew exactly what would happen if the Mariners did not get that Big Bat.
He has spent two months arguing with people who are always saying "We'll get 'em in 2015!", spent two months retorting, yeah, and in 2015 you'll get 'em in 2018, buddy. Great way to never have to receive a report card. Keep telling us you'll hand in your term paper in a few years.
As Baker has pointed out, Chuck Armstrong has been here a quarter of a century and there has been no accountability in terms of winning, in terms of his job security. There is simply no connection, Baker correctly observes, between those two things, the Seattle Mariners winning and Chuck Armstrong / Howard Lincoln continuing in their jobs. There never has been, in the Kingdome or in Safeco Field.
This is not the case in other baseball towns. But it is the case in Seattle. Part of this is because the city is more genteel about team won-loss records than are most other towns.
***
Every once in a while, the front office's "can't get carried away with winning" personality runs into an on-field ballclub that would die to win. That was the way when Lou Piniella demanded out. It's an ugly conflict between ---> kamikaze warriors and generals who are ambiguous about whether the war should be occurring.
That is the way in 2011. It so happens that Eric Wedge created a "kill or be killed," an "ask no quarter and grant none" atmosphere. Then, like turn-of-the-century Poles, they rode into battle with cutlasses against the newfangled machine guns over the ridge.
***
The locker room scene that Baker describes is pathetic. "Pathetic" not in the glib sense, but pathetic in the dictionary sense.
The men in uniform invested their souls in the 2011 war. The men out of uniform made sure that they "didn't get carried away with" the lure of winning baseball games.
Baker's usually right; this particular season he has been almost always right. This was a team that wanted to win, and its generals allowed them to go into the fight out-manned and outgunned. Baker, daily, pleaded with the execs to give the grunts that ammo drop "care package" that might have spared them such a cruel death.
If I'm the general behind the lines, I'm not feeling real good about asking my men to die for me this year.
.
My opinion,
Jeff
Sports is talent, desire, guts, persistence, intelligence, adaptability, and heart.
After going to war outgunned for three months and holding their own, the heart has become numb. When the heart is numb, all the other aspects of sport fade.
I watched the 101 loss teams in 2010 and 2008...I watched some bad ballclubs...I watched the '98 Ms ride into the season with high expectations and RJ throw games away intentionally because he was mad at management...but this streak is the worst losing I've ever experienced. This club deserved more than to die a terrible death in despait and hopelessness. This club deserved to see October crowds at Safeco. And this losing streak is a monument to everything that is wrong with Seattle sports.
If anything this streak is a reality check that the Ms that they were never really in it.
I said at the time that even when we were 2.5 games back the OPS differentials suggest we were on pace to be 10-15 games back of the Rangers. On top of that the Rangers were more likely to improve in the 2nd half and that the Mariners pitching would regress in the 2nd half.
I'm relieved that Z wasn't pressured into giving up too much for a Carlos Beltran and still lose by 10+ games.
Its a rebuilding year, what exactly could Z have done differently?
I have tickets for both games this weekend. We can play where's Waldo. See if you can spot the Mariners fan in the section behind home plate.
Hint: I'm the one who is not being harassed by Redsox fans, despite my M's t-shirt. Nobody has anything but sympathy for an M's fan, and we are not generally not a threat to anyone in any conceivable manner. That said, I would welcome some good natured ribbing from Redsox fans that might result from a rare M's win.
FYI, presentations given at the "Sabermetrics, Scouting and the Science of Baseball" conference, held in Boston on May 21-22, 2011, are available on DVD for $25. They can be purchased through at the follwing link:
http://saberseminar.com/?page_id=9
Baker's and my articles have zero to do with him. Baker's two months' worth of criticism are directed at Armstrong, Lincoln, and the ownership committee.
They had an emergent, surprise contender and they could have responded to that surprise division race by bringing in offensive help - Carlos Beltran, a rental bat, whoever.
The owners reacted to a surprise division race by pencilling in the extra cash flow and sitting squarely down on it.
Wasn't it just you, Taro, who said that nobody could have anticipated the crashes of Figgins, Gutierrez, and Ichiro?
And wasn't it you that said that if those three guys were hitting, this would be a different story?
...
You liked Texas. You get big credit for that.
No credit for claiming that the Seattle team should have quit in April, though. Any reasonable offense, at any point, and that rotation woulda had them running a team profile that compares to a lot of pennant winners in baseball history.
:- )
Wanna quit on that race right now? ;- )
Holland and Harrison will probably be better next year. Their 5-man rotation could be awesome. One Prince Fielder isn't going to make up "10-15 games" per half year.
Seriously: suppose we were in a division with the Yankees. You just apply for admission to the IL, or you stop selling tickets until your hitters all jell in 2014, or what do you do?
It would be a different story if all were producing at career levels (we'd be roughly 5-10 games in true talent behind). Still, that didn't happen this year and a Beltran move wouldn't have made much of a difference. Too much of a gap in talent this year even when the pitching was overperforming.
The pitching has regressed because we were running an extremely low HR/FB% as a pitching staff (beyond good pitching). It is still low in the bullpen and we will probably see more regression there.
For '12, I think we need to see some good moves made by Z coupled with a couple guys like Seager and Carp panning out. Whether we can contend next year or not will depend on how the holes in the OF are filled IMO. I think Ichiro will bounce back in the 2nd half and have a better 2012 season (though hes no longer in his prime). Guti MUST get healthy or Halman has to suprise. Then you only have to fill one OF spot for next year.
The rotation will still have Felix-Pineda-Fister-Vargas with $25mil to spend.
You have to make smart moves, lock-up cheap talent, draft well, develop well, trade well, sprinkled with a couple good FA signings.
TB has done very well, but even though they aren't buried in the division they will probably sell and re-load for next year.
Ditto Toronto, who I think could end up being the face of the division in 2012 or 2013. They look veeerry promising. Tons of cheap talent and rediculous payroll flexibility this offseason. NY and Boston should be worried.
I do like how you can hold down a 1-on-10 debate and remain surgeon-cool. LOL.
If we cannot debate, we whither and die.
Lots of things. But it starts with looking at every season as an opportunity to win. I hate hearing re-build statements before the season starts, hate hearing fans and bloggers so complacent as to accept this fate before we start the campaign. I understand the realities of the game, and our roster and payroll before the season. In my mind I'm not convinced that yet another throw-away year was necessary.
I have a problem with the same attitude that preaches patience and waiting out prospects, constantly pushing expectations out 1, 2, 3 years down the road. We are not the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Rays, the A's, the Royals, or any other have-not in baseball. We have one of the wealthiest ownership groups in all of sports. There is no excuse for chiseling payroll 3 years in a row. There is no need to waste time waiting on A ball players, they develop, then you fit them in, why hold roster and payroll spaces for them?
When my eye has seen enough (and we can go back and look) of Figgins, Gutierrez, Wilson, League, and Cust (before he ever played a game for us), don't you think that some advanced cross-checkers have too? Those are all current GM gets and should not have been on the roster this season. I asked for a trade acquiring Colby Rasmus last year, Guti would have been a part of it and I think it could have gotten done. Can't happen now. Figgins could have been moved if we ate some money, tougher now. Wilson was a decent trade and a horrible re-sign. League for Morrow was flat-out stupid. Cust should never have been signed. The A's almost hit as poorly as we do, and they didn't want him?
To sum up, our ownership/management accepts poor performance for far too long before acting on it. The other 'haves' in the league aren't deterred by lack of availability of pieces that they want. They pick up the phone, ask what Adrian Gonzalez costs, and make it happen. There is not now and wasn't then, a compelling argument against the M's behaving the same way.
For "managing expectations," right?
This is a Corporate Policy (CP) with the Mariners, a part of their business plan for which they definitely do not apologize, and you have got to admit that they're the best you've ever seen.
I wonder if other sports franchises have "manage expectations" mission statements. It's a serious question. I wonder if the Mariners invented this business concept.
Their execution on that is amazing, from soup to nuts. And they've got every mainstream media person in Seattle as volunteer contributors, other than Geoff Baker.
The media is capable of creating a sense of "reporting the reality" of a "re-build", creating a public buy-in, that the team itself could never gain. For the Mariners to protest that they deserve five more years (before their next playoff game) is one thing; for the media to gravely report that as reality is a different thing.
The media in Boston and New York would be reporting the actual reality of the M's "can't get carried away with winning" attitude, as Baker is doing, and the ensuing accountability would result in better baseball teams.
If you're GM Taro, are you giving up on 2012 yet?
Prince Fielder certainly doesn't make up 20-30 games' talent.
Are you giving up on 2013? I don't see how our offense outguns Texas' for 2013, do you? If we're 20-30 games back in talent right now, we can realistically attempt to close that offensive gap by what .... 5 games per year? PROVIDED we continue to get historical rotation performance.
... or, alternatively, are you re-thinking the question of whether we have to be the favorite before we fight?
From the Zs perspective that depends on how some young talent pans out in the 2nd half, what I can trade for in the deadline and the offseason, the amount freedom the ownership gives me, how much payroll they are giving me, etc.
We know that Howard doesn't care much about winning. Hes been caught saying that he could be profitable with winning, he would do that. You can't change the guy. You can only drive him out. I've gone mad over this enough times, but the fact of the matter is that the fans don't demand winning in Seattle like in other cities. In NY or Boston, Howie would be long gone.
Since were stuck with him, the job is to win with the artificially lowered resources that ownership hands you. Z hasn't shown much ability to identify cheap talent at the MLB level that could be undervalued and is generally not good in evaluating established talent. On the other hand, he is pretty darn good at drafting and developing young talent. He is also pretty good at maximizing value in trades.
So you wait to see what happens with the young talent in the 2nd half, and wait to see what Z can pull off in trades over the next 8 months.
That said if its my team, I'm always trying to compete. I'd trade excessive blue chippers for established young MLB talent with several years of control and lock 'em up cheap (and keep the guys I believe in). I'd be targetting the high upside, low investement types like Felipe Paulino (a steal by KC) or Seth Smith (a couple years ago), or any number of guys. I might give the Giants a call about Andres Torres if they snag a Beltran, etc. I'd go after value FAs.
If this were fantasy baseball that is..As a fan you have no control over the siutation, so you end up rooting for a scenario that you think is the most effective path to a WS win.
Howie will do as Howie does. Z is just going to have to work around it. Hes shown he can develop and organization that can build young talent. Hes shown hes a master of trade. I just hope that he can continue to do his thing and build a young core.